Spoils and treasures

This article examines the intertwining of war economies in eastern Turkey across different historical periods. It explores the connection between the Turkish state's war on the Kurdish freedom movement and the practice of hunting for “Armenian” treasures, highlighting war's role in creating new accumulation opportunities. The article looks at forms of intimacy that emerge between state representatives and local Kurds and analyzes them as sites of condensation of the region's history of sovereign violence and resulting social relations. Considered a temporal hinge, this intimacy returns us to World War I's war economy, particularly the dispossession of Armenians. By examining the intersection of treasure hunting and war economies, the article investigates the broader history of citizenship and governance of difference during the transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish nation-state.