Armenian News Network / Armenian News

Armenian News Network / Armenian News

By Sevan Boghos-DerBedrossian

During these challenging and unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic and after cancelling many events this past Spring, the Tekeyan Cultural Association (TCA) Metro Los Angeles Chapter stepped up and took the decision to remain productive and influential in enriching Armenian society with its cultural events. 

Specifically, a Zoom webinar titled “Confiscation and Destruction: The Young Turks’ Seizure of Armenian Property,” delivered by Dr. Mehmet Polatel, was held on May 27, 2020. Organized by the Tekeyan Cultural Association, the presentation was co-sponsored by several Armenian organizations, which showed interest in unfolding the layers and processes of not only the killing of a nation, but also the erasure of its roots, lands, and properties. Co-sponsors included the AGBU Western District, Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian Council of America, Armenian Rights Council of America, Armenian Society of Los Angeles, Nor Serount Armenian Cultural Association, and the Organization of Istanbul Armenians, all of which teamed up to help promote the presentation via their respective social media platforms and event calendars. 

Mihran Toumajan, Western Region Director of the Armenian Assembly of America, and also an active member and ex-officio advisor of the TCA Metro Los Angeles Chapter, co-moderated the presentation with Sevan Boghos-Deirbadrossian. The co-moderators thanked each of the co-sponsoring organizations, provided a brief backgrounder about the mission of the Tekeyan Cultural Association, and introduced the lecturer to over 150 Zoom webinar participants spanning six continents and over 18 countries. Many attendees of TCA’s first Zoom webinar expressed enthusiasm and keen interest in a serious matter involving the confiscation and destruction of properties owned by Armenians prior to the 1915 genocide. The presentation was also displayed in real time via the Facebook Live platform.

The insightful lecture was conducted by genocide studies scholar, Dr. Mehmet Polatel, who serves as a junior postdoctoral research fellow at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research. Of Turkish heritage, Dr. Polatel received his Ph.D. degree from Bogazici University in Istanbul with his dissertation focusing on the emergence and transformation of the Armenian land question in the late Ottoman Empire. Prior to receiving his Ph.D. he earned a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Middle East Technical University in 2007, and an M.A. in Comparative Studies in History and Society from Koç University, Istanbul in 2009. After receiving his Ph.D., he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in Armenian Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His main research interests are state-society relations, socioeconomic history, the Armenian Genocide, and the dispossession of Armenians. He has co-authored a book with Uğur Ü. Üngör entitled “Confiscation and Destruction: Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Properties” (Bloomsbury, 2011), and has published several articles and book chapters on the Hamidian massacres, the land question, and the Armenian genocide.

Dr. Polatel started his presentation by referencing his early research, which focuses on the processes of property transfer and dispossession during the Armenian Genocide. He provided examples of churches turned into auction sites for the transfer of movable Armenian properties. Further, he touched on his contemporary research about the relationship between the 1894-96 Hamidian Massacres and the genocide, in terms of local perpetrations and mass violence, by examining the testimonies of genocide survivors in the archives of the USC Shoah Foundation. Dr. Polatel elaborated some of the testimonies in his lecture.

Dr. Polatel highlighted the fact that, in addition to massive violence, genocides have multiple dimensions, and one such characteristic is the forced transfer and dispossession of properties which unfold unique insights and means of genocidal contexts. Dr. Polatel also explained, in detail, about the Young Turks’ legal framework, and how properties were taken into consideration by the Ottoman Turkish authorities when they issued the deportation law, and how Armenian properties ought to be used, in order to settle Muslim immigrants. Moreover, he followed up by providing the layers of property transfers and the practice of dispossession, whether through official channels, corruption, unofficial seizures by officials themselves, pillage, destruction, or unofficial seizures by civilians.

Dr. Polatel emphasized that the Armenian Genocide was a complex event with multiple manifestations of death, destruction, and property confiscation. He also reminded participants that new findings on the genocide and its consequences have been revealed by research conducted by contemporary scholars, and that knowledge about various aspects of the genocide continues to expand in academia.

The presentation by Dr. Polatel raised many questions by participants about properties, deeds, claims, lawsuits, and interesting ideas which captivated the audience and extended the duration of the lecture to 1.5 hours. The executive members of the Tekeyan Cultural Association Metro Los Angeles Chapter extend their gratitude to Dr. Polatel for accepting their invitation, and making the lecture possible to a wide range of attendees from over 18 countries.

We wish Dr. Polatel success and new findings as he unfolds the truth and many dimensions of the planned 1915 Armenian Genocide. We also thank the co-sponsors for their continuous support and unity, especially with respect to such an important cause.

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Sevan Boghos-DerBedrossian is a teacher at the AGBU Manoogian-Demirjian School in Los Angeles, and a recent winner of the Gulbenkian Foundation's prize for teaching Armenian online. The award recognized her creativity and innovative online teaching techniques.

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