AMERİKALILARIN ANADOLU GÖZLEMLERİ

1990 yılında Justin McCarthy, ABD Ulusal Arşivleri’nde Emory Nilesile Arthur Sutherland adında iki Amerikalının 1919 yılı yazında DoğuAnadolu’da gerçekleştirdikleri bir saha çalışması raporunun varlığınıaçıklamıştır. Amerikalıların gözlemleri Birinci Dünya Savaşı sonrasındabu bölgenin durumu hakkında dış gözlemciler tarafından yapılan ilkçalışmalardan birisidir. Ancak söz konusu rapor, kritik bir bölüm teşkil edenve Niles ile Sutherland’in raporları ile beraber okunması gerektiğinivurguladığı saha çalışma notlarından yoksundur. McCarthy söz konusunotların kaybolduğunu, hatta belki de yok edildiği tahmininde bulunmuş,ancak ortaya çıkması halinde o dönemi tarihsel açıdan kesinlikle daha iyianlamamızı sağlayacağını vurgulamıştır. Niles ve Sutherland’in sahaçalışması notları ne yok edilmiş ne de kaybolmuştur. İki özdeş kopyasıİstanbul’da bulunan eski Dış Görevler İçin Amerikan KomisyonerlerKurumu arşivinde bulunmaktadır. Bu makale Niles ve Sutherland’in DoğuAnadolu’daki çalışmalarını incelemekte ve tarihsel bağlamınayerleştirmektedir. Ayrıca yaptıkları araştırmanın sonuçlarının muhtemelenneden göz ardı edildiğini ve zamanla unutulduğuna dair tahminlerdebulunulmaktadır

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Türkiye, Transkafkasya, Osmanlı İmparatorlupu

EMORY NILES VE ARTHUR SUTHERLAND’IN

In 1990, Professor Justin McCarthy revealed the existence of areport, which he had discovered in the US National Archives, of a survey ofeastern Anatolia in the summer of 1919 by two Americans, Emory Niles andArthur Sutherland. Their account is one of the first descriptions of this regionby outside observers after World War I. However, the document lacks a criticalcomponent, Niles and Sutherland’s field notes, which the authors emphasizedshould be read in conjunction with their report. McCarthy assumed that themissing information was lost, perhaps destroyed, but he surmised that if it evercame to light, it would surely enhance our understanding of the period. Nilesand Sutherland’s field notes have not been destroyed, nor are they lost. Twoidentical copies exist in the archives of the former American Board ofCommissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in Istanbul. This paperdescribes Niles and Sutherland’s mission to eastern Turkey and places it inhistorical context. It also speculates why the results of their investigation wereprobably ignored and eventually forgotten

Keywords:

Turkey Transcaucasia, Ottoman Empire, Democratic Republic of,

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