The Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October 1918 and on the morning of 13 November 1918, a mighty fleet of battleships from Britain, France, Italy and Greece sailed to Istanbul, and dropped anchor without encountering resistance. This day marked the beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire, a dissolution that would bring great suffering and chaos, but also new opportunities for all Ottomans, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. In this lecture, drawing upon a previously untouched collection of Armenian and Ottoman Turkish primary sources, Ari Şekeryan will analyze these understudied post-war years. Examining the Armenian community as they emerged from the aftermath of war and genocide, Şekeryan will outline their shifting political position and the strategies they used to survive this turbulent period. By focusing on an oft-neglected period in history, the Ottoman Armistice (1918–1923), Şekeryan presents a case study for understanding the political reactions of ethnic groups to the fall of empires and nation-states.

Speaker
Ari Şekeryan received his PhD from the University of Oxford in 2018 and has since held post-doctoral and visiting professorship positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, California State University-Fresno, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and the University of Cambridge. His articles have been published in the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Turkish Studies, the Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, and War in History. His latest book, The Armenians and the Fall of the Ottoman Empire: After Genocide, 1918-1923, published by the Cambridge University Press in January 2023.

Register for virtual viewing.