Presenter: Khatchig Mouradian (Columbia University)
Topic: “Arrest, Detention, and Deportation: The Police as Instrument of Genocide in Ottoman Aleppo, 1915-1916”—chapter of an upcoming book on the Armenian Genocide
Respondent: Debórah Dwork (CUNY Graduate Center)
Abstract
This paper examines the arrests of Armenian deportees in Aleppo during World War I and their re-deportation to concentration camps in Syria. In multiple waves, Ottoman police carried out door-to-door searches and arrested Armenian deportees who had initially survived the deportations and found refuge in the city, concentrating them in detention facilities such as the Karlık transit camp. From there, deportees were dispatched under guard in the direction of Ras ul-Ain and Deir ez-Zor. Thus, the police became a central instrument of genocide, tasked with identifying, apprehending, and channeling survivors into the infrastructure of annihilation. The paper draws on new archival material and survivor diaries to reconstruct the mechanisms of arrest, detention, and re-deportation, with particular attention to the role of the police. It engages with the unpublished diaries of Sarkis Atamian, which provide detailed daily accounts from Aleppo. Well-connected with key actors in Aleppo, Atamian was able to work as a post office clerk before being forced into hiding. Ultimately, he was arrested and sent to Karlık. His testimony offers an intimate perspective on both the precarious possibilities of survival in Aleppo and the inexorable pull of the deportation machinery. By bringing such sources into dialogue, the chapter highlights how the police were not peripheral actors but key agents in the genocide, bridging the gap between temporary refuge and extermination in Ras ul-Ain and Deir ez-Zor.
About the International, Global, and Transnational History Workshop
We are thrilled to announce that the International, Global, and Transnational History Workshop will be supported by ISERP, along with Professors Mark Mazower, Adam Tooze, and Matthew Connelly.
This newly designed workshop builds on its earlier version (International History Workshop) but aims to expand its scope - geographically, chronologically, and methodologically. A key new feature is the inclusion of a respondent for each guest speaker, fostering deeper engagement with the presented work.
Our goal is to bring together a diverse group of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty members interested in comparative, transnational, global, and international subjects. The workshop will meet weekly on Wednesdays, from 6:00–7:30pm, in Fayerweather Hall, Room 413 unless otherwise specified, and will serve as a forum for discussing work-in-progress.
We hope you will find this schedule as engaging as we do and that many of you will join us this semester! To receive the paper (which will be distributed approximately a week in advance), please RSVP using this link. Only registered participants will receive the papers.
Fall Semester Schedule
Below are the upcoming events. The full schedule can be found on our Workshops Page.
October 1
Presenter: Yangyou Fang (Princeton University)
Topic: “Writing to the King: Transculturation and Anti-Colonial Resistance in the Spanish Philippines”—article
Respondent: Adrian De Leon (NYU)
October 8
Presenter: Madeleine Dungy (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
Topic: “Managing Migrant Pensions: National Welfare and Multilateral Order from the International Labour Organization to the European Economic Community”—chapter of an upcoming book
Respondent: Sandrine Kott (University of Geneva & NYU)
October 15
Presenter: Ana Antić (University of Copenhagen)
Topic: “Measuring Emotions: Schizophrenia, Family, and Society Across Cultural Boundaries”—chapter of an upcoming book
Respondent: Dagmar Herzog (CUNY Graduate Center)
October 22 (Fay. Rm. 513)
Presenter: Katharina Kreuder-Sonnen (University of Cologne)
Topic: "African management knowledge: Contesting marginality in postcolonial Nigeria"
Respondent: TBD
October 29 (Fay. Rm. 513)
Presenter: Fabrice Bensimon (Sorbonne Université)
Topic: “Reading Aloud in the Workshop. Collective Reading Among Workers in Britain, France, and Beyond, 1780s-1870s”
Respondent: James Stafford (Columbia University)
November 5
Presenter: Diego Javier Luis (Johns Hopkins University)
Topic: “Rethinking Colonial Categories: Linking Manila to the Black Pacific”
Respondent: Frank Guridy (Columbia University)
November 12
Presenter: Peter Zhang (University of British Columbia)
Topic: “Remains of the Ming: 17th-Century Chinese Diaspora in Japan and Korea and Transnational Discourses on National Identities in Early Modern East Asia”—dissertation chapter
Respondent: TBD
November 19
Presenter: Mary Elise Sarotte (Johns Hopkins University)
Topic: “The Post-Cold War Era as History”
Respondent: Adam Tooze (Columbia University)
December 3
Presenter: Giorgos Giannakopoulos (City University London)
Topic: “Ιnternational Interventions in Greece in the Shadow of the Crimean War”
Respondent: Mark Mazower (Columbia University)
December 10
Presenter: Yoram Gorlizki (University of Manchester)
Topic: “Ideas and Institutions in Soviet Legal History”—chapter of an upcoming book
Respondent: Yana Skorobogatov (Columbia University)
