A scholarly workshop in Istanbul focuses on Adana massacres of 1909

Published: Thursday November 19, 2009

Participants in the workshop, "Adana 1909: History, Memory, and Identity from a Hundred Year Perspective," Istanbul, November 7, 2009.

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Istanbul, Turkey - As we reported briefly last week, Sabanci University in Istanbul on November 6 and 7 hosted a major international workshop titled, "Adana 1909: History, Memory, and Identity from a Hundred Year Perspective." Scholars from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Turkey participated in the workshop, which was co-sponsored by the Gomidas Institute (London), Sabanci University, the International Hrant Dink Foundation, and the history departments of Istanbul Bilgi University and Bogazici University.

A capacity audience filled the lecture hall and included professors, students, journalists, and members of the public. There was simultaneous interpretation between English and Turkish. The papers presented at the workshop will be published in English and Turkish editions.

In opening remarks, organizers Cengiz Aktar and Ara Sarafian pointed to new opportunities for holding such meetings in Turkey today. The workshop was a way of marking the centennial of the Adana massacres, they said. It began with a call for papers in Turkish, Armenian, and English, and the presentations at the workshop reflected the different interests of scholars who responded to the public invitation.

The first paper was an unlikely one, a discussion of Turks who saved Armenians in 1909. The fact that Armenians were massacred was a given; the speaker simply examined the presence of righteous Turkish officials who saved Armenians. In fact, he used Ottoman records to show how Ottoman Armenians themselves petitioned the state to recognize one such Turk for his role in saving an entire community. This first paper took some of the sting out of the workshop, where the audience could sympathize with the Armenian victims of 1909 without vilifying all "Muslims" or "Turks" as a single category. Subsequent papers followed with the same sensitivity, organizers said.

Each session was chaired by a senior scholar and was followed by a discussion. The workshop thus benefited from the presence of senior scholars who were not themselves presenting research. They included Selim Deringil, Caglar Keyder, Mete Tucay, and Hülya Adak.

The organizers considered the workshop a success.

What follows is a summary of the papers, not in the order they were presented, prepared by the Gomidas Institute.

Some new perspectives

The first paper, referenced above, was the work of Abdulhamit Kirmizi. His focus was Major Hadji Mehmet Effendi and his men who defended Sis, the seat of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia, from attacks by neighboring tribes and villages. Mr. Kirmizi used Ottoman documentation to discuss such Muslims, many of whom were later decorated by the Ottoman government. The actions of these officials were the opposite of other officials who encouraged the actual massacres.

Another well-nuanced and probing paper explored a variety of factors related to the Adana massacres. The author stressed that some of these factors could only be probed in a speculative but informed manner at this stage. One factor discussed was the presence in Adana in April 1909 of tens of thousands of impoverished migrant workers who could not find work. Sinan Dinçer (Ruhr University, Bochum) discussed such migrant workers in Adana province that season and suggested that they could have been drawn into the fighting for no other reason than to loot and steal Armenian property. The speaker stated that he was not arguing that this was a major factor explaining the massacres, but it might have been a significant contributing factor.

Views from Europe

Two presentations discussed French and German records related to the Adana massacres. Vincent Duclert (EHESS, France) contrasted the position of the French government following the Hamidian massacres (1894-96), the Adana massacres, and the Armenian Genocide (1915-17). He noted that the French government was reluctant to press the Ottoman authorities after the Adana massacres because many French officials supported the Young Turk government. Instead, French authorities played down the issue in France.

Dilek Güven (Sabanci University, Istanbul) discussed German consular records as well as the records of the Baghdad Railway company. These records attested to the terrible suffering of Armenians in 1909. She noted that German policy toward Ottoman Turkey was uncertain at that time, especially as the 1909 massacres were reportedly carried out by supporters of Abdulhamit II - whom the Germans had backed until the 1908 revolution.

Benedetta Guerzoni (independent scholar) discussed how imagery of the Adana massacres was constructed in Western newspapers, with particular reference to Italy and France.

Some Armenian sources

Ara Sarafian (Gomidas Institute) and Zakarya Mildano?lu (independent researcher) discussed Armenian records related to the events of 1909. Mr. Sarafian introduced the work of Hagop Terzian, who in 1912 published a powerful report on the 1909 events. Terzian included his own testimony about Adana city, as well as the testimonies of others in smaller communities. Mr. Sarafian argued that Terzian's text had a certain popular force-of-argument that challenged official accounts that tried to play down the incidents. Mr. Sarafian quoted Terzian to stress the devastating role of the newspaper Itidal in agitating and fermenting violence against Armenians.

Mr. Mildano?lu presented the Adana massacres through the Armenian periodical press, with many illustrations from different journals. His accounts included satire as a powerful tool to convey what had happened to Armenians.

Mr. Mildano?lu was also responsible for a separate exhibition of photographs depicting the Adana massacres. These images and texts were displayed at the workshop.