Ottoman, Anatolian, Greek, yet above All American: Evolving Identifications and Cultural Appropriations

ABSTRACT The article focuses on the importance of the migration experience in transforming the ‘identifications’ of Greek-Orthodox Ottoman subjects in relation to the historical reality of their country of origin and their host country, the United States, as well as the country that from the beginning claimed their loyalty as a national centre, Greece. Subsequently, it examines the terms that defined the construction of religious, social and political diaspora groupings and the attitudes that conditioned their participation in the Greek nationalist project. Although ‘rival’ ethnic groups in the United States came to blows during periods of violence in the Ottoman Empire, it appears that they also reconstructed in their daily life a ‘deterritorialized Ottoman space’ based on their origin in a common city or region or common cultural characteristics. There are hints that immigrants’ common references or memories led to the construction of a ‘nostalgic Ottomanism’ when the Empire dissolved, contributing to the survival of cultural elements and the continuation of social and labour relations with persons from rival ethnic groups.