On 26 August 1896 the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, a small nationalist social-democratic organization, occupied the Ottoman Bank’s main office in Istanbul. While the occupation ended that same night, a widespread massacre of Armenians began. Both the perpetrators and the victims of the massacres were predominantly unskilled migrant labourers from the Eastern Anatolian provinces. Overshadowed by the tragic events during World War One, the Armenian massacre in1896 remained relatively understudied. Sinan Dinçer amply compensates this in his research article 'The Armenian massacre in Istanbul (1896)' in the latest issue of Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis (TSEG).
This English-language issue of TSEG is a special issue dedicated to the history of ethnic violence and ethnicity in Turkey. Contributions include:
- Erik-Jan Zürcher, Introduction. The socio-economic history of ethnic violence in the late Ottoman Empire
- Sinan Dinçer, The Armenian massacre in Istanbul (1896)
- Y. Dogan Çetinkaya, Patterns of social mobilisation. In the elimination of the Greek Orthodox population 1908-1914
- Emre Erol, Organised chaos as diplomatic ruse and demographic weapon. The expulsion of the Ottoman Greeks (Rum) from Foça, 1914
- Ugur Ümit Üngör, Property and family. Mobilisation for violence during the Armenian genocide
TSEG is a quarterly magazine published on behalf of IISH and NEHA by Amsterdam University Press. The website is hosted by IISH.