Sensitive Geographies: Governance, Memory, and the Politics of Visibility in Dersim

This talk examines everyday life, memory, and governance in Dersim (Tunceli, Turkey), a mountainous enclave located between the southern tip of the Armenian highlands and the upper Mesopotamian steppes. Shaped by layered histories of violence and political transformation, the region offers a critical site for understanding how the past continues to structure the present—not only through memory, but through everyday practices, spatial arrangements, and forms of attention.
Focusing on state institutions, tourism, and daily encounters, the talk traces how different identities are differentially rendered visible. While Alevi identity is selectively incorporated and reframed as cultural heritage, Armenian presence, despite its deep historical roots, often appears indirectly through silence, omission, and hesitation.
Bringing together sites of representation and everyday interaction, the talk shows that governance in Dersim operates not only through force, but through the organization of perception and expression. In doing so, it offers an approach to the afterlives of violence as embedded in the textures of everyday life.