Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
Careen Derkalousdian
Staff Writer
“[This book] investigates the international and internal security aspects of the Armenian and Macedonian Questions in the late Ottoman period,” said Dr. İlkay Yılmaz. “It analyzes how these two important political topics became issues of security for the Ottoman government.”
On Friday, November 1, 2024, Dr. İlkay Yılmaz, a research associate in the department of Modern History at Freie Universität Berlin, gave a presentation on her new book, Ottoman Passports: Security and Geographic Mobility, 1876-1908. Her articles have been published in the Journal of Historical Sociology, Middle Eastern Studies, the Journal of Ottoman and Turkish Studies, and the Photoresearcher-Journal of European Society for History of Photography.
Dr. Yılmaz began by introducing the main focus of her book, where she seeks to analyze how the Ottoman Turks tried to control geographical mobility of certain groups and created structural violence against these groups through their administrative network. She discussed how the Ottomans criminalized Armenians, Bulgarians, seasonal workers, and political activists.
In a case documented in 1907, two Armenian women from Karahisari Sarki named Margirid and Azniv were given permission to travel to the United States on the condition that they not return to the Ottoman Empire. In addition to confiscating their internal passports used to travel within the Empire, their international passports were inscribed with the unsettling words: “No return to the Ottoman Empire henceforth.” Their photographs were filed at a local police station and circulated to the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
What was the purpose of these bureaucratic regulations? According to Dr. Yılmaz, the Ottoman government suspected every Armenian who traveled to the United States as a potential revolutionary or conspirator against the Ottoman Empire. What fueled these fears was the rise of anarchism in Europe, with terror techniques being used to spread propaganda. Dr. Yılmaz highlighted that these extreme measures taken by the Ottoman Empire were motivated by efforts to form an imperial criminal justice network against anarchism. The Ottomans at-tempted to frame the Armenian and Macedonian Questions in an anti-anarchist light, essentially searching for a viable excuse to criminalize these groups. Mobility restrictions became a critical means of targeting these groups in the name of national security.
In September 1894, many porters and day laborers arrived in Trabzon, the largest port city in the Black Sea region. They were heading to Istanbul but were prevented from entering the Ottoman Empire as they were assumed to be Armenians and regarded as threats. They were denied internal passports and deported. These geographical mobility restrictions continued to grow, and by 1888, the Ottoman government had banned immigration to the United States altogether. Similarly, the entry of Armenians who possessed American citizenship was prevented. If Armenians wanted to retain their rights in the Empire, they were forced to renounce their American citizenship and retain their Ottoman citizenship instead. These severe policies forced Armenians to travel to North America via smuggling networks.
After the Hamidian massacres of 1894 to 1896, many Armenians applied to leave the Ottoman Empire and head to the United States. Dr. Yılmaz pointed out that the passport officers would often question them, asking if they were rebelling against the Empire. This accusation alone often frightened applicants and prevented them from fleeing the Empire.
The Ottoman administrative network kept track of geographic mobility by filing photographs of Armenian families. Armenians were not allowed to travel to North America until their respective photographs arrived at the Ottoman port. “This requirement created another form of victimization,” said Dr. Yılmaz. For example, in 1906, a group of twelve Armenian women and children were required to wait at the port for more than six weeks until their photographs were delivered to the Ottoman authorities.
Armenians from other countries, such as present-day Romania, were also banned from returning to their homeland.
Dr. Yılmaz’s research on Ottoman passport practices reveals a state network of administrative offices, and correspondence between these offices, bureaucrats, documents, and photographs.
“This network hung like a black cloth over the heads of the labeled,” said Dr. Yılmaz. The Ottomans created a narrative that justified their security policies in the context of combating anarchism, which allowed them to perceive foreigners as threats, target specific groups, and broaden their scope of power and governance.