Rethinking Genocide: Violence and Victimhood in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1915
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Rethinking Genocide: Violence and Victimhood in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1915 by Yektan Turkyilmaz Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Orin Starn, Supervisor ___________________________ Baker, Lee ___________________________ Ewing, Katherine P. ___________________________ Horowitz, Donald L. ___________________________ Kurzman, Charles Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2011 i v ABSTRACT Rethinking Genocide: Violence and Victimhood in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1915 by Yektan Turkyilmaz Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Orin Starn, Supervisor ___________________________ Baker, Lee ___________________________ Ewing, Katherine P. ___________________________ Horowitz, Donald L. ___________________________ Kurzman, Charles An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2011 Copyright by Yektan Turkyilmaz 2011 Abstract This dissertation examines the conflict in Eastern Anatolia in the early 20th century and the memory politics around it. It shows how discourses of victimhood have been engines of grievance that power the politics of fear, hatred and competing, exclusionary claims to statehood and territory by Turks, Armenians, and Kurds. Grounded in extensive archival research in American, British, Turkish, and Armenian historical repositories, I trace how discourses of communal victimhood were generated around the traumatic ordeals in the two decades that preceded the Armenian genocide of 1915-6, carried out by the Young Turk government. The dissertation pays special attention to the nature of political tension and debate among Armenians on the eve of the genocide as well as rethinking the events and later interpretations of the iconic Armenian uprising in the Ottoman city of Van in 1915. The analysis here goes beyond deterministic, escalationist and teleological perspectives on the antecedents of the Armenian genocide; instead, it highlights political agency and enabling structures of the war, offering a new perspective on the tragic violence of Eastern Anatolia in the early 20th century. iv To my parents Gülsüm and Ali Cavit v Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iviii 1 Introduction: Nations of Victims ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Dissertation Overview ..................................................................................................... 10 2. On the Eve of Genocide: The Forgotten Peace in Eastern Anatolia, June 1913 -- July 1914 ............................................................................................................................................... 41 2.1 Teleologies of Genocide .................................................................................................. 41 2.2 The Eastern Anatolian Question in the Post-Balkan Wars Period ............................ 45 2.2.1 The Eastern Anatolian Reform Debates ................................................................ 54 2.2.2 The New Face of the Kurdish Question ................................................................ 69 2.3 Elite Competition and Compromise in the Face of Anxious Uncertainty ............... 77 2.3.1 Mystery in Van: The Murders Cases of Dentist Melkon and Musa Bey .......... 81 2.3.2 Rites of Ottomanism: Patriarch Zaven’s Trip to Istanbul ................................. 106 2.4 Concluding Remarks ..................................................................................................... 113 3. A Dilemma from Hell: Ottoman-Armenian Political Elite and World War I, August- November 1914 .......................................................................................................................... 117 3.1 A Parlor Game in Istanbul: Only One Will Win! ....................................................... 118 3.2 War and Genocide ......................................................................................................... 122 3.3 A Revolution within the Revolution: Re-Making the Ottoman-Armenian Political Representation, 1908-14 ........................................................................................................... 133 3.3.1 The Political Demise of the Patriarchate ............................................................. 134 3.3.2 Empowered by Proxy: The ARF’s Unstoppable Rise ....................................... 138 3.3.3 The Panorama of Ottoman-Armenian Political Organizations on the Eve of the World War ........................................................................................................................... 155 3.4 CUP-ARF Talks in Erzurum: ‘Old Friends’ before the Hazy Horizons ................. 157 vi 3.5 The ARF’s Great Dilemma in Istanbul and the French Factor ................................. 167 4. Impatient Dreams and Banal Nightmares: Making ARF War Strategy in Tiflis, August- November 1914 .......................................................................................................................... 178 4.1 Russian Roulette in Tiflis .............................................................................................. 178 4.2 The Mshak Circle............................................................................................................. 186 4.3 The Horizon Circle and the ARF’s War Games ............................................................ 205 4.3.1 The ARF’s Encounters with Pessimism on the Road to the Apocalypse: Discredited ‚Cowards‛, and Banalized Victims .................................................................. 238 5. When Victims Become Rulers: Armenian Regional Governement in Van (May – August 1915) .............................................................................................................................. 267 5.1 Why Van? ............................................................................................................................. 273 5.2 The Great Talan of Van 283 5.3 Aram’s Governement and its Malcontents .................................................................... 288 5.4 The Armenian Governorship and its Kurdish Question .......................................... 304 5.5 Concluding Remarks 323 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 328 References .................................................................................................................................. 344 Biography ................................................................................................................................... 356 vii Acknowledgements The research for this dissertation was made possible through the generous support of following institutions and organizations: the Social Science Research Council, Council for Library and Information Resources (with funding from the W. Andrew Mellon Foundation), the American Research Institute in Turkey and Duke University Graduate School. The writing of this dissertation was facilitated by financial support from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Duke University Graduate School, the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University, and Duke University Library. I am very grateful to them all. Without their support this dissertation would not have been possible. First and foremost, I am indebted to my dissertation advisor Orin Starn; I have been the beneficiary of his relentless support, encouragement, patience and friendship throughout my entire studies at Duke University’s Department of Cultural Anthropology. Orin Starn’s work and thinking are major inspirations behind my project. He should be given the most credit for this dissertation. I feel incredibly fortunate to have received the uninterrupted active support and contribution of my dissertation committee members. Charles Kurzman has been a wonderful mentor: He has constantly encouraged me to think more analytically and energized me toward finishing this step of my project. I am extremely grateful to him. Donald Horowitz has contributed greatly to the current work by deepening my conceptual and theoretical understanding of ethnic conflict, collective violence and viii reconciliation by raising extremely insightful and eye-opening questions. His input not only vastly influences the current work but also guides my future research and writing plans. I am very thankful to Katherine Ewing who has always, kindly but firmly, pointed out the gaps in my work, prompted me to contemplate more deeply the methodological aspects of my work and generously offered her extremely insightful suggestions. I cannot thank Lee Baker enough for the energy and enthusiasm he stimulated in the final stages of my studies. I feel exceptionally lucky to have a wonderful family and friends who have been exceptionally kind, supportive and generous. I am very appreciative