GENOCIDE STUDIES INTERNATIONAL NEW ISSUE DEDICATED TO CENTENARY OF THE ARMENIAN, ASSYRIAN AND GREEK GENOCIDES

By MassisPost
Updated: April 8, 2015

TORONTO — The International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights
Studies (A Division of the Zoryan Institute) is pleased to announce
the release of Genocide Studies International Volume 9, number 1,
Spring 2015. The new issue is dedicated to the Ottoman Genocides of
the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek peoples, marking the upcoming 100th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in April 2015.

This peer-reviewed journal was edited by Roger W. Smith. The new
issue includes six articles:

– “Introduction: Ottoman Genocides of Armenians, Assyrians, and
Greeks,” by Roger W. Smith

– “Contending Interpretations Concerning the Armenian Genocide:
Continuity and Conspiracy, Discontinuity and Cumulative
Radicalization,” by Robert Melson

– “The Genocide against the Ottoman Armenians: German Diplomatic
Correspondence and Eyewitness Testimonies,” by Tessa Hofmann

– “Academic Denial of the Armenian Genocide in American Scholarship:
Denialism as Manufactured Controversy,” by Marc. A. Mamigonian

– “The Complexity of the Assyrian Genocide,” by David Gaunt

– “The Genocide of the Greeks of the Ottoman Empire, 1913-1923:
A Comprehensive Overview,” by Vasileios Th. Meichanetsidis.

Prof. Smith’s article introduces the themes addressed in this special
issue of GSI and emphasizes how careful consideration of the Ottoman
genocides deepens our understanding of what genocide is and how it
can be enacted.

Prof. Melson’s article examines the relationship between the
Armenian massacres of 1894-1896 and on the process that initiated
the Genocide during and following WWI. One group of historians argue
that the Genocide was a continuation of the 1894-1896 massacres and
that its origins were rooted in Islam and Ottoman culture, whereas a
second group of scholars contend that the Genocide was qualitatively
different from the massacres and that it was driven by a policy of
radicalization during WWI. The article concludes with an evaluation
of some of the assumptions of the second view.

Hofmann’s article documents and analyses the genocide of the 1.5
million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during 1915 and 1916 and is
based mainly on the German diplomatic correspondence of the time,
which is preserved at the Political Archives of the German Foreign
Office, in Berlin. A special subsection of the article is dedicated
to the clandestine intelligence organization, TeÅ~_kilat-ı Mahsusa
(Special Organization), which planned, implemented and largely
conducted the destruction of the Armenians. Germany’s involvement in
the destruction of Ottoman Armenians, Aramaic-speaking Christians,
and Greek-Orthodox Christians is also examined.

Mamigonian’s article traces the early development of Armenian Genocide
denial and focuses on the more recent refinements and the penetration
of denial into mainstream American academia, posing as a legitimate
intellectual position within a historical debate.

Prof. Gaunt’s article focuses on another group targeted by the Ottoman
Empire for extermination: the Assyrians. The Assyrian Genocide involved
many non-Armenian Christian groups native to eastern Anatolia and
northern Mesopotamia. Among them were the Assyrian Church of the East,
the Chaldean Church, the Syriac Orthodox, and some smaller sects.

Meichanetsidis’ article refers to the 1913-1923 Genocide of the
Greeks of the Ottoman Empire and provides a comprehensive overview
of the overall genocidal process. The article aims at providing an
understanding of the Genocide and a sense of the Ottoman projects of
destruction that included Armenians, Assyrians/Arameans and Greeks in
an attempt at a total restricting of Ottoman society and the creation
of a Turkish Muslim national state.

Also included is a book review: The Young Turks’ Crime against
Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman
Empire by Taner AkÃ’”am, reviewed by Dr. Rouben Paul Adalian, Director
of the Armenian National Institute.

For information on subscribing to the journal,
or to purchase single copies, please visit

or contact the International Institute for Genocide and
Human Rights Studies (A Division of the Zoryan Institute) at
admin@genocidestudies.org or by telephone 416-250-9807.