Understanding Determinants: Syrian Orthodox Christians And Security-Related Issues In Diyarbakir And The Tur Abdin

Print Email

Author: Marcello Mollica

Publisher/Publication: Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development

Volume/Issue: 40(1/2)

DOI/ISBN: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41291339

This article is analyzing the attitudes of Syrian Orthodox Christians in Diyarbakir and the surrounding areas towards security issues relating to recent demographic and sociopolitical changes in Eastern Turkey. It explains how the radicalization of both Kurds and Islamists in the area, as well as the mobilization of the military establishment and Turkish nationalists, deeply affected Christians, who, facing threats and harassment by state and non-state actors, were sometimes forced to take sides. It is based on field research and interviews between 2006 and 2010, and attempts to place the security issues in the context of regional, comparative, historical, socio-cultural and religious framework.