Ara Sarafian (

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

: ) is a British historian of

origin. He is the founding director of the

Gomidas Institute The Gomidas Institute (GI; ) is an independent academic institution "dedicated to modern Armenian and regional studies." Its activities include research, publications and educational programmes. It publishes documents, monographs, memoirs and oth ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, which sponsors and carries out research and publishes books on modern

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

n and regional studies.

Early life

Sarafian was born in July 1961 in Cyprus, Kyrenia. In 1974, while he and his parents were on holiday in

, the Turkish military invaded North Cyprus and his family became refugees. He decided to learn Turkish so that he could challenge the Turkish state's denial of the Armenian genocide and applied to study the language in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

. When the Turkish Ministry of Education turned down his application to study, he went anyway, paying for his tuition by teaching English. According to a ''

New Yorker New Yorker may refer to: * A resident of New York: ** A resident of New York City and its suburbs *** List of people from New York City ** A resident of the New York (state), State of New York *** Demographics of New York (state) * ''The New Yor ...

'' profile, "coming to Turkey transformed him, in an unexpected way. The combined effect of getting to know Turkish citizens, of higher education, of maturity, and of changing Turkish politics eroded the teen-age hatred until he began to seek out opportunities for reconciliation." Sarafian attended the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and earned his M.A. in history under the tutelage of

Ronald Grigor Suny Ronald Grigor Suny (born September 25, 1940) is an American-Armenian historian and political scientist. Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Michigan and served as directo ...

Gomidas Institute

Sarafian co-founded the Gomidas Institute at the University of Michigan in 1992 and has served as its executive director ever since. The institute is now based in London. Among its book publications are English translations of Armenian texts related to the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

. It also publishes the journal ''Armenian Forum''. Additionally, Gomidas has published the English-language book ''

Talaat Pasha Mehmed Talât (1 September 187415 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha, was an Ottoman Young Turk activist, revolutionary, politician, and convicted war criminal who served as the leader of the Ottoman Empire from 191 ...

's Report on the Armenian Genocide'' (based on translations of extracts from a 2008 book by the Turkish journalist Murat Bardakçı) and a critical edition of ''The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916'', commonly known as the '' Blue Book'' (originally published in 1916 by British historians Lord

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and Arnold Toynbee), as well as a Turkish edition of the book. The Gomidas Institute has also published the memoirs of former US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans and it has collaborated with the Hrant Dink Foundation.

Research

Sarafian conducted research in the Ottoman Archives of the

Turkish Government The Government of Turkey () is the national government of Turkey. It is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative democracy and a constitutional republic within a pluriform multi-party system. The term government can me ...

in the 1990s, together with Hilmar Kaiser. In February 2007, Sarafian accepted the suggestion of the then-chairman of the

Turkish Historical Society The Turkish Historical Society (; TTK) is a research society studying the history of Turkey and the Turkish people, founded in 1931 by the initiative of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, with headquarters in Ankara, Turkey. It has been described as "the Ke ...

, Yusuf Halaçoğlu, to cooperate on a joint project. Sarafian later proposed a joint case study of "what happened on the

Harput Harpoot () or Kharberd () is an ancient town located in the Elazığ Province of Turkey. It now forms a small district of the city of Elazığ. p. 1. In the late Ottoman period, it fell under the Mamuret-ul-Aziz Vilayet (also known as the Harpu ...

Plain" and "how many people died" during the deportations. A month later, Halaçoğlu announced that Sarafian has declined to carry out the study, and added that Sarafian "was disturbed by the institute's initiative to study the archives of Tashnak, the

Armenian Revolutionary Federation The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (, abbr. ARF (ՀՅԴ) or ARF-D), also known as Dashnaktsutyun (Armenians, Armenian: Դաշնակցություն, Literal translation, lit. "Federation"), is an Armenian nationalism, Armenian nationalist a ...

". In an interview, Sarafian said Halaçoğlu's "explanation was not true because I had not said any such thing. The case study came to an end when Halaçoğlu stated that the relevant records, which he had initially agreed to use as the basis of the joint case study, were not available." Halaçoğlu's choice to withhold archival records and pull out of the project was criticized at the time in the Turkish press. ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'' magazine has called Sarafian "the leading authority on the history of the rmeniangenocide in the English language." He was the subject of two independent documentary films. The first film, Gagik Karagheuzian's '' The Blue Book, Political Truth or Historical Fact'' (2009), focused on Sarafian's work and research on the ''Blue Book''. The second film, John Lubbock's '' 100 Years Later'' (2015), focused on Sarafian's work with

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

civil society organisations in Turkey around the 100th anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarafian, Ara Living people Armenian refugees British historians British people of Armenian descent Cypriot people of Armenian descent Cypriot refugees Ethnic Armenian academics Historians of the Armenian genocide Refugees in the United Kingdom Scholars of Ottoman history University of Michigan alumni Year of birth missing (living people)