Marianna Harutunian is the perfect example of how a person can have dual citizenship and not have to become a foreigner in their own land. Born in Greece, she is a dual citizen because both Greece and Turkey to claim her as their own. She is a naturalised Greek who lives in Istanbul with her husband and two children, whilst she works as an architect in Turkey. Her mother was born in Saloniki, on the island of Rhodes. Marianna has lived in numerous European countries over the years, including France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Marital ties were strong in the Greek Islands, where they were accepted as friends and lovers until the late 20th century. When her husband decided to move to Istanbul, however, their personal and emotional ties came apart, and they forgot about each other. At the same time, she began to realise that her true nationality was American, yet because her parents had never made the decision to combine the two nations, she had always thought of herself as Greek. At the age of sixty-one, while marvelling at the idea of being able to live a full life in both Europe and the United States, she experienced the death of her husband and discovered that she was in fact American by choice.
In these difficult times after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Marianna Harutunian is living proof that it is possible to choose your own nationality when you get older. Having lived in both America and Turkey, she is happy to call herself an American, though she admits to a kind of self-deprecating amusement when she explains that her friends in America call her Turkish. Despite this personal discomfort, Marianna Harutunian is happy to accept the fact that, in her eyes, being an American means being able to vote, enjoy access to public libraries and post offices, enjoy recreational activities such as ice skating and tennis, and retain the same cultural and social norms that she grew up with. In fact, even the US government recognises her dual citizenship status, recognising her as a dual national of Turkey and the United States. As a member of a minority group, she has not always been afforded the same opportunities as more well-off Americans.