Halil Berktay

Last updated
Halil Berktay
Born (1947-08-27) August 27, 1947 (age 76)
NationalityTurkish
Alma mater Yale University, Birmingham University
Scientific career
FieldsTurkish history
Institutions Ibn Haldun University,
Sabancı University,
Ankara University,
Middle East Technical University,
Harvard University

Halil Berktay is a Turkish historian at Ibn Haldun University and was columnist for the daily Taraf . [1]

Contents

Life and career

Berktay was born into an intellectual Turkish communist family. His father, Erdoğan Berktay, was a member of the old clandestine Communist Party of Turkey. As a result of this influence, Halil Berktay remained a Maoist for two decades before he became "an independent left-intellectual". [2]

After graduating from Robert College in 1964, Berktay studied economics at Yale University receiving his Bachelor of Arts in 1968 and Master of Arts in 1969. [3] He went on to earn a PhD from Birmingham University in 1990. [3] He worked as lecturer at Ankara University from 1969 to 1971 and from 1978 to 1983. [3] He took part in the founding of the Yale chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society. [2]

Between 1992 and 1997, he taught at both the Middle East Technical University and Boğaziçi University. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard University in 1997, and taught at Sabancı University before returning to Harvard in 2006. He is currently a professor at Ibn Haldun University where he is also the head of the History Department. [4]

Berktay's research areas are the history and historiography of Turkish nationalism in the 20th century. He studies social and economic history (including that of Europe, especially medieval history) from a comparative perspective. He has also written on the construction of Turkish national memory. [3]

After Taner Akçam, Berktay was one of the first Turkish historians to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. [5] In September 2005, Berktay and fellow historians, including Murat Belge, Edhem Eldem, Selim Deringil, convened at an academic conference to discuss the fall of the Ottoman Empire. [6] [7]

Partial bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Lausanne</span> 1923 peace treaty between Turkey and Allies

The Treaty of Lausanne is a peace treaty negotiated during the Lausanne Conference of 1922–23 and signed in the Palais de Rumine in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 July 1923. The treaty officially resolved the conflict that had initially arisen between the Ottoman Empire and the Allied French Republic, British Empire, Kingdom of Italy, Empire of Japan, Kingdom of Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, and the Kingdom of Romania since the outset of World War I. The original text of the treaty is in English and French. It emerged as a second attempt at peace after the failed and unratified Treaty of Sèvres, which had sought to partition Ottoman territories. The earlier treaty, signed in 1920, was later rejected by the Turkish National Movement which actively opposed its terms. As a result of the Greco-Turkish War, İzmir was reclaimed, and the Armistice of Mudanya was signed in October 1922. This armistice provided for the exchange of Greek-Turkish populations and allowed unrestricted civilian, non-military passage through the Turkish Straits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halil Kut</span> Ottoman general and genocide perpetrator

Halil Kut was an Ottoman military commander and politician. He served in the Ottoman Army during World War I, notably taking part in the military campaigns against Russia in the Caucasus and the British in Mesopotamia.

The Ottoman archives are a collection of historical sources related to the Ottoman Empire and a total of 39 nations whose territories one time or the other were part of this Empire, including 19 nations in the Middle East, 11 in the EU and Balkans, three in the Caucasus, two in Central Asia, Cyprus, as well as the Republic of Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Special Organization (Ottoman Empire)</span> Paramilitary organization in the Ottoman Empire

The Special Organization was an intelligence, paramilitary, and secret police organization in the Ottoman Empire known for its key role in the commission of the Armenian genocide. Originally organized under the Ministry of War, the organization was shifted to answer directly to the ruling party Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) in February 1915. Led by Bahaeddin Şakir and Nazım Bey and formed in early 1914 of tribesmen as well as more than 10,000 convicted criminals—offered a chance to redeem themselves if they served the state—as a force independent of the regular army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">İlber Ortaylı</span> Turkish historian

İlber Ortaylı is a Turkish historian and professor of history of Crimean Tatar origin at the MEF University, Galatasaray University in Istanbul and at Bilkent University in Ankara. In 2005, he was appointed as the director of the Topkapı Museum in Istanbul, until he retired in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenian genocide denial</span> Fringe theory that the Armenian genocide did not occur

Armenian genocide denial is the claim that the Ottoman Empire and its ruling party, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), did not commit genocide against its Armenian citizens during World War I—a crime documented in a large body of evidence and affirmed by the vast majority of scholars. The perpetrators denied the genocide as they carried it out, claiming that Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were resettled for military reasons, not exterminated. In the genocide's aftermath, incriminating documents were systematically destroyed, and denial has been the policy of every government of the Republic of Turkey, as of 2023, and later adopted by the Republic of Azerbaijan, as of 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halil İnalcık</span> Turkish historian

Halil İnalcık was a Turkish historian. His highly influential research centered on social and economic approaches to the Ottoman Empire. His academic career started at Ankara University, where he completed his PhD and worked between 1940 and 1972. Between 1972 and 1986 he taught Ottoman history at the University of Chicago. From 1994 on he taught at Bilkent University, where he founded the history department. He was a founding member of Eurasian Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdülhalik Renda</span> Turkish politician and genocide perpetrator

Mustafa Abdülhalik Renda was a Turkish civil servant and politician of Tosk Albanian descent who was acting President of Turkey for one day after Atatürk's death in November 1938. He is infamously known for his role in the Armenian genocide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald Grigor Suny</span> American historian and political scientist (born 1940)

Ronald Grigor Suny is an American-Armenian historian and political scientist. Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Michigan and served as director of the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, 2009 to 2012 and was the Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History at the University of Michigan from 2005 to 2015, William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History (2015–2022), and is Emeritus Professor of political science and history at the University of Chicago.

Halil is a common Turkish, Albanian and Bosnian male given name. It is equivalent to the Arabic given name and surname Khalil or its variant Khaleel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suraiya Faroqhi</span>

Suraiya N. Faroqhi, is a German scholar, Ottoman historian and a leading authority on Ottoman history. She was elected as a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy for the year 2022, under the "Early Modern History to 1850" category.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halil Menteşe</span> Turkish politician (1874–1948)

Halil Menteşe (1874–1948) was a Turkish government minister and politician, who was a well known official of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the President of the Chamber of Deputies in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, and also served as an independent deputy from İzmir in the Republic of Turkey. He was one of the people most directly responsible for the Armenian genocide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Late Ottoman genocides</span> 1913–1924 Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides

The late Ottoman genocides is a controversial historiographical theory which sees the concurrent Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides that occurred during the 1910s–1920s as parts of a single event rather than separate events, which were initiated by the Young Turks. Although some sources, including The Thirty-Year Genocide (2019) written by the historians Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi, characterize this event as a genocide of Christians, others such as those written by the historians Dominik J. Schaller and Jürgen Zimmerer contend that such an approach "ignores the Young Turks' massive violence against non-Christians", in particular against Muslim Kurds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">İbn Haldun Üniversitesi</span> Private foundation university in Basaksehir, İstanbul, Turkey

Ibn Haldun University, IHU, is a private foundation university located in the Başakşehir neighbourhood of Istanbul. The university has a strong focus on the humanities and social sciences, and espouses a multilingual approach to education, namely in Turkish, English and Arabic.

The terminology of the Armenian genocide is different in English, Turkish, and Armenian languages and has led to political controversies around the issue of Armenian genocide denial and Armenian genocide recognition. Although the majority of historians writing in English use the word "genocide", other terms exist.

The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide was the first major conference in the field of genocide studies, held in Tel Aviv on 20–24 June 1982. It was organized by Israel Charny, Elie Wiesel, Shamai Davidson, and their Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, founded in 1979. The conference's objective was to further the understanding and prevention of all genocides; it marked the shift from viewing genocide as an irrational phenomenon to one that could be studied and understood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kemalist historiography</span> Narrative of history promoted by Kemalism

Kemalist historiography is a narrative of history mainly based on a six-day speech delivered by Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk] in 1927, promoted by the political ideology of Kemalism, and influenced by Atatürk's cult of personality. It asserts that the Republic of Turkey represented a clean break with the Ottoman Empire, and that the Republican People's Party did not succeed the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP).

Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy was a conference on the Armenian genocide held from 24–25 September 2005 at Bilgi University in Istanbul, jointly organized by Bilgi, Boğaziçi University, and Sabancı University. The first conference to challenge Armenian genocide denial in Turkey, it was initially scheduled to be held in May 2005 at Boğaziçi, but was postponed due to a judicial ban on the conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seferyan Efendi</span> Armenian physician in Ottoman Turkey (1820–1899)

Seferyan Efendi was an Ottoman physician, diplomat and translator. He worked as a military surgeon during the Crimean War and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. In 1879, he was assigned to an envoy to Russia and worked to solve the disputes over the status of Armenians in Caucasus. In 1882, he worked as a scholar at the Imperial School of Medicine. His field of research included infectious diseases, military psychiatry and anatomy. He contributed to Turkish language by offering equivalents for Western medical terms. He was rewarded the Crimea Medal in 1855 and the Order of the Medjidie in 1856.

References

  1. Okuma Notları Archived 2008-09-13 at the Wayback Machine , Taraf .
  2. 1 2 Berktay, Halil (2007-04-24). "A Genocide, Three Constituencies, Thoughts for the Future (Part I)" (PDF). Armenian Weekly. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-09-03. Retrieved 2008-09-04. (talk given at the "Armenians and the Left" symposium on March 31, 2007)
  3. 1 2 3 4 Curriculum vitæ, Sabancı University.
  4. "Academic Staff - Department of History - Ibn Haldun University".
  5. Gürpınar, Doğan (2013). "Historical Revisionism vs. Conspiracy Theories: Transformations of Turkish Historical Scholarship and Conspiracy Theories as a Constitutive Element in Transforming Turkish Nationalism". Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. 15 (4): 412–433. doi:10.1080/19448953.2013.844588. S2CID   145016215.
  6. Conferences, personal Web site, Sabancı University.
  7. Didem Türkoğlu, Challenging the National History--Competing discourses about a Conference Archived 2022-12-13 at the Wayback Machine , Submitted to Central European University Nationalism Studies Program In Partial Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts, Budapest, Hungary, 2006