Original air date: 30 December 2015 | On August 27, 2015, our dear friend and colleague Vangelis Kechriotis passed away in Istanbul. Vangelis is deeply missed and fondly remembered. He was a historian, a public intellectual, a dedicated teacher, and passionate activist who endeavored to write the history of non-Muslim communities in the Ottoman Empire and to make Istanbul, his adopted home, a place for all of its residents. Never limiting himself to just one community or to an academic audience, Vangelis continuously wrote and spoke in Turkish, Greek, and English in venues from academic journals to television shows to street protests. His concern was the past and present of democracy in Turkey and Greece, and, indeed, throughout the world.

To commemorate his life, we collected the memories and thoughts of his friends and colleagues as written texts and audio recordings in the weeks following his death. We also recorded an extended audio interview with some of these colleagues and friends in Istanbul discussing his life, ideals, and accomplishments. What follows are written and oral testimonies in Turkish, English, and Greek of his friendship, activism, and scholarship.

We have divided them in two parts. The podcast, interspersed with the aural remembrances, can be accessed through the streaming link. The second part is a PDF document containing written memorials of Vangelis. We are releasing them now, at the end of 2015, as a small tribute to his life. In addition to this, our readers and listeners can find a selected bibliography of Vangelis’s writings and a link to the podcast we recorded with Vangelis about his research two months before his passing. We thank all the people who have contributed to this endeavor.

CREDITS

Podcast Panel

Lorans Tanatar Baruh, Buket Kitapçı Bayrı, Bülent Bilmez, Polina Ivanova, Paolo Girardelli, Mehmet Kentel, Nilay Özlü, Nir Shafir, Zeynep Türkyılmaz

Contributors

Şeyma Afacan, Evrim Akbulut, Antonis Anastasopoulos, Feray Coşkun, Buket Coşkuner, Ferdan Ergut, Özge Ertem, Molly Greene, Dimitris Kamouzis, Yusuf Z Karabıçak, Erdem Karaca, Elias Kolovos, Elektra Kostopoulou, Nevra Necipoğlu, Christoph Neumann, Hazal Özdemir, Oya Pancaroğlu, Onur Şar, Amy Singer, Melike Şümertaş, Ece Turnator, Ayla Jean Yackley

Episode No. 218
Release Date: 30 December 2015
Recording Location: Koç RCAC
Editing and production by Chris Gratien
Musical excerpts from archive.org uploaded by fidika: Egil Daglar Ustunden Asam - Viktoriya Hanim; Istanbul'dan Ayva Gelir Nar Gelir - Azize Tozem and Sari Recep; Harmandali - Recep Efendi, Cemal Efendi; Katibim (Uskudar'a Gider iken) - Safiye Ayla
Field recordings of Istanbul by Chris Gratien
Bibliography courtesy of Polina Ivanova
Images courtesy of Özge Ertem, Nevra Necipoğlu, Onur Şar, Lorans Tanatar Baruh, Melike Şümertaş and Buket Coşkuner

More at http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2015/12/vangelis.html