Warrant for Genocide: Key Elements of Turko-Armenian Conflict

by Vahakn N. Dadrian

Warrant for Genocide provides a unique, interdisciplinary approach to understanding the underlying causes of the World War I Armenian genocide. It traces genocide to the origin and history of the long-standing Turko-Armenian discord with the massacres treated as a means to resolve the conflict between a powerful, dominant group and a weak, vulnerable minority. The World War I destruction of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire was neither an accident nor an aberration. The seeds of the large-scale deportations and massacres of Armenians can be found in the 1919u1920 Turkish Courts Martial documents of leaders of the Young Turk Ittihadist regime. These were replete with xenophobic nationalism, calls for the use of arms to achieve that end, and references to Islam to incite the masses against Armenians. The utmost secrecy, camouflage, and deflection with respect to their plans were evident in what was not said. This was a drastic departure by the regime from its publicly proclaimed posture of egalitarianism, heralding the dawn of a new era of multiethnic harmony and accord in the decaying empire. Dadrian carefully details these calculated deliberations and the concomitant shift from Ottomanism to Turkism in the radical wing of the regime. He illustrates how this rekindled enmities between dominant Turks and subject minorities. The desire to neutralize or eliminate the opposition helped pave the way to a new and radical nationality policy. To Dadrian, the act of genocide was a draconian method of resolving a lingering conflict. No analysis of the Armenian genocide can be adequate without understanding the origin, elements, evolution, and escalation of the Turko-Armenian conflict. Dadrian details this admirably, showing that in the final analysis, the Armenian genocide was a cataclysmic by-product of this conflict. Genocide and Holocaust scholars, Armenian area specialists, and human rights activists will consider this an essential addition to the literature.

Genres: History

Paperback

First published January 26, 1999

Reviews

[Snow Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una genialidad de libro. Me ha ayudado un montón en mi tfg.
Dadrian es el mayor experto en el genocidio armenio que habrá nunca. Una lectura esencial para comprender todas las claves del conflicto armenio-turco.

[Phoenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never Forget

Begin here. WIthout a doubt this is a great book to read in order to understand how the Armenian genocide became possible. Hitler was ascribed the following quote: "Who after all speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians". Let us speak of them now.

Dadrian expertly details the relationship of the minority Armenian Christian population to that of the majority Muslim groups in the context of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. After the Crimean War over one million Kurdish, Circassian and other Muslim refugees from Russian wars were officially admitted into Turkey. However the Turkish government gave these refugees little support other than providing them with weaponry by commissioning them as a quasi military force. Christian Armenians were considered dhimmis under a Muslim legal tradition sometimes known as the Pact of Umar and they were not allowed to bear arms or ride horses. As such Dadrian shows that they were unable to protect themselves from the onslaught of their Muslim neighbours.

The exception was the town of Zeitoun (Ch 7) which was a separate enclave that was entirely Armenian. Their small force of about 5,000 fighters were able to hold off forces of the Sultan that were 10 times larger. To some extent their situation reminds me very strongly of the position of the Israelis with respect to the Arab world and we can certainly draw parallels between the repressive measures taken against of Jews in Arab lands in mid 20th century to that of the Armenians in the late 19th leading up to 1914.

There is a reasonable coverage of the period leading up to the late 19th century. The quote of Murad IV (1623-40) "how can we obtain the revenus of our Treasurey if there are no raias? (non-Muslims) sets the tone, and Dadrian describes how onerous the Muslim "jizya" tax was on the Armenian Christians where the only options were to convert, pay, or die. . Encouraged by the Western Powers who were sympathetic to the Armenians as fellow Christians, the Turkish Porte issued the Tanzimat "reforms" of 1839 and 1856 (settling the Crimean War), however these laws once passed were quickly abrogated in the specifics by counter proclamations.

Particularly intriguing was the intrigues revolving around the regime of the last Sultan with real power, Abdul Hamid II. Midhat Pasha is presented as a Grand Vizier (essentially Prime Minister) who was sympathetic to reform, yet he was eventually assassinated in 1884. Dadrian is able to show that the Turks rearranged provincial borders and deliberately misstated census figures to minimize Armenian political clout and thwart Western concerns.

Whereas under Hamid II there were a series of massacres, after which things returned to normal, it wasn't until after the Revolution that a program of genocide became possible. Indeed members of the CUP are shown to have approached the ex Sultan as an adviser, complaining that they were "required" to do the job that Hamid II had not the courage to do.

At 186 pages of text this book is fairly short, yet it contains an incredible wealth of detail and, more importantly, insight. The collapse of the Ottoman empire was a key event in the evolution of the modern Middle East which allowed the demons of pent up prejudice to escape. In the case of Turkey it shifted periodic attacks against Armenians to a policy of extermination and extended.

5* is not nearly enough. This book will deepen your understanding of history. Useful for interpreting the history of the modern middle east or for those who wish to understand the prior causes leading to genocide. It should be included in any serious curriculum covering the modern age.

Highly recommended.