La part arménienne des études turques

Abstract

In 1890, the lecturers (répétiteurs) of Turkish in the Schools of Oriental languages in Europe are all Armenians. Thirty years later, there is only one left. This enquiry looks at this Armenian sequence (from the 1850s to the Great War), as the discipline becomes an autonomous field of study. This sequence has often been forgotten in the narratives about Turkology, that privileged great – national – names to the detriment of subalterns and Orientals. The status of lecturer institutes indeed a hierarchy between (national) professors and (Oriental) “indigenous lecturers”. The oblivion also stems from the “Turkification” of the discipline at the turn of the century, that leads to the substitution of Armenians by “Turkish” lecturers, considered as more ideologically compliant. After an inventory of these teachers and clarifications about the status of lecturer, I examine the conditions of this Armenian preference, the modes of recruitment and the critical role played by Armenians in the teaching of the Turkish language and in its study.

Keywords

• Turkology
• Orientalism
• Armenians
• Subalterns
• Europe/Ottoman Empire Relationships