Ümit Kurt
In Kanunların Ruhu: Emval-i Metruke Kanunlarında Soykırımın İzini Sürmek
(The Spirit of the Laws: Pursuing the Trace of Genocide on the
Abandoned Property Laws), Taner Akçam and I exposed the ways in which
the moveable and unmovable properties of the Armenians who were
displaced and eliminated in 1915 were obtained and distributed, using
all the vehicles provided by the “law,” first by the ruling Committee of
Union and Progress (CUP), and later the Republican regime with the
Abandoned Property Laws (Emval-i Metruke Kanunları) that the government inherited.1
Although all of the laws issued within the scope of the Abandoned
Property Laws noted the Armenians’ entitlement to their property and
assets, and stated that at the very least their value should be handed
over to them, the process was obstructed in many ways. As a result, the
Armenians’ material foundations were eliminated and their physical
annihilation was complete. The measure of existence “granted” to the
Armenians by these laws was reduced to nothingness.
