PRESS RELEASE
University of Michigan
Armenian Studies Program
Gloria Caudill Administrator
1080 S. University
Ste., 2603 SSWB
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106
Tel: (734) 763-0622
Fax: (734) 763-4918
Armenian Studies Program
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
For further information please contact:
Ms. Gloria Caudill, Administrator
[email protected]
(734) 763-0622
Two Opposite Figures of the History of the Armenian Genocide Discussed
in Public Lectures
Professor Hans-Lukas Kieser, Manoogian Simone Foundation Visiting
Scholar at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, presented two public
lectures last week, each devoted to two opposite figures critical for
the understanding of Armenian history during and after the Genocide.
On March 12 Professor Kieser addressed the University community and
discussed the personality of Talaat Pasha, the chief architect of the
Genocide from a biographical point of view. Talaat should be seen as a
complex figure, argued Professor Kieser, one who had the closest ties
with Armenian leaders, particularly leaders of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation; he was involved in all major negotiations
related to reforms in the Armenian provinces. Yet, at the same time,
equally easily he ordered the deportation of Armenian which he knew
would end up in their deaths. "He had two souls," Kieser stated, "but
violated one of them."
In his second lecture, to the larger community in Dearborn, Michigan, on
March 15, Professor Kieser presented the biography of the Swiss
missionary Jakob Kunzler who, supported by his wife, spent 27 years in
Urfa and another 24 in Lebanon. In Urfa he tried to save as many lives
of Armenians as possible and in Lebanon he organized aid to the refugees
and initiated a number of projects to facilitate their lives, including
the Azounieh sanatorium which still functions. "For many survivors and
their offspring," said Kieser, "Kunzler remains the most important
figure in the struggle for survival of the Armenian people."
Professor Kieser, one of the most prominent scholars specializing in
late Ottoman history, teaches at the University of Zurich. As Manoogian
Simone Foundation Visiting Scholar with the Armenian Studies Program at
the University of Michigan during this semester, he is teaching two
courses: " ‘Missionary America’ in the Middle East," and "Turkish and
Kurdish Nationalisms in late 19th and early 20th century."