Publications

Beginning in 1915, under the cover of a world war, some one million Armenians were killed through starvation, forced marches, and mass acts of slaughter. Although Armenians and the judgment of history have long held the Ottoman powers responsible for genocide, modern Turkey has rejected any such claim. Now, in a pioneering work of excavation, Turkish historian Taner Akçam has made unprecedented use of Ottoman and other sources―military and court records, parliamentary minutes, letters, and eyewitness reports―to produce a scrupulous account of Ottoman culpability.

Tracing the causes of the mass destruction, Akçam reconstructs its planning and implementation by the departments of state, the military, and the ruling political parties, and he probes the multiple failures to bring the perpetrators to justice. The translation and editing of this book into English was provided by the Zoryan Institute.

For nearly 30 years, Taner Akçam has been one of the foremost proponents and a key intellectual of dialogue between Armenians and Turks. A Dialogue Across An International Divide: Essays Towards A Turkish-Armenian Dialogue offers a rich and accessible introduction to the five fundamental taboos on which the Turkish Republic was founded. Thoughtfully meticulous, Akçam unfolds an expansive history that touches on the lack of historical consciousness in Turkey, and more, its contribution to the persistent and pervasive denial of the first genocide of the twentieth century, the Armenian Genocide.

Inspired by the questions that transpired following the International Conference on the Problems of Genocide organized by the Zoryan Institute in 1995 in Yerevan, Akçam sought to examine the obstacles, the problems, and the possibilities for overcoming denial narratives. In the process, it attempts to make a contribution to the process of dialogue between Turks and Armenians.

The initiative for this book came from an invitation by a congressional group to respond to the denial efforts of the Turkish Ambassador in Washington in 1999. A detailed, major rebuttal was prepared by the staff and board members at the Zoryan Institute within a short time and provided to every member of Congress. In 2005, an expanded version of this report was published and translated into Armenian by the Director of the Zoryan Institute, Vahakn N. Dadrian.

The extended book is an impressive display of meticulous scholarship. Using incisive and cogent argumentation, as well as primary documentary evidence, especially from Turkish and German sources, Dadrian deals with and sets the record straight on such issues as: The Allegation of Inter-Communal Clashes; The Fallacy of the Argument of Armenian Rebellion; the Nuremberg Trials and the Armenian Genocide; The Crusade Against American Ambassador Morgenthau, and many other topics. This is a compact work intended to confront and expose the fallacy of all the principal features of the Turkish denial syndrome. As such, it is bound to remain a potent weapon in the fight for truth and justice for a very long time.

One of the Institute’s most groundbreaking achievements to date is supporting the editing, translation, and publication, in addition to financial sponsorship, of the book, “The Armenian Genocide: Evidence from the German Foreign Office Archives, 1915-1916.”

Wolfgang Gust, through his tireless efforts, painstakingly collected, restored, and published documents from the German Foreign Office Archive with the assistance of his wife, Ingrid Gust.

This extensive selection contains some 218 telegrams, letters and reports from German consular officials in the Ottoman Empire to the Foreign Office in Berlin describing the unfolding genocide of the Armenians.

The material is unimpeachable by those who would deny the Armenian Genocide, as it is from Turkey’s own wartime ally. It provides researchers with a deeper understanding of the actions and the motives of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.

The German edition of the book played a major role in the German Parliament’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide on June 2, 2016. In fact, the Co-Chair of the Green Alliance Party, Cem Ozdemir, stated in a recent visit to the Institute in 2017:

“Wolfgang Gust’s work and that of the Zoryan Institute was very crucial, because it was the first time that we saw the documents of the German Foreign Ministry, and these documents are probably the best saved archive in the world on the Armenian Genocide.”

The Institute’s staff assisted with the publishing of the book in German (2005) and Turkish (2012) and the translation, editing and publication of the book in English (2014).

One of the Institute’s most groundbreaking achievements to date is supporting the editing, translation, and publication, in addition to financial sponsorship, of the book, “The Armenian Genocide: Evidence from the German Foreign Office Archives, 1915-1916.

Wolfgang Gust, through his tireless efforts, painstakingly collected, restored, and published documents from the German Foreign Office Archive with the assistance of his wife, Ingrid Gust.

This extensive selection contains some 218 telegrams, letters and reports from German consular officials in the Ottoman Empire to the Foreign Office in Berlin describing the unfolding genocide of the Armenians.

The material is unimpeachable by those who would deny the Armenian Genocide, as it is from Turkey’s own wartime ally. It provides researchers with a deeper understanding of the actions and the motives of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.

The German edition of the book played a major role in the German Parliament’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide on June 2, 2016. In fact, the Co-Chair of the Green Alliance Party, Cem Ozdemir, stated in a recent visit to the Institute in 2017:

“Wolfgang Gust’s work and that of the Zoryan Institute was very crucial, because it was the first time that we saw the documents of the German Foreign Ministry, and these documents are probably the best saved archive in the world on the Armenian Genocide.”

The Institute’s staff assisted with the publishing of the book in German (2005) and Turkish (2012) and the translation, editing and publication of the book in English (2014).

The final years of the Ottoman Empire were catastrophic ones for its non-Turkish, non-Muslim minorities. From 1913 to 1923, its rulers deported, killed, or otherwise persecuted staggering numbers of citizens in an attempt to preserve “Turkey for the Turks,” setting a modern precedent for how a regime can commit genocide in pursuit of political ends while largely escaping accountability. While this brutal history is most widely known in the case of the Armenian genocide, few appreciate the extent to which the Empire’s Assyrian and Greek subjects suffered and died under similar policies. This comprehensive volume is the first to broadly examine the genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in comparative fashion, analyzing the similarities and differences among them and giving crucial context to present-day calls for recognition.

Originally published in 1917, this is the memoir of Dr. Clarence D. Ussher, who served as a doctor and missionary in Marsovan, Harput and Van from 1898 to 1915. It contains eyewitness information about the massacres of Van in 1915. This book is utilized in Atom Egoyan’s film Ararat as the basis for the story of “the film within a film.”

Egoyan’s Ararat is a contemporary story of two estranged families and their search for reconciliation and truth. A film-within-a-film, it is also a historical re-enactment being made by a famous Armenian director, Edward Saroyan, whose production is based on Clarence D. Ussher’s book, An American Physician in Turkey, which depicts the siege of Van and the Armenian Genocide of 1915. In the style of The Sweet Hereafter and his other works, Egoyan shifts seamlessly through time, exploring the quest for personal, sexual and cultural identity through the intimate moments shared by lovers, families, enemies and strangers.

In addition to the script, there is an introduction by Egoyan, and an essay by Timothy Taylor, who spent a year observing and talking with Egoyan during production and post. He takes readers behind the scenes to show how Egoyan collaborated with producer Robert Lantos, director of photography Paul Sarossy, composer Mychael Danna, and his actors, including his wife, Arsinée Khanjian.

This book provides vital background information and is a prime source of legal evidence and authentic Turkish eyewitness testimony of the intent and the crime of genocide against the Armenians. After a long and painstaking effort, the authors, one an Armenian, the other a Turk, generally recognized as the foremost experts on the Armenian Genocide, have prepared a new, authoritative translation and detailed analysis of the Takvim-i Vekâyi, the official Ottoman Government record of the Turkish Military Tribunals concerning the crimes committed against the Armenians during World War I. The authors have compiled the documentation of the trial proceedings for the first time in English and situated them within their historical and legal context. These documents show that Wartime Cabinet ministers, Young Turk party leaders, and a number of others inculpated in these crimes were court-martialed by the Turkish Military Tribunals in the years immediately following World War I. Most were found guilty and received sentences ranging from prison with hard labor to death. In remarkable contrast to Nuremberg, the Turkish Military Tribunals were conducted solely on the basis of existing Ottoman domestic penal codes. This substitution of a national for an international criminal court stands in history as a unique initiative of national self-condemnation. This compilation is significantly enhanced by an extensive analysis of the historical background, political nature and legal implications of the criminal prosecution of the twentieth century’s first state-sponsored crime of genocide.

This book provides an exposé of the treatment of the Jewish community in Turkey from 1950 to the present, their fight against anti-Semitism, the struggle for their constitutional rights, and the attitude of the Turkish state and society towards these problems.

In 2013, Zoryan launched the English translation of this seminal text. Turkish journalist, Ayse Gunaysu, described the book as:

“groundbreaking…a first-hand account that unmistakably illustrates how the Turkish establishment blackmailed the leaders of the Jewish community – and through them Jewish organizations in the United States. This was to secure their support of the Turkish position against the Armenians’ campaign for genocide recognition, indicating that if the Jewish lobby failed to prevent Armenian initiatives abroad – Turkey might not be able to guarantee the security of Turkish Jews...”

The Asia Minor Catastrophe and the Ottoman Greek Genocide: Essays on Asia Minor, Pontos, and Eastern Thrace, 1913-1923 edited by George N. Shirinian, Executive Director of the Zoryan Institute, is a compilation of innovative papers given by distinguished scholars at two academic conferences organized by the Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center in Chicago.

This book examines the current attitudes of the State of Israel and its leading institutions toward the Armenian Genocide. While numerous Jewish scholars in and outside Israel affirm the Armenian Genocide without reservation, the book explores both passive, indifferent attitudes of Israeli institutions and government, as well as active measures to undermine attempts at safeguarding the memory of the Armenian Genocide.

Israeli historian, Dr. Yair Auron, raises theoretical, philosophical, and moral questions about concepts of genocide and the uniqueness of the Jewish Holocaust. After a brief historical introduction, Auron discusses the reaction to the Genocide within the Yishuv in terms of practical assistance for and identification with the Armenians.

The Jewish position was unquestionably difficult during the period of the First World War; Palestine was under Ottoman control, and Germany, a Turkish ally, was looked to by some Zionists as a potential source of support. Consequently, the official Yishuv reaction was muted and largely self-interested: there was no condemnation in journals, internal protocols, or letters.

Auron does record instances of Jewish support, however: the Nili group, an underground intelligence organization, actively sought to aid the Armenian victims; Chaim Weizman and Nahum Sokolov publicly condemned the killings; and other Zionist writers and journalists expressed outraged identification with the Armenians and tried to arouse the conscience of the world. In attempting to analyze and interpret these disparate reactions, Auron maintains a fair-minded balance in assessing claims of altruism and self-interest, expressed in universal, not only Jewish, terms.

This book seeks both to examine the passive Israeli attitude towards the Armenian Genocide, and to explore active Israeli manures to undermine attempts at safeguarding the memory of the Armenian victims of the Turkish persecution.

One of the Institute’s most groundbreaking achievements to date is supporting the editing, translation, and publication, in addition to financial sponsorship, of the book, “The Armenian Genocide: Evidence from the German Foreign Office Archives, 1915-1916.

Wolfgang Gust, through his tireless efforts, painstakingly collected, restored, and published documents from the German Foreign Office Archive with the assistance of his wife, Ingrid Gust.

This extensive selection contains some 218 telegrams, letters and reports from German consular officials in the Ottoman Empire to the Foreign Office in Berlin describing the unfolding genocide of the Armenians.

The material is unimpeachable by those who would deny the Armenian Genocide, as it is from Turkey’s own wartime ally. It provides researchers with a deeper understanding of the actions and the motives of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.

The German edition of the book played a major role in the German Parliament’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide on June 2, 2016. In fact, the Co-Chair of the Green Alliance Party, Cem Ozdemir, stated in a recent visit to the Institute in 2017:

“Wolfgang Gust’s work and that of the Zoryan Institute was very crucial, because it was the first time that we saw the documents of the German Foreign Ministry, and these documents are probably the best saved archive in the world on the Armenian Genocide.”

The Institute’s staff assisted with the publishing of the book in German (2005) and Turkish (2012) and the translation, editing and publication of the book in English (2014).

This is the story of the Georgetown Boys told by one of the boys, himself. Having lost everything, the most precious thing remaining to them was the memory of their families and their heritage. Based on original documentary research, interviews, and first-hand experience, Jack Apramian gives detailed insight into the daily lives of the boys, the challenges they faced adapting to their new country, and how they fared. Their story is told with a sense of humour, humanity, and history. An account of the dark and light moments that made up these rescued boys’ reality and the resilience of children, this book is essential to our understanding of multiculturalism’s best intentions.

Prof. Lorne Shirinian has edited and revised the late Jack Apramian’s classic book and provided a new introduction, setting the story in its historical context, both Armenian and Canadian. He has included previously unpublished documents and photos, enhanced the photographs, and added appendices of a list of the Georgetown Girls and information sources on the Georgetown Boys.

The first major territorial struggle in the late Soviet period involved Nagorno-Karabagh, an Armenian-inhabited territory that had been assigned to the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in the early 1920s. Armenian protests calling for reunification with Armenia in 1988 led to Azerbaijani pogroms against Armenians and later to armed conflict that claimed over 20,000 lives. The struggle remains unresolved. A distinguished group of historians and social scientists analyze the Karabagh struggle in this unique volume, which covers one of the world’s strategic, oil-rich regions.

A striking feature of the Karabagh conflict is the failure of the many OSCE, UN, and regional power mediation efforts to find a solution to the crisis. One of the major contributions of this volume is to provide a cogent analysis of these failures, which have to do with the inability to satisfy the legitimate security needs of the parties to the conflict.

The papers in this collection were delivered at a conference, “The Karabagh Movement: Ten Years After,” held in Cambridge, Massachusetts in May 1998. This conference, sponsored by the Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation and the Zoryan Institute of Canada, assembled some of the leading analysts of the region to assess the Karabagh Question in the decade since the eruption of the historic protests that saw hundreds of thousands of Armenians march in support of Karabagh.

Contents:

For three days in February, 1988, the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait became the arena of pogroms against the Armenians of the city. The Sumgait tragedy was a brutal, organized attempt to block a political solution to the peaceful demands of the Armenians of Mountainous Karabagh for self-determination. These events marked the beginning of a premeditated plan to depopulate Azerbaijan of Armenians, and eventually of Russians and Jews.

The Sumgait Tragedy: Pogroms Against Armenians in Soviet Azerbaijan (Volume I, Eyewitness Accounts) is a compilation of 36 interviews conducted by Armenian journalist Samvel Shahmuratian with 45 of the Sumgait survivors. These testimonies give painful answers to critical questions? What happened in Sumgait? Why was the impending slaughter not averted? Why did measures to halt the massacres come too late? Why did the events not receive complete analysis and coverage by the mass media, the government, and judicial bodies? The answers to these questions come from the victims themselves, in halting painful narratives. Maps included.

The Zoryan Institute and Zed books of London, England are pleased to announce the publication of a groundbreaking new book by Turkish scholar Taner Akçam, entitled From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide.

This extraordinary book examines the relationship between Turkey’s transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic, the Armenian Genocide, and the process of democratization in Turkey today. From Empire to Republic is a significant step towards addressing the taboo in Turkey regarding the Armenian Genocide and creating a meaningful, historical dialogue.

The first three chapters provide the reader with a framework for understanding Turkish nationalism, its origins, and its ongoing relationship to the Armenian Genocide. In chapters four and five, Akçam follows the changes in Ottoman Turkey’s political climate that led to the decision for genocide and the implementation of Genocide itself. He then tracks the impact of this history into the Republic.

In this book, Akçam convincingly makes the case that debate about the Armenian Genocide is not only a measure of Turkey’s democratization, but a necessary ingredient of the process itself.

In August 1939, Hitler justified his plan to destroy Poland and create a new order by asking, “Who remembers now the extermination of the Armenians?” Hitler’s rhetorical question acquired an ominous significance with the extermination of Jews and Gypsies during the Second World War. Many scholars have argued that the absence of justice in the case of the Young Turk government, guilty of crimes against the Armenian people during the First World War, led Hitler to believe he would not be held responsible for his own crime against humanity. This link between the two major genocides of the century has led scholars to focus more on the historical and political significance of the Armenian or “forgotten” genocide.

The Chinese Diaspora: Its Development in Global Perspective is an accessible and valuable text for anyone studying or interested in this increasingly important subject.

The collection features three overarching areas that both shape and are shaped by the diaspora – culture, entrepreneurship, and migration – and highlights the heterogeneity of Chinese diasporic communities in historical context, as well as their relationships with the homeland and adopted nation-states. It presents carefully selected case studies that span across North America, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Turkey has gone through significant transformations over the last century – from the Ottoman Empire and Young Turk era to the Republic of today – but throughout it has demonstrated troubling continuities in its encouragement and deployment of mass violence. In particular, the construction of a Muslim-Turkish identity has been achieved in part by designating ‘internal enemies’ at whom public hatred can be directed.

This volume provides a wide range of case studies and historiographical reflections on the alarming recurrence of such violence in Turkish history. It shows not only how atrocities against ethnic-religious groups have propelled the nation’s very sense of itself, but also how the impunity of these atrocities has contributed to broader patterns of violence in the Middle East, including the rise of ISIS and other non-state actors and their violence against minorities, such as Yazidis.

Forces and Factors is the Zoryan Institute art book. Featuring multimedia artists, this book presents both the academic work of the Institute and artistic representations of the forces and factors that shape our lives relating to the topics of genocide, human rights, diaspora, and homeland relations.

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