Tweet
TURKISH INTELLECTUALS WHO HAVE RECOGNIZED THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: UGUR UNGOR
By MassisPost
Updated: February 14, 2015
By Hambersom Aghbashian
Ugur Umit Ungor was born in 1980, in Erzincan, Turkey and raised in
Enschede , in the Netherlands. Currently, he is Assistant Professor
at the Department of History at Utrecht University and at the *NIOD,
which is an Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies
in Amsterdam.. He specializes in genocide, mass violence and
ethnic conflict. Dr. Ungor gained his Ph.D. in 2009 (cum laude)**
at the University of Amsterdam. In 2008- 2009, he was Lecturer in
International History at the Department of History of the University
of Sheffield, and in 2009-10, he was Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
at the Centre for War Studies of University College Dublin. His main
area of interest is the historical sociology of mass violence and
nationalism and his most recent publications include "Confiscation
and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property"
(New York/London; Continuum 2011) and the award-winning "The Making
of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950"
(Oxford; Oxford University Press 2011).(1)(2)
"Confiscation and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian
Property" by Ugur Ungor and Mehmet Polatel is the first major study
of the mass sequestration of Armenian property by the Young Turk
regime during the 1915 Armenian genocide. It details the emergence
of Turkish economic nationalism, offers insight into the economic
ramifications of the genocidal process, and describes how the plunder
was organized on the ground. The interrelated nature of property
confiscation initiated by the Young Turk regime and its cooperating
local elites offers new insights into the functions and beneficiaries
of state-sanctioned robbery. By drawing on secret files and unexamined
records, the authors demonstrate that while Armenians were suffering
systematic plunder and destruction, a range of properties were assigned
to ordinary Turks for the purpose of their progress.(3)
Ugur Ungor's book "The making of modern Turkey. Nation and State
in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950" is a study which highlights how two
successive Turkish-nationalist regimes, from 1913 to 1950, subjected
Eastern Turkey to various forms of nationalist population policies
aimed at ethnically homogenizing the region and including it in the
Turkish nation state. Moreover, it examines how the regime used
technologies of social engineering such as physical destruction,
deportation, spatial planning, forced assimilation, and memory
politics, in order to increase ethnic and cultural homogeneity within
the nation state. The province of Diyarbakir, the heartland of Armenian
and Kurdish life, became an epicenter of Young Turk population policies
and the theater of unprecedented levels of mass violence. These violent
processes of state formation often destroyed historical regions and
emptied multicultural cities, clearing the way for modern nation
states(4). The book was the winner of the Erasmus Research Prize
(Praemium Erasmianum - 2010) and of the Keetje Hodshon Prize, awarded
by the Royal Netherlands Society of Sciences and Humanities. Besides,
he was awarded by the 2012 Heineken Young Scientist Award in History
by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. (5)
In his article entitled "Prolific Young Scholar on Armenian Genocide
in Holland", Aram Arkun wrote in "The Armenian Mirror-Spectator", Feb.
7, 2012, Ugur Umit Ungor is one of a new generation of scholars
emerging from Turkey who deal forthrightly with the Armenian Genocide.
Ungor was led to his interest in the Armenian Genocide by reading
about the Holocaust, and in particular, "Rethinking the Holocaust",
a book by Yehuda Bauer, and he made comparisons with other genocides,
including the Armenian one. Despite his own family origins in the
same region as this genocide, Ungor said, "I had never heard about
such an event and it sparked my curiosity. When I did my research, I
was amazed by the difference between the denial of official histories
in Turkey versus what the ordinary population in Eastern Turkey knew
about the Genocide. I traveled around Eastern Turkey and did many
interviews with old people, who openly spoke about the Armenians as
having been massacred by the government."(6)
"Turkey Has Acknowledged the Armenian Genocide" is Ugur Ungor
article in The Armenian Weekly ( April 27, 2012), where he wrote
"Turkey denies the Armenian Genocide" goes a jingle. Yes, the Turkish
state's official policy towards the Armenian Genocide was and is indeed
characterized by the "three M's": misrepresentation, mystification,
and manipulation. But when one gauges what place the genocide occupies
in the social memory of Turkish society, even after nearly a century,
a different picture emerges. Even though most direct eyewitnesses to
the crime have passed away, oral history interviews yield important
insights. Elderly Turks and Kurds in eastern Turkey often hold vivid
memories from family members or fellow villagers who witnessed or
participated in the genocide. There is a clash between official state
memory and popular social memory: The Turkish government is denying
a genocide that its own population remembers.(7)
----------------
*NIOD: Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam
, Neterlands, is an organization which maintains archives and carries
out historical studies into the Second World War. The institute was
founded as a merge of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation
(Nederlands instituut voor oorlogs documentatie, NIOD) and the Center
for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS).
**Cum laude is an honor added to a diploma or degree for work that
is above average. (with honor).
1- http://www.niod.nl/en/staff/ugur-%C3%BCng%C3%B6r 2-
http://armenianweekly.com/2011/04/22/confiscation-and-colonization-the-young-turk-seizure-of-armenian-property/
3-
http://www.amazon.com/Confiscation-Destruction-Seizure-Armenian-Property/dp/162356901
4-
http://www.niod.nl/en/projects/making-modern-turkey-nation-and-state-eastern-anatolia-1913-1950
5-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%C4%9Fur_%C3%9Cmit_%C3%9Cng%C3%B6r 6-
http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2012/02/07/prolific-young-scholar-on-armenian-genocide-in-holland
7-
http://armenianweekly.com/2012/04/27/ungor-turkey-has-acknowledged-the-armenian-genocide/
http://massispost.com/2015/02/turkish-intellectuals-who-have-recognized-the-armenian-genocide-ugur-ungor/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dymso_Wr5RM
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
By MassisPost
Updated: February 14, 2015
By Hambersom Aghbashian
Ugur Umit Ungor was born in 1980, in Erzincan, Turkey and raised in
Enschede , in the Netherlands. Currently, he is Assistant Professor
at the Department of History at Utrecht University and at the *NIOD,
which is an Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies
in Amsterdam.. He specializes in genocide, mass violence and
ethnic conflict. Dr. Ungor gained his Ph.D. in 2009 (cum laude)**
at the University of Amsterdam. In 2008- 2009, he was Lecturer in
International History at the Department of History of the University
of Sheffield, and in 2009-10, he was Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
at the Centre for War Studies of University College Dublin. His main
area of interest is the historical sociology of mass violence and
nationalism and his most recent publications include "Confiscation
and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property"
(New York/London; Continuum 2011) and the award-winning "The Making
of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950"
(Oxford; Oxford University Press 2011).(1)(2)
"Confiscation and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian
Property" by Ugur Ungor and Mehmet Polatel is the first major study
of the mass sequestration of Armenian property by the Young Turk
regime during the 1915 Armenian genocide. It details the emergence
of Turkish economic nationalism, offers insight into the economic
ramifications of the genocidal process, and describes how the plunder
was organized on the ground. The interrelated nature of property
confiscation initiated by the Young Turk regime and its cooperating
local elites offers new insights into the functions and beneficiaries
of state-sanctioned robbery. By drawing on secret files and unexamined
records, the authors demonstrate that while Armenians were suffering
systematic plunder and destruction, a range of properties were assigned
to ordinary Turks for the purpose of their progress.(3)
Ugur Ungor's book "The making of modern Turkey. Nation and State
in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950" is a study which highlights how two
successive Turkish-nationalist regimes, from 1913 to 1950, subjected
Eastern Turkey to various forms of nationalist population policies
aimed at ethnically homogenizing the region and including it in the
Turkish nation state. Moreover, it examines how the regime used
technologies of social engineering such as physical destruction,
deportation, spatial planning, forced assimilation, and memory
politics, in order to increase ethnic and cultural homogeneity within
the nation state. The province of Diyarbakir, the heartland of Armenian
and Kurdish life, became an epicenter of Young Turk population policies
and the theater of unprecedented levels of mass violence. These violent
processes of state formation often destroyed historical regions and
emptied multicultural cities, clearing the way for modern nation
states(4). The book was the winner of the Erasmus Research Prize
(Praemium Erasmianum - 2010) and of the Keetje Hodshon Prize, awarded
by the Royal Netherlands Society of Sciences and Humanities. Besides,
he was awarded by the 2012 Heineken Young Scientist Award in History
by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. (5)
In his article entitled "Prolific Young Scholar on Armenian Genocide
in Holland", Aram Arkun wrote in "The Armenian Mirror-Spectator", Feb.
7, 2012, Ugur Umit Ungor is one of a new generation of scholars
emerging from Turkey who deal forthrightly with the Armenian Genocide.
Ungor was led to his interest in the Armenian Genocide by reading
about the Holocaust, and in particular, "Rethinking the Holocaust",
a book by Yehuda Bauer, and he made comparisons with other genocides,
including the Armenian one. Despite his own family origins in the
same region as this genocide, Ungor said, "I had never heard about
such an event and it sparked my curiosity. When I did my research, I
was amazed by the difference between the denial of official histories
in Turkey versus what the ordinary population in Eastern Turkey knew
about the Genocide. I traveled around Eastern Turkey and did many
interviews with old people, who openly spoke about the Armenians as
having been massacred by the government."(6)
"Turkey Has Acknowledged the Armenian Genocide" is Ugur Ungor
article in The Armenian Weekly ( April 27, 2012), where he wrote
"Turkey denies the Armenian Genocide" goes a jingle. Yes, the Turkish
state's official policy towards the Armenian Genocide was and is indeed
characterized by the "three M's": misrepresentation, mystification,
and manipulation. But when one gauges what place the genocide occupies
in the social memory of Turkish society, even after nearly a century,
a different picture emerges. Even though most direct eyewitnesses to
the crime have passed away, oral history interviews yield important
insights. Elderly Turks and Kurds in eastern Turkey often hold vivid
memories from family members or fellow villagers who witnessed or
participated in the genocide. There is a clash between official state
memory and popular social memory: The Turkish government is denying
a genocide that its own population remembers.(7)
----------------
*NIOD: Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam
, Neterlands, is an organization which maintains archives and carries
out historical studies into the Second World War. The institute was
founded as a merge of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation
(Nederlands instituut voor oorlogs documentatie, NIOD) and the Center
for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS).
**Cum laude is an honor added to a diploma or degree for work that
is above average. (with honor).
1- http://www.niod.nl/en/staff/ugur-%C3%BCng%C3%B6r 2-
http://armenianweekly.com/2011/04/22/confiscation-and-colonization-the-young-turk-seizure-of-armenian-property/
3-
http://www.amazon.com/Confiscation-Destruction-Seizure-Armenian-Property/dp/162356901
4-
http://www.niod.nl/en/projects/making-modern-turkey-nation-and-state-eastern-anatolia-1913-1950
5-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%C4%9Fur_%C3%9Cmit_%C3%9Cng%C3%B6r 6-
http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2012/02/07/prolific-young-scholar-on-armenian-genocide-in-holland
7-
http://armenianweekly.com/2012/04/27/ungor-turkey-has-acknowledged-the-armenian-genocide/
http://massispost.com/2015/02/turkish-intellectuals-who-have-recognized-the-armenian-genocide-ugur-ungor/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dymso_Wr5RM
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress