Report

On June 26, 2025, the Tobunken Seminar "Re-examining Ottoman migrations in light of Hikiagesha researches" was held at the IASA. The seminar featured Professor Fuat Dündar from TOBB University of Economics and Technology, who visited the IASA through the JSPS invitational fellowship program. Ten participants attended in person and nine participated online.
In his lecture, Professor Dündar first discussed the comparability of two migrations accompanying the collapse of empires, namely, the influx of immigrants from the Balkans and the Caucasus into the Ottoman Empire and the repatriation of Japanese citizens after World War II. He then compared these two migrations in terms of memory and commemoration. Specifically, he discussed the construction of museums and monuments in Turkey in recent years that are dedicated to immigrants from the population exchange between Turkey and Greece, analyzing this phenomenon in the context of contemporary Turkish politics. The lecture was followed by a lively discussion with the audience for about 30 minutes.

Event Details

Date and time: June 26, 2025 (Thu), 4:15pm~5:45pm

Venue: Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, First Meeting Room (304)/Zoom

Speaker: Fuat Dündar (TOBB University of Economics and Technology / IASA Visiting Researcher)

Title: Re-examining Ottoman Migrations in Light of Hikiagesha Researches

Chair: Jun Akiba (IASA, U Tokyo)

Lecture Abstract:
Looking at the migrations accompanying the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (especially the 1878-1923 Balkan migrations) and the Japanese migrations that took place during the collapse of the Japanese Empire (1946-1949) obliges a total comparison. Comparing these two post-imperial migrations provides comparing political systems, population composition and distribution, identity politics, and international balances. Despite the profound differences between these two migrations that are so far apart geographically and historically, such a comparison helps us understand Ottoman migrations (muhacir) better. The absence of the phenomena encountered in Japanese repatriations (hikiagesha) in Ottoman migrations led to questioning not only the existing ones but also the ones that were not. Such a comparison will also help to place the Ottoman migrations within global history. In this presentation, where I will share the first findings of the research, I will discuss the ways in which the two migrations are remembered by comparing migration monuments as a sampling.

*This seminar was supported by JSPS Invitational Fellowships for Research in Japan.