Halil Berktay
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Halil Berktay (August 27, 1947–) is a Turkish historian at Sabancı University.[1]
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[edit] Biography
After graduating from Robert College in 1964, Berktay studied economics at Yale University receiving his Bachelor of Arts in 1968 and Master of Arts in 1969.[2] He went on to earn a PhD from Birmingham University in 1990.[2] He worked as lecturer at Ankara University between 1969–1971 and 1978–1983.[2]
Between 1992–1997, he taught at both the Middle East Technical University and Bosphorus University. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard University in 1997, and taught at Sabancı University before returning to Harvard in 2006.
Berktay's research areas are the history and historiography of Turkish nationalism in the 20th century.[3] He studies social and economic history (including that of Europe, and especially medieval history) from a comparative perspective.[3] He has also written on the construction of Turkish national memory.[3]
In September 2005, Berktay and fellow historians, including Murat Belge, Edhem Eldem, Selim Deringil, convened at a controversial conference to discuss the fall of the Ottoman Empire.[4]
[edit] Excerpt from a newspaper interview
Preceding the Armenian events is the whole background of the 19th century. (...) With the Allies forcing the Dardanelles [in 1915], the Ottoman Empire, that had suffered one defeat after the other in the Balkans and that had nothing left but the lands of Anatolia, entered into a psychosis of (...) being cornered and squeezed, of helplessness. [At the same time], Armenian bands massacred large numbers of Muslims. During such a process, it is impossible to identify anyone as having thrown the first stone, deciding who committed the first crime. Everybody has a story. Turks, Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians, everybody. In each of these stories, those who tell them are always in the role of victims. They themselves have never committed injustices against others, and they were the only ones who have suffered. One can remark that the 1915 killings of Armenians are remembered and the Cretan massacres committed against the Turkish Muslim population of the island between 1896-1900 are not remembered. I come from a family of Cretan immigrants myself. I know that two of my great uncles were hanged from the tree in our garden by a band of Greeks.
[edit] Partial bibliography
- Kabileden Feodalizme, Kaynak Yayınları, 1983
- Cumhuriyet İdeolojisi ve Fuad Köprülü, Kaynak Yayınları, 1983
- Bir Dönem Kapanırken, Pencere Yayınları, 1991
- New Approaches to State and Peasant in Ottoman History / edited by Halil Berktay and Suraiya Faroqhi, ISBN 0714634689
[edit] References
- ^ Home, personal Web site
- ^ a b c Background, personal Web site
- ^ a b c Research Interests, personal Web site.
- ^ Conferences, personal Web site.
- ^ Ermenileri özel örgüt öldürdü, Radikal, 10 September 2000. (Turkish)
[edit] External links
- Personal Web site, Sabanci University (English)
