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Re: Western Armenians
LECTURE SHEDS LIGHT ON AITNAB LEGACY
Friday, September 20th, 2013
Umit Kurt during his presentation
BY HASMIK PILIPOSYAN
Aintabtsi Hayer, miatsek! (Armenians of Aintab, Unite!)
The Ararat Eskijian Museum wore the image of Old Aintab on Sunday,
September 15 as fifty or more true Aintabtsis and supporters gathered
to hear a lecture by Umit Kurt, PhD candidate in the department of
History at Clark University. The lecture, titled The Emergence of the
New Wealthy Class Between 1915-1922: The Seizure of Armenian Property
by Local Elites in Aintab, focused on the importance of acquiring
Armenian wealth and material possessions to the local Kurds and Turks
in Aintab before and during the Armenian Genocide of 1915. To what
extent did the lust for Armenian property act as a motive for the
killings? Kurt described a "link between the role of stolen Armenian
assets in the integration and stabilization of Turkification, which
makes confiscation of Armenian properties a social process". The fate
of the Armenians was not only linked to the Committee of Union and
Progress party (CUP) orders, but behavior of the local elites.
Material rewards were given for collaboration at the regional level.
In Kurt's words, "the large distribution of Armenian property provided
a useful incentive that strongly reinforced Armenian hatred and
other political and personal issues." Besides the local elites, many
other state companies were also involved in the seizure of Armenian
properties including auction houses, property assessors, trustees, and
transportation companies in support of Turkish anti-Armenian policies
in Aintab. The opportunities for success and growth facilitated the
removal of Armenians, whereas the effects of the loss of properties
to the victims were demoralizing and stigmatizing. Additionally,
the deportation of Armenians to the Syrian Desert proved effective in
separating them from their properties as they were made not to return.
A new local wealthy class emerged and prospered through the obtainment
of Armenian wealth and property.
After the lecture, Umit Kurt displayed a short film called My Father's
Aintab and old and recent images of the Armenian quarter in Aintab.
The evening followed with a Q&A session where one of the audience
members asked Umit why he chose to research the destruction of Aintab's
Armenians and their properties. As a native of Aintab, when Umit was
younger, he did not know about the presence of Armenians or about
the Armenian quarter in Aintab. When one of his friends invited him
to a unique coffee shop to meet, Umit's life and interests changed
forever. When he reached the coffee shop, he first noticed the
intricately carved, monumental front door of the coffee shop and was
amazed at the internal beauty and homey design, which contained every
feature of an Armenian home. He asked the owner, who was Turkish,
to show him around the place and the upstairs section composed of
many rooms aesthetically extrinsic to Umit's eyes. Umit noticed
the numbers "1894" (when the first Hamidian massacres took place)
on the wall and asked about the previous owner. The man replied,
"I don't know, Armenians were here." Later, he discovered that a man
named Nazaret Agha of the Kimia family owned the house, before it
became a coffee shop. It became the groundbreaking point in his life
where he sought out to research the history of the Aintab Armenians
and in the meanwhile, also write his own story.
Umit Kurt is of Kurdish descent maternally, but is not certain of his
father's side. He is a PhD candidate at Clark University and student
of Taner Akcam, a prominent scholar on the Armenian Genocide. During
the Q&A session, Umit was asked if he received any objections or had
been tried for "insulting Turkishness", in which he responded that
he has not yet encountered any objections from the Turkish government
regarding his research on the stolen Armenian properties. In the last
minutes, Umit Kurt spoke words that made everyone smile. He said,
"I don't work for Armenian people; I work for my own people to reckon
their own historical wrongdoings."
LECTURE SHEDS LIGHT ON AITNAB LEGACY
Friday, September 20th, 2013
Umit Kurt during his presentation
BY HASMIK PILIPOSYAN
Aintabtsi Hayer, miatsek! (Armenians of Aintab, Unite!)
The Ararat Eskijian Museum wore the image of Old Aintab on Sunday,
September 15 as fifty or more true Aintabtsis and supporters gathered
to hear a lecture by Umit Kurt, PhD candidate in the department of
History at Clark University. The lecture, titled The Emergence of the
New Wealthy Class Between 1915-1922: The Seizure of Armenian Property
by Local Elites in Aintab, focused on the importance of acquiring
Armenian wealth and material possessions to the local Kurds and Turks
in Aintab before and during the Armenian Genocide of 1915. To what
extent did the lust for Armenian property act as a motive for the
killings? Kurt described a "link between the role of stolen Armenian
assets in the integration and stabilization of Turkification, which
makes confiscation of Armenian properties a social process". The fate
of the Armenians was not only linked to the Committee of Union and
Progress party (CUP) orders, but behavior of the local elites.
Material rewards were given for collaboration at the regional level.
In Kurt's words, "the large distribution of Armenian property provided
a useful incentive that strongly reinforced Armenian hatred and
other political and personal issues." Besides the local elites, many
other state companies were also involved in the seizure of Armenian
properties including auction houses, property assessors, trustees, and
transportation companies in support of Turkish anti-Armenian policies
in Aintab. The opportunities for success and growth facilitated the
removal of Armenians, whereas the effects of the loss of properties
to the victims were demoralizing and stigmatizing. Additionally,
the deportation of Armenians to the Syrian Desert proved effective in
separating them from their properties as they were made not to return.
A new local wealthy class emerged and prospered through the obtainment
of Armenian wealth and property.
After the lecture, Umit Kurt displayed a short film called My Father's
Aintab and old and recent images of the Armenian quarter in Aintab.
The evening followed with a Q&A session where one of the audience
members asked Umit why he chose to research the destruction of Aintab's
Armenians and their properties. As a native of Aintab, when Umit was
younger, he did not know about the presence of Armenians or about
the Armenian quarter in Aintab. When one of his friends invited him
to a unique coffee shop to meet, Umit's life and interests changed
forever. When he reached the coffee shop, he first noticed the
intricately carved, monumental front door of the coffee shop and was
amazed at the internal beauty and homey design, which contained every
feature of an Armenian home. He asked the owner, who was Turkish,
to show him around the place and the upstairs section composed of
many rooms aesthetically extrinsic to Umit's eyes. Umit noticed
the numbers "1894" (when the first Hamidian massacres took place)
on the wall and asked about the previous owner. The man replied,
"I don't know, Armenians were here." Later, he discovered that a man
named Nazaret Agha of the Kimia family owned the house, before it
became a coffee shop. It became the groundbreaking point in his life
where he sought out to research the history of the Aintab Armenians
and in the meanwhile, also write his own story.
Umit Kurt is of Kurdish descent maternally, but is not certain of his
father's side. He is a PhD candidate at Clark University and student
of Taner Akcam, a prominent scholar on the Armenian Genocide. During
the Q&A session, Umit was asked if he received any objections or had
been tried for "insulting Turkishness", in which he responded that
he has not yet encountered any objections from the Turkish government
regarding his research on the stolen Armenian properties. In the last
minutes, Umit Kurt spoke words that made everyone smile. He said,
"I don't work for Armenian people; I work for my own people to reckon
their own historical wrongdoings."
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