Examines the Armenian land question in its transnational context
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Discusses land dispute cases from different provinces of the Ottoman Empire especially from the Ottoman East, namely Bitlis, Van, Mamuretülaziz, Erzurum, Sivas, and Diyarbakır, between 1850 and 1914
Examines the liberal and nationalist approaches to land and property rights and shows how the nationalist approach eventually prevailed
Explores the impact of mass violence on socioeconomic life and structures and the relationship between competition for resources, intercommunal conflict, and mass violence
Provides new insights for the history of the Ottoman Empire, especially in terms of population, land and citizenship policies
Situates the Armenian land question into its larger historical context by discussing it in the light of land policies worldwide
Armenians and Land Disputes in the Ottoman Empire traces the transformation of land disputes involving Armenians into the Armenian land question from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the First World War. Situating this event into its historical context marked by the rise of the central administrative state, encroachment of capitalism and the new territorial turn that changed the political significance of land ownership, this book argues that the Armenian land question was shaped by two conflicting trends: liberalisation and nationalisation of land.
The book also shows how mass violence transformed competitive struggles and socioeconomic life and structures on the one hand, and how these struggles strained intercommunal relations and blocked possibilities of normalisation on the other. Examining the actions and discourses of Armenian and Kurdish intellectuals, Muslim powerholders in the provinces, and Ottoman officials and the Istanbul elite – along with the institutions, local and national, that sustained these groups, it populates a large blank space in our existing picture of the late Ottoman Empire.
List of Illustrations Abbreviations, Acronyms and Non-English Terms Note on Transliteration Acknowledgement
Introduction: The Political and Economic Aspects of the Land Question
1. Law, Land and Politics: The Transformation of Ottoman Land Regime 2. Peasants versus Notables: The Emergence of the Armenian Land Question (1850-80) 3. Mass Violence and Mass Seizures (1880-1908) 4. Controlling Outcomes: The Hamidian Government and Land Disputes 5. Revolution, Resolution and Resistance (1908-12): The Land Question under the Young Turks 6. The Reforms and the Land Question after the Outbreak of the Balkan Wars 7. The Land Question on the Eve of the First World War
Conclusion: The Armenian Genocide and the Land Question
This groundbreaking work analyses the genealogy of the Armenian land question from the second half of the 19th century to the eve of World War. Mehmet Polatel has made a monumental contribution from both empirical and theoretical perspectives to the study of the agrarian question in the Ottoman Empire and beyond.
With meticulous research, deep archival dives and acute theoretical insights, Mehmet Polatel restores the lost history of the dispossession of the lands of Ottoman Armenians through misuse of the law and deployment of violence. Polatel brilliantly tells the tragic tale of nation formation as a process by an imperial government aided by local officials and ordinary people. With graphic examples, precision in his analysis and a deep humanistic sensibility, he reveals how ideology, greed and the search for security lead to horrific crimes against humanity.
The work challenges readers to reconsider familiar narratives of 1915, placing material and territorial stakes at the center of its analytical frame and connecting them to the broader questions of territoriality and nationalism.
Mehmet Polatel is the academy coordinator for the Minority Rights Academy Project at the Hrant Dink Foundation based in Istanbul. He received his Ph.D. degree from Bogazici University in Istanbul and he won the Distinguished Dissertation Award of the Society for Armenian Studies. Prior to receiving his Ph.D., he earned an MA in Comparative Studies in History and Society from Koç University, Istanbul. After receiving his Ph.D., he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in Armenian Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a junior postdoctoral fellowship from the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research. His main research interests include state-society relations, minority rights, property politics, cultural heritage, Armenian Genocide, and dispossession of Armenians. He co-authored a book with Uğur Ü. Üngör entitled Confiscation and Destruction: Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Properties (Bloomsbury, 2011) and published several articles and book chapters on the massacres of 1894-7, land question, and the Armenian Genocide.
