Reconstructing the Turkish Jewish identity of Çanakkale between silence and speaking out: Nostalgia as an exit strategy

Abstract

This article analyzes the discursive strategies of the Turkish Jewish community of Çanakkale to make sense of their troubled memories resulting in a mass emigration. Considering the emphasis on silence in the present literature on the memory practices of the Jewish community, I argue that they do not simply avoid facing the past but rather refer to nostalgia as a complementary, proactive strategy. My analysis is based on the memoirs and impressions of the individual members who took part in the annual visit to Çanakkale to highlight the role of nostalgia between silence and speaking out. The critical discourse analysis of the narratives published in the newsweekly Şalom reveals that nostalgia emerges as a silence-breaker. In addition to the constructive strategy of presenting the discourses of coexistence and good-neighborhood embodied in a distinctive local identity, they propose a strategy of dismantling the figures that challenge the former by de-ethnicizing them.