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  • New Approaches To Armenian Genocide Studies

    NEW APPROACHES TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE STUDIES
    GEORGE DULGERYAN

    Asbarez
    Apr 21st, 2010

    Symposium participants: Umit Ungor, Elizabeth Grigorian, Dr. Richard
    Hovannisian, Matthias Bjornlund, Wolf Gruner

    WESTWOOD, Los Angeles-Dr. Richard G. Hovannisian, AEF Chair in Modern
    Armenian History at UCLA, hosted two on-campus events in commemoration
    of the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The first event was a
    public lecture on April 13 by Matthias Bjornlund titled "Smyrna/Izmir,
    1914-1916: 'A Special Case' during the Armenian Genocide." The second
    event on April 15 was a public lecture by Dr.

    Ugur Ungör titled "Confiscation and Colonization: The Young Turk
    Seizure of Armenian Property." In addition to these two events, Dr.

    Hovannisian also organized a symposium at the Glendale Public Library
    on April 18 titled "Looking Backward, Moving Forward." The symposium
    was cosponsored by the Library's Armenian Outreach, headed by Ms.

    Elizabeth Grigorian, and was supported by the AEF Chair's Souren and
    Verkin Papazian Fund and UCLA Centers for Near Eastern Studies and
    for European-Eurasian Studies.

    The Bjornlund Lecture

    An archival historian from Copenhagen, Denmark, Matthias Bjornlund has
    explored Scandinavian sources relating to the Armenian Genocide. These
    archives contain many detailed reports about the genocidal process
    and its aftermath. Bjornlund continues to research and develop an
    in-depth analysis of specific regions during the genocide, such as
    Smyrna (Izmir). A significant point he raised in his lecture was
    that one of the goals of the Young Turk Party, also known as the CUP
    (Committee of Union and Progress), was to rid the region of Smyrna of
    Christian Greeks and Armenians and to replace them with Muslims. This
    act, otherwise known as "ethnic-cleansing," was not very "clean,"
    said Bjornlund. Still, there was in 1915-16 sufficient resistance from
    the Turkish governor of Smyrna and the local German commander, General
    Liman von Sanders, to make the city a "special case" and to exempt most
    of its Armenian population from the deportations and massacres that
    engulfed the rest of Asia Minor and the historic Armenian provinces
    of the Ottoman Empire. But Smyrna's turn would come in 1922, when the
    city was occupied by the armies of Mustafa Kemal, and the population
    was literally dumped into the sea as the city burned.

    One of Bjornlund's studies titled "A Fate Worse than Dying: Sexual
    Violence during the Armenian Genocide," is included in the book
    Brutality and Desire: War and Sexuality in Europe's Twentieth Century.

    In his chapter Bjornlund argues: "There is ample evidence that the
    destruction of the Ottoman Armenians was characterized by distinct
    gendered aspects, especially the particular timing and the methods of
    killing women and children, that females were subjected to massive,
    systematic sexual abuse, and that a number of women and children were
    allowed to survive as Muslim Turks."

    The Ungör Lecture

    Dr. Ugur Umit Ungör, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for
    War Studies, University College Dublin and an associate of the Center
    of Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam, defended his Ph.D.

    dissertation in 2009 at the University of Amsterdam. It is titled
    "Young Turk Social Engineering: Mass Violence and the Nation State
    in Eastern Turkey 1913-1950." Ungör specializes in the historical
    sociology of mass violence and has published on the Armenian and
    Rwandan genocides. His presentation at UCLA on April 15 focused
    on several aspects of his forthcoming book, Confiscation and
    Colonisation: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property. One of
    his initial points was the Young Turk objective to create a "National
    Economy," Milli Iktisat, that would be based on a new Muslim class of
    entrepreneurs. Ungör stated: "National Economy was impossible without
    the disappearance of the Armenians." He went on to explain how Young
    Turk legislation in 1915 used "the justice system for injustice"
    in order to confiscate the goods and properties of the Armenians
    and distribute them to new Muslim proprietors or to escheat them to
    the state.

    Dr. Ungör followed with an in-depth analysis of Diyarbekir, the
    historic Armenian Dikranagerd region, and its specific misfortune
    under zealous Young Turk officials who also enriched themselves
    at the expense of the Armenians by organizing and conducting the
    genocidal operations. He emphasized that, aside from the businesses
    in the city, the plunder revolved around three major economic fields:
    vineyards, copper mines, and silk and textile works. His research is
    unique in the sense that it examines and analyzes a specific region
    and specific henchmen of the Turkish regime, such as the governor,
    Dr. Mehmed Reshid, and the Pirinjizade clan.

    Glendale Public Library Symposium

    As for the "Looking Backward, Moving Forward" symposium, a capacity
    audience gathered in the Glendale Public Library auditorium on Sunday
    afternoon, April 18, for a very stimulating discussion commemorating
    the 95th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Dr. Richard G.

    Hovannisian initiated the program by giving a brief introduction of the
    history of Armenians and the modern day issue of genocide recognition
    and remembrance. He declared: "The history of the Armenian people is
    not just one of tragedy but also and even more one of survival and
    optimistic rebuilding." He outlined the progress made in the study
    and understanding of the Armenian Genocide and pointed to critical
    aspects that still require explanations and answers.

    After Hovannisian's brief introduction of the guest speakers, Mr.

    Bjornlund, Dr. Wolf Gruner, and Dr. Ungör, each had the floor
    to discuss a specific topic followed by a brief question and
    answer session which truly engaged the audience. Bjornlund spoke
    on "Scandinavia and the Armenian Genocide: Prelude, Eyewitnesses,
    Aftermath." He stated that recent archival studies in the Scandinavian
    countries have documented a great degree of contemporary knowledge
    of the "Armenian Question" in general and the Armenian Genocide in
    particular. Some among missionaries, relief workers, diplomats,
    politicians, organizations, and "ordinary citizens" from neutral
    Denmark, Sweden, and Norway personally witnessed the massacres
    and death marches. Many others were involved in the aftermath of
    destruction, not least in funding, organizing, and participating
    in relief efforts among surviving Armenians in exile. On the state
    level, some tried to prevent the genocide and its aftermath from
    becoming a potentially embarrassing political issue. His presentation
    contextualized this largely unknown or ignored history.

    Professor Gruner, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor
    of History at the University of Southern California, addressed the
    question "What Could Germans in the Third Reich Know about the Armenian
    Genocide?" He showed that, based on the literature and publications
    of the time, the German public was well aware of the victimization
    of the Armenian people only one or two decades earlier.

    With a Ph.D. degree from the Technical University in Berlin, Gruner
    has written extensively about the Holocaust, including forced labor
    under the Nazis. His research interests focus on the comparative
    study of mass violence, genocide, and state discrimination against
    indigenous populations.

    Following a brisk discussion from a fully engaged audience, Dr.

    Hovannisian thanked the participants and audience and Glendale Library
    Armenian Outreach director Elizabeth Grigorian. He concluded: "We now
    are witnessing a new generation of scholars who are exploring the
    genocide from the bottom up, from micro to macro point of view. We
    look forward to new and valuable studies of this type from a new
    generation of well prepared, conscientious scholars."
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