Ottoman BMUN LXVII

Due to the rise and fall of ISIS, the notion of the caliphate has been in the news recently and so I wanted to give you guys a primer on the history and the significance of this notion with reference to the Ottoman Empire, especially since it may play a role in our committee. The caliphate first emerged as an institution in the wake of the death of Prophet Muhammed in 632. Since he did not nominate a successor, the Muslim community (ummah) designated its new leader, known as the ‘khalifa’ or ‘caliph’. However, with the passage of time and the spreading and fracturing of the ummah, the caliphate began to assume a more temporal and less religious significance, while also becoming a title of hereditary transmission, similar to a traditional monarchy. Throughout history, there have been 4 major caliphates: the Rashidun Caliphate (632-661), the Umayyad Caliphate (661-750), the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258) and the Ottoman Empire (1517 onwards). The Ottoman Empire, though nominally ...

The Kurds have inhabited a large region north of the Arabian Peninsula for nearly 3,000 years. They have retained their own language and culture through the rise and fall of various empires and yet have never been considered as an independent nation. Today, in the 21st century, you may have heard of the Kurds and their involvement in the Syrian Civil war, as well as their strong desire to be recognized as an independent state. However, for the purposes of this committee, we will be considering the Kurdish people as they were in 1918 when nationalist thinking was significantly less widespread.  The modern definition of nationalism is tied closely to a desire for sovereignty and independence. This kind of ideology only began to grow in the Kurdish region around the mid-nineteenth century, when other regions in the Ottoman Empire were beginning to seek independence. But to understand why and how this thinking took so long, we need to look back a little earlier....

Hey everyone, Since position papers are almost due (Feb 3rd if you want the Research Award!), I just wanted to make a quick post about the formatting guidelines and our expectations for your papers. Since we are a crisis committee, we have our own unique position paper guidelines, which can be accessed here . It contains all the necessary details regarding the format, rubric, submission guide etc., but feel free to reach out at histlxvii@bmun.org if you have any questions! Following the required format is extremely important, particularly with regards to citations which must be done in MLA format (check this if you need help with MLA). The last thing I want to stress is that position papers are a way for you to structure your research based on the guidelines we have offered and to help with your preparation. While grading, we will be looking for signs that you have thought deeply about the issues at hand, instead of simply regurgitating lists of facts. Refer to the rubric in th...

Hey Everyone! My name is Michael Eliot, and I will be one of your vice chairs for Ottoman Empire Crisis. I am a senior studying Computer Science at UC Berkeley. This will be my 8th year in MUN. I am from Huntington Beach, California. In my free time I mainly do software engineering. My computer science interests have steered towards cryptography and security, but I have done work on projects such as data science, machine learning, and e-commerce. I also love listening to music in my spare time, and primarily listen to rap, hip-hop, and some jazz. Looking forward to meeting you all! If you have any questions email me at meliot@bmun.org, or contact Anish at avankayalapati@bmun.org.

Hello delegates!! My name is Richard Jin, and I am a sophomore pursuing a dual degree in business administration and statistics. This will be my 6th year of MUN and 2nd year in BMUN, and I am incredibly excited to meet all of you at BMUN 67!  I was born in Houston, but I later moved to Shanghai, where I attended an international school. Having spent equal time in the States and China, I experience occasional identity crises and display moderate symptoms of Bye-lingual disorder. In my free time, I enjoy playing the piano, rewatching Star Wars movies, and solving sudoku puzzles. BMUN aside, I am involved with the Undergraduate Finance Association, Tennis at Cal, and Entrepreneurs @ Berkeley. Please reach out if you have any questions! histlxvii@bmun.org(Preferred) or rjin@bmun.org Happy prepping!

We are so excited to have you all at BMUN 67! As a dais, we have put in a lot of work to  make this an amazing committee and we hope you will feel the same way come March! Here is the link to our committee page on the BMUN website. There, you will find the Executive Summary of the topic, the Topic Synopsis, and the Position Paper Guidelines! Reading the Topic Synopsis is  crucial to your understanding of the topic and the direction that we would like the committee to take. Also, you absolutely must follow the position paper guidelines, and note that they have changed significantly since last year (and were updated around New Year's Eve so make sure you have the updated version). Oh, and make sure to watch the Head Chair video too! Good luck researching and if you have any questions, feel free to email me at histlxvii@bmun.org! Best, Anish V

Hello delegates! My name is Mathilde McKeever and I am a freshman at Berkeley, majoring in Bioengineering. I am beyond excited to be chairing this committee at BMUN 67! I went to high school in Albany, a small town right next to Berkeley, but I am original from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I just spent my winter break! In addition to BMUN, I am also in the Biomedical Engineering Society at Berkeley. In my free time, I love to travel, dance, read, and eat anything containing chocolate (see photo of me lovingly staring at hot chocolate). I also love going on random adventures around the Bay with my friends. Please reach out if you have any questions, either to histlxvii@bmun.org or mmckeever@bmun.org. I look forward to getting to know all of you!

Hey everyone! My name is Anish Vankayalapati and I will be your head chair for the Ottoman Empire Historical Crisis committee at BMUN 67! I am a sophomore at UC Berkeley majoring in Computer Science and this will be my 7th year of MUN. I am from Hyderabad, India, although I did live in Los Altos, California for my first half a decade. In my free time, I enjoy playing and watching soccer, reading Stephen King novels and trying to find good Indian restaurants in Berkeley (none so far unfortunately). Outside of BMUN, I am also involved with Political Computer Science @ Berkeley, where I work on CS projects that have a social impact, and I also work as an IM Soccer referee. Looking forward to meeting all of you and feel free to shoot me an email at histlxvii@bmun.org (preferred) or avankayalapati@bmun.org if you have any questions! Also, here are some fun/terrified pics of me!