Armenians, Americans, & the Refugee Conundrum of Greece in the 1920s

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies and the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies at Simon Fraser University are pleased to present Professor Merih Erol, Visiting Scholar, SFU, and Associate Professor of History at Özyeğin University.

Join us November 15th at 2:30pm in person at the Bennett Library, SFU Burnaby, Room 7200, or online (https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82272020584), for her talk "Guest Orphans: Armenians, Americans, and the Refugee Conundrum of Greece in the 1920s".

This talk will be moderated by Dr. Dimitris Krallis, Director of the SNF Centre at SFU.

Attendance is free. The event is open to the public and will be recorded.

This programming is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

ABSTRACT

Following the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-1922, approximately nine thousand Armenian orphans, transferred from Turkey, found refuge and received technical education in Greece within the orphanages operated by the Near East Relief. While the Greek authorities generally endorsed the international relief workers' endeavors within their borders, the partnership was not devoid of challenges. In my talk, I will delve into the contentious dynamics between the Near East Relief representatives and the Greek authorities, stemming from apprehensions regarding the prospects of the Armenian orphans and refugees in Greece. The talk will explore the interwar Greek state's policies and measures directed particularly at its non-Greek refugees, illustrating the responses of Armenian refugees through protest and efforts to counteract these policies. Additionally, it will illuminate the education of Armenian orphans within NER orphanages and their subsequent paths. Utilizing archival documents from the Greek State Archives pertaining to the refugee situation, the lecture will offer perspectives on issues such as religion and national identity in Greece, the geopolitical objectives of post-1922 Greece, and its preoccupations with the nation's international image.

This talk will focus on one aspect of the speaker's current book project, which examines the history of Armenian refugees and their descendants in Greece from 1922 to the present. The project situates the forced migration of Armenians during and after World War I within broader contexts. These include the formation of an international refugee regime following the war, the emergence and evolution of modern humanitarianism, the settlement policies and territorial sovereignty of post-Ottoman nation-states during this period, and the formation of Armenian diaspora communities after the Armenian genocide.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Merih Erol, an Associate Professor of History at Özyeğin University, is a historian of the late Ottoman Empire who specializes in the study of nationalisms, ethnic and religious identities, and the imagining of the past through musical discourses. She is currently a visiting scholar at the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies at Simon Fraser University. She authored "Greek Orthodox Music in Ottoman Istanbul: Nation and Community in the Era of Reform" (Indiana University Press, 2015). Her research interests encompass musical identities in the Age of Nationalisms, the history of the Balkans from the 18th to the 20th centuries, religious conversion, American Evangelism in the Ottoman Empire, and post-WWI forced displacements and humanitarianism in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Her current project focuses on Armenian refugees in Greece after 1922 and aspects of Greek-Armenian identity.

MODERATOR BIOGRAPHY

Dimitris Krallis was born in Athens where he lived during his childhood, teenage and college years. At the University of Athens he studied political theory and, inspired by his professors of history, decided to risk all by applying for a graduate degree in Byzantine Studies. This took him to the University of Oxford where he studied Byzantine social and political history. After an interruption of four years dedicated to military service and to teaching at the American College of Greece in Athens, he moved to the US and the University of Michigan for his doctorate. Upon graduation he joined the faculty at Simon Fraser University where he works at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

SFU Bennett Library, Room 7200, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, Canada