A study of Armenian nationalist discourse and social mobilization. Comparative analysis of ‘sharjum’ (1988) and ‘no’ movement to Armenian-Turkish protocols (2008-09)

Abstract

Given study aims to explore the social mobilization around nationalist discourse during ‘Sharjum’ (1988) and ‘No’ movement to Armenian Turkish Protocols (2008-09). It modifies the ethno-symbolic and modernist frameworks of studying nationalism to develop a more ‘suitable’ model for studying Armenian nationalist discourse. It is hypothesized that discourse of the 1988 ‘Sharjum’ responds to what may be labeled as pragmatic type of nationalism, whereas the discourse of the ‘No’ movement seems to fit more into “ethno-symbolic” (Hutchinson, 1987; Smith, 1986) type of nationalism with some elements of everyday nationalisms incorporated in it. To analyze the nationalist discourse the study looks at sampled newspaper articles, historic documents and fragments of popular culture using the methodology of discourse analysis. Later with the help of comparative method several connections are drawn between the two movements and similarities such as the collective memory of past traumas and quest for historic justice are found. Also it is found that hypothetical categorizations like pragmatic, ethno-symbolic or everyday nationalisms being more of ‘ideal type’ descriptions emphasize the relative importance of some prevailing elements of discourse in a given time and space. This means that 1988 ‘Sharjhum’ also contains elements of ethno-symbolic nationalism simply those were brought to surface by pragmatic rather than ‘irrational’ means.