What is the Turkish Studies Project?

Officially called “The Origins of Modern Ethnic Cleansing: The Collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the Emergence of Nation States in the Balkans and Caucasus,” the Turkish Studies Project is a grant offered to the University of Utah’s Middle East Center within the College of Humanities. The grant project has been financed by the Turkish Coalition of America since 2009 to advance scholarship on Turkish and Ottoman studies. The grant was renewed in 2015 with an expanded geographical focus entitled “The Origins and Contemporary Challenges of Turkic Peoples.” Under the current grant term, the Project aims to explore the past histories and shaping of contemporary Turkic-majority states and their relationships with modern Turkey via scholarly work, community participation, social media, and support for new research. The project is directed by Dr. Hakan Yavuz Ph.D.