The End of the Ottomans: The Genocide of 1915 and the Politics of Turkish Nationalism (Library of Ottoman Studies)

"In the early part of the twentieth century, as Europe began its descent into the First World War, the Ottoman world - once the largest Empire in the Middle East - began to experience a revolution which would culminate in the new, secular Turkish state. Alongside this, in 1915, as part of an increasing nationalism, it enacted a genocide against its Armenian citizens. In this new study, Hans-Lukas Kieser marshals a dazzling array of scholars to re-evaluate the approach and legacy of the Young Turks - whose eradication of the Armenians from Asia Minor would have far-reaching consequences. Kieser argues that genocide led to today's crisis-ridden Middle East and set in place a rigid state system whose effects are still felt in Turkey today.Featuring new and groundbreaking work on the role of bureaucracy, the actors outside of Istanbul and re-centreing Armenian agency in the genocide, The End of the Ottomans is a vital new study of the Ottoman world, the Armenian Genocide and of the Middle East."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Cover page 1 Halftitle page 2 Title page 4 Copyright page 5 Contents 6 List of Maps and Figures 8 Acknowledgements 9 List of Contributors 10 Map 14 Introduction: Unhealed Wounds, Perpetuated Patterns 16 Part One The Matrix and Politics of Genocide 32 1 Mehmed Talaat: Demolitionist Founder of Post-Ottoman Turkey 34 Revolutionary, but imperial 34 Embrace of war 37 24 April 1915 39 Communion in crime 42 Talaat, Ziya Gökalp and Germany 47 Revolutionist statesmanship’, imperially biased: a prototype 54 A post-Ottoman century under Talaat’s shadow 57 2 The War at The Caucasus Front: A Matrix for Genocide 62 Activities of the Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa in the south Caucasus 64 Operations of the SO in Artvin, Ardanuç , Şavşat, Oltu and Ardahan 66 Reprisals by Armenian volunteers and Russian troops 76 Conclusion 80 3 Requiem for a Thug: Aintabli Abdulkadir and the Special Organization 82 The making of a fedai 83 Spymaster in Van 84 Playing the Kurdish card: special ops on the Persian frontier 88 The Sarai sector: retribution against Armenians 93 Massacres at Gumushkhane 95 Abdulkadir’s mission in Harput 99 Deraa 102 Der Zor, Bolu and the post-war period 103 Conclusion 104 4 Tahsin Uzer: The CUP’s Man in the East 108 Conclusion 128 Part Two Performing Genocide on the Spot 132 5 The State, Local Actors and Mass Violence in Bitlis Province* 134 Eastern Provinces 135 Sheikhs, aghas and beys in Bitlis 137 Local power relations and local government on the eve of the First World War 139 Extermination of Armenians in Bitlis 144 Conclusion 154 Selected bibliography 155 6 Scenes from Angora, 1915: The Commander, the Bureaucrats and Muslim Notables during the Armenian Genocide 156 The commander says no 157 Expanding the Programme 161 Diplomacy and deniability 164 When perpetrators fall out: governor vs. police chief 167 Catholic Armenians: an anomaly? 173 Yosgad says no 175 Conclusion 178 Part Three The Empire’s Darkest Hour 182 7 Zohrab and Vartkes: Ottoman Deputies and Armenian Reformers 184 8 Honour and Shame: The Diaries of a Unionist and the ‘Armenian Question’1 208 Masters of the house 212 National pride and local security 217 ‘An irremovable stain’ 226 Memory of the genocide 232 9 A Rescuer, an Enigma and a Génocidaire: Cemal Pasha* 236 Cemal Pasha’s ‘Armenian policy’ 238 A rescuer: Cemal Pasha seen through the eyes of Armenians 240 An enigma: the Cemal Pasha who required Armenians to convert 250 The ‘génocidaire’ Cemal Pasha 255 Conclusion 257 10 ‘The Very Limit of Our Endurance’: Unarmed Resistance in Ottoman Syria during the First World War 262 The allure of the sword 263 Defining resistance 265 Humanitarian relief 267 Humanitarian resistance 270 Individual actors and Armenian self-help 272 Conclusion 275 Part Four Unmaking the Empire, Shaping the Turkish Nation 278 11 Proactive Local Perpetrators:Mehmet Yasin (Sani Kutluğ) and Ahmed Faik (Erner) 280 Motivations 281 The Aintab CUP club and the main perpetrators 283 Portraits of perpetrators 286 Conclusion 298 12 From Aintab to Gaziantep: The Reconstitution of an Elite on the Ottoman Periphery 302 Aintab as outlier 303 Provocateurs and protectors 305 Watching their future 308 The deportation of Orthodox Armenians 312 Deportation of Catholic and Protestant Armenians 315 An evaluation 318 Post-genocide Aintab and the return of survivors 319 From the British to the French: occupation in Aintab 324 Property restitution and Aintab’s return to war 326 Confiscated property and the consolidation of a Turkish-Muslim elite 329 Conclusion 333 Afterword: Talaat’s Empire: A Backward Country, but a State Well Ahead of Its Time 336 Local history as national history 336 Comparative perspectives: the 1910s and 2010s 339 From Unionism to the Republic: inheriting the cataclysm 340 The Unionist biographies 344 Resistances 348 Chronology 352 Index 360 "In the early part of the twentieth century, as Europe began its descent into the First World War, the Ottoman world - once the largest Empire in the Middle East - began to experience a revolution which would culminate in the new, secular Turkish state. Alongside this, in 1915, as part of an increasing nationalism, it enacted a genocide against its Armenian citizens. In this new study, Hans-Lukas Kieser marshals a dazzling array of scholars to re-evaluate the approach and legacy of the Young Turks - whose eradication of the Armenians from Asia Minor would have far-reaching consequences. Kieser argues that genocide led to today's crisis-ridden Middle East and set in place a rigid state system whose effects are still felt in Turkey today. Featuring new and groundbreaking work on the role of bureaucracy, the actors outside of Istanbul and re-centreing Armenian agency in the genocide, The End of the Ottomans is a vital new study of the Ottoman world, the Armenian Genocide and of the Middle East."--Bloomsbury Publishing Edited By Hans-lukas Kieser, Margaret Lavinia Anderson, Seyhan Bayraktar And Thomas Schmutz. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.