Disappearing old Christian professions in the Middle East: the case of Diyarbakır pushee-makers

Pushee weavers (Syrian Christian weavers of traditional silk cloth) have always been part and parcel of the Diyarbakır middle class. Following the events of the Ottoman Wars (1908-22), their social, political, economic and cultural life fluctuated between periods of prosperity and periods of oppression. The first great wave of migration to Diyarbakır followed the Russian occupation (1915-16). A second larger wave that was to modify the very demography of the city followed the massacres of the First World War. The migration was caused by a variety of factors, ranging from the intensive urbanization policy of the Turkish central government to economic conditions, as well as intolerance towards ethno-religious minorities in the Anatolian Peninsula as a whole. These dramatic changes had a major impact on the pushee-making industry. In addition, the urbanization that began in 1944 (coinciding with the start of the multiparty era) had two internal trajectories: the first from east to west, the second from (mostly rural) peripheral to (mostly industrial) urban areas. The latter had major implications in Diyarbakır for non-Muslim new comers who settled in the city centre and slowly moved to old Christian areas and, as a consequence, to traditional Christian occupations.