Security Perspectives and the Administration of the General Inspectorates in the Ottoman Empire (1878-1908)
Previous Fellowships: 2019/ 2020
İlkay Yılmaz received her PhD from Istanbul University in 2012. Her dissertation, “Security Policies and Geographical Mobilization during the Hamidian Era (1876-1908)”, is based on intensive research conducted in Ottoman archives and published in 2014. She was a visiting doctoral fellow at Leiden University between 2009-2010 and a research assistant at Istanbul University between 2005-2013. She worked as an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, Istanbul University between 2014-2017. She was a visiting research fellow at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient between 2014-2015 and 2017-2019. Her research and teaching interests include state-formation, comparative empires, security policies and police institution of the late Ottoman Empire, the history of Ottoman passports, history of violence, the Armenian Question, the administrative history of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. Yılmaz’s work has been published in Journal of Historical Sociology, Photoresearcher-European Society for History of Photography, Journal of Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, amongst others. She has published chapters in Bob de Graf (ed.), Intelligence Communities and Cultures in Asia and the Middle East: A Comprehensive Reference (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2020); Ramazan Hakkı Öztan, Alp Yenen (eds.) Age of Rogues, Rebels, Revolutionaries, and Racketeers in Turn of the Century Eurasia Minor (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming). From January 2020 to December 2021, Yılmaz is an Einstein senior researcher at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin, and affiliated with EUME.
Security Perspectives and the Administration of the General Inspectorates in the Ottoman Empire (1878-1908)
This project examines the history of security policies in Macedonia and Eastern Anatolia from 1878 to 1908 through general inspectorates. The administration of these provinces was deeply affected by the security concerns of state elites and the changes in state governance during the late 19th century. Although the security conceptualization and institutions of security change in the historical process, there is also a long-term relation both in security mentality of the state elites and administration of these provinces. To understand the security mentality, security will be analyzed as a relational concept. Definitions of security also vary historically, reflecting different interpretations and interests. Referring to the emerging literature on policing, public order, and security in the Ottoman Empire, this project will investigate the embedded structures of security – especially internal security – in the administration of these provinces. This research project will benefit from both Ottoman archival documents (digitalized) and secondary literature and seeks to understand the evolving relation between administration and security in the history of the late Ottoman Empire.
