This is the first major study of the mass sequestration of Armenian property by the Young Turk regime during the 1915 Armenian genocide. It details the emergence of Turkish economic nationalism, offers insight into the economic ramifications of the genocidal process, and describes how the plunder was organized on the ground. The interrelated nature of property confiscation initiated by the Young Turk regime and its cooperating local elites offers new insights into the functions and beneficiaries of state-sanctioned robbery. Drawing on secret files and unexamined records, the authors demonstrate that while Armenians suffered systematic plunder and destruction, ordinary Turks were assigned a range of property for their progress.

Author Biography

Mr Mehmet Polatel is currently conducting Ph.D. research on the fate of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. He specialises in late Ottoman history and oral history. Dr Ugur Umit Ungor is postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for War Studies, University College Dublin. He specializes in the historical sociology of mass violence. His research has focussed on genocidal processes in general, and the Armenian and Rwandan genocides in particular.