In Memoriam Vangelis Kechriotis

On August 27, 2015, our dear friend and colleague Vangelis Kechriotis passed away in Istanbul. Vangelis is deeply missed and fondly remembered. He was a historian, a public intellectual, a dedicated teacher, and passionate activist who endeavored to write the history of non-Muslim communities in the Ottoman Empire and to make Istanbul, his adopted home, a place for all of its residents. Never limiting himself to just one community or to an academic audience, Vangelis continuously wrote and spoke in Turkish, Greek, and English in venues from academic journals to television shows to street protests. His concern was the past and present of democracy in Turkey and Greece, and, indeed, throughout the world.

To commemorate his life, we collected the memories and thoughts of his friends and colleagues as written texts and audio recordings in the weeks following his death. We also recorded an extended audio interview with some of these colleagues and friends in Istanbul discussing his life, ideals, and accomplishments. What follows are written and oral testimonies in Turkish, English, and Greek of his friendship, activism, and scholarship.

We have divided them in two parts. The podcast, interspersed with the aural remembrances, can be accessed through the streaming link. The second part is a PDF document containing written memorials of Vangelis. We are releasing them now, at the end of 2015, as a small tribute to his life. In addition to this, our readers and listeners can find a selected bibliography of Vangelis’s writings and a link to the podcast we recorded with Vangelis about his research two months before his passing. We thank all the people who have contributed to this endeavor.

Stream via SoundCloud

Click here for a PDF with written memorials of Vangelis Kechriotis by his friends and colleagues

CREDITS

Podcast Panel

Lorans Tanatar Baruh, Buket Kitapçı Bayrı, Bülent Bilmez, Polina Ivanova, Paolo Girardelli, Mehmet Kentel, Nilay Özlü, Nir Shafir, Zeynep Türkyılmaz

Contributors

Şeyma Afacan, Evrim Akbulut, Antonis Anastasopoulos, Feray Coşkun, Buket Coşkuner, Ferdan Ergut, Özge Ertem, Molly Greene, Dimitris Kamouzis, Yusuf Z Karabıçak, Erdem Karaca, Elias Kolovos, Elektra Kostopoulou, Nevra Necipoğlu, Christoph Neumann, Hazal Özdemir, Oya Pancaroğlu, Onur Şar, Amy Singer, Melike Şümertaş, Ece Turnator, Ayla Jean Yackley

Episode No. 218

Release Date: 30 December 2015

Recording Location: Koç RCAC

Editing and production by Chris Gratien

Musical excerpts from archive.org uploaded by fidika: Egil Daglar Ustunden Asam - Viktoriya Hanim; Istanbul'dan Ayva Gelir Nar Gelir - Azize Tozem and Sari Recep; Harmandali - Recep Efendi, Cemal Efendi; Katibim (Uskudar'a Gider iken) - Safiye Ayla
Field recordings of Istanbul by Chris Gratien

Bibliography and text courtesy of Polina Ivanova and Nir Shafir
Images courtesy of Özge Ertem, Nevra Necipoğlu, Onur Şar, Lorans Tanatar Baruh,  Melike Şümertaş and Buket Coşkuner

Click here for our interview with Vangelis Kechriotis in Episode 194 of Ottoman History Podcast

SELECT PUBLICATIONS OF VANGELIS KECHRIOTIS

Academic

“Atina’da Kapadokyalı, İzmir’de Atinalı, İstanbul’da Mebus: Pavlos Karolidis’in Farklı Kişilik ve Aidiyetleri,” Toplumsal Tarih, no. 257 (May 2015), 28-35.

“Civilization and Order: Middle-class Morality Among the Greek-Orthodox in Smyrna/Izmir at the End of the Ottoman Empire, in A. Lyberatos (ed.), Social Transformation and Mass Mobilization in the Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean Cities, 1900-1923, 115-32.

“Postcolonial criticism encounters Late Ottoman studies,” Historein no. 13 (2013), 39-46.

On the margins of national historiography: The Greek İttihatçı Emmanouil Emmanouilidis – Opportunist or Ottoman patriot?’ in Amy Singer, Christoph K. Neumann, and S. Aksin Somel, (eds.), Untold Histories of the Middle East: Recovering Voices from the 19th and 20th Centuries. London: Routledge, 2011, 124-142. 

“From Oblivion to Obsession: The uses of history in recent public debates in Turkey,” in Historein no. 11 (2011), 100-124.

Ahmet Ersoy, Maciej Gorny and Vangelis Kechriotis, (eds.), Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770-1945): Texts and Commentaries, vol. 3: Modernism, I. The creation of the nation state, II. Representations of national culture, CEU Press, 2010.

‘Educating the nation: Migration and Acculturation on the two Shores of the Aegean at the turn of the twentieth century’ in the volume Meltem Toksöz & Biray Kulluoğlu (eds), Cities of the Mediterranean: From the Ottomans to the Present Day, London, I.B. Tauris, 139-156, 2010. 

‘The Late Ottoman Port Cities and Their Inhabitants: Subjectivity, Urbanity, and Conflicting Orders’, special issue co-edited by Malte Fuhrmann & Vangelis Kechriotis, Mediterranean Historical Review, Vol. 24/ 2, December 2009.

‘The Modernisation of the Empire and the ‘Community Privileges’: Greek responses to the Young Turk policies’ in Touraj Atabaki (ed.), The State and the Subaltern. Society and Politics in Turkey and Iran, London, I. B.Tauris, 2007, 53-70.

'Allons enfants de la... ville': National Celebrations, Political Mobilisation and Urban Space in Izmir at the Turn of the 20th Century' in Ottoman Izmir: Studies in honour of Alexander H. de Groot  edited  by Maurits H. van den Boogert, Nederlands Instituut Voor Het Nabije Oosten, 2007,  123-137.

‘Smyrne Hellène: Communautés dans le panthéon de l’ histoire’ in Marie-Carmen Smyrnellis (dir.), Smyrne 1830-1930, De la fortune à l oublie, Paris: Autrement, 2006, 63-77.

‘Greek-Orthodox, Ottoman-Greeks or just Greeks? Theories of Coexistence in the Aftermath of the Young Turks Revolution’, in Études Balkaniques, 2005, 1, 51-72.

‘Between professional duty and national fulfillment: the Smyrniot medical doctor Apostolos Psaltoff (1862-1923)’ in Meropi Anastassiadou (ed.), Médecins et ingénieurs ottomans à l` age des nationalismes, IFEA, Maisoneuve & Larose, Paris, 2003, 331-348.

Media

“Popülizm ve pragmatizm arasında Yunan sol hükümeti,” Radikal (13.07.2015)

“'Kolotumba' ya da Yunan muhafazakârların siyasi kültürü,” Radikal (23.02.2015)

“Yunan seçimlerinin ertesi günü: Uzo içtikten sonra, sade frape'nin zamanı geldi,” Radikal (27.01.2015). 

“'Vincero!: Yunan seçimleri bir devrime yol açabilir mi?” Radikal (24.01.2015)

“Give Greek history (and legend) a chance: don’t use it,” ΧΡΟΝΟΣ 22 (02.2015), http://www.chronosmag.eu/. 

“From the green sun of PASOK to the yellow bulb of the AKP: The answer will be given by the people,” ΧΡΟΝΟΣ 12 (04.2014)

“Fathers and sons: During these recent months in Turkey, fatherhood has played a huge symbolic value in shaping people’s attitudes,” ΧΡΟΝΟΣ 11 (03.2014)

“Η «επανάσταση της σάτιρας» έχει μέλλον:Οι είκοσι μέρες που συγκλόνισαν την Τουρκία,¨ ΧΡΟΝΟΣ 02 (06.2013)

IMAGES

Vangelis, accomponied by his daughter Rana narrates the history of the Halki seminary in one of the school's classrooms, 2015. (Submitted by Özge Ertem)

Boğaziçi University History faculty members at the 2013 graduation ceremony (Submitted by Nevra Necipoğlu)

Vangelis and his students from Boğaziçi University visiting the Armenian Patriarchate in Kumkapı, Istanbul (Submitted by Onur Şar)

“The Economy and Society on Both Shores of the Aegean” project: monthly Greek-Turkish seminar organized by Vangelis Kechriotis and Lorans Baruh, which met for three years 2004-2007 (Submitted by Lorans Tanatar Baruh)

Vangelis Kechritois, Koray Durak with graduate students, 2014 graduation ceremony at Boğaziçi University (Submitted by Melike Sümertaş)

Group photo from trip to Halki Seminary, 2015 (Submitted by Buket Coşkuner)

Vangelis Kechriotis at Halki Seminary Library, 2015 (Submitted by Buket Coşkuner)