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Kirkus Reviews (Print)
November 15, 2014, Saturday
GREAT CATASTROPHE: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide
SECTION: NONFICTION
The causes and consequences of a crime against humanity.Journalist,
historian and senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, de Waal (The Caucasus: An Introduction, 2010,
etc.) investigates an event still "highly politicized," although it
occurred a century ago: the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915 and 1916. Drawing on archival sources, interviews,
contemporary newspaper accounts and current scholarship, the author
assesses the context, and political and cultural aftermaths, of the
atrocity that Armenians insist was genocide, an accusation that Turkey
has consistently denied. De Waal presents evidence that the ruthless
killings did not result from hatred and paranoia on the parts of all
Turks and Kurds but rather were fomented by Turkish Unionist leaders
intent on pushing the country into modernity.
As one historian argued, some mass atrocities have been incited when a
minority identified as "primitive" is "perceived as a threat and
ultimately destroyed." The Armenian narrative about the massacre
became complicated after 1944, when a Polish-Jewish lawyer coined the
term "genocide," which he defined as "the mass slaughter of a national
group." In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which stipulated
that acts against the victim group were punishable if "committed with
intent to destroy." Turkey hotly denied that "intent" could be proved.
Later, with increased attention on the Holocaust, the term "genocide"
generated controversy when Holocaust survivors and historians objected
to its application to anything other than the Nazi extermination of
Jews. For generations, what to call the event has made a
Turkish-Armenian dialogue impossible. In this measured study, De Waal
asserts his optimism that young scholars, freed from past narratives
and drawing upon "hidden histories of the Armenians," will amplify
what is known about the late Ottoman period and complicate a history
that both sides have tried mightily to own. A perfect scholarly
complement to Meline Toumani's outstanding memoir, There Was and There
Was Not (2014).
Publication Date: 2015-02-02
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Stage: Adult
ISBN: 978-0-19-935069-8
Price: $29.95
Author: de Waal, Thomas
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/thomas-de-waal/great-catastrophe/
November 15, 2014, Saturday
GREAT CATASTROPHE: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide
SECTION: NONFICTION
The causes and consequences of a crime against humanity.Journalist,
historian and senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, de Waal (The Caucasus: An Introduction, 2010,
etc.) investigates an event still "highly politicized," although it
occurred a century ago: the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915 and 1916. Drawing on archival sources, interviews,
contemporary newspaper accounts and current scholarship, the author
assesses the context, and political and cultural aftermaths, of the
atrocity that Armenians insist was genocide, an accusation that Turkey
has consistently denied. De Waal presents evidence that the ruthless
killings did not result from hatred and paranoia on the parts of all
Turks and Kurds but rather were fomented by Turkish Unionist leaders
intent on pushing the country into modernity.
As one historian argued, some mass atrocities have been incited when a
minority identified as "primitive" is "perceived as a threat and
ultimately destroyed." The Armenian narrative about the massacre
became complicated after 1944, when a Polish-Jewish lawyer coined the
term "genocide," which he defined as "the mass slaughter of a national
group." In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which stipulated
that acts against the victim group were punishable if "committed with
intent to destroy." Turkey hotly denied that "intent" could be proved.
Later, with increased attention on the Holocaust, the term "genocide"
generated controversy when Holocaust survivors and historians objected
to its application to anything other than the Nazi extermination of
Jews. For generations, what to call the event has made a
Turkish-Armenian dialogue impossible. In this measured study, De Waal
asserts his optimism that young scholars, freed from past narratives
and drawing upon "hidden histories of the Armenians," will amplify
what is known about the late Ottoman period and complicate a history
that both sides have tried mightily to own. A perfect scholarly
complement to Meline Toumani's outstanding memoir, There Was and There
Was Not (2014).
Publication Date: 2015-02-02
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Stage: Adult
ISBN: 978-0-19-935069-8
Price: $29.95
Author: de Waal, Thomas
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/thomas-de-waal/great-catastrophe/