Patrimonial governing and community formation: power relations within and without the Süryani Orthodox community in İstanbul

Abstract

By critically examining the parameters of the relative visibility of the Süryani community in Turkey within the past two decades, this thesis attempts to problematize the power relations regulating the community today. It analyzes the narratives of community representatives, as well as the state/mainstream media/liberal multiculturalist/nationalist discourse on minorities in Turkey and aims to develop an understanding of the Süryani community in Turkey that goes beyond its conceptualizations as a closed and homogeneous community with an ancient culture. It argues that such homogenous representations of the community reproduce the modern Turkish nation. Focusing on the relations structured around the church and the administrative bodies of the community, in this thesis, I examine the patrimonial governance of the community. I demonstrate that as a response to the state’s mechanisms of governing the minority subjectivities, continuous reproduction of a discourse on a “threatening outside” by the community leaders becomes a technology of governmentality within the community. I specifically focus on endogamy as a crucial site of reproduction as a community and a mechanism of governmentality. I trace the line of critique in the narratives of Süryanis that belong to the younger generation, with regard to expectation of endogamy and the norms regulating their lives. Thus, this study seeks to reveal the conditions that lead the Süryani community to become an entity that deals with issues pertaining to its own survival on the one hand, and problems that the Süryani youth face as members of a minoritised community on the other.