Historian Dr. Dikran Kaligian will kick-off the 2010 NAASR lecture series with a lecture entitled “The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Under Ottoman Rule, 1908-14,” on Thurs., Jan. 21 at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center in Belmont, Mass.
In his 2008 book Armenian Organization and Ideology Under Ottoman Rule, 1908-1914 (Transaction), Kaligian provided a comprehensive picture of Armeno-Turkish relations for the brief period of Ottoman Constitutional rule between 1908 and 1914. Drawing on internal documents of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) and existing research on the last years of the empire, as well as the archives of the British, American, and German diplomatic corps, he set out to resolve many of the conflicting conclusions in the current historiography—including the most central issue, ARF relations with the Turkish Committee of Union and Progress (CUP).
Kaligian analyzes an ARF torn between maintaining relations with a CUP that had failed to implement promised reforms and was doing little to prevent increasing attacks on the Armenian population, or breaking off relations and thus ending any realistic chance for the constitutional system to succeed. The decisive issue was the failure of land restitution and reform.
Kaligian’s study, the first of its kind, seeks to set the record straight in terms of understanding Armeno-Turkish relations during this short but pivotal period. He shows that the party’s internal deliberations support the conclusion that it did remain loyal until the failure of reform and contradicts the view that the party’s only aim was to incite a rebellion against Ottoman rule.
Armenian Organization and Ideology Under Ottoman Rule, 1908-1914 will be on sale and available for signing by the author.
Admission to the event is free (donations appreciated). The NAASR Center is located on 395 Concord Ave. in Belmont, opposite the First Armenian Church and next to the U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available around the building and in adjacent areas. The lecture will begin promptly at 8 p.m.
For more information about the lecture, call (617) 489-1610 or email hq@naasr.org.
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