1915: An International Conference on the Genocide of Assyrians/Arameans during the First World War

24-28 June 2015, Free University Berlin

Seminar für Semitistik und Arabistik, Fabeckstr. 23-25

Wednesday, June 24

Arrival and check-in at the Seminaris Campus Hotel

18:00 Opening Ceremony

20:00 Reception

Thursday, June 25

PANEL I THE STUDY OF SAYFO FROM A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

9:00-9:30 David Gaunt (Södertörn University, Stockholm) The Place of Sayfo in Genocide Research 9:30-10:00 Fatma Müge Göçek (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) Comparing the Denial of Violence Committed against the Armenians with that of the Assyrians/Arameans. 10-10:30 Hannibal Travis (Florida International University College of Law, USA) Genocidal Role Models: From Genghis Khan to Atatürk

10:30-11:00 ••• BREAK •••

11:00-11:30 Anahit Khosroeva (Institute of History, National Academy of Sciences, Armenia) The Significance of the Assyrian Genocide after a Century 11:30-12:00 Thea Halo (Author of Not even my Name, USA) The Targeting of Assyrians during the Christian Holocaust in Ottoman Turkey 12:00-12:30 Tessa Hofmann (FU Berlin, Osteuropa-Institut) The Ottoman Genocide of 1914-1918 against Aramaic Speaking Christians in comparative perspective

12:30-13:30 ••• LUNCH •••

PANEL II SOURCES & ARCHIVES

13:30-14:00 Joseph Yacoub (Catholic University of , ) 1915 Sayfo: In the Light of Comparative Sources 14:00-14:30 Fuat Dündar (TOBB-ETU, Ankara, Turkey) Ottoman Population Policy regarding Assyrians during the Great War 14:30-15:00 Michael Abdalla (Poznan University, Poland) The Term Sayfo from a Historical Perspective

15:00-15:30 ••• BREAK •••

15:30-16:00 Otto Jastrow (Tallinn University, Estonia) What Can Dialectology Contribute to Sayfo Studies? 16:00-16:30 Hannah Müller-Sommerfeld (Leipzig University) Assyrian Christians in Iraq, the League of Nations and international Christian advocacy (1920-1940) 16:30-17:00 Abdulmesih Bar Abraham (Yoken-bar-Yoken Foundation, Germany) Sayfo 1915 – How much did Germany know? 17:00-17:30 Habib Afram (Syriac League )

19:00 ••• DINNER •••

21:00 Viewing of the new documentary Seyfo 1915: The Assyrian Genocide (by Aziz Said)

Friday, June 26th

PANEL III LOCAL STUDIES

9:00-9:30 Florence Hellot-Bellier (CNRS, Paris) The Increasing Violence and the Resistance Of Assyrians in and Hakkari (1900- 1915) 9:30-10:00 Nicholas Al-Jeloo (University of Melbourne) A Clean Swipe: The Purging of Assyrians from Hakkari 10:00-10:30 Racho Donef (Independent researcher, Sydney) Assyrian Resistance during Sayfo

10:30-11:00 ••• BREAK •••

11:00-11:30 Efrem Yildiz (University of Salamanca, Spain) The Genocide and Its Repercussion in Some Villages of Botan 11:30-12:00 Benjamin Trigona-Harany (Independent researcher, Canada) A History of Adıyaman: Sayfo in a Syro-Ottoman Text 12:00-12:30 Ablahad Lahdo (Uppsala University) The Struggle of Ayn Ward: Elements Of Success And Treachery

12:30-13:30 ••• LUNCH •••

13:30-14:00 Ephrem Aboud Ishac (University of Graz, Austria) Sayfo 1915: The Case of Mansurieh Village

PANEL IV AFTERMATH: POLITICS, CULTURE, SOCIETY AND LITERATURE

14:00-14:30 Heleen Murre-van den Berg (University of Nijmegen) Writing the History of the Assyrians: Heroism and Persecution in Yaqu Bar Malek Ismail’s Assyrians in Two World Wars (Tehran 1964) 14:30-15:00 Fadi Dawood (Lakehead University, Canada) The Aftermath of a Genocide: Assyrians and the Ba'qubah Refugee Camp (1919-1923) 15:00-15:30 Mariam Gorgis & Riva Gewarges (University of Alberta, Canada) Unrecognized: The Exclusion of the Assyrian Identity in Modern Iraq

15:30-16:00 ••• BREAK •••

16:00-16:30 Erica C.D. Hunter (SOAS, University of London) A victim of the Seyfo: Addai Scher and his contribution to scholarship 16:30-17:00 Sabri Atman (Clark University and Seyfo Center) Assyrian Genocide from a Gender Perspective 17:00-17:30 Alda Benjamin (University of Maryland, Washington) Negotiating Gender Relations in the Aftermath of Sayfo and Simele

19:00 ••• DINNER •••

Saturday, June 27th

PANEL IV (Continued) 09:00-09:30 Sebastian Bednarowicz (Institute of Neophilology, Poland) Before and After Linguicide: A Linguistic Aspect of the Sayfo 09:30-10:00 Simon Birol (University of Bochum) The Experience of the Sayfo in the Syriac literature – a First Approach

PANEL V MEMORY

10:00-10:30 Noriko Sato (Pukyong National University, South Korea) The Memory of Sayfo and its Relation to the Identity of Contemporary Assyrian/Aramean Christians in

10:30-11:00 ••• BREAK •••

11:00-11:30 Tala Jarjour (University of Notre Dame, USA) Loss, Survival and the Historical Narrative of Chant 11:30-12:00 Tijmen C. Baarda (University of Leiden) The Poems of Ghattas Maqdisi Elyas and the Remembrance of a Region of the Past 12:00-12:30 Naures Atto (University of Cambridge) Singing the Sayfo in the Diaspora.

12:30-13:30 ••• LUNCH •••

13:30-14:00 Martin Tamcke (Göttingen University) The End of the Syrian Orphanage in Dilgusha (Urmia)

PANEL VI TRAUMA

14:00-14:30 Ciano Aydin (Delft University of Technology and University of Twente, Netherlands) Identity and Identification in the Light of (yet another) Genocide 14:30-15:00 Önver Cetrez (Swedish Research Institute and Uppsala University) The Psychological Heritage of Sayfo 15:00-15:30 Raid Gharib (Syriac Orthodox Church, Germany) Sayfo 1915, Sayfo 2015 – Collective Trauma or Pillar of Identity?

15:30-16:00 ••• BREAK •••

PANEL VII VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS

16:00-16:30 Ragip Zarakolu (Belge Publishing House, Turkey) Genocide and Jihadism: In the Past and Today 16:30-17:00 Jan Beth-Sawoce (Nsibin Publishing House) The Role of the Kurdish Tribes in the Sayfo of Turabdin 17:00-17:30 Gülçiçek Günel Tekin (Author, Turkey) Sayfo interviews with locals in Hakkari

19:00 ••• CLOSING DINNER •••

Sunday, June 28th

10:00-11:30 Memorial service for the victims of Sayfo 1915

Mor Ja qub, Syriac Orthodox Church,

Berlin: ʿPotsdamer Str. 94

*** End of the Conference ***