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Varak Ketsemanian

Varak Ketsemanian

Varak Ketsemanian is a graduate of the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the University of Chicago’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (2014-2016). His master’s thesis titled “Communities in Conflict: the Hunchakian Revolutionary Party 1890-1894” examines the socio-economic role of violence in shaping inter-communal and ethnic relations by doing a local history of the Armenian Revolutionary Movement in the Ottoman Empire. Ketsemanian’s work tackles problems such as the development and polarization of mainstream historiographies, inter-communal stratifications, nationalism, and the relationship of the Ottoman State with some of its Anatolian provinces. He is currently completing a PhD at Princeton University, where his doctoral dissertation will focus on the social history of the National Constitution of Ottoman Armenians in 1863, and the communal dynamics/mechanisms that it created on imperial, communal, and provincial levels. Ketsemanian’s research relates to the development of different forms of nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries, revolutionary violence, and constitutional movements.

25 Comments

  1. It is quite refreshing to see an intellectual of Turkish origin rise up and fearlessly discuss Armenian genocide. I applaud his zeal for truth and all the effort he is making to further his research.

  2. I add my voice to Artur’s commendation.
    considering that the stealing and then distributing and selling of the movable and immovable assets of the “deported” Armenians was done legally and within the frame of the law, then there should be records of such actions. Are there such documents? If yes, do the documents present the names of the real ex-owners?

  3. “One should keep in mind the fact that the participation of local people is a necessary condition to ensure the effectiveness of genocidal policies. Planned extermination of all members of a given category of people is impossible without the involvement of their neighbors—the only ones who know who is who in a local community.”
    I think this is the first time that I have heard anyone so clearly articulate this. The Kurds in the surrounding villages who ate lavash and dolma and pilaf at my grandmother’s table, the young boys who played games on the mountains with my father, their mothers who shared the clear water from our springs, were the ones who came into our village and murdered my family. They took the clothes off my father’s grandfather before they killed him. They removed the jacket off my father’s five year old brother and then killed him. Even before my family was forced out of their village, my grandmother’s house had been stripped of everything in it by those same neighbors. My father’s grandmother was tied to the pillar in her own empty house and beaten, until she was left for dead, by neighbors demanding to know where her money was buried. They wasted no time collecting their reward for assisting in the annihilation of the Armenians. The bread was probably still in the tonir when they came in and took it.
    Thanks for publishing this article.

  4. I have seen similar laws of abandonment being utilized in Israel against Palestinians who were ruled to have abandoned their properties when they fled for safer ground during the Six Day War. In the case I witnessed, the confiscation happened years later (1991) after the Palestinian family had long since returned to their home in Jerusalem, only to be forcibly removed by police to allow a Jewish settler family to move in. The fault lies with the government, not the settler, for misuse of power. Had I not known our history, I would have thought such actions would never be allowed in a civilized society, but Armenians know better. The cycle of cruelty keeps going. We owe it to humanity to pursue justice and we owe our gratitude to Umit Kurt and Taner Akcam for their scholarship which strengthens our case.

  5. Well time to give it back-my family wants it and many of us do-why wait til their regime and empire die a slow death-let them pay up now and maybe we can let them live -unlike what they did to us- they will not stand in their old law-we will prevail-Armenia is ours-

  6. This fascinating and yet horrifying research shows that there is still much to learn about the Armenian Genocide. Hats off to the young Turkish and Armenian scholars who are facing up to the past and making it available to us.

    • Dear Ambassador, Please enlighten us all why the US State Department and many Jewish organization fight justice for the Armenians and have pretty much since the genocide? There is way more to this then meets the eye. I believe i know why. But I would like honest answers. And a “Nato Ally” and “using their military base”, ironically one that is put on a piece of property confiscated from the very victims of the genocide, just doesn’t fly…

  7. Miram; the caravan my family was in was stopped en route and the kaymakam asked every woman, who appeared to be responsible for the family, what the name of her village was, how many men, how many women and children were in her clan, the occupation of each of the men in her extended family, the number of oxen, sheep, the “main purse” in the household. He asked how much gold they had and where it was hidden. When my grandmother said it had all been taken from them, he asked who had taken it. “Vay, vay, vay,” he said as he wrote it all down. I know exactly what my grandmother told him. I know the exact number of sheep and oxen and gold. I know exactly how much money the church treasurer divided between the women before he was murdered.
    So, yes,there was a list made as the caravan moved forward. What happened to those lists? Do they still exist? Or were they all destroyed?

  8. Tahlat Pasha said that he knew that he would die for the genocide and confiscation of lands that he set into motion and he did not regret what he had done. This was a man who made a deal with the devil. Or with his own inner sanctum of absolute Ottoman Turkish Power. Let us never forget.

  9. We should demand for all the confiscated lands be called crime scene and yellow taped…. even though it is disturbed and we should ask DNA samples of Armenians only, payed by turkey stored in a bank of a neutral country for future reference.I am sure they will find lots of matches.

  10. I am always amazed at Turkish intellectuals who pursue issues on the Genocide. It must take such a great deal of emotional strength to approach these difficult topics. Thank you Ümit.

  11. Baruyr, a corrupt mind finds a corrupt justification for corrupt actions. Much evil is/has been done in the name of patriotism, ideology and jihad.

  12. This excellent piece shows very clearly what Armenians have known and have been saying for years: that there exists a wealth of detailed information about how and why the genocide took place, and that the details of the aftermath are and have always been available to true scholars who are willing and open to finding, exposing and discussing them. The partisan hacks hired by successive Turkish governments, to promote their 100 year old lies and anti-Armenian agendas, are touted as ‘scholars’, but they clearly have only been studying and preparing specific propaganda as dictated by the state.
    One can only hope that a new generation will break through these barriers, expose the lies and their creators, and at the same time allow the unvarnished truth to prevail. This will serve many communities, Turkish, Armenian, Assyrian, Greek, Kurdish and may also serve to embarrass and erase the tiny group of artificial scholars who continue to tout the well-tarnished party line of the deep state.

  13. I would suggest that the strong genocidal implications of the abandoned property laws could have been sufficiently established without the somewhat jarring assertion that “whether the Armenians were physically annihilated or not is but a detail”. Both elements were essential to the genocide and should be seen as organically related rather than opposing them to each other as if they were distinct. I do agree with the significance of “the complete erasure of the traces of the Armenians from their ancient homeland” and the possibility that such erasure, aside from body counts, could be incorporated into the definition of genocide.

    • Diran, the language, the summary of your in-depth analysis greatly impress me.

      I claim no expertise in matters of law. Proper semantics to rightly convey the essence of law elude me, such as the insistence that the use of the word Genocide is a must to convey the legality of the horrid reality of the 1915 complete erasure of the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire and confiscating their properties and that using the term the survivors used – Medz Yeghern – is a meaningless utterance to lay a legal claim.

      You claim that–“possibility that such erasure (referring to property), aside from body counts, could be incorporated into the definition of genocide.” But could it be?

      As far as I am concerned the Convention on the 
Prevention and Punishment
 of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the U.N. Genera Assembly on December 9, 1948 pertains only to “body count”. Whether in a legal deliberation pertaining to a particular genocide the issue of the confiscation of property may be incorporated as well is for legal experts to comment. However, I am not sure if the definition of Genocide can be altered to add confiscation of the properties of the annihilated as well without a U.N. General Assembly agreeing to the change. It would be interesting if legal experts shed light on the matter.

  14. Great article .

    Armenians around the world should make these Turks and those who went against the order to massacre the christian population honorary Armenians .

  15. Umit’s interview supports that tseghasbanoutiun, the Armenian word for genocide and hence the western word itself, take a back seat and that Raffi Hovanissian remains more so vindicated when he stated that whether we call it genocide or not is tertiary. What actually took place, in Raffi’s coinage was the “Great Dispossession” of a way of life and of lives. The survivors could only sum up its horrid reality by calling it Medz Yeghern for the lack of better term in their Armenian lexicon.

  16. The 32 women and children in my father’s family were butchered in the death caravans of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1922.
    All the adult men in my mother’s family were butchered in the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1922.
    The murder of my family is called the Armenian Genocide.

  17. Pirouz, what you write is so haunting. I am not surprised that the memories of these events have survived so vividly thru multiple generations. The sad thing is, no matter what Turkey does now (reparations, land, etc) … none of this will make the pain go away. Why does it now matter to that poor 5 year old victim of an evil that today Turkey does X, Y, or Z? The evil done was done, and it will never be made to have not happened. I am not saying that you should not seek X, Z, or Z in recognition of the Genocide, to at least mitigate the wrong (although not to undo it). I am not a Turk, but since you guys often equate us Azeris with them anyways, here it is … I will go ahead and apologize to you personally. I am sorry for what was done to your family. I know this does not mean much or anything to you. But that is all I could do after reading your post.

    • @Karim: “since you guys often equate us Azeris”. It is YOU who equate yourselves with Turks. We didn’t come up with the slogan ONE NATION – TWO STATES. You did! Also, your goals are identical – the annihilation of Armenia. I can read what is written on Azeri wikipedia: all Armenian cities, villages and churches are really Azeri!!! This is what is written on Azeri wikipedia. This clearly shows your genocidal intentions towards us, doesn’t it?

  18. Karim,
    The memories of these events will, as you write, survive down through many generations. In my own case, I am of the first generation born after the genocide, and I know all too well how the effects of genocide are carried forward to subsequent generations. There has been considerable scholarly research in this area, but I have experienced it first hand.
    You are also correct in saying that “it will never be made to have not happened.” The murder of my father’s five year old brother, and also, his two year old brother, Hovhanes, or the rest of his entire clan, can never be made to not have happened.
    But you are wrong in saying that an apology “does not mean much or anything to you.” An apology is a beginning. It is an acknowledgment that evil occurred, and it must not be denied by the perpetrator. Let me tell you one way in which Kurds can go beyond mere words and show their regret.
    When we return as pilgrims to our villages, which are now occupied by the descendants of those who murdered our families, do not call the police. Do not tell us to leave. Do not threaten us with prison if we don’t leave. In what way do we harm you as we kneel in tearful prayer and meditation on the land our fathers tilled? What loss do you suffer as we fill little plastic bags and bottles with soil to scatter on far-away graves? Your dead are now buried in their soil. What harm comes to you as our hands caress the old stones of the now ruined houses our fathers built? To threaten us is to expose your fear and hatred.
    Kurds don’t have to like me or welcome me, when I journey thousands of miles just to walk the fields of my father’s village. But they could start by just letting me come in peace. You know what they say about actions being more powerful than words.

  19. Vahe, I very belatedly and accidentally found your comment on my comment just now, having lost track of this thread weeks ago. I will try to explain my thought. It is not legalistic or formal in any sense, but simply this: I was not referring to property, I was referring to something much larger, akin to what Raffi Hovhanissian meant. I mean, Armenians once constituted a nation in their homeland but were erased from it. My thought is that in a case when an entire nation is physically removed from its homeland and thrown to the winds, that should in some way be considered genocide aside from the specific numbers killed. Suddenly and violently uprooting a people from their homeland just because of who they are exposes them to death and unspeakable suffering eventually–even if you put them all on first class flights to parts unknown. In other words I am suggesting that genocide should be understood as nation killing. Where their was once a thriving people and culture there is now desolation. . .

  20. My mother and grandparents came from Aintab, my grandfather was Dr Yeghia Aroyan and he was recruited into the Turkish army, later became prisoner of war and was sent to India. My grandmother with three children made their way to Egypt where they settled. I was told he was a neighbour to an American Missionary Dr Shepherd in Aintab. As the oldest grandson, how can I visit and check out the old home?? to pass information to the next generation.

  21. Umit Kurt is a true intellectual who has made a major contribution by the simple, but difficult, task of searching for and communicating the truth of what constitutes a Genocide.

    My parents and my grandparents were direct victims of the Armenian Genocide.

    My generation did not experience the Genocide directly. My brother and I had the good fortune of being born in America. As a result, we could never feel what my parents and grandparents experienced. Our children and their children are further removed from the harsh and bitter realities of that dark period in our and their history.

    We are indebted to all who have the courage and tenacity to search for and communicate the truth about this period in our history. I am indebted to those who are not Armenians who reveal this truth because they bring an important credibility to this task.

    I am especially moved by reading Umit Kurt’s research because I wish to call the true meaning of Genocide to my children and their children. It is critically important that the sources of this research be objective and unbiased. Umit Kurt offers a powerful insight to how Genocide not only results in the death and suffering of the victims but it includes a comprehensive legal methodology and the complicity of many, but not by all, of the neighbors of our parents and grandparents to take their wealth and possessions and cause the complete eradication of an entire people from their historic homelands.

    Umit Kurt has made a major contribution in understanding the extent and full meaning of Genocide.

  22. extraordinarios todo ,las notas ,los comentarios de familiares de victimas del genocidio y por sobre todo la claridad de todo lo que se expone .Estoy seguro que los turcos ,al pasar 50 años del genocidio y viendonos a los armenios en general en Terapia Intensiva ,pensaron estos no vuelven mas ,ARCHIVESE .

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