The Consulate General of Greece in Istanbul is holding a series of monthly lectures entitled “Remembering the Ottoman Past in the Eastern Mediterranean”, at the Sismanoglio Mansion. The series, which began last month, will run until May 2016. The lectures are organized by DrEvangelia Balta, Research Director at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (Ottoman Studies Programme) and Richard Wittmann from the Orient-Institut Istanbul.
The lectures will introduce the work of international researchers from different academic disciplines who study the rich ethnic and cultural diversity of the Eastern Mediterranean region. They will discuss how the memory of an Ottoman past is portrayed in an enormously wide range of sources. In addition to drawing on the personal testimonies of inhabitants and on local literature, speakers will also illustrate how this memory has been expressed in popular music, film, photography and food.
Key organizer Dr. Evangelia Balta was awarded in 2014 the Culture and Art High Award of Turkey by President Abdullah Gul for her contribution to the field of Ottoman Studies. Dr. Balta, a historian and descendant of Greek refugees of the Turkish-Greek population exchange, is the author of numerous books on Ottoman-Greek culture and language, especially on the Karamanlis population of Anatolia.
