Mixed feelings over an unprecedented election: contestations of ethnicity within the Süryani-Keldani community

Abstract

In the juncture of the unprecedented election of a Süryani-Keldani candidate as a member of the parliament of Turkey, and the subsequent discussions that elicited conflicting viewpoints regarding what it means to be a 'proper' ethnic subject, this study examines the intimate communities as manifested by these conflicts through citizenship and affect theories. It examines the structural inequalities that result in an affective historical presence, and the particular psychic mechanism of being a model minority in the case of the Süryani-Keldani, a Christian minority group in a predominantly Muslim nation. By demonstrating the institutional, political and psychical dynamics within the community, this study critiques multiculturalism's tendency to essentialize and hierarchize ethnic identity through affect theory. It also implements para-ethnography in overcoming difficulties of ethnographic access.