Erol Ülker

Wednesday, 27 January 2016, 5.00 pm - 6.30 pm |
Forum Transregionale Studien, Wallotstr. 14, 14193 Berlin

Occupation, Resistance, and Turkification: Formation of the Turkish National Movement in Istanbul, 1918-1923


Erol Ülker

(Istanbul Kemerburgaz University / EUME Fellow 2015/2016)

Chair: Ulrike Freitag
(Zentrum Moderner Orient / Member of EUME)

Abstract
This talk addresses the formation of the Turkish national movement in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, between the end of World War One and the founding of the Republic of Turkey in October 1923. Ülker will discuss how the armed committee of resistance that took the name National Defense (Müdafa-i Milliye) was formed in this critical period of transition from empire to nation state during which the city of Istanbul was under Allied occupation. Which social forces and political actors were involved in the organization of this committee that aimed to protect the Muslim elements from the occupation forces as well as the reprisals of the Christian minorities? In particular, Ülker will consider the role of the National Defense Committee in the rise of a nationalist campaign against the non-Muslim communities by the time the Republic was established. He will argue that this grassroots mobilization provided the initial popular base of the Turkification policies implemented in Istanbul during the interwar period and beyond.

Erol Ülker is an Assistant Professor of History at Istanbul Kemerburgaz University – Department of Social Sciences. His research interests include nationalism, labor and social movements in Middle Eastern, Ottoman and Turkish history. He has published several articles in English and Turkish on the Turkification policies of the late Ottoman state, the migration-settlement policies of early republican Turkey, and the socialist and labor movements in Istanbul under Allied occupation. Ülker obtained his BA in International Relations from Istanbul University (1999). He holds two MA degrees from the Political Science Department of Boğaziçi University (2003) and the Nationalism Studies Program of Central European University (2004).
He received his PhD in History from the University of Chicago in 2013, with a dissertation entitled “Sultanists, Republicans, Communists: The Turkish National Movement in Istanbul, 1918-1923.”