UCLA completes archive on auctioned stolen Armenian properties
LOS ANGELES — The Armenian Genocide Research Program (AGRP) within The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA is pleased to announce the completion of a groundbreaking digital archive documenting the fate of Armenian properties confiscated during and after the Armenian Genocide. The archive, “The Auctioning of Stolen Armenian Properties: Emval-i Metruke,” is available on the AGRP’s website.
Drawing on a rare collection of newspaper notices from the 1920s and 1930s, the study examines how these so-called “Abandoned Properties”, referred to as Emval-i Metruke, were publicly auctioned, with announcements published in local newspapers across 34 cities and towns in the early decades of the Turkish Republic. The archive illuminates both the historical context of these “Abandoned Properties” and the now-completed effort to digitally archive and translate these records from Ottoman Turkish into modern Turkish and English.
Independent researcher Sait Çetinoğlu compiled these invaluable materials over many years, in addition to contributing an extensive introductory study on the mechanisms of property confiscation. With the support of the AGRP, this entire archive has now been digitized, translated and made fully searchable for the first time. All texts are available in both Turkish and English, with translations prepared by researcher Attila Tuygan and AGRP Program Coordinator Nanor Hartounian.
This research sheds light on the systematic expropriation and redistribution of Armenian wealth — an essential and parallel dimension of the genocide. It also confronts the archival challenges of recovering these fragmented records and invites collaboration from those who may have access to additional material.
To learn more and access the archive, please visit the AGRP’s website.
For any comments, questions or suggestions regarding this project, contact AGRP Program Coordinator Nanor Hartounian at nhartounian@international.ucla.edu.
