“Forgotten Genocides: New Perspectives on a Less Known History,” is a one-day symposium that took place at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on April 10, 2013. Co-organized by Prof. Bedross Der Matossian (History) and Prof. Gerald Steinacher (History) and sponsored by the Harris Center for Judaic Studies, the Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Program, and the Department of History, the symposium discussed and engaged the dialogue on the new perspectives of some of the lesser known genocides and mass atrocities of the 20th century.

Applying the broader definition of Raphael Lemkin’s concept of Genocide, the symposium brought together scholars working on different aspects of genocide studies and mass atrocities of the 20th century seeking to both incorporate and bring to the forefront these understudied genocides within larger conceptual and temporal frameworks and to foster interchange between different disciplines and area studies specialists in the field.

The History Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will host Prof. Ugur Ümit Üngör, Department of History at Utrecht University and the Institute for War and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam for a talk on "Race and Space: The Armenian Genocide in the Context of Population and Territory," on Friday, April 27th, 4:30-6:30 pm in Burnett Hall, Room 115.  Professor Bedross Der Matossian and Professor Lloyd E. Ambrosius, Samuel Clark Waugh Distinguished Professor of International Relations & Professor of History in the Department will discuss.

The eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire used to be a multi-ethnic region where Armenians, Kurds, Syriacs, Turks, and Arabs lived together in the same villages and cities. From 1913 to 1950, successive Turkish governments subjected this region to a thorough policy of ethnic homogenization. Based on a decade of research on a range of unexamined records, Üngör demonstrates that the Armenian genocide was part and parcel of this wider process. He will offer insights into the economic ramifications of the genocide and describe how the plunder was organized on the ground. He will conclude that this violent process destroyed historical regions and emptied multicultural cities, but also cleared the way for the modern Turkish nation state.

Prof. Ugur Ümit Üngör  specializes in genocide, mass violence and ethnic conflict. His recent publications include Confiscation and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property (Continuum, 2011), and The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950 (Oxford University Press, 2011). 

For more information, contact Prof. Bedross Der Matossian at bdermatossian2@unl.edu