Liturgical Rights

Liturgical Rights Synopsis

Details the liturgical practice and the conception of presence crucial to an Armenian minority form of life in Turkey in order to reconceptualize the politics of pluralism and how to secure minority flourishing.

Liturgical Rights reconceptualizes the political possibilities for Armenian Christians and other minorities by focusing on the liturgical practices that secure their place in the fabric of Turkey. It brings together over two years of ethnographic fieldwork, mostly undertaken in Istanbul, careful attention to the theology of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the historical background that includes the Ottoman administration of non-Muslims and the minority provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne. Legally defined as non-Muslim minorities, Armenians must navigate this religious designation, a legacy of administration through the Church, and the secular legal landscape of the Republic of Turkey in their attempts to flourish in the aftermath of Genocide and other policies that have targeted religious minorities.

The book charts the path that has focused on dynamics of exclusion and inclusion, which attempts to secure belonging through a politics of minority rights. It argues that this politics of rights is helpful but ultimately insufficient for minority flourishing and the ability to live out a minority form of life. Instead, turning ethnographically to the rich liturgical lives of Armenians in Istanbul and the role of the Armenian Apostolic Church for Armenians throughout Turkey, Liturgical Rights charts a different path for thinking about a politics of pluralism in the Middle East and beyond. The book details the liturgical practices, including a rich musical tradition, that cultivate an embodied sensorium through which Armenians encounter and are emplaced in Istanbul and Turkey. Ultimately, it argues that minority flourishing must be secured through a careful attention to the ways minority groups themselves conceive of and instantiate their presence in the cities and countries where they live.