Moynihan European Research centers and Middle Eastern Studies present: Ronald G. Suny

Moynihan European Research centers and Middle Eastern Studies Present: Explaining the Persistance of the Past: Genocide and the Politics of Modern Turkey by Ronald G. Suny

Ronald Grigor Suny, the Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History at the University of Michigan, will speak on the consequences and enduring legacy and effects of the events of 1915 on politics in modern Turkey. The fate of Ottoman Armenians is intricately connected both to the identity of the Turkish nation in its denial of what occurred as the Ottoman Empire was living through its last years and to the current conflicts between Turks and Kurds. Suny will explore both the Kemalist heritage and the policies of the Islamist government of present-day Turkey.

Ronald G. Suny is the author of many books, co-editor of A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire, and one of the leading experts on the non-Russian nationalities of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, particularly those of the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia).