Books in English by Ümit Kurt
Harvard University Press-- https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674247949, 2021
Kurt digs into the details of the Armenian dispossession that produced the homogeneously Turkish ... more Kurt digs into the details of the Armenian dispossession that produced the homogeneously Turkish city in which he grew up. In particular, he examines the population that gained from ethnic cleansing. Records of land confiscation and population transfer demonstrate just how much new wealth became available when the prosperous Armenians—who were active in manufacturing, agricultural production, and trade—were ejected. Although the official rationale for the removal of the Armenians was that the group posed a threat of rebellion, Kurt shows that the prospect of material gain was a key motivator of support for the Armenian genocide among the local Muslim gentry and the Turkish public. Those who benefited most—provincial elites, wealthy landowners, state officials, and merchants who accumulated Armenian capital—in turn financed the nationalist movement that brought the modern Turkish republic into being. The economic elite of Aintab was thus reconstituted along both ethnic and political lines.
Books in Turkish by Ümit Kurt
ARAS, 2023
Ümit Kurt, devlet destekli kitlesel şiddete doğrudan ve/veya dolaylı yollarla iştirak eden seçkin... more Ümit Kurt, devlet destekli kitlesel şiddete doğrudan ve/veya dolaylı yollarla iştirak eden seçkinlerin ve sıradan aktörlerin hangi ölçekte ve motivasyonla bu iştiraki gerçekleştirdiğini anlama ve açıklama girişimini sürdürüyor. Hamit Bozarslan’ın sunuşuyla açılan bu kitapta, Osmanlı ve Cumhuriyet dönemi teknokratlarından ve siyasi seçkinlerinden Mustafa Reşat Mimaroğlu’nun portresi üzerinden Medz Yeğern’in bürokratik ve idari veçhesine odaklanıyor. Kitlesel şiddetin altyapısını, zeminini ve iklimini hazırlayan bir fail kategorisinin, kanun ve nizam dairesinde iş gören bürokrat ve teknokrat figürlerin zihniyet dünyasının ve eylemlerinin izini sürerken, aynı zamanda devlet mekanizmasının Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyet’e sürekliliğini de ortaya koyuyor.
Antep 1915: Soykırım ve Failler, 2018
Edited Volumes in English by Ümit Kurt
The Press at California State University, Fresno, 2023
The scholarship on Turkey’s pre-republican history has made great strides over the past three dec... more The scholarship on Turkey’s pre-republican history has made great strides over the past three decades, expanding the historical aperture to a plurality of actors and becoming more representative of diverse political, religious, and cultural groups involved in the transition to post-Ottoman Turkey. The proliferation of research on late-Ottoman history, including notably the last Ottoman decade, has contributed to a thorough revision of republican Turkey’s foundation in general and of the early Republic in particular. This is scholarly work in progress that grasps the republican nation-state as a post-genocidal polity.
Fresno State University Press, 2021
Armenians and Kurds in the Late Ottoman Empire, 2020
"Armenians and Kurds in the Late Ottoman Empire" was just published as No. 9 in the Armenian Seri... more "Armenians and Kurds in the Late Ottoman Empire" was just published as No. 9 in the Armenian Series of the Press at California State University, Fresno, and No. 1 in the Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State Conference Series. Edited by Ümit Kurt and Ara Sarafian it contains articles by Owen Miller, Ümit Kurt, Emre Can Daglioglu, Nilay Ozok-Gundogan, and Varak Ketsemanian. This fascinating volume presents new perspectives on late Ottoman history. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the book at this time will only be available through the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State. Contact Barlow Der Mugrdechian for information about how to purchase the book: [email protected]
Edited Volumes in Turkish by Ümit Kurt
Articles in English by Ümit Kurt
New Lines Magazine, 2024
Banditry and corruption lie at the heart of many of the early 20th-century struggles for independ... more Banditry and corruption lie at the heart of many of the early 20th-century struggles for independent states in southeastern Europe. In the dying days of the Ottoman Empire, a new type of political entrepreneur was born — violent, well connected, with the habits of the bourgeoisie and a desire to acquire money and power.
Die Welt des Islams, 2024
This article centers on the life of the late Ottoman and early Turkish Republican bureaucrat Must... more This article centers on the life of the late Ottoman and early Turkish Republican bureaucrat Mustafa Reşat to investigate how he turned into a genocide technocrat. It examines his career and decisions at critical junctions and depicts him as an outstanding representative of a category of perpetrators who prepare the propitious infrastructure, ground, and climate for such large-scale violence as the Armenian Genocide. By shifting the perspective to the type, scale, and level of perpetrating violence, this paper sheds light on how Mustafa Reşat used his administrative and political knowledge and experience to serve Talat Pasha, who was already organizing the deportation and extermination of Armenians. Drawing upon hitherto unmined sources such as his memoirs, it demonstrates how an ultranationalist and dedicated Ottoman bureaucrat played a pivotal role in determining the main contours of the Turkish state’s mindset on the “Armenian and Kurdish Questions”.
History Compass, 2024
This article discusses the founding of the Republic and the legacy of the Armenian genocide of 19... more This article discusses the founding of the Republic and the legacy of the Armenian genocide of 1915 in the subsequent decades by scrutinizing two pivotal facets. The first one revolves around the accumulation of capital by the Turkish state through the sequestration of Armenian properties, and the second one is the appointment of mid-level Ottoman bureaucrats of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) as new civilian bureaucrats of the Republican regime without accountability for their involvement in the Armenian genocide during wartime. Thus, the article argues that perpetrators of this genocide under the CUP regime ascended to the upper echelons of the bureaucracy during the Republican era.
Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies , 2024
This article examines the practices of the new parliament formed in Ankara and the fledgling repu... more This article examines the practices of the new parliament formed in Ankara and the fledgling republican regime with a particular focus on laws and regulations as of 1922. It discloses how these ‘legal’ mechanisms were employed to thwart Armenians and Greeks to return home and claim their properties back. Finally, this article explores what types of ‘precautions’ the new Turkish nation-state took to not give confiscated properties to Ottoman Christians, particularly before the forthcoming Lausanne peace negotiations. Turkey could not even tolerate the existence of Armenians and Greeks inside the country, let alone give back their expropriated assets. The state considered abandoned properties as an important source of revenue. However, there was an obligation to return these properties to their owners according to the Vahdettin Regulation of January 1920, which was still valid. Consequently, it was necessary to abrogate this regulation before the commencement of the Lausanne negotiations.
The Lausanne Project, 2022
Ümit Kurt reflects on one of the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress, Cemal Pasha, and... more Ümit Kurt reflects on one of the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress, Cemal Pasha, and his ambivalent relationship with Ottoman Armenians.
Armenian Review, 2021
This article traces the history of the Aintab Hunchakian branch. The Hunchakian Revolutionary Par... more This article traces the history of the Aintab Hunchakian branch. The Hunchakian Revolutionary Party was one of the first Armenian political organizations. The party's activity was not limited to Eastern Anatolia but also extended to the region of Cilicia. Philipos Sarkisian and Avedis Shishmanian from Zeitun (both graduates of Murad Rafaelian in Istanbul) were the first Hunchak members who actively operated in Aintab. The Aintab branch of the Hunchakian movement had robust organizational structure and military discipline. As a result of significant efforts, a powerful organization was established in a short period of time. The Aintab branch came into prominence in 1890-92 and the nationalist Armenian youth of Aintab was directly involved in this movement or sympathetic to the Hunchaks.
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Books in English by Ümit Kurt
Books in Turkish by Ümit Kurt
Edited Volumes in English by Ümit Kurt
Edited Volumes in Turkish by Ümit Kurt
Articles in English by Ümit Kurt
Osmanlı topraklarının pek çok yerinde olduğu gibi Antep’te de Abdülhamit’in
istibdad rejiminden kurtulmanın sevincini sokaklarda kutladı. Reformları
uygulamak konusunda ayak direyen Kaymakam Necmeddin Bey feci bir şekilde dövülüp, şehirden kovulacak; fakat sonra Kilis’e kaymakam tayin edilecekti. İttihatçılar, olayın sorumluları hakkında ise tahkikat başlatacaktı.
yayımlanan kitapla ilgili sorularımızı cevapladı.
historical sources into a coherent and compelling narrative of the local
dynamics in Aintab. I wholeheartedly recommend this book not only to
scholars of the Armenian genocide but also to anyone interested in regional
perspectives on state-sponsored mass violence episodes in history.
unauslöschlichsten Wunden hinterlassen, die auch mehr als ein Jahrhundert später noch nicht verheilt sind.“
souligné le défunt Hayden White), il semble qu’il soit très difficile de séparer votre problématique de rechercher de votre histoire personnelle. Du moins c’est le cas de nombreux historiens, particulièrement ceux travaillant sur les sombres archives de l’histoire de leur propre pays. Elle fait également de vous une partie, parfois active, parfois passive, de ce même processus historique. Vous y êtes en quelque sorte intégré socialement, politiquement et culturellement.