The Armenian Studies Program announced its latest book, “The Committee of Union and Progress: Founders, Ideology, and Structure,” Volume 13 in the Armenian Series of The Press at California State University, Fresno. A special virtual event to present and discuss the book will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 25 on Zoom.
The presentation will include contributors Dr. Hans-Lukas Kieser and Dr. Dikran Kaligian and editors Dr. Ümit Kurt, Ara Sarafian, and Professor Barlow Der Mugrdechian. The Society for Armenian Studies is a co-sponsor of the presentation.
“‘The Committee of Union and Progress’ presents a new approach to the study of this important period when the CUP came to power,” said Der Mugrdechian, general editor of the Armenian Series. “The book will provide scholars with new insights into the political party which ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1908 through the end of World War I. The party’s inner workings are key to understanding the decision that ultimately led to the Armenian Genocide.”
The volume includes a collection of articles that reflect on Ottoman Armenians and the Turkish nationalist movement of the Committee of Union and Progress before World War I and incorporates new insights on the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923. The book includes an “Introduction,” by Ümit Kurt and articles “The Unionist Regime: Ideology in Command,” by Raymond H. Kévorkian; “Ziya Gökalp, Duumvir,” by Hans-Lukas Kieser; “When Revolutionaries Must Govern: The Vicissitudes of ARF-CUP Relations,” by Dikran Kaligian; “The Post-Revolutionary Period in Aintab and the Curious Case of Necmeddin Bey,” by Ümit Kurt and “Homeland and Nation Revisited: A Discourse Analysis of the Memoirs of Young Turks,” by Duygu Coşkuntuna.
The chapters in the book were first presented at “The Committee of Union and Progress: Founders, Ideology, and Structure” conference hosted by the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State and organized by Der Mugrdechian and Kurt on Oct. 12–13, 2018. The papers have since been edited and appear in a single volume with a new historical introduction and illustrations.
Copies of the book are available from Abril Bookstore or the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research Bookstore. For more information or bulk orders, contact Der Mugrdechian at 559.278.2669. The Committee of Union and Progress: Founders, Ideology, and Structure; (9 inches x 6 inches, 176pp., $20.00, paper, ISBN: 978-0-912201-73-3). Volume 13 in the Armenian Series of The Press at California State University, Fresno. In English.
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 