Dr. İlkay Yılmaz reconsiders the history of two political issues, the Armenian and Macedonian questions, approaching both through the lens of mobility restrictions during the late Ottoman Empire from 1876 to 1908 in her book, "Ottoman Passports." Yılmaz investigates how Ottoman security perceptions and travel regulations were directly linked to transnational security regimes battling against anarchism. The Ottoman government targeted “internal threats” to the regime with security policies that created new categories of suspects benefiting from the concepts of vagrant, conspirator and anarchist. Yılmaz explores how mobility restrictions, and the use of passports became critical to criminalizing groups including Armenians, Bulgarians, seasonal and foreign workers and revolutionaries.

Yılmaz is currently a DFG (German Research Foundation) funded research associate at the department of Modern History at Freie Universität Berlin.

Date: Friday, Nov. 1
Time: 7 - 8 p.m.
Location: University Business Center

For any questions contact, Professor Barlow Der Mugrdechian barlowd@csufresno.edu