International Conference on the Armenian Genocide Under the Patronage of French President François Hollande – Syllabus

International Conference on the Armenian Genocide Under the Patronage of French President François Hollande – Syllabus –

The international conference organized by the International Scientific Council for the study of the Armenian Genocide (CSI) “Genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the Great War. 1915-2015: one hundred years of research “will be held in Paris from 25 to 28 March 2015 under the patronage of the President of the Republic, François Hollande.

Syllabus

Wednesday, March 25

Grand Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne, 76 rue des Ecoles, 75005 Paris

4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Official speeches and messages of support

Inaugural lecture by Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur, President of the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences and Yves Ternon, historian, member of the Scientific Council of the Holocaust Memorial, president of CSI

Thursday, March 26

Memorial of the Shoah, 17 rue Geoffroy The Asnier, 75004 Paris

10h-12h30 – First Panel: Space-time, the steps of the genocidal process

Chair: Catherine Nicault, historian, University of Reims. Discussant: Stephan Astourian, historian, UC Berkeley

• The legacy of Abdülhamid II by Janet Klein, Historian, University of Akron.
• The Ottoman opposition, the Committee of Union and Progress and the 1908 revolution Erdal Kaynar, historian, Polonsky Academy of the Van Leer Institute, EHESS.
• The “European Concert” and reforms in the eastern provinces, 1878-1914 by Claire Mouradian, historian, CNRS.
• The Organization for Special Sait Cetinoglu, historian, Free University of Ankara.
• The entrance of the Ottoman Empire in the war, 1914-1915 by Mustafa Aksakal, historian, Georgetown University.

12h30-13h30: lunch

13h30-15h – Second Panel: Perpetrators, Victims, Rescuers

Chair: Richard Hovannisian, historian, UCLA. Discussant: Vincent Duclert, historian, EHESS.

• The first phase of the Destruction: Deportations and Massacres (April-August 1015) by Raymond Kevorkian, historian, University of Paris VIII.
• The second phase of genocide KM-historian, Rutgers University.
• Forced conversions by Umit Kurt, historian, Sabancı University.

15h-15h15: Pause

15h15-16h20 – Third Panel -: Witnesses

Chair: Wolfgang Gust, journalist. Discussant: Ara Sarafian, historian, Gomidas Institute.

• European and American witnesses by Hans-Lukas Kieser, historian, University of Zurich.
• Armenian witnesses Amatuni Virabyan, historian, State Archives of Armenia.

16h20-16h30: pause

16h30-19h – Fourth Panel: The other Empire minorities

Chair: Gérard Chaliand, geostrategist. Discussant: Laurent-Olivier Mallet, historian, University of Montpellier.

• The Jews of the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth ^century by Georges Bensoussan, historian, the Holocaust Memorial.
• The complexity of the genocide of the Assyrian-Chaldeans by David Gaunt, a historian, Centre for Baltic and East European University of Soedertoern.
• The Ottoman Greeks by Sia Anagnostopoulou, historian, University of Athens.
• Kurdish-Yezidi-Armenians, many facets of a community in exile (s) by Estelle Amy of Bretèque, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, CNRS.

Friday, March 27

EHESS, 105 Boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris

10h-12h30 – Fifth Panel: Logic of war, economic, ideological

Chair: Joël Kotek, a political scientist, historian, University of Brussels. Discussant: Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, historian, EHESS.

• Ideological, demographic and economic logic of genocide by Hamit Bozarslan, political scientist, historian, EHESS.
• The logic of pre-genocidal massacres by Vincent Duclert, historian, EHESS.
• The world in turmoil: waves of refugees and massacres in the occupied northern Persia (1914-1918) by PeterHolquist, historian, University of Pennsylvania.
• The mechanisms of decision making of the Young Turk leadership (1913-1915) by Erik-Jan Zürcher, historian, University of Leiden.
• The confiscation of Armenian property during the genocide by Mehmet Polatel, historian, Koç University.

12h30-13h30: lunch

13h30-16h – Sixth Panel: International Relations and Criminal Law

Chair: Peter Mertens, lawyer, Sociology of Literature Centre, Free University of Brussels. Discussant: Vincent Nioré, lawyer and president of the Institute for Criminal Law

• The trials of Constantinople (1919-1920) by Mikaël Nichanian, historian, National Library of France.
• The breakdown of consensus. The Perinçek case, the Armenian genocide and international criminal law by Sevane Garibian, lawyer, Universities of Geneva and Neuchâtel.
• The status of Armenian stateless refugees and international action of the League of Nations and the International Labour Office by Dzovinar Kevonian, historian, Institute for Political Social Sciences, University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense
• Raphael Lemkin, the extermination of the Armenians and the invention of the word genocide by Annette Becker, historian, University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense
• Lemkin and the Armenian genocide, a legal play by Olivier Beauvallet, international judge.

16h-16h15: Pause

16h15-18h20 – Seventh Panel: historiography, a new research field

Chair: Michel Marian, philosopher, Institute of Political Studies in Paris. Discussant: Edhem Eldem, historian, Boğaziçi University.

• The historiography of the Armenian genocide, a new field of research by Gaïdz Minassian, journalist and political scientist, Institute of Political Studies in Paris.
• Reflections on Ottoman historiography (years 1960-1990) about the role of non-Muslims and Ottoman Armenians in commerce and the urban economy by Stephan Astourian, historian, University of Berkeley.
• Ottoman governors opposed to deportations and massacres of Armenians by Ayhan Aktar, historian, Bilgi University.
• The speech of Turkey on the genocide of Armenians by Jennifer Dixon, political scientist, Villanova University.

18h20-18h30: Pause

18h30-20h30 – Eighth Panel: Perspectives on clearing trails or the Armenian ghost

Chair: Patrick Donabedian, art historian, University of Aix-Marseille. Discussant: Antoine Spire, journalist, vice president of Lycra.

• The permanence of traces of the 1915 genocide in the Armenian memory; role of politics in their registration or erasure by Janine Altounian, essayist, translator, Freud specialist.
• Confiscation and destruction of property by Armenian Dickran Kouymjian, historian, California State University.
• After photograph by Pascaline Marre, photographer and Anouche Kunth, historian, CNRS.
• Aram Andonian, the Nubar library and the creation of a heritage in exile after the destruction of Ottoman Armenians by Boris Adjemian, historian, Library Nubar AGBU.

Saturday, March 28

National Library of France, Quai François Mauriac, 75013 Paris

10h-12h30 – Ninth Panel: Memory, transmission, history, negation

Chair: Henry Rousso, historian, CNRS. Discussant: Claude Mutafian historian.

• The sacrifice, witness and forgiveness: The Candidate Zareh Vorpouni by Marc Nichanian, professor of philosophy, Sabancı University.
• Gender, genocide survival. Islamized Armenians new working memory Ayşe Gül Altinay, anthropologist, Sabancı University.
• The teaching of genocide: European examples Alban Perrin, historian, the Holocaust Memorial, Institute of Political Studies in Bordeaux.
• The Founding Myths of Turkish denial by Büşra Ersanli, political scientist, University of Marmara.
• The memory of the genocide in Turkey Armenians by Hira Kaynar, historian, EHESS.

12h30-13h30: lunch

13h30-15h: Tenth Panel: Features & comparatismes, I

Chairman: Jean-Pierre Chrétien, historian, CNRS. Discussant: Meir Waintrater journalist.

• Genocidal thinking: a comparative perspective by Dominik Schaller, historian, University of Heidelberg.
• The genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks by the Ottomans by Roger Smith, historian, College of William and Mary.
• The Armenian Genocide in the light of a general theory of genocide by Bernard Bruneteau, Professor of Political Science, University of Rennes I.

15.00-15.15: Pause

15h15-17h – Eleventh Panel: Features & comparatismes, II

Chair: Claire Mouradian, historian, CNRS. Discussant: Yves Ternon, historian, member of the Scientific Council of the Shoah Memorial.

• Singularity of the Holocaust by Christian Ingrao, historian, CNRS.
• Singularity of the famine in Ukraine by Nicolas Werth, historian, CNRS.
• Singularity of the genocide of Tutsis by Helene Dumas, historian, EHESS.

17h00-17h15: pause

5:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.: Closing Conference

Chair: Gaïdz Minassian, journalist and political scientist, Institute of Political Studies in Paris.

• Symposium balance by Raymond Kevorkian, historian, University of Paris VIII.
• 1915 and the social sciences by Taner Akcam, historian, University of Clarke.
• Turkism and pan-Turkism by Erik-Jan Zürcher, historian, University of Leiden.
• The contemporary revisionism and its defenders Richard Hovannisian, historian, UCLA.
• The outlook from the perspective of international justice by Nicholas Koumjian, prosecutor at the international courts.
• The publication of research on the Armenian genocide in Turkey by Ragıp Zarakolu, editor.

Practical information

Registration by email within the limit of available seats.

Founding members of the CSI

Annette Becker, Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense), member of the Institut Universitaire de France.

Hamit Bozarslan, historian, political scientist, director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS).

Vincent Duclert, historian, lecturer and researcher at the Center for Sociological and Political Studies Raymond Aron (EHESS).

Raymond Kevorkian, historian, emeritus director of research at the French Institute of Geopolitics, University of Paris VIII.

Gaïdz Minassian, journalist, doctor of political science lecturer at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris.

Claire Mouradian, historian, research director at the CNRS.

Mikaël Nichanian, historian, curator at the National Library of France, associate researcher at the College de France.

Yves Ternon, historian, member of the Scientific Council of the Shoah Memorial, President of CSI.