Dr Ozan Ozavci (MA, PhD Manchester) has a background in political science, international relations and intellectual history. His current work focuses on the (entangled) histories of security, diplomacy and finances in Europe and the Middle East. To this date, Dr Ozavci has conducted research in more than forty archives in Europe, Russia, the United States and the Middle East, which include the archives of major oil companies (e.g. Shell in The Hague), transimperial banks (e.g. the Imperial Ottoman Bank), museums (e.g. The Hermitage in Saint Petersburg) as well as private collections (e.g. Calouste S. Gulbenkian archives in Lisbon). In 2014, he was awarded the prestigious Fernand Braudel Fellowship by the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris, and in 2023, NWO (Dutch Research Council) Open Competition M (€360k) and European Research Council Consolidator (€2m) grants, among others.

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

Monographs:

Ozan Ozavci, The Invention of the  Eastern Question: Sir Robert Liston and Ottoman Diplomacy in the Age of Revolutions, Bloomsbury/I.B. Tauris, 2025. 

Ozan Ozavci, Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security, and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.

Ozan Ozavci, Intellectual Origins of the Republic: Ahmet Agaoglu and the Genealogy of Liberalism in Turkey, Boston, Leiden: Brill, 2015.

Edited Volumes:

Beatrice de Graaf, Ozan Ozavci and Erik de Lange (eds.), Securing Empires: Imperial Cooperation and Competition in the Nineteenth Century, Bloomsbury, 2024.

Jonathan Conlin & Ozan Ozavci (eds.), They All Made Peace, What's Peace?  The 1923 Lausanne Treaty and the New Imperial Order, London: Gingko Library, 2023 .

Articles, Book Chapters & Review Essays:

Ozan Ozavci, "Transimperial, Contrapuntal and Intersectoral. New Histories of the Eastern Question," Contemporanea 3 (July-Sept., 2023), 462-467.

Ozan Özavci, 'Dogu Sorunu, Lozan âni ve Cumhuriyet’in gu¨vensizlik hafizasi', Toplum ve Bilim 164 (2023), 6-31.

Ozan Ozavci, “The Ottoman Imperial Gaze: The Greek Revolution of 1821–1832 and a New History of the Eastern Question,” Journal of Modern European History 21:2 (2023), 222-237.

Ozan Ozavci, "Un/Making Mythos: Cult of Personality and Imaginative Opposition in the Kemalist Republic," Bustan: The Middle East Book Review 13:1, (2022), 1–19.

Ozan Ozavci, “A Fateful Beginning: Mehmed Cavid Bey, Politics and Finance in the Global Middle East, 1908-1914,” in Gunvor Simonsen, Laura Almagor, Haakon Ikonomou (eds.), Global Biographies: Lived History as Method, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022, 162-181.

Ozan Ozavci, "Sèvres, Lausanne and the Invention of the Middle East,' in Pieter Trogh (ed.), For Civilisation: The First World War in the Middle East, 1914-1923, Ghent: Tijdsbeeld, 2022, 122-127.

Ozan Ozavci, “A Priceless Grace? The 1815 Congress of Vienna, the Ottoman Empire and Historicising the Eastern Question,” The English Historical Review, 136:583 (Dec., 2021), 1450-1476. 

Ozan Ozavci, “A Jewish ‘Liberal’ in Istanbul: Vladimir Jabotinsky, the Young Turks and the Zionist Press Network,” in Abigail Green, Simon Levis Sullam (eds.), Jews, Liberalism, Antisemitism: A Global History, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2020.

Ozan Ozavci, “’A Little Light in the Darkness’: The Mission of Charles Laurent and the Young Turks.” in Gokhan Cetinsaya, S. Tufan Buzpinar (eds.), Essays In Late Ottoman And Early Republican Turkey: in Honour of Feroze A.K. Yasamee, Istanbul: ISIS Publications, 2019. 

Ozan Ozavci, “Honour and Shame: The Diaries of a Unionist and the ‘Armenian Question’ 1909-1922.” in Margaret L. Anderson, Hans-Lukas Kieser (eds.), End of the Ottomans: The Genocide of 1915 and the Politics of Turkish Nationalism, London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2019.

Ozan Ozavci, “War Finance (Ottoman Empire).” International Encyclopaedia of the First World War, 1914-1918 Online, 2017.

Ozan Ozavci, “Namik Kemal’s Constitutional Liberalism: Sovereignty, Justice and the Critique of the Tanzimat.” in Alan Kahan and Ewa Atanassow (eds.), Liberal Moments: Reading Liberal Texts, London: Bloomsbury, 2017, 98-106.

Ozan Ozavci, “Bir Jön Türk’ün Günlügü ve 1915,” Toplumsal Tarih 264 (Dec., 2015), 51-55.

Ozan Ozavci, “Opposition to Authoritarianism: The Society for the Dissemination of Free Ideas and the Road to Democracy in Turkey, 1947-1950.” Turkish Studies 16: 2 (June, 2015), 161-177.

Ozan Ozavci, “Differing Interpretations of la conscience collective and the ‘Individual’ in Turkey: Émile Durkheim and the Intellectual Origins of the Republic.” The Journal of the History of Ideas 75:1 (Jan., 2014), 113-136.

Ozan Ozavci, “Republican People’s Party.” In Oxford Encyclopaedia of Islam and Politics, Emad Shahin ed., Oxford, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2014, 239-241. (with Mete Tuncay)

Ozan Ozavci, “The Philosophy of Westernisation: Ahmet Agaoglu on Civilisation and Culture,” European Review of History / revue européenne d’histoire 20:1 (Mar., 2013), 21-37.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘“I have decided to be what you made me”: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Ahmet Agaoglu and Republicanism Reconsidered.’ Littera 31 (Mar., 2013), 36-42.

Ozan Ozavci, “Liberal Thought and Public Moralists in Turkey: The Transmission of Ideas and the Conceptions of the Self, 1891-1948.” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 4 (Dec., 2012), 636-657.

Ozan Ozavci, “Liberalism in the Turkish Context and Its Historiography: Past and Present.” Anatolian Studies 62 (Dec., 2012), 141-151.

Ozan Ozavci, “Düsünce Tarihi Merceginden: Türkiye’de Liberalizm.” Dogu-Bati 57 (July 2011), 137-174.

Ozan Ozavci, “The French Revolution from a Turkish Perspective: Ahmet Agaoglu and High Individualism.” In Historicising the French Revolution, C. Armenteros, T. Blanning, I. DiVanna, and D. Dodds, eds., Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008, 146-168.

Ozan Ozavci, “Prens Sabahaddin’in Fikri Kaynaklari: Le Play ve La Science Sociale.” Dogu Bati 41 (July 2007), 231-254.

Recent Newspaper Commentaries, Blogposts and Media Appearances:

“European Imperialism, the 'Eastern Question' and the Ottoman Empire,” Talking History, KSMU, Ozark Public Radio, Missouri, United States, 7 September 2023.

“S?????? t?? ????????: ? t??????? p?e??? ?a? ?? ?e???e? s???µ?s?a?,” To Vima, 24 July 2023. 

“Cent ans après sa signature, le traité de Lausanne reste un sujet d’actualité,” Le Libre, 24 July 2023. 

“Interview with dr. Ozan Ozavci on the Lausanne Project,” Journal of Anglo-Turkish Relations, 15 June 2023.

"Interview with Ozan Ozavci on the Lausanne Project," New Diplomatic History Network Podcast, 9 June 2023.

"Is Lausanne a peace treaty forgotten by the world?," Hellenic Foundation (ELIAMEP) Podcast, 8 June 2023.

Ozan Ozavci, “Intrigue at the Dutch Palace,” The Security History Network Blogpost, 24 April 2023.

Beste Isleyen, Enno Maessen, Ozan Ozavci, Ugur Ungor and Alp Yenen, “De toekomst van Turkije is niet veilig onder Erdogan,” NRC, 23 March 2023.

Ozan Ozavci, “Iraq war 20 years on: how the role of empire and imperialism in the Middle East has been misconstrued,” The Conversation, 22 March 2023 (republished in Third World Insurgence and Reaction). 

Ozan Ozavci, “Why do so many Turkish people believe ‘secret clauses’ in the 1923 Lausanne treaty will be unveiled this year?,” The Conversation, 13 January 2023 (republished in Informed Comment, Newsify (App), Old Reader, Menafn and Newsblur) 

Ozan Ozavci, “Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security and Civil Wars in the Levant,” interview given to Jadalliyya, New Texts Out, 9 January 2023.

“Lozan, hezimet veya zafer olmadigi için 99 yildir sürüyor,” interview given to Gazete Oksijen, Special Issue for the Centenary of the Republic, 28 October 2022.

Ozan Ozavci, “The Wonder Woman of Diplomacy,” The Lausanne Project Blogpost, 26 August 2022.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘On Black Lives and Empty Seats: It’s Time to Walk the Talk,’ DUB UU Journal, 8 April 2021. (also translated into Dutch with the title ‘Over Black Lives en lege stoelen: het is tijd voor actie’)

Ozan Ozavci, ‘The Room Next Door: The Private Papers of Bayar and Okyar,’ The Lausanne Project, 31 March 2021.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘The Lausanne Table: A Symbol of Victory or Execution,’ The Lausanne Project, 28 February 2021.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Steun rechtstreekse hulpverlening aan de inwoners van Libanon,’ Het Parool, 14 August 2020.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Bursting the Bubbles: On the Peace of Westphalia and the Happiness of Unlearning,’ Utrecht School of Historicising Security Blog, February 2019.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘A Forgotten Hero? Sir Richard Wood’s Most Adventurous Decade in the Levant,’ Utrecht School of Historicising Security Blog, June 2018.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘What happened to Mr Cutsi? The ‘Curious’ Murder of the Dutch Consul in Damascus,’ Utrecht School of Historicising Security Blog, March 2018.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘After ‘Securing the World’,’ Utrecht School of Historicising Security Blog, October 2017.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Historicising the Present: Syria through the Looking Glass,’ Utrecht School of Historicising Security Blog, March 2017.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘The Dispute,’ Utrecht School of Historicising Security Blog, June 2016.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘On Ascribed Identities, Human Dignity and History,’ Utrecht School of Historicising Security Blog, March 2016.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Turkey’s Elections: Creating Consent through Insecurity,’ Utrecht School of Historicising Security Blog, November 2015.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘A paradoxical symbol of Turkish liberalism: Ahmet Agaoglu,’ Hurriyet Daily News, October 10, 2015.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Erdogan’s twitter ban just the latest in a series of restrictive measures,’ The Independent, March 23, 2014. (Original title: Erdogan’s Authoritarian Democracy)

Ozan Ozavci, Gezi Parki Events, interview, International Asia News, June 17, 2013.

Lectures, Seminars, Conference & Workshop Papers:

Ozan Ozavci and Jonathan Conlin, “They All Made Peace, What is Peace? The Lausanne Treaty 100 Years On”, The Thackeray Society of the Reform Club, London, 29 June 2023.

Ozan Ozavci, “Two Proud Nations. Securing Russo-Ottoman Peace during and after the Napoleonic Wars, 1794-1821,” Winning the Peace, Managing the Empire: Napoleonic Governance and the Integration of Europe, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, 21-22 June 2023.

Ozan Ozavci, “Falling on Deaf Ears. Ismet Pasha’s Negotiation Tactics and Diplomacy at Lausanne,” 100 Years Since the Treaty of Lausanne: Looking Back, Looking Ahead, Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), 12 June 2023 (online).

Ozan Ozavci, “The Eastern Question and Its Lausanne Moment,” Lausanne History Museum, 1 June 2023.

Ozan Ozavci, Round Table Discussant at the Conference, The Afterlives of Lausanne: Society, Politics and Belonging After Empire, Northwestern University, Chicago, 27 May 2023.

Ozan Ozavci and Ayse Zarakol, “Book Talk: Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security, and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864,” New York University, 3 March 2023 (online).

Ozan Ozavci, “The Autopsy of an Empire. The Eastern Question and its Lausanne Moment,” European University Institute, 20 February 2023.

Ozan Ozavci, Round Table Discussant at the event The Parallax of 1922: The Greco-Turkish war in history, memory and international politics, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2 November 2022 (online).

Ozan Ozavci, “The End of the Eastern Question? The 1923 Lausanne Treaty and the New Imperial Order,” Institute for South East European Studies, Romania, 7 November 2022 (online).

Ozan Ozavci, “Failure Paths: The Greek Revolution of 1821 and the Ottoman Imperial Gaze,” the University of Cyprus, Nicosia, 26 October 2022.

Ozan Ozavci and Aimee Genell, “Book Talk: Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security, and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864,” George Washington University, 22 September 2022 (online).

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Book Talk: Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864,’ George Washington University, Institute of Middle East Studies, The United States, 22 September 2022.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Book Talk: Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864,’ Marburg University, Germany, 2 May 2022.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Book Talk: Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864,’ Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, 14 April 2022.

Ozan Ozavci,, ‘A New History of the Eastern Question: Imperial, Security, and Civil Wars in Mount Lebanon, 1798-1864,’ British Institute at Ankara and Centre for British Research in the Levant Joint Lecture, 31 March 2022.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘A New History of the Eastern Question,’ Great Power Study Group, Centre for Geopolitics, Cambridge University, 15 March 2022.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Book Talk: Dangerous Gifts: Imperialism, Security, and Civil Wars in the Levant, 1798-1864,’ Europe in the World Research Cluster, Utrecht University, 21 February 2022.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘The Two Wars: Crimea and Mount Lebanon,’ Guest Talk, Leiden University, 6 October 2021.

Ozan Ozavci, 'Imperialism, Security, and Civil Wars in the Levant,’ Guest Talk, Cornell University, 23 September 2021.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Dangerous Gifts,’ in The Global Middle East seminar, U-Globe, Utrecht, 4 October 2019.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘? ???? ?????????: ??????????? ????? ?? ??????? ??????? ? ???????? ?????’, Ahmet Agaoglu Symposium, Baku, 2 October 2019.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘The Red Signature: Mehmed Cavid Bey and Trans-Imperial Banks in the Late Ottoman Empire,” Global Biographies Writers’ Workshop, Copenhagen University, 29 August 2019.

Ozan Ozavci,  ‘A Priceless Grace? The Congress of Vienna, the Ottoman Empire and the Politics of International Law, 1814-5’ Cultures of Security in the Nineteenth Century: Transimperial Perspectives, Utrecht University, 9-10 May 2019.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘A Question of Civilisation: The Sublime Porte, the Great Powers and the 1860 Civil War in Syria,’ Historikertag, Munster University, 27 September 2018. [invited by Professors Eckart Conze and Beatrice de Graaf]

Ozan Ozavci, ‘The Many Lives of a Donme: Mehmed Cavid Bey and the Making of the Modern Middle East,’ Transnational Biographies Workshop, Central European University, Budapest, 2-3 June 2018. [invited by Dr Laura Almagor]

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Imperial Security Culture,’ Kassel University, Neuzeitliches Forschungskolloquium Wintersemester, 22 January 2018 [Invited by Dr Julia Hauser]

Ozan Ozavci, ‘The Imperialism of Security: Conflict in Ottoman Syria in the Nineteenth Century,’ Securing the World: Global Perspectives on Security History in the Nineteenth Century, The Royal Dutch Academy Colloquium, Amsterdam, 25-27 September 2017. [organiser]

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Imperial Security Culture: The Druze-Maronite Civil War and the European Commission on Syria, 1860-62,’ In-Between Empires: Trans-Imperial History in a Global Age, Freie-Universitat Berlin, 15-16 September 2017.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Imperial Security Culture,’ Historicidagen, Utrecht University, 24-26 August 2017.

Ozan Ozavci, Roundtable Discussant,’ Empires after the global turn: Planned Migrations, Colonial Agents and Informal Colonialism, c. 1800- c. 1950, European University Institute, Florence, 1-2 June 2017 [Invited by Professor Lucy Riall] 

Ozan Ozavci, ‘How Everything Began: Meet the Bayars.’ Initiating The Bayar Project Workshop, College de France, Paris, 10 May 2017 [organiser]

Ozan Ozavci,  ‘Empires, Security and Expressions of Modernity in the Russian Caucasus: The Difai Movement.’ Reform and Revolution: Discourses of Modernity in Late Imperial Russia and Beyond, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, 7 April 2017 [invited by Professor Gulnar Kendirbai]

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Le Jeune Turc, Zionism and Liberals in the late Ottoman Empire.’ Liberalism, Jews, Anti-Semitism: the Dialectics of Inclusion, Oxford University, 13-14 March 2017 [Invited by Professor Abigail Green] 

Ozan Ozavci, ‘An Irremovable Stain: Cavid Bey and the Armenian Question.’ Zurich University, 12-14 January 2017. [Invited by Professor Hans-Lukas Kieser] 

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Beyond Borders: Informal Empires, Security and the Syrian Civil Wars, 1860-2016.’ Keynote Speech at The Netherlands Interuniversity School for Islamic Studies Network Day, Leiden University, 27 May 2016 [Invited by Professor Petra de Bruijn]

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Returning the Sense of Security: Fuad Pasha and the European Commission on Syria, 1860-62.’ European Social Science History Conference, Valencia, 30 March 2016.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘A Liberal Unionist? Mehmed Cavid Bey', Ottoman Cataclysms, Zurich University, 30 October 2015 [Invited by Professor Hans-Lukas Kieser]
 
Ozan Ozavci, ‘Les origines intellectuelles du républicanisme.’ EHESS/College de France, Paris, 21 May 2015 [Invited by Professor Nathalie Clayer] 
 
Ozan Ozavci,  ‘Opposition to Authoritarianism in Early Republican Turkey.’ NME Seminars, SOAS, University of London, 10 November 2014 [Invited by Professor Benjamin Fortna] 
 
Ozan Ozavci, ‘Mehmed Djavid Bey the Statesman: The Unionists, the Great Powers and the Armenians.’ The Clash of Empires; World War I and the Middle East, Centre for the Study of the International Relations of the Middle East and North Africa (CIRMENA), Cambridge University, 13-14 June 2014 [Invited by Professor Hakan Yavuz]
 

Ozan Ozavci,  ‘For the People, Despite the People: The Humanist Movement and Civic Identity in Turkey, 1938-1941.’ The Importance of Learning: Liberal Education and Scholarship in Historical Perspective, The 2013 International Society of Intellectual History Conference, Princeton University, New Jersey, 5-7 June 2013. 

Ozan Ozavci,  ‘Cumhuriyetin Entellektüel Kaynaklari.’ DEÜ Politics Seminars, Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, 30 May 2013 [Invited by Professor Nazim Irem].

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Women in Islam and Early Modern Azerbaijani Intelligentsia: Aghayev contra Akhundov.’ 200 Years M. F. Akhundov: Enlightenment, Alphabet and Beyond, Humboldt University, Berlin, 6-7 November 2012.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Rethinking Multiculturalism.’ Baku International Humanitarian Forum, Baku, 30 October- 1 November 2012.

Ozan Ozavci,  ‘Liberalism.’ Sosyal Bilimler Kampi, Gediz University, Izmir, 14 September 2012.

Ozan Ozavci,  ‘Hybrid Liberalisms: The Idea of Liberty and the Individual in Turkey.’ MedWorlds IV: Domino Effects and Hybridization of the Mediterranean, 29 Mayis University in collaboration with The University of California and Bern University, Istanbul, 5-7 September 2012 [Invited by Dr Ozlem Caykent]

Ozan Ozavci, ‘The Arab ‘Spring’ and the 1848 Revolutions in Europe.’ Politics in the Middle East, International Political Academy, Izmir, 7 May 2012.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Ahmet Agaoglu.’ Rousseau et la Turquie Colloque International, Notre Dame de Sion, Istanbul, 2-5 May 2012.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Türkiye’de Liberalizm ve Kamu Ahlâkçilari.’ IIBF Seminars, Izmir University, Izmir, 9 February 2012. 

Ozan Ozavci, ‘An Intellectual History of Ahmet Agaoglu’s Liberalism.’ BRISMES Postgraduate Conference, University of Exeter, Exeter, 3-4 September 2009. 

Ozan Ozavci, ‘Ahmet Agaoglu and Liberal Thought in Turkey.’ Frontiers: Space, Separation and Contact in the Middle East, BRISMES Conference, University of Manchester, Manchester, 4-6 July 2009.

Ozan Ozavci, ‘The French Revolution from a Turkish Perspective.’ Historicising the French Revolution, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, 15-16 November 2007.  

Ozan Ozavci, ‘The Social and Political Thought of Prince Sabahaddin.’ Faiths and Ideologies, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, London, 3 July 2006.