Doctoral Dissertation Research: From Citizen to Minority: Legal Reform and 'Double- Conversion' in Turkey

Cuny Graduate School University Center, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

In the past ten years unprecedented numbers of Muslim citizens of Armenian descent have sought the arbitration of secular legal authorities of Turkey to convert to Christianity, the religion of their ancestors. This project examines the legal implications of this act of "double-conversion" that marks both religious conversion from Islam to Christianity, and conversion from a majority status to that of a religious minority. Turkey provides a highly significant context for the study of the secular legal regulations of religion since the religious affiliation of every citizen is registered on national identity cards. Investigating the complex interaction between the claims of religious minorities about religious belief and the application of law and bureaucratic regulations of the secular nation-state, this project on religious conversion and legal reform in Turkey researches the following question: In what ways does the secular state determine and maintain legal and religious conditions under which conversion to a minority religion can take place? Through an ethnographic investigation of conversion as a historical and political phenomenon that is indicative of a novel place for religion in secular civil law and bureaucratic regulations, this research contributes to ongoing debates for a more differentiated understanding of how the twin concepts of religion and the secular are produced through specific legal and regulatory measures within concrete historical and political circumstances. Methods include participant and non-participant observation, collecting life histories, and semi-structured interviews in a variety of sites such as churches and courtrooms as well as close readings of court records. The project expands on recent studies of secularism through the framework of legal anthropology by focusing on the question of how legal professionals as well as religious converts embrace different discourses of belief, legal reform and religious rights as they situate themselves in relation to state and law.