Two-Day International Conference:
“Resilience and Reconstruction:
The Armistice Period in the Ottoman Empire (1918-1923)”
Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, 2026
FRESNO, CA — The Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State is organizing a two-day international conference, “Resilience and Reconstruction: The Armistice Period in the Ottoman Empire (1918-1923),” taking place on Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, 2025 on the Fresno State campus. The conference organizers are Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian (Fresno State) and Dr. Ümit Kurt (University of Newcastle, Australia and IEA, Nantes, France). The conference is sponsored by the Thomas A. Kooyumjian Family Foundation, the Leon S. Peters Foundation, the Ralph Shapazian Armenian Memorial Fund, and the Florence Elaine Hamparson Armenian Memorial Fund.
The conference will feature a keynote presentation by Nora Barakat (Stanford University), speaking on the topic of “Rethinking the Armistice Period: Legal Regimes, Property and the Politics of Reconstruction from Anatolia to Palestine” followed by presentations by ten scholars from around the world.
The conference will take place both days at the Smittcamp Alumni House, 2625 E. Matoian Way, on the Fresno State campus. Admission is free to the conference and free parking is available in parking lots P2 or P1.
The conference will begin at 7:00PM on Friday, October 23, with the keynote presentation by Nora Barakat, followed by Panel 1, with moderator Ümit Kurt. The panel will feature presentations by Merih Erol (Özyegin University, Istanbul), “Rebuilding Lives after the Ottoman Empire: Post-War Reconstruction of Armenian Communities in Greece”; Hratch Kestenian (Orient-Institut, Beirut), “After Catastrophe: Armenian Doctors, Medical Unions, and the Postwar Reconfiguration of a Transimperial Profession, 1918-1923”; and İsmail Keskin (University of Crete), “Conversions as a Bureaucratic Shield: Negotiating the Population Exchange.”
The second session of the conference will begin at 10:00AM on Saturday, October 24, with two panels, which will also take place in the Smittcamp Alumni House, 2625 E. Matoian Way, Fresno State. Admission to the second and third sessions is free and parking is also free.
The second panel, moderated by Barlow Der Mugrdechian, includes presentations by Adrien Zakar (University of Toronto), “Tell Armen-Koçhisar (Kızıltepe) and the Question of Return, 1918–1925”; Ani Ohanian (Clark University), “Prolonging Genocide, Formalizing Peace: Geopolitical Reordering and the Loss of Armenia, 1918–1923”; Kent Schull (Binghamton University), “From Aintab to Aleppo: Joseph Booth and the Exodus of the Mormon-Armenian Community in the Wake of the Armenian Genocide and the end of WWI”; and Matthieu Rey (Centre de Recherche Historique) “From a Station to a Station: A Local History of the Armistice.”
The third panel, moderated by David Zakarian, includes presentations by Arda Ekşigil (Independent Researcher, Istanbul), “The Business Committee or the Indiscreet Scramble for Armenian Property in Early Republican Istanbul”; Şahika Karatepe (Binghamton University), “Afterlives of Dispossession: Armenian Survival and Structural Violence in Bardizag after 1915”; Ümit Kurt (University of Newcastle; IEA, Nantes, France), “The Fate of Armenian and Greek Properties in the Post-First World War Period.”
The conference may be viewed on Zoom: Friday, October 23, panel 1 link: https://fresnostate.zoom.us/meeting/register/0O-l4S30TiGpYFgUhM62sg
and Saturday, October 24, panels 2 and 3 link: https://fresnostate.zoom.us/meeting/register/K4QoIUJETTyK8BZMAAnuGA.
For information about upcoming Armenian Studies Program presentations, please follow us on our Facebook page, @ArmenianStudiesFresnoState or at the Program website, https://fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.
