Looking Back: Armenian Emigrants, Nationalism, and Modern Turkey

Looking Back is a compelling account of how Armenians, as migrants in Canada, remember their past lives in Turkey and make sense of their experiences in two very different landscapes. Anchored in the workings of the Turkish nation, theirs are stories about loss, denial, trauma, and discrimination on the one hand, resilience, survival, and community on the other.

Bayar’s in-depth examination tackles questions about memory, citizenship, and being a minority inside a nationalist landscape while revealing rich and multilayered accounts of everyday encounters with institutions, friends, and strangers. Looking Back is a timely study about the costs of nation-building and the ways minorities navigate an exclusionary landscape.