Armenians and Land Disputes in the Ottoman Empire, 1850–1914

By Mehmet Polatel

Contents

List of Illustrations
Abbreviations, Acronyms and Non-English Terms
Note on Transliteration
Acknowledgement

Introduction: The Political and Economic Aspects of the Land Question

1. Law, Land and Politics: The Transformation of Ottoman Land Regime
2. Peasants versus Notables: The Emergence of the Armenian Land Question (1850-80)
3. Mass Violence and Mass Seizures (1880-1908)
4. Controlling Outcomes: The Hamidian Government and Land Disputes
5. Revolution, Resolution and Resistance (1908-12): The Land Question under the Young Turks
6. The Reforms and the Land Question after the Outbreak of the Balkan Wars
7. The Land Question on the Eve of the First World War

Conclusion: The Armenian Genocide and the Land Question

Reviews

This groundbreaking work analyses the genealogy of the Armenian land question from the second half of the 19th century to the eve of World War. Mehmet Polatel has made a monumental contribution from both empirical and theoretical perspectives to the study of the agrarian question in the Ottoman Empire and beyond.
– Bedross Der Matossian, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

With meticulous research, deep archival dives and acute theoretical insights, Mehmet Polatel restores the lost history of the dispossession of the lands of Ottoman Armenians through misuse of the law and deployment of violence. Polatel brilliantly tells the tragic tale of nation formation as a process by an imperial government aided by local officials and ordinary people. With graphic examples, precision in his analysis and a deep humanistic sensibility, he reveals how ideology, greed and the search for security lead to horrific crimes against humanity.
– Ronald Grigor Suny, University of Michigan

About the Author

Mehmet Polatel is the academy coordinator for the Minority Rights Academy Project at the Hrant Dink Foundation based in Istanbul. He received his Ph.D. degree from Bogazici University in Istanbul and he won the Distinguished Dissertation Award of the Society for Armenian Studies. Prior to receiving his Ph.D., he earned an MA in Comparative Studies in History and Society from Koç University, Istanbul. After receiving his Ph.D., he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in Armenian Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a junior postdoctoral fellowship from the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research. His main research interests include state-society relations, minority rights, property politics, cultural heritage, Armenian Genocide, and dispossession of Armenians. He co-authored a book with Uğur Ü. Üngör entitled Confiscation and Destruction: Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Properties (Bloomsbury, 2011) and published several articles and book chapters on the massacres of 1894-7, land question, and the Armenian Genocide.

Published by Edinburgh University Press, February 28, 2025.