The fourth chapter explores the transformation of the Armenian political position from a pro-Allied point of view to a pro-Turkish one. Especially from 1918 to 1922, the Armenian community in the Ottoman Empire supported the Allied Powers, hoping that an independent Armenian state would be established in eastern provinces. This common idea was shared by the Armenian political parties and was reflected as a common goal in the Armenian papers that were affiliated with various political organisations. Nevertheless, with the Nationalist victories on the battlefields, the Armenian community in Anatolia and particularly in Istanbul started to adapt themselves to the newly established Nationalist rule which excluded non-Muslim minorities. This significant turning point in the Armenian public sphere demonstrates the developing reflections of the Armenian community during the Republican years. This chapter clarifies how the Ottoman Armenians started to support the Nationalist movement after seeing that they had no alternatives following the defeat of Greek and French forces as well as the Armenian government in the Caucasus. The chapter further provides documentation from the primary sources to support the main argument of the book.

The Ottoman Empire’s transition into more narrowly defined nation-states after World War I introduced new facets to the already established culture of productivity. Focusing mainly on the Republic of Turkey, the Epilogue raises several issues about the relationship between the culture of productivity, the exclusionary discourses and practices that developed with it in the long nineteenth century, and the reforms implemented by nation-states in the post-Ottoman Middle East. The Turkish Republic imposed drastic sociopolitical reforms, including the displacement and termination of several post-Ottoman institutions and social groups, including seminary schools, Sufi lodges, and the Muslim scholarly class (ulema). Even elements of Ottoman high culture did not escape culpability. In the 1930s, with the belief that it induced lethargy, Ottoman-style music was banned from the public radio. Behind the justification and implementation of such radical reforms in the Turkish Republic stood a century-old unexplored history of the modern anxiety about the productivity of every citizen in the age of nation-states.