PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
395 Concord Avenue
Belmont, MA 02478
Tel.: 617-489-1610
E-mail: [email protected]
Contact: Marc A. Mamigonian
LECTURE AT NAASR ON NEW ARCHIVAL EVIDENCE ON GENOCIDE OF ARMENIANS AND
ASSYRIANS
Dr. David Gaunt, Professor of History at Södertörn University
College, Stockholm, Sweden, will give a lecture entitled "Massacres and
Resistance: The Genocide of the Armenians and Assyrians Based on New
Evidence from the Archives" on Thursday, December 7, at 8:00 p.m., at
the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
Center , 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA. This lecture, Gaunt’s first in
the Boston area, will be co-sponsored by NAASR and the United Assyrian
Association of New England.
The lecture will be based on findings from Dr. Gaunt’s
recently-published book Massacres, Resistance, Protectors:
Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I
(Gorgias Press, 2006), which will be on sale and available for signing
by the author.
NAASR Holiday Open House Before and After Lecture
Preceding and following Gaunt’s lecture, NAASR will hold its annual
holiday open house, featuring a special sale in NAASR’s bookstore,
refreshments, music, gift-wrapping, and slide presentation of highlights
from NAASR’s recent 50th Anniversary Celebration. The bookstore will
open at 6:00 p.m. and remain open until 11:00 p.m.
Dr. Gaunt will detail how the persecution of Armenian and Assyrian
Christian minorities was organized on the national and local levels in
places where Armenian and Assyrian populations overlap. Case studies
involve the Turkish occupation of Urmia and its surrounding villages,
the Assyrian tribes in Hakkari, the massacres of Armenians in Diyarbekir
and Mardin, the massacres of Syriacs in the hundreds of villages in Tur
Abdin, the successful armed resistance mounted by the villagers of Azakh
and Ayn Wardo, and the victory of Antranik’s Armenian and Assyrian
volunteers at the battle of Dilman.
Groundbreaking Archival Research
Gaunt’s work is based on unique access to hundreds of documents in the
archives of Istanbul and Ankara, as well as documents of Iranian,
Russian, Arabic, Armenian, Assyrian, French, and German origin. Most of
these documents have never been published before. In addition, nearly
forty persons were interviewed about their experiences of the war
period. The Turkish documents confirm events and decisions of what was
believed to have happened, but for which evidence has been lacking. In
some ways the new documents fill in the blank spaces in the history of
genocide.
David Gaunt was born in London, grew up in New Jersey, and
moved to Sweden in 1968. He received a Ph.D. from Uppsala University.
He is currently Professor of History at Södertörn University College
in Stockholm, which is situated in one of Europe’s largest
concentrations of the Assyrian diaspora. He has previously taught at the
universities of Uppsala and Umeå. He has published ten books and over
one hundred articles, mostly on Swedish social history. In the field of
genocide research he has edited Collaboration and Resistance during the
Holocaust: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (2004) and authored "At
Death’s End: the Genocide in Diyarbekir Province" in Armenian
Tigranakert/Diarbekir and Edessa/Urfa (Richard G. Hovannisian, ed.), as
well as articles in the journals The Assyrian Star and Hujådå.
The NAASR Center and Headquarters is located opposite the First Armenian
Church and next to the U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available
around the building and in adjacent areas. The lecture will begin
promptly at 8:00 p.m.
More information about the lecture is available by calling 617-489-1610,
faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing [email protected], or writing to NAASR, 395
Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.