‘Van Vaspurakan Armenians: From Renaissance to Resistance and Genocide’

Dr. Yektan Türkyılmaz will give a presentation on “Van Vaspurakan Armenians: From Renaissance to Resistance and Genocide” at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 6, in the University Business Center, Alice Peters Auditorium, Room 191 on the Fresno State campus. The presentation is part of the Spring Lecture Series of the Armenian Studies Program.

Dr. Türkyılmaz was appointed the 14th Henry S. Khanzadian Kazan Visiting Professor in Armenian Studies for the spring 2018 semester. Tuesday’s lecture is the first of three he will present during his time at Fresno State.

A welcoming hors d’oeuvres reception from 6:30-7:30 p.m.in the University Business Center Gallery will precede the lecture.

Through a brief overview of the turbulent 19th and early 20th centuries of Van/Vaspurakan Armenians (Armenians from the historic region of Van), this lecture will underscore the ways in which studying this particular location challenges the conventional understandings regarding Armenian modernization, inter- and intra-communal relations in the late Ottoman period and, particularly the Genocide. It will also try to suggest potential ways of opening up new horizons in rewriting the story of Van in various contexts.

The 19th and early 20th centuries indisputably marked the most crucial span of time for Van/Vaspurakan Armenians. The period witnessed rapid economic growth, increased social diversification and mobilization, and cultural burgeoning. Yet, it was also a time when the most brutal massacres, systematic persecution and finally the catastrophic total destruction of social life in the area took place.  

Dr. Türkyılmaz received his Ph.D. from the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. He taught courses at the University of Cyprus, Sabancı, Bilgi and Duke Universities addressing the debates around the notions of collective violence, memory making and reconciliation.

Türkyılmaz is working on his book manuscript based on his dissertation, “Rethinking Genocide: Violence and Victimhood in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1915,” which concerns the conflict in Eastern Anatolia in the early 20th century.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Free parking is available in Fresno State Lots P5 and P6, near the University Business Center, Fresno State. A parking code, 273825, must be used at a kiosk to receive the free permit.

INFO: Armenian Studies Program at 559.278.2669 or visit www.fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.