Dr. Talin Suciyan will conclude a three-part series of presentations with a talk on “Kept with Care: Letters from Purgatory” at Fresno State. The discussion will be held on Friday, March 28 at 7 p.m. in the Smittcamp Alumni House, located at 2625 E. Matoian Way, on the Fresno State campus. The presentation is part of the Spring 2025 Armenian Studies Program Lecture Series.
This lecture will present the correspondence of Kevork Shamlian of Arabgir to his brother and son who had left for the United States to earn money to help those left behind in Arabgir. “Bantukhdutyun” (becoming migrant laborers) created one of the most difficult situations for Armenian families in the 19th century, which turned out to be even worse at the turn of the 20th century. By then, it was no longer enough to go to Istanbul or other big cities; one had to make the long and risky journey to the United States to earn money to pay taxes.
These letters to the United States from Arabgir, now held in Pennsylvania, cover one of the most crucial periods in Armenian history, the period before 1915. They illuminate daily life in the provinces of the Ottoman Empire and signal the approaching tragedy. The catastrophe of 1915 found one of its rarest and most intricate reflections in a letter written in Ottoman script. The collection of letters is an eye-opener on many levels regarding Armenian life in the provinces of the Ottoman Empire just prior to its destruction.
Dr. Talin Suciyan is Kazan Visiting Professor of Armenian Studies at Fresno State for Spring 2025. After graduating from the University of Istanbul, she continued her studies in Germany, where she obtained her Ph.D. Based in Munich, she has been teaching and researching at the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Munich for over 15 years.
Dr. Suciyan’s latest book, “Armenians in Turkey after the Second World War: An Archival Reader of USSR Consular Documents,” was just published by I. B. Tauris, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, as part of the series “Armenians in the Modern and Early Modern World” edited by Bedross Der Matossian (University of Nebraska, Lincoln).
The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available in Fresno State Lot P1 or P2, near the Smittcamp Alumni House. Parking permits are not required for Friday night lectures.
The presentation will also be live-streamed on YouTube.
For information about upcoming Armenian Studies Program presentations, please follow us on our Facebook page, @ArmenianStudiesFresnoState or at the Program website.
