What we talked about:
- There are several categories of Turkish Armenians: Istanbul Armenians, Muslim Armenians, and Armenian migrants.
- Armenians were allowed to practice only their religion in Turkey: “You can become an Armenian as long as you are the Christian version of the Turks.” Books about history were burned, but Bibles were not. The only place people could keep their culture alive was the Church.
- Armenianness and Christianity are always tied. Armenianness is ethno-religious identity and the boundary of it is clearly religious.
- Muslim Armenians - this concept causes cognitive dissonance for Christian Armenians. Are they Muslims or Armenians? In their understanding (Christian Armenians), they cannot be both.
