GOMIDAS INSTITUTE OFFER TO HISTORIANS IN TURKEY:

On 16 March 2006 Ara Sarafian participated at a symposium in Istanbul University where he presented a paper on the Armenian Genocide. Following his paper, Sarafian was asked by the head of the Turkish Historical Society, Yusuf Halaçoğlu, for cooperation on joint projects concerning the events of 1915, to which Sarafian agreed.

In a recent interview with the Turkish journal Nokta (February 2007), Sarafian was asked whether there had been any cooperative work underway with Halaçoğlu. He answered that nothing had been forthcoming but that did not rule out future projects. He then voiced a possible joint project with historians working in Turkey. His offer was made in earnest and the following is a record from his notes.

"I have a very basic research proposal. Let's take a case study. The Turkish official thesis maintains that the deportations of 1915 were an orderly affair and all relevant records on those deportations can still be found in Ottoman archives in Turkey. According to the formal administration of deportations, there should be lists of all deportees, village by village, person by person, showing when people were deported, where they were sent, and how they were resettled. There should be records of their original properties and how they were compensated at their places of exile.

"I, for my part, propose to present a different set of records which, in my opinion, reflect why I believe that Armenians in this region were not simply deported but subjected to a policy of abuse and massacre. Again, what are the strengths and limitations of these materials? And how can we assess these two sets of information? How far do they agree or disagree with each other?

"The reason I ask to use Harput as a case study is because we have a lot of information outside of Turkey on this region, and the local history of this area was not overly complicated by major wartime disruption or Russian occupation as in the case of Erzerum or Van. A Harput case study should be a relatively straightforward exercise, which we would undertake in an open and scholarly manner.

"If we can get such a project underway, perhaps we can invite other historians to cooperate, and then expand these case studies to other regions."

If Sarafian's offer to Halaçoğlu and other historians in Turkey gets underway, it will offer the prospect of answering some very important questions relating to the events of 1915. It will also open the possibility of further cooperation between a wider network of scholars working on the Armenian issue. The importance of such an initiative cannot be overstated, but its success will also depend on the support it receives from other scholars, individuals, and public bodies. If you would like to support this initiative through the Gomidas Institute, please contact us at info@gomidas.org