I was born to a Kurdish-Turkish family from Van, a city known for its huge lake and odd-eyed cats in eastern Turkey.  I grew up in Izmir by the Aegean coast and studied at Bogazici University in Istanbul before receiving my Ph.D. from Binghamton University in New York.

I am a historian of the Ottoman Empire and the Modern Middle East.  As an historian of this gigantic empire which ruled over three continents for six centuries I am fascinated by the diversity, complexity, and dynamism of imperial structures.

My research revolves around the questions of modern state-making, property regimes, and intercommunal conflict and coexistence in the borderlands of modern empires.

My current manuscript, tentatively titled, Venerable Friends, Formidable Enemies: Kurdish Nobles and the Ottoman State in the Long Nineteenth Century provides a multi-actor socio-historical analysis of the transformation and eventual dissolution of the Kurdish principalities in the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey. The imperial Ottoman policy towards Kurdistan involved confiscating the lands of the Kurdish nobility and establishing a small, tax-paying peasantry on these lands. My book demonstrates that the destruction of the autonomous Kurdish principalities in this way led to the dissolution of deep-rooted local power configurations and the region gradually descended into a spiral of violence by the end of the nineteenth century. My work stands at the junction of interconnected Ottoman, Kurdish, and Armenian histories, and as opposed to dominant nationalist renderings of this period, I approach the conflict between the Ottoman (and later the Turkish) state and the Kurdish nobility not solely as an ethnic dispute but as a struggle for sovereignty over the autonomous economic and political realms of the Kurdish rulers.

Undergraduate Courses

The Ottoman Empire

The United States and the Middle East

Twentieth Century Middle East

Ottoman Archival and Textual Sources

Ethno-religious Conflict and Violence in the Modern Middle East

Social Movements and Political Mobilization in the Modern Middle East

Graduate Courses

The Kurds and the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire

Eurasian Borderlands

Comparative Empires

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Binghamton University

M.A. & B.A., Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey.

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For more information on my publications please see my academia.edu page.

PUBLICATIONS

“The Ottoman Empire,” in John MacKenzie, Nigel Dalziel, Nicholas Doumanis and Michael Charney (eds.) Encyclopedia of Empire, Oxford: Wiley/Blackwell, 2015.

“Ruling the Periphery, Governing the Land: The Making of the Modern Ottoman State in Kurdistan, 1840-1870,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 34:1 (2014), 160-175.

“A Bottom up Approach to the 1908 Revolution in the Ottoman Empire: Rural Conflict in Post-Revolutionary Diyarbekir” in Joost Jongerden and Jelle Verheij (eds), Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915. Leiden: E.J. Brill Publications, 2012, 179-215.

“Social Development as a Governmental Strategy in GAP,” New Perspectives on Turkey, no. 32, Spring 2005, 93-110.

IN TURKISH

“Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda 1908 Devrimi’ne ‘Çevresel’ Bir Yaklaşım: Devrim Sonrası Diyarbekir’de Köylü Arzuhallerindeki Toprak Anlaşmazlıkları,” in Joost Jongerden & Jelle Verheij (eds), Osmanlı Döneminde Diyarbekir’de Toplumsal İlişkiler (1870-1915). İstanbul: Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2016.

“Sınırı Vergilendirmek, ‘Gerikalmış’ı Yönetmek: Kürdistan’da Modern Osmanlı Devleti’nin İnşası, 1840-1860,” in Diyarbakir Tebligleri: Diyarbakir ve Cevresi Toplumsal ve Ekonomik Tarihi Konferansi, (Istanbul: Uluslararasi Hrant Dink Vakfi Yayinlari, 2013).

“Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesi'nde Bir Yönetim Projesi Olarak Sosyal Kalkınma,” [Social Development as a Governmental Strategy in Southeast Anatolia Project] Toplum ve Kuram No.1 (Toplum ve Kuram Yayınları, Istanbul: 2009), pp.55-70.

Short pieces in the Kürt Tarihi (Kurdish History) Journal published in the “Archive Dust” Section

• “Osmanlı Kürdistanı’nın Emekçileri,” in Kürt Tarihi, Issue 11, February 2014.
• “Kürdistan’ın Sıradan İsyancıları: Esme, Ali ve Resul,” Kürt Tarihi, Issue 10, December 2013.
• “Kitaplar Doldurmağa Kafi Kürt Ahvali ve Osmanlı Devleti’nin Kürt Beyleri’ni Sürgün Siyaseti” Kürt Tarihi, Issue 9, October 2013.
• “Çermik Beyleri’nin Fakr-u Iztırapları: Osmanlı Devleti ve Kürt Beyleri,” Kürt Tarihi, Issue 8, August, 2013.
• “İtaatsizlik ve Fenalıkla Mecbul: Göçebe Reşkotan Aşireti ve Osmanlı Devleti,” Kürt Tarihi, Issue 7, June, 2013.
• “Meryem Hanım’ın Feryadı,” Kürt Tarihi, Issue 7, June, 2013.

ACADEMIC BOOK TRANSLATIONS

Donald Quataert, Miners and the State in the Ottoman Empire: the Zonguldak Coalfield, 1822-1920 (Berghahn Press, 2006), translation with Azat Zana Gündoğan from English to Turkish, Osmanli Devletinde Madenciler ve Devlet (İstanbul: Boğaziçi Universitesi Yayınları, 2009)

Donald Quataert, Ottoman Reform and Agriculture in Anatolia, 1876-1908, Unpublished Dissertation, (University of California, Los Angeles, 1973), translation with Azat Zana Gündoğan from English to Turkish, Anadolu'da Osmanli Reformu ve Tarim (İstanbul: Is Bankasi Kultur Yayınları, 2008)

Hakan Özoğlu, Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State: Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries (SUNY Press, 2004), translation with Azat Zana Gündoğan from English to Turkish, Osmanlı Devleti ve Kürt Milliyetçiliği (İstanbul: Kitap Yayınları, 2005)

John Tomlinson, Globalization and Culture, (The University of Chicago Press, 1999), editor of the Turkish translation, Küreselleşme ve Kültür (İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları, 2004)