Muslim Armenians: The example of Mus and Sason

ABSTRACT Starting in the last quarter of the 19th century, the nation-state building process in Turkey through military and political returns of curing research on Armenians, mostly from a political and lodges 'Armenian issue' is concentrated in a perspective. Therefore, the issue of Armenians in the academic field has been overshadowed by their intense political attitude. As a socio-religious group, serious research has not been conducted on the social and daily life of Muslim Armenians and the cultural, religious relations they established with the society they lived in after the Islamization process. In general a political point of view dominated the academic studies about the Islamized Armenians. In that case the Muslim Armenians in Turkey has led to the need to work on the sociology of religion possibilities. In this study, which is based on such a need, an effort was made to examine the ethnic, religious and cultural life patterns of Muslim Armenians living in Muş and Sason from a sociological perspective. This study, which focuses on the religious life and daily life practices of an ethno-religious community living as a minority in the research field, is based on the fieldwork data in the context of theoretical discussions around the issues that direct research problems. Within this framework; The aim of this study is to understand the religious life of Muslim Armenians living in Muş and Sason, their way of expressing themselves, popular religious beliefs and forms such as magic, magic, shrine visits, evil eye, and how they maintain their old beliefs, cultures and traditions in their new religious identities through qualitative research. Because of the nature of religious life that requires understanding and interpretation, the subject of the research is analyzed through the data obtained through in-depth interviews. In this study, some conclusions were reached. Armenians in Muş and Sason are regarded by many as equivalent to Christianity. The fact that very few of the Muslim Armenians living in the field of study could knowingly and willingly express their Armenianness was another result of this study. Muslim Armenians living in minority status in Muş and Sason preferred to use the Muslim name mostly for themselves rather than the Armenian name. The most fundamental conclusion about the piety of Muslim Armenians is that this ethno-religious group should be seen as religious by the majority of society. Key Words: Religion, Ethnic Identity, Culture, Tradition, Popular Piety, Muslim Armenians.