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The article critically examines the concept of genocide, particularly in the context of the Armenian Genocide, suggesting the term "permanent security" as a more encompassing alternative. It delves into the historical background of the Armenian Genocide, exploring the complexities and various factors that contributed to the mass killings. The text highlights the emotional, political, and security-driven motivations behind the targeting of Armenians and Assyrians by Young Turk leaders in the late Ottoman Empire. It emphasizes the importance of analyzing and preventing genocide as a distinct crime against humanity, separate from other forms of violence. [Extracted from the article]

Western missionaries became important eyewitnesses of the 1915 Armenian genocide, and many reported on the events. This article analyses witness reporting from a biographical and gendered perspective, taking into account the significance of studying local activism and transnational networks in a humanitarian setting. Taking the witness accounts of the Swedish missionary Alma Johansson as an example, I discuss the conditions and strategies for women to reach out and form opinions in a transnational setting. I also analyse how gender shaped the humanitarian message. Using a narrative analysis, the article further explores the dual motives of the witness accounts of Alma Johansson—the aims of public resistance and private recovery. She wanted to protest openly against the violence and the perceived silence of the world concerning the genocide, at the same time as having to work on her personal trauma. The article assumes that witness narratives can be a catalyst of change, and that these two motives, resistance and recovery, were deeply connected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Armenian Genocide, the Ottoman Empire's Young Turk government forcibly transferred and assimilated thousands of Armenian children into Turkish society. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, Armenian and international bodies and individuals began to liberate the transferred children. However, they encountered resistance to child identification from both Turkish authorities and some of the children themselves. This study examines the efforts to bring back those child-survivors, many of whom, after being rescued, found it difficult to accept their Armenian identities following their traumatic ordeal. To analyse in what ways the liberated child-survivors were educated, this study investigates Tun magazine, prepared by the orphans of the Jbeil orphanage, and presents its history. Tun is a unique example of a student press that was guided by teachers, with the aim of reinforcing Armenianness in the students and returning them to their nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the exhibition "Janyak: Armenian Art of Knots and Loops" curated by Gassia Armenian at the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles. The exhibition showcases needlelace works made by Armenian genocide survivor Marie Pilibossian, highlighting the cultural significance and intricate craftsmanship of the pieces. It explores the historical context of Armenian women's needlelace traditions, emphasizing the resilience and cultural memory embedded in the art form. The exhibition serves as a tribute to Pilibossian's perseverance and a revival of interest in Armenian needlelace among younger generations in the diaspora. [Extracted from the article]

The text discusses the late/post-Ottoman region of difference, encompassing southeastern Europe, Turkey, and the Arab East from the mid-1800s to the 1940s. It explores how the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire led to the creation of a region characterized by volatile differences and joint contests. The region was influenced by two processes: sovereignty contests and state-building impacts, which were intertwined due to the empire's premodern religious-ethnic heterogeneity becoming a modern issue. The text highlights the region's unique characteristics, short-lived nature, and transformative rhythm, offering insights into modern late/post-imperial region formation. [Extracted from the article]

In the wake of the 100th anniversary, this paper examines the shift in Armenian genocide commemorations materializing in the USA for the 50th anniversary of the 1915 genocide. Explored are ritual aspects of the commemorative practices undertaken to pay homage to its victims. Accentuated is the 1965 landmark year during which Armenians from diasporas around the world (including the American at the heart of this analysis) took to the streets, for the first time, to demand Turkey's recognition of the Medz Yeghern. Through the prism of two newspapers published in English (Hairenik Weekly and The Armenian Mirror-Spectator), the author explores this ethnic mobilization of the Armenian-American community with its public protest against the decades-long injustice and silence. Unveiled are the inner workings of the commemoration planning, as well as the ways by which Armenian-Americans narrated their tragedy to the host community (in which they were already well-settled). The article depicts the preparations for and the semicentennial itself as the moment of formation of an ethnic body politic – one transcending intra-ethnic competition and dispute even as the group remained formally divided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Turkey, for at least three decades, a plurality of actors has been producing counter narratives of the Armenian Genocide. These have challenged the official discourse, revealing the old taboo that underpinned the national republican identity and reconceiving it as a contested history that interrogates the country's democratic status. Here, it is argued that this recent history of counter narratives has constituted a trauma process aimed at transforming public memory and national identity. In particular, various commemoration ceremonies were held in Istanbul between 2005 and 2023, with counter ceremonies and a revised official narrative expressed through ceremony that was developed in response. Given that these commemorations occupy a marginal space in the literature on the Armenian question and the Genocide, the first aim of this article is to reconstruct them through the perspective of cultural performance. Then, it is argued that the commemorations not only have an opaque status in the cultural trauma literature but also contribute to the trauma process through their creation of specific trauma narratives of the Genocide. Finally, the paper uses the example of commemorative performances in Istanbul to contribute to the debate on the reasons for the success or failure of a trauma process. Methodologically, an analysis of journal archives and materials produced by carrier groups is extended by ten in‐depth interviews and notes taken during participant observation in Istanbul between 2010 and 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of epistemic reparation in the context of genocide, focusing on the Armenian genocide of 1915-1917 as a case study. It argues that victims of genocide are entitled to epistemic reparation, which includes recognition of their epistemic standing and the correction of genocidal epistemologies. The article emphasizes the importance of restoring victims' epistemic contributions and addressing the systematic ignorance that enables denialism and perpetuates injustice. It suggests that the right to know should be extended to include the right to be recognized as authoritative epistemic contributors, highlighting the need for restorative epistemic justice in the aftermath of genocides. [Extracted from the article]

The Humanity Monument, a gigantic monument in Kars, a northeastern border city of Turkey, was intended to be visible from the Armenian side of the border and supposed to send messages of peace, apology, and reconciliation, implicitly alluding to the Armenian genocide of 1915. It depicted two halves of a human, or two humans, looking at each other in the eye. However, the then prime minister Erdoğan called it a "monster" in a public speech, leading to the monument's demolition. He then suggested that his comments were just aesthetic judgments free of political convictions, echoing the familiar paradigm of "aestheticizing politics": covering over or obscuring a political motive ("the ideological") through the aesthetic. Although a useful understanding, this reduces both aesthetics and politics to ideology and establishes a binary between the sober critic and the a(n)esthetized masses. Instead, drawing upon Rancière's notion of the aesthetic as what disturbs "the distribution of the sensible," that is, the partition of roles, territories, parts, and visibilities, this essay reads the story of the monument as a disturbance of the national distribution of the sensible, pointing to the ways it embodies and reveals the monstrosity of the modern state founded upon the event of genocide and further complicates the distinctions between critic and masses, self and other, and gaze and object that the aesthetic ordering of the nation-state relies on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decades of the Ottoman Empire were characterised by mass violence that saw millions, mostly Ottoman Christians, perishing and forcibly moved within Ottoman borders, or expelled out. While it is generally accepted (except by Turkey and pro-Turkish commentators) that what befell the Armenians in 1915 and 1916 was a Genocide, in recent years many have taken to calling what befell other Ottoman Christians as a genocide as well, referring to a genocide of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians from 1915 to 1923, and some even to a 30-year genocide. This essay attempts to scrutinise this recent trend, by contrasting what happened to the Armenians and the Greeks during the last years of the Ottoman Empire and during the rise of Nationalist Turkey, namely from 1915 to 1923. It first distinguishes between the terms genocide, genocidal and ethnic cleansing. It then establishes that population numbers are pivotal to genocide, as those killed and those that survived are important to evidence intent and application. The article then delves into the cases, comparing and contrasting across the criteria of intent and destruction processes, and the number of dead and survived. Finally, the article answers why the Armenian case (1915–16) is a Genocide, but not the Greek case (1915–23) or that of the Armenian case (1919–23). This article is important for the overall special issue on mass deportation because it clarifies the differences between various genocidal processes, including mass deportation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkish support for Azerbaijan in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war has renewed long-dormant Armenian perceptions of a neighboring threat. Turkey provided direct military support that helped its ally reconquer the ethnic Armenian exclave, leading to the forced exodus of most inhabitants after a final defeat in 2023. Continuing open hostilities stalled efforts to normalize Armenian–Turkish relations and reopen the border following the 2020 war. For Armenians both in Armenia and in the diaspora, including those living in Turkey, the war prompted comparisons to the 1915 Armenian Genocide and perceptions that a historical enemy was once again actively aggressive in a region that had long been considered part of Moscow's sphere of influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sarkis Zabunyan, one of the prominent figures in Turkish contemporary art, was selected to represent the Turkish pavilion in the Venice Biennale in 2015. Since 2015 was the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, a genocide that has not been recognized by the Turkish Republic for more than a hundred years, and Sarkis being an Istanbul Armenian born and raised in Turkey, the selection caused quite a stir and sparked a public discussion on art and collective healing when it was announced. As a result, the catalog of Sarkis's work Respiro was subjected to censorship. Through this censorship case, this article scrutinizes various reconciliation discourses developed in Turkey in the early 2000s regarding the Armenian Genocide and how contemporary art could possibly engage/disengage with those discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I study memories of the Allied occupation of Maraş, Mersin and İzmir that were published in local newspapers between the 1920s and 1960s. The narratives were published when Muslims had re-gained political hegemony and forced both the occupying armies and most local non-Muslims to leave the country for good. The texts I use were published in the dailies Sebilürrreşad in 1921 (in Istanbul), in Ahenk in 1926, in Ege Ekspres in 1958 (both in İzmir), and in the late 1960s in Kuvayi Milliye, a monthly veterans' magazine published in Mersin. Their authors were ordinary insofar as they were relatively low ranking clerks, former reserve officers, and readers of the İzmir papers. As literate Muslim males able to pen their own memories, however, they certainly held a certain degree of privilege over less educated and illiterate people, women and non-Muslims. In order to analyse their narratives, I use concepts developed by Maurice Halbwachs [Halbwachs, M., 1992 (1939) On Collective Memory: Edited, Translated, and with an Introduction by Lewis A. Coser. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, collective memory] and Jan and Aleida Assmann [Assmann, A., and Assmann, J. 1994. Das Gestern im heute. Medien und soziales Gedächtnis. In: K. Merten, S. J. Schmidt and S. Weischenberg, eds. Die Wirklichkeit der Medien: Eine Einführung in die Kommunikationswissenschaft. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 114–140.]. The loss of Ottoman sovereignty also brought about that of Muslim supremacy, which privileged Ottoman Muslims experienced as a massive threat for themselves. As I show throughout, all the stories recount experiences of humiliation and distress that resulted from the reversal of social roles under occupation: Being Muslim was no longer an advantage or even a privilege: the privileged had become ordinary. Memory was gradually securalised, and the use of allusions facilitated forgetting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the borders of modern-day Syria emerged as a result of partition between two imperial powers, France and Great Britain, in the aftermath of World War I, neither the transition from Empire to nation-state nor the delimitation of its borders was straightforward and immediate. The Ottoman-era connections, cooperation, and trust between various religious, ethnic, and social classes were retained beyond these borders. The creation of the first refugee settlements in the Syrian Jazira is one such case in point. Drawing on a new corpus of primary sources; the memoirs and writings of Karen Jeppe, a leading figure behind the first such settlements, as well as the Armenian language press of Aleppo and Beirut, this article argues that the first rural settlements created for the Armenian refugees in the Syrian desert were achieved as a result of local cooperation. Contrary to well-established claims that consider these settlements as a colonial undertaking, this article demonstrates instead how collaboration and trust relations between two unlikely partners – Armenian refugees from Urfa, and the local Arab sheikh from the Anezi tribe, were behind the first organised settlements, achieved through the mediation of Karen Jeppe. This article further argues that such cooperation between the ordinary Ottomans was fundamental in the success of the first settlements that did not produce violent clashes between the locals and the new settlers. Instead, the success of the first settlements was skilfully exploited by the French mandatory authorities later to serve as a model for their future, large-scale refugee settlement schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relying on a biographical approach that reconstructs the life and work of Johannes [Hovhanness/Յովհաննէս] Jakob [Hagop/Յակոբ] Manissadjian [Manisacıyan/Մանիսաճեան] (1862–1942), a highly successful scientist at the Anatolia College (Merzifon/Marsovan/Մարզվան), who established a meteorological station and a natural history museum with an extensive collection of specimens, the paper traces the routes of disappearance, dispersal and ruination of indigenous lives, people, and knowledge within the context of the Armenian genocide. Drawing on documents from Ottoman, German, and American archives, I stress the potential of biographical methods to study the processes and structures of mass violence targeting the Ottoman Armenians, as well as to foreground the agency and subjectivity of genocide survivors. The article also focuses on post-genocide scientific (dis)engagements of Manissadjian in light of Theodor W. Adorno's 'after Auschwitz' discussions and from the perspective of indigenous knowledge production. In particular, his two 'archival acts' in the post-genocide context, the 'Catalogue' of the collection of the Anatolia College Museum that he prepared as 'the former Curator' and his small pamphlet entitled Proverbs of Turkey, which provided an ethnographic portrait of Anatolia, were his humble acts of saving a treasure trove of knowledge that was in danger of becoming debris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Israel's involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It discusses Israel's military aid to Azerbaijan and its strategic interests in the region, particularly its concerns about Iran's influence. The article also examines the complex relationships between Israel, Turkey, and Iran, focusing on the Holocaust denial and the Armenian Genocide. It highlights the role of memory politics and the challenges of aligning the interests of the Armenian diaspora with those of the Armenian government. Additionally, the article discusses Israel's decision not to intervene or condemn Azerbaijan's ethnic cleansing in Artsakh in 2023. [Extracted from the article]

This article centers on the life of the late Ottoman and early Turkish Republican bureaucrat Mustafa Reşat to investigate how he turned into a genocide technocrat. It examines his career and decisions at critical junctions and depicts him as an outstanding representative of a category of perpetrators who prepare the propitious infrastructure, ground, and climate for such large-scale violence as the Armenian Genocide. By shifting the perspective to the type, scale, and level of perpetrating violence, this paper sheds light on how Mustafa Reşat used his administrative and political knowledge and experience to serve Talat Pasha, who was already organizing the deportation and extermination of Armenians. Drawing upon hitherto unmined sources such as his memoirs, it demonstrates how an ultranationalist and dedicated Ottoman bureaucrat played a pivotal role in determining the main contours of the Turkish state’s mindset on the “Armenian and Kurdish Questions”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the depiction of the Armenian Genocide in Turkish textbooks and examines correlations between changes in Turkish political dynamics and their impact on these educational resources. It analyzes concepts, methodologies, and linguistic constructs used to describe the '1915 incident,' tracking their evolution from 1980 to the present. The study also considers how events like the 1980 coup d'état, rising nationalism, and the Islamization of politics influenced textbook content, alongside changes during Turkey's bid for European Union membership. Despite a stated aim of historical accuracy in these textbooks, the research hypothesizes that their content is significantly shaped by the prevailing political climate. This work provides insights into the complex relationship between politics and historical representation in educational materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perpetration of the Armenian Genocide did not originate as the direct implementation of ideological convictions; rather, stemmed from an amalgamation of certain theories adjusted to political and economic developments in the Ottoman Empire in tandem with the desire to transform a multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire into a Turkish nation-state. Within this nation-building project, the Young Turk's government chose to exterminate the indigenous Armenian minority, using forced transfer and the assimilation of children and young women into Turkish society as one of the methods of destroying the Armenian community. This fits well into the overall Turkish nationalist ideology, as women and children were deemed as not having a transmutable ethnic identity: while a woman's identity could be discounted, the identity of children could be reprogrammed by stripping them of their Armenian identity and imposing a new identity through change of personal data, religious conversion and education. Building on existing research, this article first presents the ideological foundations of Turkish nation-building and the implementation of the Armenian Genocide to achieve this end, focusing on the forcible transfer and assimilation which selected Armenian children endured. Informed by both published and unpublished memories of transferred children, the second part of the article reconstructs the actual process and methods of Turkification used in several state-run orphanages while also presenting the resistance of Armenian children to these efforts. This article expands the number of known state orphanages and widens the geographic scope of where Turkification practices took place, thus substantiating a general assimilation policy of the CUP towards some selected Armenian children and arguing that forced transfer and Turkification were used as a method of destroying the Armenian community. It also enters new testimonies into public circulation that help to better understand the role of forced transfer during the Armenian Genocide and its implications on the survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ethnographic research on an urban regeneration project targeting the historically Armenian quarter of a provincial capital in the Kurdish parts of Turkey, the article engages with two related, but separate strands of anthropological scholarship on the 'fragmented' nature of sovereignty to think through the relation of sovereignty and extraction. It does so, firstly, in relation to contemporary transformations of statecraft under conditions of financialised neoliberalism and authoritarianism, and secondly, in relation to the historically contingent constellation of property relations, racialisation and violence in the transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish nation-state. The first leads me to argue that 'fragmentation' emerges here as a project internal to the practices of statecraft, that is, not primarily driven by market mechanisms, nor as something that extends beyond the nation-state. The historical account is offered as a case that further extends our scholarly archive of modern sovereignty as a global form intimately entangled with extraction and dispossession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most prominent issue influencing Turkish‐Armenian relations is the international recognition of the Armenian genocide. However, there is a notable absence of empirical analyses regarding the perceptions of the genocide among the Turkish population. This study aims to fill this scholarly gap by exploring, for the first time, the perspectives of Turkish Jews. It analyses evidence collected from interviews conducted with 14 Turkish Jews, utilising Stanley Cohen's (2001) theoretical framework, which aids in delineating significant factors by a categorisation of types of acceptance and denial. The findings highlight a diversity of responses linked to political attitudes, which can be broadly categorised into Kayades and Avlaremoz mindsets. They also show that Turkish Jews' views on the Holocaust influence how they perceive the Armenian genocide. Additionally, the results indicate that Cohen's approach is useful in explaining non‐denying responses. In conclusion, the study argues that Turkish Jews' perspectives appear to be strongly related to their stance towards the Turkish state and the Holocaust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The United States and the Armenian Genocide: History, Memory, Politics" by Julien Zarifian is described as a seminal text on the US relationship with the Armenian Genocide. The book provides a meticulous historical analysis of events and primary and secondary resources, as well as interviews with decision makers and lobbyists. It explores the relationship between the US government, society, and media with the Armenian Massacres of 1915-1916, and highlights how US presidents repeatedly failed to recognize the genocide. The book also examines the influence of Turkey on US policy and the efforts of individual members of Congress and civil society to change the US policy of nonrecognition. Overall, the book is recommended for scholars and students interested in the Armenian Genocide, genocide denial, and the role of civil society in pursuing change. [Extracted from the article]

AbstractScholars often associate the political instrumentalisation of memory with right-wing populists. But this focus somewhat obscures the fact that elected officials across the political spectrum instrumentalise memory in their efforts to shape perceptions and influence behaviours. In fact, the success of memory laws often depends on the fact that MPs from diverse political parties support the same projects not only to validate their own views but also to delegitimise those of others. I refer to the conflicts resulting from different political actors’ support of the same memory laws as embedded memory wars. Based on documentary analysis and fieldwork interviews, this article examines embedded memory wars through the illustrative case of the 2019 recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Italy's Chamber of Deputies. In supporting Armenian Genocide recognition, Italian MPs from both right and left-wing parties developed competing narratives to debate contemporary topics related to European integration, multiculturalism, and Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Armenian Diaspora and Stateless Power: Collective Identity in the Transnational 20th Century" is a comprehensive edited volume that explores the role of diaspora elites in shaping Armenian collective identity across various post-genocide diaspora communities. The book, which emerged from a conference honoring diaspora studies scholar Khachig Tölölyan, offers a diverse range of case studies from scholars in the United States, Europe, and Armenia. Through theoretical innovations and rich case studies, the volume challenges traditional state-centric models of diaspora studies and provides valuable insights for scholars of diaspora and Armenian studies." [Extracted from the article]

This article investigates Hasanchelebi, a key station on the Sebastia deportation routes, as the principal site for the systematic extermination of deported Armenian men from Sebastia and surrounding regions during the Armenian Genocide. Drawing on Armenian survivor testimonies and corroborating Ottoman documents, the study reconstructs the phases of atrocities, beginning with the plunder and abuse of women and culminating in the mass arrest and execution of men. It highlights the strategic role of Hasanchelebi in the genocidal machinery and demonstrates the unique opportunities provided by Armenian sources for documenting and understanding the Armenian Genocide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "The Politics of Naming the Armenian Genocide: Language, History, and 'Medz Yeghern'" by Vartan Matiossian explores the complex history behind naming the late Ottoman state violence against Armenians. Matiossian delves into the evolution of the term "Medz Yeghern" and its implications for the political representation of the Armenian destruction. The book critically examines the misuse and mistranslation of "Medz Yeghern" and its relationship to the term "genocide," shedding light on the importance of language in shaping collective memory and historical understanding. Matiossian's work contributes significantly to the understanding of the Armenian Genocide and inspires further research into its memory and commemorative practices. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines the role of Mihran Latif, an Armenian immigrant and a key figure among the elite of Rio de Janeiro, in supporting survivors of the Armenian Genocide and promoting the Armenian cause in Brazil. Using a micro-historical approach, the study explores Latif's personal trajectory within the broader context of the Armenian diaspora in Rio, a community often overshadowed by the larger Armenian presence in São Paulo. The research draws on primary sources, including immigration dossiers, naturalization records from the Brazilian National Archive's SIAN system, and periodicals. These sources provide insights into the solidarity networks Latif helped establish, illustrating how local elites mobilized resources to support genocide survivors and preserve cultural identity. By focusing on Latif's initiatives and those of other key figures, the article sheds light on the mechanisms of community building, the intersection of citizenship and diasporic identity, and the significance of elite involvement in postgenocide solidarity efforts. This analysis contributes to the historiography of the Armenian diaspora in Brazil, offering a fresh perspective on the role of elites in shaping collective memory and identity. The article challenges the dominant focus on the São Paulo community, emphasizing the importance of individual narratives in understanding the broader dynamics of the diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Armenian death toll and the demographic impact of the 1909 Adana massacres. It analyzes statistics on the number of Armenians who perished in these massacres and the distribution of casualties across various regions of Cilicia, using primary source evidence. Additionally, the article explores discrepancies between Ottoman and Armenian statistical data on the number of victims, noting that the figures reported by the Ottoman government are approximately 4 to 5 times lower than those reported by Armenian ecclesiastical authorities. The comparison of Ottoman and Armenian statistics before and after the massacres reveals that these killings did not result in a relative decrease in the permanent Armenian population within the Adana Vilayet--the region most severely affected by the massacres. This outcome can be attributed to the following factors: 1. Based on the most reliable data, it is estimated that approximately 15,000 to 18,000 Armenians were killed during the 1909 Adana massacres. Of these, at least one-third--between 5,000 and 7,000, though estimates may range from 8,000 to 10,000, constituting up to half of the total death toll--were labor migrants. Consequently, the demographic impact of the massacres affected both the Armenians of Cilicia and those who had migrated to Cilicia from Western Armenia and other regions of the Ottoman Empire. 2. Following the massacres, Adana and other regions of Cilicia quickly returned to a relatively normal economic activity, thanks to substantial foreign investments in infrastructure (notably the Berlin-Baghdad railway), industry, trade, and agriculture. The population loss in the city and Sanjak of Adana--the areas most affected by the massacres--was rapidly offset by a new influx of Armenian labor migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of self-defense battles of victim groups during genocides is no less important than the study of the crimes themselves. The purpose of this article is to study the self-defense battles of Armenians during the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire and the Yazidi Genocide carried out by ISIS in the Iraqi province of Sinjar (Shangal). In particular, the article provides a comparative analysis between the self-defense battles of Mount Musa and Mount Sinjar (Shangal). The study combines historical-comparative and analytical methods to achieve the stated goals and objectives. The article has used both primary and secondary sources, as well as interdisciplinary research by specialists. As a result of the comparative analysis conducted in the article, both common features and differences were revealed between the self-defense battles of Mount Musa and Mount Sinjar during the Armenian Genocide and the Yazidi Genocide. Despite the almost century-long period separating these two cases, there are certain similarities and significant differences between the self-defense of the Armenians and the Yazidis. To emphasize the rejection of genocides in the world, I dedicate this article to the 90th anniversary of The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arshag Chobanian's extensive article "La nation Arménienne et son oevres culturelle" published in 1945 is dedicated to the Armenian Genocide, committed by the leaders of the Young Turks. They chose the following solution for the Armenian Question - Armenia without Armenians. It cites many testimonies of contemporaries, which are full of terrifying facts, and shows us the brutality of the Turkish government. It makes an accent on many glorious facts of the historical past of the Armenian nation, which confirm the most honorable role of Armenia in the history of mankind. It is shown that, although the Armenian inhabitants of Western Armenia were exterminated, they continued their historical course on a territory much smaller than their historical motherland, and were revived. There are many facts about how great the role of Armenians was in developing Turkey in the fields of culture, industry and especially architecture. I dedicate this article to the 90th anniversary of the publication of the heroic novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh where an episode of Armenian's self-defence stuggle against the Genocide of Armenians is skillfully depicted due to Franz Werfel's humanitarian impulses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a tribute to the 90th anniversary of Franz Werfel's renowned novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. Borrowing Roland Barthes' approach to texts - regarding their function and effects - and his explanation of writerly texts (scriptible), I see The Forty Days of Musa Dagh as one such text that, according to Barthes, is not a product but a production perpetually present, continuing to force the reader to participate, ponder and find a meaning or meanings, an entrance, among the plurality of entrances, an opening into the text. Ninety years after the publication of Franz Werfel's literary masterpiece, there are still discussions ongoing and new insights being added. In my presentation, I will open my own way into the metamorphic perception of this timeless artistic creation by Diasporan Armenians and the world and focus on its function as the embodiment of the Armenian spirit of resistance to injustice, as a tool against the Turkish denial of the Armenian Genocide - the Turkish hysteria against this novel and repression of European governments to denounce it is further proof of its power - its effect on the self-realization and reawakening of the generations of Armenians on the verge of assimilation. I have often spoken and written about the impact of genocide literature on the understanding of the scope of the calamity and the universal truth that lies at the roots of factual writings and documents. The Forty Days of Musa Dagh is the most expressive voice in the history of the Armenian Genocide, an unequivocal representation of the horrifying reality, the prototype of the crime against humanity, ultimately playing a major role in influencing and inspiring Rafael Lemkin to devise the word "genocide". I will point to why and how about 312 passages totalling 1062 lines, that is 11% of the original was omitted in the first English translation and reinstated in the new, 2012 version. The ensuing enthusiastic salutation of this new publication is representative of Diasporan Armenians' continuing devotion to the book and the author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the heroic novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh created by great Austrian writer and humanist Franz Werfel. With this novel Franz Werfel created a literary monument to the Armenian people. Werfel's inspiration from his journey to Palestine and his encounter with Armenian orphans in Damascus are well known. Less known are his cultural-critical-philosophical essays that Werfel gave as lectures in the 1930s, framing his work on The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. These texts are densely formulated, often without references or plain argumentation. But they hold insights into Werfel's moral demands on a poet, broaching that issue in the eras of communism, fascism, and genocide. This paper creates a moral-aesthetic profile that traces Werfel's socially critical remarks with his view of the task of a poet and contrasts them with another contemporary view of a poet, that of Rainer Maria Rilke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into the memoirs of Armenian Genocide survivors in Italy, examining how, despite the immense emotional toll, these individuals eventually found the strength to document their suffering. It explores the ways in which they navigated the silence surrounding their trauma, ultimately putting pen to paper to share the horrors they witnessed. These memoirs serve as crucial testimonies, offering the world invaluable insights into the atrocities of the genocide and ensuring that these stories, once buried in silence, are preserved for future generations. The paper also considers the cultural and psychological barriers that survivors faced, as well as the profound importance of memory in shaping historical understanding. The idea of this article was born in me in connection with the 90th anniversary of the novel The Forty Days of Mount Musa by Franz Werfel, a great supporter of humanity and peace and an unwavering critic and rejecter of genocidal acts because the lessons conveyed to us by the survivors' memoirs are instructive and deserve attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experience of genocide usually locks the mouths of the victims' descendants for two generations. It is usually communicated in the third or grandchildren's generation. The literary expression of this externalization is a prose that oscillates between fiction and factography, which emerged already decades ago in the large Armenian diaspora communities of the USA and France and is now very widespread. Peter Balakian's Black Dogs of Fate and Micheline Aharonian Marcom's genocide trilogy are probably the most internationally known examples. In Germany, the evolution was considerably delayed. There is no quantitatively large Armenian diaspora here. The community of around 60,000 people is also heterogeneous in terms of their countries of origin. Most of them originally came from Turkey; in the meantime, numerous Armenians from the post-Soviet space have joined them. The Young Turks' genocide of 1915/6 was first addressed in German by authors of Jewish origin, namely Franz Werfel and, after WW2, Edgar Hilsenrath. Since 2019, four novels by authors of Armenian descent have been published: Katerina Poladjan's Hier sind Löwen (2019), Laura Cwiertnia's Auf der Straße heißen wir anders (2022), Marc Sinan's Gleißendes Licht (2023) and Corinna Kulenkamp''s Aprikosenzeit, dunkel (2023). With the exception of K. Poladjan's novel, these are all debut novels, which is at the same time indicative of the importance of the topic for the authors. The genre hybridity of these works, which combine the features of family, coming-to-age and travel novels, is likewise characteristic. As a subgenre of German-language post-migrant prose, these novels are about the authors' or their protagonists' confrontation with their hybrid descent from Armenian-German or Turkish-Armenian homes, about identity and belonging, as well as the confrontation with the post-Soviet state of Armenia, which remains alien and incomprehensible to the authors or their protagonists, just as the acceptance of the genocide as an obligation to remember and a legacy seems difficult to bear. In this article, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the heroic novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, I intend to describe the peculiarities and weaknesses of the recent post-genocidal remembrance prose in the German language on the basis of the four novels mentioned above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the heroic novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. One of the most discussed and influential genocides globally is the Armenian Genocide which has been explored in journalistic, academic and artistic ways. Despite war-time censorship, the mass deportations and killings of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War One was covered extensively and graphically by the international press. Such atrocities became a catalyst for the emergence of the important analytic terms of 'crimes against humanity' and 'genocide', along with the extension of the concept of 'war crimes'. These three terms constitute key conceptual aspects in international criminal law, history and the social sciences. In addition to new analytical frameworks seeking to portray the magnitude of mass atrocity crimes, we also have witnessed personal accounts within an Arts and Humanities format. The Arts have often explored the personal costs of war, genocide and their extended aftermath. Franz Werfel's historical novel "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh" was an exemplary example and its international influence was extensive. Forms of coverage and commentary on genocide can include a range of approaches from journalistic accounts, academic historical writings, memoirs, museums, social science theorizing to various aspects of the Arts, such as novels, plays, poetry, film, paintings and music. While detached academic accounts are important to develop our analytical understanding; more engaged personal artistic forms of expression can be profoundly influential in fostering empathy and sympathy towards the victims. The Arts can be powerful forms of personal connection. In the tradition of Franz Werfel's novel, an overview of a variety of works in the Arts about the Armenian Genocide will be discussed. Together, the different approaches of i) journalistic first-impressions, ii) the academic analytical mind and iii) the Arts' passionate heart can help us to more effectively remember, understand, sympathize and educate about genocides. It is useful to employ a variety of ways of reaching potential bystanders to remember, understand and become more engaged to overcome the devastating impact of genocide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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During the extermination process of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire in the World War I, there were two related, but dynamically different forms of violence at work. The first of these can be termed "top-down" violence, in the form of government policies put into practice by the ruling Union and Progress Party through the decisions of its Central Committee. The other form, "bottom-up" violence, was perpetrated by local forces who took advantage of the possibilities and opportunities created by wartime conditions and central government decisions. The target of both types was the population of Ottoman Christians, and the Armenians, first and foremost. The origins of the "top-down" violence are to be found in the century of "accumulated experience" of the Ottoman regime in dealing with various Christian populations within its European territories and their demands for greater economic, social, and political rights, as well as the Great Power intervention on their behalf. Against this background, the Armenian genocide can be seen as a "preventive measure". Its main purpose was the search for "permanent security", and in this sense the article acts as a case study based on the theses found in Dirk Moses' book The Problems of Genocide. As for the phenomenon of "bottom-up" violence, the article also presents a number of previously unpublished documents that give hints as to the role played by different groups—especially the Kurds in the Armenian genocide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally perceived as a historical enemy, Turkey was 'rediscovered' in Armenia after it actively supported Azerbaijan in the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Nagorno-Karabakh. This article traces some of the cultural-ideational reverberations of Turkey's 'return' within Armenian society. It argues that the war was a (re-)formative moment since it simultaneously resulted in the emergence of new meanings and the revival of traditional ones. It brought the 'distant' neighbour into Armenians' geographical/geopolitical imaginations, reshaping the meaning of Turkey and of the larger region for them. But it also reinforced long-established complex semantics of the ethnonym 'Turk', setting the stage for its instrumentalisation in internal politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars often emphasize how right-wing political actors in Europe use memory laws to undermine democratic traditions and revise historical accounts. But a broad range of political actors (with diverse motivations) support memory laws. Synthesizing research in international political sociology and memory politics, this analysis examines the relational and social practices of diplomats from small states and the creative strategies of center-left political insiders in the creation and passage of memory laws. Based on data collected in the Czech Republic, the article investigates how relational and social dynamics, in part, inspired members of parliament (from the Czech Social Democratic Party) to insert Armenian Genocide recognition into memory laws about the Holocaust and Second World War in the Chamber of Deputies (2017) and the Senate (2020) – a strategy I refer to as memory fusion. In developing the framework of memory fusion, however, the findings also explore how Turkish diplomats use a similar strategy to pursue their own goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle East" by Samuel Dolbee is a significant contribution to the study of the Middle East's environmental and political history, focusing on the remaking of the region in the late Ottoman Empire era. The book explores the Jazira region, shedding light on its complex history and the impact of locusts on the area's inhabitants. While the book offers valuable insights, some tensions arise from the author's emphasis on the entangled relationship between humans and locusts, which may overshadow deeper layers of analysis. Overall, Dolbee's work is a compelling exploration of the region's history and the role of locusts in shaping its environmental and political landscape. [Extracted from the article]

"Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle East" by Samuel Dolbee explores the relationship between locust migration and human migrations in the Jazira region during the late Ottoman and post-Ottoman periods. Dolbee argues that locusts were seen as pests, much like the unwanted ethnic minorities and relocated Armenians in the region. The book highlights the Jazira as a misunderstood imperial frontier and challenges the perception of it as a desert. It follows a chronological structure, discussing Ottoman notions of the Jazira, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the First World War, and the subsequent colonial period. Dolbee's work contributes to the field of environmental history and sheds light on the complex history of the Jazira and its inhabitants. [Extracted from the article]

Armenian (or , /hɑjeˈɾen/, ISO 639-1 hy) comprises an independent branch of the Indo-European language family.1 Its earliest attested ancestor is Classical Armenian in the fifth century CE (see Godel 1975; Thomson 1989; DeLisi 2015; Macak 2016). Modern Armenian is classified into two dialect families: Eastern Armenian (ISO 639-3 hye) and Western Armenian (ISO 639-3 hyw). Eastern Armenian is spoken in modern-day Armenia, and large speaker communities also exist in Georgia, Russia and Iran (shown in Figure 1). Western Armenian was historically spoken in the Ottoman Empire, but now includes varieties spoken throughout the Armenian diaspora in the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas (Donabédian 2018). There are substantial Western Armenian speaker communities in Turkey (Istanbul), Lebanon (Beirut), Syria (Aleppo, Damascus), California (Fresno, Los Angeles County), France (Marseilles), Australia (Sydney) and Argentina (Buenos Aires). There are also recent diaspora communities of Eastern Armenian speakers in California (Karapetian 2014), as well as communities of Western Armenian speakers in Armenia who escaped the Armenian genocide during World War I, who repatriated after World War II, or who fled the ongoing Syrian civil war. UNESCO lists Western Armenian as an endangered language in Turkey, and there are significant language promotion efforts in many diaspora communities that are intended to combat declining use by speaker generations born in the Americas and Europe (Al-Bataineh 2015; Chahinian & Bakalian 2016). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elyse Semerdjian's book, "Remnants: Embodied Archives of the Armenian Genocide," provides a nuanced and intersectional approach to studying the Armenian Genocide. The book explores the themes of gender, sexuality, agency, and resistance within the context of the genocide. Semerdjian draws on a wide range of sources, including memoirs, letters, newspapers, and oral histories, to challenge traditional archival biases and amplify subaltern voices. The book also examines the ways in which the body is used as a site of violence and resistance, and explores the lasting impact of the genocide on Armenian identity and memory. Overall, "Remnants" offers a fresh perspective on the Armenian Genocide and its aftermath, and contributes to ongoing discussions in Armenian Studies and beyond. [Extracted from the article]

This article reconstructs the shrouded career of undercover reporter Natalie de Bogory (mostly from 1911–1922) to illustrate how reporters collaborated with public-private networks to regulate real or perceived crime and extend the reach of the security state, before the practice later expanded within the FBI. De Bogory was twice a guide. Undercover for newspapers, she escorted readers through an urban working-class underworld of dance, sex, and employed single women. Her journalism, however, obscured her more covert work. For private reformers who partnered with city officials, she investigated social issues, including allegations of "White slavery," the alleged sex trafficking of immigrant women. That work, during the nativist hysteria of World War I, drew de Bogory into a scheme to promote the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a forged anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that was later dubbed a "Warrant for Genocide." This history of de Bogory is an argument for studying the careers of relatively unknown journalists who often worked multiple jobs to understand their impact, and expose the interconnectivity of journalism with other professions and institutions. This article reconstructs de Bogory's career to reclaim the tradition of reporters collaborating with reformist public-private networks. Then, that neglected history is framed as a model for Henry Ford's newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, which publicized the Protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of the Armenian presence in mainland France from 1891 to 1990 is described on the basis of an inventory of more than 7000 family names of Armenian origin extracted from the INSEE surname database. Several surname samplings are proposed, and parameters such as the number of different Armenian names, the number of births with these names and their proportions are used as descriptors for each of the 320 French arrondissements and the four successive 25-year periods between 1891 and 1990. Before 1915, Armenian surnames and births with these names are infrequent and almost exclusively located in Paris and the arrondissements of Marseille. From 1915 onwards, subsequent to the genocide in Turkey, the number of births and the diversity of Armenian surnames rose sharply until 1940, before stabilizing thereafter. The diaspora remains essentially centred in Paris, Lyon, and Marseille, with little regional extension around these poles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]