Assyrian/Syriac Oral History as a Counter-narrative of the Modern Turkish Historiography

Yıl 2016, , 259 - 273, 30.10.2016

Ramazan Aras

https://doi.org/10.19059/mukaddime.17539

Cited By: 1

Öz

 This paper evaluates the oral history of the Assyrian/Syriac
community in Turkey as a counter-narrative in the formation of statist
historiography in the Republican era. It situates local oral histories within
the larger archival and historical literature on the Assyrian/Syriac
community. This paper emphasizes the importance of oral history studies
in the process of making a new historiographic approach and
understanding towards the past of diverse communities in Turkey. It
stresses the importance of life stories, family histories, memoirs,
architecture and other material cultural forms, oral traditions, and many
other narrative forms of this people in making a more representative
history. In taking this approach, this paper explains how oral history, as a
critical methodology, reveals those neglected aspects in the written
sources on modern history of Assyrian/Syriac community in Turkey.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Oral history, historiography, memory, identity, Assyrians/Syriacs, Turkey

Çağdaş Türk Tarihyazımında Muhalif Bir Anlatı Olarak Süryani / Asuri Sözlü Tarihi

Öz

Bu çalışma, Türkiye’de Süryani sözlü tarihini Cumhuriyet dönemi
devletçi tarihyazımına karşı muhalif bir anlatı olarak değerlendirmektedir.
Bu çalışma, sözlü ve yerel tarihleri Süryani toplumu üzerine yazılmış olan
daha geniş arşivin ve tarihsel literatürün içine yerleştirmektedir. Bu makale,
Türkiye’de farklı toplumların geçmişlerini anlama ve yeni bir tarihsel
yaklaşım geliştirme sürecinde sözlü tarih çalışmalarının önemini
vurgulamaktadır. Bu insanların hayat hikâyelerinin, aile tarihlerinin,
hatıratlarının, mimari ve diğer maddi kültür formlarının, sözlü
geleneklerinin ve diğer birçok anlatı formlarının önemine vurgu
yapmaktadır. Bu çalışma, eleştirel bir yöntem olarak sözlü tarihin
Türkiye’de modern Süryani tarihi üzerine yazılmış olan çalışmalarda ihmal
edilmiş olan birçok yönü ortaya nasıl çıkardığına işaret etmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

: Sözlü tarih, tarihyazımı, hafıza, kimlik, Süryaniler, Türkiye

Kaynakça

• Abdalla, M. (1992). The Assyrian Community of Qameshli in North-Eastern Syria in the Years 1925-1970, Ethnologia Polona 17, 87-103.
• Aras, R., Boyd, D., Clark, M. M., Kurt, M., Mohaqqaq, S. M., Gonzales Peres, C. P., and Taminian, L. (2013). Documenting and Interpreting Conflict through Oral History, A Working Guide. New York: Columbia University Libraries.
• Aras, R. (2011). “Göç ve Hafıza: Bir Süryani-Kürt Kasabasında Sözlü Tarih Anlatıları.” In Nasıl Hatırlıyoruz Türkiye’de Bellek Çalışmaları, edited by L. Neyzi, (pp. 273-302). İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür.
• Aras, R. (2005). “Migration and Memory: Assyrian Identity in Mardin Kerboran/Dargeçit.” Unpublished MA thesis, Boğaziçi University, İstanbul.
• Armale, P. I. (1993). 1919 Marde from Al Qousara Fi Nakabat Annasara. Serfe Monastery, Lebanon. Translated to Turkish by Turan Karatas as Türkiye Mezopotamyasında Mardin. Södertälje: Nsibin.
• Bet-sawoce, J. (1991). Türkiye Mezopotamyası’nda Kerboran Zulmü (The Kerboran Persecution in Turkish Mesopotamia). Södertälje, Sweden: Nsibin.
• Bet-sawoce, J. (1992). Mesopotamian Refugees in Lebanon, Sweden and Australia. Södertälje, Sweden: Nsibin.
• Breisach, Ernst. (1983). Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. Chicago: University of Chicago.
• Burke, P. (1990). The French Historical Revolution: the Annales School, 1929-89. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University.
• Casey, E. S. (1997). The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History. Calif.: University of California.
• Chamberlain, M., and Thompson, P. (1998). Narrative and Genre. New York: Routledge.
• Delanty, G. and Jones P. R. (2002). European Identity and Architecture, European Journal of Social Theory 5(4): 453-466.
• Elder, G. H. (1978). Family History and the Life Course, T. K. Hareven (Ed.). In Transitions: The Family and the Life Course in Historical Perspective (pp. 21-57). New York: Academic.
• Fanon, F. (1968). Black Skin, White Masks. Translated (from the French) by Charles Lam Markmann, London: MacGibbon & Kee.
• Finnegan, R. (1996). A Note on Oral Tradition and Historical Evidence, D. K. Dunaway & W. K. Baum (Ed.). In Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology (pp. 126-134). London: Altamira.
• Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by A. Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books.
• Gates, C. F. (1932). An Appreciation: Dr. Caleb Frank Gates: President of Robert College 1903-1932. Foreword by N. Ferit, Istanbul: Tsitouris Brothers.
• Gates, C. F. (1940). Not to Me Only. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University.
• Gillis, J. R. (1994). Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity. Princeton: University.
• Gittus, E. J. (2002). Berlin as a Conduit for the Creation of German National Identity at the end of the Twentieth Century, Space & Polity 6:1: 91-115.
• Grele, R. J. (1991). Envelopes of Sound: The Art of Oral History. New York: Praeger.
• Hareven, T. (1996). The Search for Generational Memory. D. K. Dunaway and W. K. Baum (Ed.), In Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology (pp. 241-246). London: Altamira.
• Hoffman, A. (1996). Reliability and Validity in Oral History. D. K. Dunaway and W. K. Baum (Ed.), In Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. London: Altamira.
• Hughes-Warrington, M. (2000). Fifty Key Thinkers on History. London: Routledge.
• Jalali, R. and Lipset, S. M. (1993). Racial and Ethnic Conflicts: A Global Perspective, Political Science Quarterly 107:4 (Winter): 585-606.
• Iggers, G. G. (1997). Historiography in the twentieth Century: from scientific objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press published by University Press of New England.
• Keser, E. (2002). Tur Abdin: Süryani Ortodoks Dini Mimarisi (Tur Abdin: The Religious Orthodox Architecture of Assyrians). İstanbul: Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı.
• Lummis, T. (1998). Structure and Validity in Oral Evidence, R. Perks and A. Thomson (Ed.). In The Oral History Reader (pp. 273-283). London: Routledge.
• Nandy, A. (1983). The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of self under Colonialism. Delhi: Oxford University.
• Neyzi, L. (2011). Ben Kimim? Türkiye'de Sözlü Tarih, Kimlik ve Öznellik (Who I Am? Oral History, Identity and Subjectivity in Turkey), translated by H. Özkan. İstanbul: İletişim.
• Newman, J. (2003). Narrating Displacement: Oral Histories of Sri Lankan Women, working paper series, Queen Elizabeth House, International Development Centre, University of Oxford, www.forcedmigration.org/papers.
• Öztürkmen, A. (2006). Remembering Conflicts in a Black Sea Town: A Multi-sited Ethnography of Memory, New Perspectives on Turkey 34: 93-115.
• Portelli, A. (1998). What Makes Oral History Different, R. Perks and A. Thomson (Ed.). In The Oral History Reader (pp. 63-74). New York: Routledge.
• Portelli, A. (1991). The Death of Luigi Trastulli and other Stories. Albany: State University of New York.
• Shopes, L. (1996). Using Oral History for a Family History Project, D. K. Dunaway and W. K. Baum (Ed.). In Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology (pp. 231-240). London: Altamira.
• Smith, A. D. (1981). The Ethnic Revival. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
• Spivak, G. (1988). Can the Subaltern Speak?, C. Nelson and L. Grossberg (Ed.). In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois.
• Taşğın, A., Tanrıverdi, E. and Seyfeli, C. (2005). Süryaniler ve Süryanilik (Assyrians and Assyrianity), 4 Volumes. Ankara: Orient.
• Thompson, P. (1998). The Voice of the Past. New York: Routledge.
• Zizek, S. (2002). Welcome to the Desert of the Real. New York: Verso.