This paper explores how Armenians in Turkey navigate a nationalist landscape in everyday life. The data draws from interviews conducted by fifty-two Armenians who were born and raised in Turkey and who currently reside in Canada. Based on their life stories, the paper focuses on a variety of social interactions and encounters in everyday settings. The discussion starts with an examination of the family as an institution. Participants’ narratives highlight a clear boundary between private and public domains. While the former is considered a safe space the latter was where the complexity of social life needed to be meticulously navigated and performed. In this section of the paper, I also explore broader family ties and varied experiences of being Armenian based on geography (i.e. being Armenian in Istanbul versus in small towns in Anatolia). What does it mean to be an Istanbulite? How does it compare to individuals’ identifications with the nation? How do individuals’ conceptualizations of Canada and Armenia compare to these identifications? In the second part of the paper, I focus on relationships with neighbors and friends. These personal, everyday interactions and relationships do not always run smoothly, and sustaining stable relationships could at times be especially tricky. Participants routinely expressed how seemingly strong and deeply rooted relationships could swiftly take a different, unwelcome, direction. The paper considers the fragility of these seemingly well-established relationships and enquires into how individuals make meaning of their interactions with others. While the discussion pays attention to the limits of nationalist politics and its impact on everyday life, at the same time it highlights when and how the political (i.e. the exercise of state power) could shape these personal and everyday engagements. The paper seeks to make two contributions to the existing literature. First, the discussion establishes the connection between the everyday and the political. Nationalist politics have, until recently, been explored by looking at how the state behaves. Consequently, the impact of nationalist policies on minorities has been neglected in the sociological literature. The present paper establishes this link. Second, the examination highlights the complex response strategies that individuals employ when navigating an exclusionary and unstable landscape. In so doing, the study remains critical of those scholarly works that treat minority responses using an assimilation-dissimilation scale.