SOME PSYCHOANALYTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE ARMENIAN-TURKISH QUESTION: AN ASSESSMENT

Authors : Gökçe Aytekin

Pages : 69-78

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Publication Date : 2022-06-20

Article Type : Research

Abstract :The Armenian-Turkish question has a multidimensional content and its psychological dimension is only one among a few. After mentioning that the interaction among those dimensions shapes the future of the question, this article focuses on the psychological dimension using a psychoanalytical approach by Vamık Volkan and then an approach from social psychology. Thanks to these two approaches, it then tries to assess two other articles on the subject. Those two articles exemplify many others written by Turkish psychologists and psychiatrists on the psychological dimension. They are based on themes such as the guilt felt by Western societies after World War II, the abuse by the Armenian diaspora of developments on the subject of human rights, non-Turk Armenians’ "psychology of having excuses”, and identity crisis. According to Volkan’s approach, Armenian claims of genocide can be regarded as an "entitlement ideology” because we can find reasons for a sense of loss and humiliation on the part of Armenians in the Ottoman history. For example, they had not been regarded by the state as equal to Muslim Ottomans in some important respectsbefore Tanzimat Edict of 1839. Moreover, they had suffered Hamidian massacres in 1890s, when more than two thousand Armenians were killed. Thus we can assume the formation of a chosen trauma on the part of Ottoman Armenians, a trauma already tied to Armenian identity before WWI. The alternative social psychological approach helps us focus on the decision of forced emigration made by the Ottoman rulers. In other words, we can analyze that decision using the alternative, which can be called "person x environment”. This article assesses that the two exemplary articles lack a model or theoretical framework such as "person x environment” to be used while studying some of the psychological traits of the Armenian diaspora as well as of Armenians living in Armenia.
Keywords : Forced Migration