ABSTRACT
This chapter provides how their stories turn 'extraordinary' situations into normal ones and, thus, give border its historicity. The discussion of this book has problematized the notion of border as enabling mobilities and producing closures, while pointing out that the border inflicts subjectivities, values, and practices in a way that is not found elsewhere in the nation-state. As a major finding of the study, the transformation of the Ottoman inland frontier into a modern nation-state border has had a dramatic impact on the social stratification structure in Kilis town. The notables, including both traditional landed families and trade families, composed the old wealth of the town and they experienced a feeling of downward mobility even though they dominated economically, politically, and culturally until the 1960s. The border context underlined new mobility opportunities as the town dwellers creatively appropriated in different historical periods the governmental policies that sought to regulate or ban trade relations.
