Negotiating Nation through multifaceted Be-long-ing-s in Turkey

The paper presents the various propositions formulated through a grounded theory approach, based on the findings of a research conducted in three neighbouring south eastern cities in Turkey, with three groups diverging in their ethnic, religious, linguistic affiliations yet all being citizens and sharing the same territorial historical space of inhabitance. The (de)formation of national be-long-ing-s for the Muslim Kurds and Arabs, and Christian Syriac Orthodox emerges to be a multifaceted process in the experiences of the individuals, three aspects being definitive to it: the positional -beings- the emotional -longings- and the economic -belongings. Violation, social capital, and economic inclusion/exclusion emerge as the three socio-historical processes, interplay of which has constitutive role in shaping these multifaceted experiences. Diverging patterns of confronting, conforming, or cautious subjectivities crystallise for each group based on the differences and similarities of the individual or collective experiences with the structural, discursive, material acts of the state, and the larger political community, as well as the local and transnational political, social, economic actors, networks and dynamics. In relation to these subjectivities four fundamental forms of experience of ‘Turkishness’ are conceptualized as Vio(n)ation, Cautio(n)ation, Moder(n)ation, and Locali(n)ation, the former three aligning with the differing subjectivities of each respective group, and the fourth emerging as a shared form of relating to the nation for all. As a result, the paper promises to present a detailed framework of the grounded theory based on the experiences, memories, perceptions, and practices of the participants of the research, through which it attempts to contribute to the conceptualization of national belonging theory in general revealing the multilayeredness and intricateness of the processes, whereby specific belongings, subjectivities, nationality, citizenship may be negotiated, re-claimed, restrained or alienated from.