Glendale, CA – Author/Historian from Germany, TALIN SUCIYAN will be in town to present her newly released book, OUTCASTING ARMENIANS: Tanzimat of the Provinces, on Thursday, March 7, 2024, at 7:00 pm at The Center for Armenians Arts – 250 N. Orange St. in Glendale, California. The author will be introduced by Martin Adamian. Admission is free. For more information, call (818) 243-4112. Ninety minutes of free parking is available in the structure.
The history of Tanzimat in the Ottoman Empire has primarily been narrated as a unique period of equality, reform, and progress, often framing it as the backdrop to modern Turkey. Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s exhortation to study the oppressed to understand the rule and the ruler, Talin Suciyan reexamines this era from the perspective of the Armenians. In exploring the temporal and territorial differences between the Ottoman capital and the provinces, Suciyan brings the unheard voices of Armenians into the present. Drawing upon the rich archival materials in both the Archives of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ottoman Archives, Suciyan uses these to show the integral role Armenians played in all aspects of Ottoman life and argues that accounts of their lives are vital to the accurate representation of the Tanzimat era. In shedding much-needed light on the lives of those who were vulnerable, disadvantaged, and otherwise oppressed, Suciyan takes a significant step toward a more inclusive Ottoman history.
Hans Lukas Kieser, author of Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide, wrote of the book, “A declared bottom-up historiography centered on the Armenians of the provinces, this lucid study explores untouched archives and offers a corrective to the history of the late Ottoman Empire.” Nazan Maksudyan, author of Ottoman Children and Youth during World War, wrote, “A fascinating and important work that makes a valuable contribution to both Ottoman historiography and Armenian Studies. It offers a fresh analysis of the Ottoman provinces, the ‘reform’ era, and the multiethnic populations of the Empire.”
Talin Suciyan is an associate professor at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, specializing in the history of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. She is also the author of The Armenians in the Modern Turkey: Post-Genocide Society, Politics and History.
