Shared Armenian-Jewish Neighborhoods of Late-Ottoman Bolis

Speaker: Oya Rose Aktaş, PhD Candidate, University of Washington 

Date & Time: Wednesday, August 23, 2023 at 7pm Yerevan time, (11am US eastern time)

Language: English

Registration required: bit.ly/453c1tX

This presentation will examine the physical spaces shared by Armenians and Jews in the late Ottoman Empire, focusing on Istanbul from the 1890s until the 1920s. During this period these groups experienced, to different extents, the violence of massacre, war, genocide, and nation-state formation alongside one another, while also persisting in the activities that sustain everyday life such as selling bread, attending school, and celebrating holy days. Drawing on archival research, memoires, and explorations of built-environment, this talk will map out the sites of interaction, both every day and catastrophic, that shaped Armenian and Jewish lives in late Ottoman Bolis/Kushta.

Oya Rose Aktaş is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Washington researching Armenian-Jewish relations in the late Ottoman Empire and early Turkish Republic. She received her MA in History from the University of Washington, and her BA in Humanities & Economics from Washington University in St. Louis. She has worked as a think tank researcher and a translator for journalists in exile from Turkey.

Funding for this fellowship is provided by the ARISC General Funds. This event is sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). The lectures are free and open to the public. Learn more at www.arisc.org

*ARISC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, physical or mental disability, medical condition, ancestry, marital status, age, sexual orientation, citizenship, or status as a covered veteran.