Restraining Violence in the Early Twentieth-Century Ottoman Society: Let Adapazarı not be Adana!

The Department of International Relations cordially invites you to the online seminar titled "Restraining Violence in the  Early Twentieth-Century Ottoman Society: Let Adapazarı not be Adana!" by Dr. Ümit Kurt. The seminar will take place on the 27th of May between 13:00-14:30. 

The seminar will take place online via zoom.  Those who wish to participate can register here. The zoom link will be shared with participants half an hour before the meeting. 

The event will be in English.

Abstract

A compelling incident occurred in the district of Adapazarı on February 25, 1911. Three Armenian and two Greek local men were caught while having sexual intercourse with a Muslim prostitute in an Armenian bathhouse and then were brought in. Thereupon, Sırrı Bey, the district governor of Adapazarı (appointed on April 29, 1910), gave a political character to this incident—in light of the the Adana Massacre of 1909—in order to have them be imprisoned, put on trial before the judge and be condemned. Through this particular event, I try to explain why intercommunal killings happen in some situations, but not in others. I argue that with careful microhistorical research it is possible to reveal certain local factors that lead to restraint. I also show likelihood of idea of Ottoman unity (İttihad-ı Anasır) between Ottoman Muslim and non-Muslim peoples in a borderland region to the Balkans as well as exploring political space for negotiations among local actors. Through microhistory and sociolegal analysis, I employ this specific adultery event to understand state-society relations within the late Ottoman context.

Dr. Ümit Kurt

Ümit Kurt is a historian of the late Ottoman Empire with a particular focus on the transformations of the imperial structures and their role in constituting the republican regime. Moreover, his research and teaching are grounded on theories of state and class, social identity and ethnicity. Kurt completed his dissertation in the Department of History at Clark University. Since then, he has held a number of postdoctoral positions in Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University and was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Fresno. He is the author of "AKP Yeni Merkez Sağ mı?" (Dipnot, 2009); "'Türk'ün Büyük Biçare Irkı: Türk Yurdu'nda Milliyetçiliğin Esasları (1911-1916)" (İletişim, 2012); co-author of "The Spirit of the Laws: Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide" (Berghahn, 2015); author of "Antep 1915: Soykırım ve Failler (İletişim, 2018)"; editor of "Kıyam ve Kıtal: Osmanlı'dan Cumhuriyete Devlet'in İnşası ve Kolektif Şiddet" (Tarih Vakfı, 2015); "Armenians and Kurds in the Late Ottoman Empire" (Fresno State University Press, 2020); "The Committee of Union and Progress: Founders, Ideology and Structure" (Fresno State University Press, 2021). His recent book, titled "The Armenians of Aintab: Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province", has been published by Harvard University Press, May 2021. This book has become the Finalist for PROSE Awards in the category of World History given by Association of American Publishers. Currently, Ümit Kurt is a research Fellow at Polonsky Academy in the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and teaching in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.