The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA presents "The End of Armenian Sivas: The Extermination of Deportees" by Robert Sukiasyan, Ph.D. Professor Ruben Safrastyan, Ph.D., of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia will provide discussant commentary followed by Q&A. This lecture is co-sponsored by the UCLA Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History, the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), and the Ararat-Eskijian Museum.

Monday, April 18, 2022
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Pacific Time)

Deportation and massacres were the principal methods of exterminating the Ottoman Armenians. In the case of Sivas province, which had one the largest Armenian populations in the empire, the vast majority of the deportees were killed on the way to the Syrian desert. The study of survivor memoirs sheds light on this process while at the same time describing the administration of deportation. The deportation stations had specific tasks such as killing community leaders, men in general, plundering and coordinating attacks against the deportees with the local Kurdish population. Gendarmes and the members of the so-called Special Organization (Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa) were in charge of atrocities. The deportation stations of Kötü Han and Hasançelebi will form the focus of the presentation.

 

Robert Sukiasyan, Ph.D. from Yerevan State University, is a researcher at the UNESCO Chair for the Prevention of Genocide and Other Atrocities. In his work, he focuses on genocidal deportations, particularly those carried out during the Armenian Genocide. Currently, he is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA and a fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Memory, oral history, cartography, and digital humanities are among his primary research interests. His ongoing project is a micro-level study of the 1915 Armenian genocide deportations of Sepastia/Sivas province, which aims to digitally map each deportation station and follow through the fate of each deportation caravan.

 

Full Member of Armenian National Academy of Sciences, Prof. Dr. Ruben Safrastyan is the Counselor of Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Armenian National Academy of Sciences and expert of Armenian National Academy of Sciences. His area of specialization includes Middle Eastern, Turkish and Genocide Studies. Prof. Safrastyan is founding editor of academic periodicals “The Turkic and Ottoman Studies” and “Contemporary Eurasia”. He is receiver of Humboldt (Germany), Fulbright (US), and International Policy (Hungary) senior fellowships.

Sponsor(s): The Promise Armenian Institute, Center for Near Eastern Studies, UCLA Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), Ararat-Eskijian Museum.