2015/01/01 by Jo Laycock · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Global Peace and Security Dynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.14296/rih/2014/1809
openalex publication_date 2015/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
Histories of the fate of the Ottoman Armenians have long, and understandably, been dominated by two themes.Firstly, the quest for 'proof' of the genocidal intent behind the treatment of the Armenians in 1915.Secondly, the attempt to locate and classify the case of the Armenians within comparative histories of genocide, in other words, does the fate of the Armenians constitute the first modern genocide?The lead-up to the centenary of the Armenian Genocide in April 2015 has however prompted a wave of publications addressing this contested history from new perspectives.Some draw on new research or critical perspectives in order to investigate the causes of the massacre and deportation of the Ottoman Armenian population, for example Ronald Grigor Suny's forthcoming, They Can Live in the Desert and Nowhere Else.(1)Others meanwhile focus on the long term aftermaths of these events, notably Thomas de Waal's, Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide.(2)Müge Göçek's Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present and Collective Violence against the Armenians 1789-2009 is thus part of a wider shift in this field from unearthing 'evidence' of genocide towards more nuanced and theoretically informed approaches to not only to causes but also to experiences of Genocide, the responses it engendered and its complex aftermaths.