Paper short abstract:

Armenia, strongly linked with Russia, finds itself in a new social vacuum since the war in Ukraine. Building on the literature of temporality of borders, this paper explores social experiences and narrations at the last closed part of the Iron Curtain in uncertain times of conflict.

Paper long abstract:

The northern Armenian borderlands with Turkey show how the parallel events of the war in Ukraine, the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) between Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as Armenia's negotiations of the border opening with Turkey engender uncertainties, fears as well as hopes among people in Armenia.

The territorial sealing between Armenia and Turkey in 1993 and failed attempts at diplomatic rapprochement originate in diplomatic disputes regarding the recognition of the Armenian genocide, which peaked in 1915, and the ongoing territorial conflict between Armenia and Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan over the territories of NK. Armenia maintains not only strong economic and social ties with Russia. The country also draws on military support by Russian border guards at its borders with Turkey and Iran, the so-called Russian peacekeeping mission in NK and a big Russian military base in the Armenian city of Gyumri (10 km from the border with Turkey).

This paper grasps the interplays and tensions of people's social lives living in this border region over generations and Russian migrants who moved to Gyumri after the war in Ukraine started. How is Russia’s military presence negotiated in this region? How do Russian migrants in Gyumri navigate in this environment? What role plays the negotiated border opening with Turkey in these events?

Building on the literature of temporality of borders I draw on Kleist and Jansen’s concept of “temporal reasoning” (2016), which grasps people’s understandings and representations of the past and the future in order to make sense of conflictual presents.