Dilek Özkan: Immigration, Settlement and Conflict

Immigration, Settlement and Conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean Following the Greek Revolution (1821-1876)

Dilek Özkan

This research project examines the migration and population movements in the long 19^th century, focusing on the Eastern Mediterranean region. On the one hand it discusses migration and settlement policies of Ottoman and Greek states, and on the other hand puts forward conflicts between migrants and inhabitants at local level. It defines mass migrations routes, patterns and their characteristics, trying to determine parallels to other migrations in rest of the world. Giving particular interest to the return migration of the Ottoman Greeks and other non-Muslims, this research demonstrates examples on how the concept of citizenship in modern sense began to be shaped.

Dilek Özkan received her PhD in History (April, 2016) from the University of Athens, with her dissertation on the first Ottoman-Greek borderlands examining the transformation of state-society relations during the Ottoman modernization period. She also received a MA in History (2009) from Boğaziçi University. Her MA thesis investigated the social welfare practices of the Greek Orthodox community of Istanbul, focusing on policies and institutions providing for the welfare of orphans, abandoned infants. She completed undergraduate studies in History (2005) at Istanbul Bilgi University. During her studies she focused on Non-Muslim communities in the Ottoman Empire, socio-cultural history of the Greek Orthodox Community of Istanbul, history of nationalism in the Balkans, transformation of Ottoman institutions throughout the 19^th century. Currently she is preparing a research project on migration and population movements in the 19^th century Mediterranean region.