UCLA COMPLETES DIGITAL ARCHIVE ON AUCTIONING OF STOLEN ARMENIAN PROPERTIES
Los Angeles, CA — The Armenian Genocide Research Program (AGRP) within The Promise
Armenian Institute at UCLA announced the completion of a groundbreaking digital archive
documenting the fate of Armenian properties confiscated during and after the Armenian Genocide. The
archive, “The Auctioning of Stolen Armenian Properties: Emval-i Metruke,” is available on the AGRP’s
website.
Drawing on a rare collection of newspaper notices from the 1920s and 1930s, the study examines how
these so-called “Abandoned Properties” (referred to as Emval-i Metruke) were publicly auctioned, with
announcements published in local newspapers across 34 cities and towns in the early decades of the
Turkish Republic. The archive illuminates both the historical context of these “Abandoned Properties”
(Emval-i Metruke) through the now-completed effort to digitally archive and translate these records from
Ottoman Turkish into modern Turkish and English.
Independent researcher Sait Çetinoğlu compiled these invaluable materials over many years, in addition
to contributing an extensive introductory study on the mechanisms of property confiscation. With the
support of the AGRP, this entire archive has now been digitized, translated, and made fully searchable for
the first time. All texts are available in both Turkish and English, with translations prepared by researcher
Attila Tuygan and AGRP Program Coordinator Nanor Hartounian.
This research sheds light on the systematic expropriation and redistribution of Armenian wealth—an
essential and parallel dimension of the genocide. It also confronts the archival challenges of recovering
these fragmented records and invites collaboration from those who may have access to additional
material.
To learn more and access the archive, please visit the AGRP’s website.
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions regarding this project, please contact AGRP
Program Coordinator Nanor Hartounian at nhartounian@international.
The Armenian Genocide Research Program (AGRP) was established within The Promise Armenian
Institute at UCLA in early 2022. Led by Dr. Taner Akçam, the AGRP engages in research and scholarly
activities pertaining to the study of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire during the early 20th
century.
