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PROFESSOR GIVES TALK RECOGNIZING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ANNIVERSARY
The Emory Wheel, Atlanta, Georgia
April 16 2015
By Emily Lim Apr 16, 2015
"In 1939, Hitler said to his army: 'Who, afterall, speaks of the
annihilation of the Armenians?'" Bedross Der Matossian, assistant
professor of modern Middle East history at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, said to open his lecture in White Hall on Wednesday
evening. "Well, here we are today, remembering the Armenian Genocide."
Der Matossian's talk, "The Armenian Genocide and Historiography on
the Eve of the Centennial: From Continuity to Contingency" served
as a remembrance of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
which began on April 24, 1915.
Widely recognized as one of the first modern genocides, the Armenian
Genocide was a campaign of systematic extermination that included
deportation and mass murder carried out by the Ottoman Empire against
its minority Armenian subjects. It is estimated that up to 1.5 million
Armenians were massacred, according to a History Channel article.
Addressing an audience of more than 70 students and faculty members,
Der Matossian began by giving a brief historical background of what
he described as the three main phases leading up to the genocide.
The first phase, according to Der Matossian, included the Hamidian
massacres from 1894 to 1896, in which Ottoman officials killed
between 200,000 and 300,000 Armenians, who had led an uprising against
over-taxation.
As for the second phase, Der Matossian cited the Young Turk Revolution
of 1908, in which a group of reformers overthrew the Sultan Hamid
and established a modern constitutional government.
The third phase, according to Der Matossian, was the 1909 Adana
massacre, in which Islamic theological students and the Ottoman
military led a counter-coup against the government that led to the
deaths of between 15,000 and 30,000 Armenians, who were blamed for
supporting the new constitution.
Der Matossian also discussed the development of the historiography
on the Armenian Genocide by scholars, which has become increasingly
publicized despite the Turkish government's refusal to recognize
the killings.
"The prohibition by the Turkish government of speaking about the
genocide is crumbling," Der Matossian said.
Der Matossian listed arguments that provide interpretations as to why
the genocide took place, such as the significant role of religious
conflicts between Muslims and Christians and the growth of Armenian
nationalism.
He also discussed the Ottoman Empire's demographic engineering and
assimilation of minority groups. For example, in the 1912 Balkan Wars,
the Ottoman Empire lost 90 percent of its European territories and
deliberately relocated Muslim populations in Armenian regions in an
attempt to neutralize ethnic differences.
The increasingly nationalist Turkish ideology at a time when its
empire was crumbling called for extreme security measures to preserve
the Ottoman Empire, according to Der Matossian.
Der Matossian's areas of interest include the ethnic politics in the
Middle East, inter-ethnic violence in the Ottoman Empire, Palestinian
history and the history of the Armenian Genocide, according to his
profile on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln website.
Aside from Der Matossian, Distinguished Emory Professor of the
Liberal Arts and Sciences Sander Gilman and Visiting Distinguished
Professor of History at the Georgia Institute of Technology Nikolay
Koposov also gave brief talks on the genocide. Walter Kalaidjian,
the English department chair, moderated the lecture.
Gilman stressed the importance of literature in remembering the past.
"It is poets who capture the memory of the past," Gilman said. "It
is literature that remembers and memorializes the Armenian Genocide."
Gilman discussed the importance of preserving historical memory by
giving examples of historical works like Franz Werfel's 1933 novel The
Forty Days of Musa Dagh, which is based on events that took place in
the Armenian Genocide, and Edgar Hilsenrath's The Nazi and the Barber,
which depicts the Holocaust in Nazi Germany from the perspective of
a German.
Associate Professor of Russian Studies Juliette Stapanian-Apkarian,
who helped organize the lecture and whose father was a survivor of
the Armenian Genocide, said that, although Der Matossian was invited
to speak because of the centennial anniversary of the genocide,
the implications of the event resonated far into the modern day.
"How can violence be understood when it is so tied to other aspects of
national consciousness?" Apkarian said. "We continue to be challenged
by the recognition of certain incidences of violence, for instance
against the Native [Americans] and against the African American
population."
The lecture is relevant to modern times because of the ongoing
political challenge to recognize the historic past and the question
of how to address historical cases of mass violence, Apkarian said.
"How can we move forward without remembering history accurately?"
Apkarian asked. She added that the Armenian Genocide does not receive
enough attention because of contemporary politics.
"History is often something which is utilized, packaged, reconfigured,"
Apkarian said. "The question is how to address national constructions
of history to find a truth."
Since Turkey has been a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally
since 1952 and is a strategic partner for United States foreign policy
interests in the Middle East, Apkarian noted that the United States
government has been reluctant to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
"Obama had said [prior to becoming president] that he would recognize
the genocide, but he has not," Apkarian said. "This is because politics
and history often go together."
The lecture was co-sponsored by the Emory Russian, East European
and Eurasian Studies Program (REES); the Tam Institute for Jewish
Studies; the Departments of Russian and East Asian Languages and
Cultures (REALC), History and Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies
(MESAS); the Institute for Liberal Arts (ILA) and the initiative in
Intercultural Studies.
College freshman Becky Lebeaux said that while the lecture was
informative, she would like to have seen a more balanced argument.
"It was informative, especially about the historical, political
and economic background of what is known as the Armenian Genocide,"
Lebeaux said. "However, I felt it was a one-sided presentation on
the violence as a genocide. I felt it would have been interesting to
discuss the opinions of the denialists."
Kate Cyr, a College senior, described the lecture as one of the best
ones she'd attended at Emory.
Cyr wrote her undergraduate thesis on Turkish policy toward Kurds,
the largest ethnic minority in Turkey and will be travelling to Turkey
on a diplomatic mission next year.
"I really liked how [the lecture] discussed the Armenian conflict
from a historical, literary and legal standpoint," Cyr said. "I am
very interested to see how the past and the influences of history
impact Turkey today."
-- By Emily Lim
http://emorywheel.com/professor-gives-talk-recognizing-the-armenian-genocide-anniversary/
The Emory Wheel, Atlanta, Georgia
April 16 2015
By Emily Lim Apr 16, 2015
"In 1939, Hitler said to his army: 'Who, afterall, speaks of the
annihilation of the Armenians?'" Bedross Der Matossian, assistant
professor of modern Middle East history at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, said to open his lecture in White Hall on Wednesday
evening. "Well, here we are today, remembering the Armenian Genocide."
Der Matossian's talk, "The Armenian Genocide and Historiography on
the Eve of the Centennial: From Continuity to Contingency" served
as a remembrance of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
which began on April 24, 1915.
Widely recognized as one of the first modern genocides, the Armenian
Genocide was a campaign of systematic extermination that included
deportation and mass murder carried out by the Ottoman Empire against
its minority Armenian subjects. It is estimated that up to 1.5 million
Armenians were massacred, according to a History Channel article.
Addressing an audience of more than 70 students and faculty members,
Der Matossian began by giving a brief historical background of what
he described as the three main phases leading up to the genocide.
The first phase, according to Der Matossian, included the Hamidian
massacres from 1894 to 1896, in which Ottoman officials killed
between 200,000 and 300,000 Armenians, who had led an uprising against
over-taxation.
As for the second phase, Der Matossian cited the Young Turk Revolution
of 1908, in which a group of reformers overthrew the Sultan Hamid
and established a modern constitutional government.
The third phase, according to Der Matossian, was the 1909 Adana
massacre, in which Islamic theological students and the Ottoman
military led a counter-coup against the government that led to the
deaths of between 15,000 and 30,000 Armenians, who were blamed for
supporting the new constitution.
Der Matossian also discussed the development of the historiography
on the Armenian Genocide by scholars, which has become increasingly
publicized despite the Turkish government's refusal to recognize
the killings.
"The prohibition by the Turkish government of speaking about the
genocide is crumbling," Der Matossian said.
Der Matossian listed arguments that provide interpretations as to why
the genocide took place, such as the significant role of religious
conflicts between Muslims and Christians and the growth of Armenian
nationalism.
He also discussed the Ottoman Empire's demographic engineering and
assimilation of minority groups. For example, in the 1912 Balkan Wars,
the Ottoman Empire lost 90 percent of its European territories and
deliberately relocated Muslim populations in Armenian regions in an
attempt to neutralize ethnic differences.
The increasingly nationalist Turkish ideology at a time when its
empire was crumbling called for extreme security measures to preserve
the Ottoman Empire, according to Der Matossian.
Der Matossian's areas of interest include the ethnic politics in the
Middle East, inter-ethnic violence in the Ottoman Empire, Palestinian
history and the history of the Armenian Genocide, according to his
profile on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln website.
Aside from Der Matossian, Distinguished Emory Professor of the
Liberal Arts and Sciences Sander Gilman and Visiting Distinguished
Professor of History at the Georgia Institute of Technology Nikolay
Koposov also gave brief talks on the genocide. Walter Kalaidjian,
the English department chair, moderated the lecture.
Gilman stressed the importance of literature in remembering the past.
"It is poets who capture the memory of the past," Gilman said. "It
is literature that remembers and memorializes the Armenian Genocide."
Gilman discussed the importance of preserving historical memory by
giving examples of historical works like Franz Werfel's 1933 novel The
Forty Days of Musa Dagh, which is based on events that took place in
the Armenian Genocide, and Edgar Hilsenrath's The Nazi and the Barber,
which depicts the Holocaust in Nazi Germany from the perspective of
a German.
Associate Professor of Russian Studies Juliette Stapanian-Apkarian,
who helped organize the lecture and whose father was a survivor of
the Armenian Genocide, said that, although Der Matossian was invited
to speak because of the centennial anniversary of the genocide,
the implications of the event resonated far into the modern day.
"How can violence be understood when it is so tied to other aspects of
national consciousness?" Apkarian said. "We continue to be challenged
by the recognition of certain incidences of violence, for instance
against the Native [Americans] and against the African American
population."
The lecture is relevant to modern times because of the ongoing
political challenge to recognize the historic past and the question
of how to address historical cases of mass violence, Apkarian said.
"How can we move forward without remembering history accurately?"
Apkarian asked. She added that the Armenian Genocide does not receive
enough attention because of contemporary politics.
"History is often something which is utilized, packaged, reconfigured,"
Apkarian said. "The question is how to address national constructions
of history to find a truth."
Since Turkey has been a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally
since 1952 and is a strategic partner for United States foreign policy
interests in the Middle East, Apkarian noted that the United States
government has been reluctant to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
"Obama had said [prior to becoming president] that he would recognize
the genocide, but he has not," Apkarian said. "This is because politics
and history often go together."
The lecture was co-sponsored by the Emory Russian, East European
and Eurasian Studies Program (REES); the Tam Institute for Jewish
Studies; the Departments of Russian and East Asian Languages and
Cultures (REALC), History and Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies
(MESAS); the Institute for Liberal Arts (ILA) and the initiative in
Intercultural Studies.
College freshman Becky Lebeaux said that while the lecture was
informative, she would like to have seen a more balanced argument.
"It was informative, especially about the historical, political
and economic background of what is known as the Armenian Genocide,"
Lebeaux said. "However, I felt it was a one-sided presentation on
the violence as a genocide. I felt it would have been interesting to
discuss the opinions of the denialists."
Kate Cyr, a College senior, described the lecture as one of the best
ones she'd attended at Emory.
Cyr wrote her undergraduate thesis on Turkish policy toward Kurds,
the largest ethnic minority in Turkey and will be travelling to Turkey
on a diplomatic mission next year.
"I really liked how [the lecture] discussed the Armenian conflict
from a historical, literary and legal standpoint," Cyr said. "I am
very interested to see how the past and the influences of history
impact Turkey today."
-- By Emily Lim
http://emorywheel.com/professor-gives-talk-recognizing-the-armenian-genocide-anniversary/