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Thesis Sarah Moehr 40 THE ELIMINATION OF ARMENIANS AND GREEKS AS PART OF TURKISH NATION BUILDING by Sarah Miriam Moehr submitted to the Graduate School of Turkish Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Turkish Studies Sabancı University October 2011 [APPROVAL/SUBMĐSSĐONS PAGE] ii © Sarah Miriam Moehr 2011 All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT THE ELIMINATION OF ARMENIANS AND GREEKS AS PART OF TURKISH NATION BUILDING Sarah Miriam Moehr Turkish Studies, M.A. Thesis, 2011 Asst. Prof. Dr. Banu Karaca Keywords : Armenians, minorities, national economy, nation building, Turkification Like many other instances of nation building, Turkish nation building was a violent process. However, accounts of it usually focus on its constructive side or deal only with aspects of its destructive side. This thesis analyzes secondary texts concerned with anti-minority policies and acts implemented and carried out with a view to nation building in Turkey in the period from the 1890s to the 1960s. It concentrates on how two minority populations, Armenians and Greeks, were affected by the two main goals of Turkish nation building: the homogenization of the population and the ‘nationalization’ of the economy. It shows that the expropriation, expulsion, killing and assimilation of Armenians and Greeks in Ottoman and Republican times were important factors in making the Turkish nation. It also shows how i) the removal of Armenians and Greeks from Turkish territory and ii) the disappearance of most of the former Armenian-Greek bourgeoisie, the appropriation of its property by the Turkish state and its Muslim citizens and the cooptation iv of the know-how of the remaining minority businessmen contributed to the formation of the so-called national bourgeoisie. This process can also be related to the accumulation of Muslim-Turkish capital and to the homogenization of the population in Turkey in the early Republican era. Though the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and Kemalist nation builders largely succeeded in homogenizing the population and in 'Turkifying' the economy, their actions seem to have had unintended consequences that negatively impacted the development of Turkish civil society, class formation, education and academia, living standards, industrialization, and the project of getting on a par with Europe. v ÖZET TÜRK ULUS DEVLET OLUŞUMU SÜRECĐNDE ERMENĐ VE RUM AZINLIKLARIN TASVĐYESĐ Sarah Miriam Moehr Türkiye Çalışmaları Yüksek Lisans Programı, 2011 Yrd. Doç. Doc. Banu Karaca Anahtar Kelimeleri: azınlıklar, Ermeniler, milli iktisat, Türkleştirme, ulus devlet oluşumu Türk ulus devletinin oluşumu başka bir çok ulus devlet inşası örneğinde de görülmüş olduğu gibi şiddet içeren bir süreçtir. Buna rağmen, bu sürecin tetkikinde bu prosenin olumlu taraflarına odaklanılmış ve menfi neticeleri incelememiştir. Bu tez 1890 ile 1960 yılları arasındaki dönemdeki azınlıklara karşı politikaları ve yasaları inceleyen kaynakları inceleyen çalışmadır. Özellikle Ermeni ve Rum azınlıkların Türk ulus devlet oluşumunun iki ana hedefinden olan nufüsün homojenleştirilmesi ve ekonominin ‘ulusallaştılıması’ndan ne şekilde etkilendikleri odak alınacaktır. Bu tez Ermeniler ve Rumların istamlak, ihraç, katl ve assimilasyonunun Osmanlı ve Cumhuriyet dönemlerindeki Türkleştirme politikası çerçevesinde oynadığı önemli rolu gösterecektir. Ele alınacak iki ana mesele i) Ermeni ve Rumların Türk topraklarından ihracı, ve ii) Ermeni-Rum burjuvasinin büyük oranda yokedilişi, daha evvel bu gruba ait olan mal ve varlığın Türk Devleti ve Müslüman vatandaşları tarafından tahsisi ve Ermeni-Rum burjuvasından geri kalanların bilgi ve tecrübesinden yararlanılışının sözde ulusal vi burjuvasının oluşumunundaki oynadığı roldur. Bu anlatım aynı zamanda erken Cumhuriyet dönemindeki Müslüman-Türk sermayasinin oluşum ve birikimi ve nüfusun homojenleştirilmesi bağlamında da uygulanabilir. Jön Türk ve Kemalist ulus devlet kurucuları nufüsün homojenleştirlimesi ve ekonominin Türkleştirilmesinde başarılı olmuş olsalar dahi, bu politikanın sonucu olarak Türk sivil toplumunun teşkili, sosyal sınıf oluşumu ve eğitim alanlarında olduğu gibi "muasır medeniyetlere ulaşma" projesinde de menfi gelişmeler meydana gelmiştir. vii To my parents, my sister and Rabeea’ viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply indebted to Prof. Banu Karaca who, based on her profound knowledge of minority matters in Turkey, guided and supported my thesis project with dedication from the first week. She read through drafts at all stages of completion, gave nuanced feedback and showed enduring patience. I would also like to thank Prof. Halil Berktay for sharing his enormous library and knowledge with me and for sitting through long question-answer sessions. I am indebted to Prof. Fikret Adanır for clarifying details and pointing out perspectives I had previously overlooked. I would also like to express my gratitude to Prof. Ronald G. Suny for his spontaneous and most valuable help with the theoretical chapter. Prof. Cengiz Şişman provided me with much-needed information on the Dönme. I would like to thank them all. As for help with finding books and accessing articles, I would like to thank the library staff of Sabancı University and especially Mr. Mehmet Manyas and Ms. Züleyha Koçgar for their support in finding the books I needed and for providing me with articles I would otherwise not have been able to access. I owe my friends Alex Balistreri and Tanya Lawrence great thanks for helping me with material in Turkish, for translating the abstract and for reading and commenting on parts of this thesis. My friend Cat Bobbitt has been invaluable in taking care of the printing and binding of this thesis. I would also like to thank my parents, Angelika and Malte Moehr, who proofread parts of this thesis and helped me format it. Together with my sister Laura, they cheered me up countless times. I am extremely grateful to my friends in Istanbul who raised my spirits when I felt low and who supported me in so many ways. Last but not least, I would like to thank Sabancı University for having awarded me a teaching assistantship that allowed me to study here. I also greatly appreciate Sabancı’s friendly environment and its Statement of Academic Freedom which permitted me to write on a controversial topic. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION.………………………………………………………………………..1 The Integrative Approach…………………………………………………………………...2 Organization of This Thesis…………………………………………………………………4 Chapter Contents………………………………………………………………………...…..6 Nation Building…………………………………………………………………………...…7 Time Period……………………………………………………………………………….…8 Armenians and Greeks……………………………………………………….…………….11 Significance………………………………………………………………………..……….13 Material, Omissions, Limits and Opportunities…………………………………...……… 14 Terminology………………………………………………………………………………..17 2. THEORIES OF CAPITAL ACCUMULATION AND NATIONALISM……...……….19 Capital Accumulation………………………………………………………………...…… 20 Theories of Nationalism and the Relationship of Nationalism and Capitalism……………22 Ideal Types of Empire and Nation…………………………………………………………24 The National Idea and Nation Building……………………………………………………25 How Nation Building Proceeds and Why it is often Violent………………………………28 Extreme Violence in Advanced Stages of Nation Building………………………..………30 Actors Engaged in the Destructive Aspects of Nation Building…………………….…......31 Alternatives to Turkish Nation Building and Alternative Paths of Turkish Nation Building………………………………………..………………………………...…………33 3. THE TREATMENT OF MINORITIES DURING OTTOMAN-TURKISH TIMES AS PART OF NATION BUILDING ………………………………………………………….36 Hamidiyan Phase……………………………………………………………………...……37 CUP Nation Building - Phase I: 1908-1913………………………………………….…… 39 CUP Nation Building - Phase II: 1913-1918………………………………………………40 Settlement Policy………………………………………………………….……… 42 Assyrian Genocide…………………………………………………………………44 Elimination of Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Heritage…………..………………46 x Interim Period: Istanbul Government (1918-1923) and Provisional Government (1920-1923)………………………………………………………………...………………47 Kemalist Nation Building 1923-1950……………………………………………...………48 Law on the Unification of Education 1924………………………………..……….50 Suppression of the Şeyh Sait Revolt 1925…………………………………..……. 51 ‘Reform Council of the East’ 1925……………………………………………...…53 Law on Settlement 1926……………………………………………………………54 Citizen Speak Turkish Campaign 1928………………………………………….…55 Law on Family Names 1934……………………………………………………….57 Thrakia Pogrom Against Jews 1934…………………………………………….…58 Law on Settlement 1934……………………………………………………..……..60 Suppression of the Dersim Revolt 1936-38………………………………………. 62 Denaturalization of Turkish Jews 1940-45……………………………………..… 63 Labor Battalions 1941-1942………………………………………………..………65 The 1950s and 1960s………………………………………………………...……..66 Renaming in the 1950s………………………………………………………..……66 Renaming in the 1970s…………………………………………………..…………67 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….…………68 4. HOMOGENIZING THE NATION IN PRE-REPUBLICAN TIMES….………………70 Denaturalization, Flight and Expulsion from Anatolia and Prevention from Returning There…………………………………………………………………………….…………70 Killings………………………………………………………………………............……. 77 Assimilation………………………………………………………………….........……….82 Institutional Assimilation……………………………………………..........………83 Non-Institutional Assimilation………………………………………....…………..84 Non-Assimilation…………………………………………………….…………….86 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...………..86 5. ISLAMIFYING AND NATIONALIZING THE ECONOMY IN PRE-REPUBLICAN TIMES……………………………………………………………………………...………88 Issue of Legality……………………………………………………………………………89
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