Crossing Borders through Teachers’ Memories and Identities
Image 1: Classroom from a village in the Tavush region of Armenia along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
By Garine Palandjian. Photos provided courtesy of author.
29 September 2020
For 10 months, I conducted dissertation fieldwork in Istanbul, Turkey and Armenia examining the ways in which the idea and reality of “the border”—as well as teachers’ memories of “the border”—shape classroom practices, textbook content, and pedagogical practices and theory. My dissertation, a critical educational ethnography, analyzes the capacity and potential of education to contribute to more peaceful relationships among different ethnic groups in the Caucasus Region, as well as to explicate the constraints schools face in fulfilling this role.
The conflict over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh erupted into war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1991 and ended with a ceasefire agreement in 1994. Both countries claim historical rights to the territory. As a result of the war, 20,000 people were killed and more than a million people lost their homes.[1] When the Nagorno-Karabakh war erupted, the borders between Armenia and Turkey were closed. Negotiations to reopen the borders for Armenians have been blocked by the politics of memory and history regarding the Ottoman campaign of forced displacement and genocidal violence against the Armenian population in 1915.
My dissertation examines the silenced and marginalized voices of “border thinkers,” about these contested histories. In Armenia, I selected the following locations for the focus of my study but also for their geopolitical location with the bordering “others”: Yerevan, Tavush, Shirak, Syunik[2] regions in Armenia and the Istanbul Armenian Community in Turkey. In this blog, I focus on two teachers’ accounts from different sides of the borders to demonstrate the complexities of identities, histories, and borders. It is my hope that by sharing the data from my fieldwork through an upcoming exhibit I am curating, their stories can cross through (closed) borders, to re-member and re-humanize each “other,” and move beyond the dominant national narratives of war and hate towards building peaceful futures together.
Figure 1: Map of Armenia from Bournoutian, G. A. (2002). A Concise History of the Armenian People. California: Mazda Publishers (No page number).
Displaced or Replaced? Baku-Armenians swapped homes with Azerbaijanis living in Armenia
One of the teachers I shadowed invited me to their home in Armenia for lunch on Sunday, September 8th, 2019. I took a bus from the city center to a formerly Azerbaijani village which was given an Armenian name after the Azerbaijanis left. Ethnically Armenian, the teacher I was visiting identifies as a Baku-Armenian refugee born in Azerbaijan, and perhaps the last one of their village area. Previously, their home belonged to an Azerbaijani family who relocated before the Nagorno-Karabakh war escalated. At the time, the teacher was 10 years old and was sent to Armenia with siblings to stay with a relative in Russia temporarily. The parents arrived in Armenia later with their belongings including a few pieces of furniture. This teacher’s personal identity was defined by the Soviet Union and their ability to speak Russian.
The teacher explained, “When all of the ethnic wars happened, I realized we were different. These wars happened because they didn’t know how to divide the lands.” The teacher recalled childhood memories growing up in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, with children of diverse backgrounds: “Jews, Azerbaijanis, Greeks, Ukrainians, Russians, etc., we were all good together. We went to school together. We treated each other the same. We didn’t know differences.”
After several interactions in the teacher’s lounge at their school in Armenia, I realized that the teacher was treated differently for being a Baku-Armenian refugee. When I asked if they felt discriminated against, the teacher explained, “Yes…they would call me a Turk (Azerbaijani)–Karabakhtsi Turk. Today they won’t say this...they don’t understand we are not Turks”. I followed up and asked, “When and how teachers in Armenia speak hatred about Azerbaijanis, how do you feel?”
The teacher shared:
“You know, they are also a nation like us, they also don’t want their children to be killed during war. They are also mothers, when our children are killed, it’s the pain we have to carry. I don’t have hate filled but here, I understand that I have to see them as enemies.”
As tensions escalated between Armenians and Azerbaijanis leading up to the war, former neighborly relations shift almost overnight to seeing each other as enemies with massacres that took place in Baku, Khojaly, and Sumgait. For Baku-Armenian Refugees, settling in Armenia became a challenge as some claim they never felt at “home”. As exemplified by the teacher’s quote above, many Baku-Armenian refugees eventually left Armenia because of their inability to integrate into Armenian society.
Image 2: A bomb shelter in the school basement from a village in the Tavush region of Armenia along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
A pop-quiz and the lesson on the struggle of the Istanbul Armenian Community
On February 11th, 2020, I observed a lesson in a private Armenian school in Istanbul, on Armenian literature and the works of Armenian writers, Krikor Odian and Mıgırdıç Beşiktaşlıyan, within the context of the years leading up to the establishment of the Turkish Republic. Ethnically Armenian, the teacher was born in Turkey and has been teaching for 19 years. The lesson I observed that day was taught from and through their heart. Following the formation of the Turkish Republic, the teacher described the 1930-1940’s as the following: “One language, one country, one nation...the ideology spread this nationalism and turned it against us...this made us and other minorities out!” A few lines were read from the famous poem, "We are Brothers," and, with their eyes filled with tears, the teacher went into what became a monologue:
"Doesn't it hurt you when they [Turks] ask ‘what are you’? I didn't start saying I am Armenian until after Hrant Dink's murder...You explain to them you are Armenian which they respond and claim, 'If you are Armenian you cannot be Turk'...but, I was born here...this is a different struggle.”
Towards the end of class, the teacher surprised the students with a pop quiz—“Close your books!”—and distributed a piece of paper.
For the Istanbul Armenian Community, identifying with the land where they were born does not entitle them with the same rights or opportunities as those who identify as Turk. For ethnic minorities including Armenians, Jews, and Greeks living in Turkey, many would argue that they didn’t cross the border, but rather, the border crossed them.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this publication belong solely to the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of REACH or the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
References
De Waal, T. (2010). Armenia and Turkey: Bridging the Gap. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Policy Brief No. 87. https://carnegieendowment.org/files/armenia_turkey.pdf
Hewsen, R., & Salvatico, C. (2001). Armenia: A Historical Atlas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Endnotes
About the Author
Garine Palandjian is a PhD candidate in Educational Policy and Evaluation at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Prior to her doctoral studies, Garine was employed at the American University of Armenia from 2013-2017, where she set up the Center for Student Success and student support services. Garine received an IREX Individual Advanced Research Opportunity fellowship in fall 2012 to conduct fieldwork as part of her research on peace education in Armenia.
Garine’s Master’s degree in Comparative and International Education from Lehigh University focused on the Armenian national identity during Soviet and post-Soviet Armenia. While at Lehigh, she conducted an internship at the United Nations Department of Public Information and NGO Relations in New York. Garine received her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education and went on to teach for several years in California. A virtual exhibit of Borders, Identity, and Pedagogy is in the works and will be available on her website.
Follow Garine on Twitter: @GarinePalandji1