A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire

by Norman M. Naimark, Fatma Müge Göçek

One hundred years after the deportations and mass murder of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, and other peoples in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, the history of the Armenian genocide is a victim of historical distortion, state-sponsored falsification, and deep divisions between Armenians and Turks. Working together for the first time, Turkish, Armenian, and other scholars present here a compelling reconstruction of what happened and why.
This volume gathers the most up-to-date scholarship on Armenian genocide, looking at how the event has been written about in Western and Turkish historiographies; what was happening on the eve of the catastrophe; portraits of the perpetrators; detailed accounts of the massacres; how the event has been perceived in both local and international contexts, including World War I; and reflections on the broader implications of what happened then. The result is a comprehensive work that moves beyond nationalist master narratives and offers a more complete understanding of this tragic event.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

465 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 26, 2011

About the author

Norman M. Naimark is Robert and Florence McDonnel Professor of Eastern European Studies at Stanford University, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Reviews

[George Kettler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely not an introductory book on the Armenian genocide, A Question of Genocide is a deep dive into the topic. This book examines the historiography surrounding the genocide, and focuses on how the interpretations of the events varied over time and countries. The book does an exceptional job of putting the book in context, tracing the rise and development of Turkish nationalism and its effects on ethnic minorities in Anatolia from the late ottoman period, through the First World War and into the early Turkish Republic. A nuanced and detailed book, A Question of Genocide dives into the “why?” question of the Armenian genocide, teasing out the roles of various actors in the conflict and attempting to synthesize the many different contributing factors to the genocide into a cohesive narrative.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a scholarly and highly readable history of the Armenian Genocide.