Friday, June 12, 2026, TORONTO: The Zoryan Institute is mourning the loss of the remarkable German journalist, historian, researcher, scholar, and friend of the Institute, Wolfgang Gust, who leaves behind a lasting legacy as someone who played an instrumental role in the affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, committed by the Ottoman Young Turks Government.

Wolfgang Gust worked very closely with the Zoryan Institute staff, Executive Director, George Shirinian, and Director of Research, Prof. Vahakn Dadrian, on the editing, translation, and publication of the groundbreaking book, The Armenian Genocide: Evidence from the German Foreign Office Archives, 1915-1916 in German (2005), Turkish (2012), and English (2014). Through his tireless efforts, painstakingly collected, restored, and published documents from the German Foreign Office Archive with the assistance of his wife, Ingrid Gust, a prominent human rights lawyer. 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 book is of great historical significance as German diplomats across the Ottoman Empire were some of the most important non-Armenian witnesses to the violence taking place and as allies of Turkey, were the only ones with permission to report official uncensored, daily event during the ongoing deportations and massacres. Therefore, these records uncovered by Prof. Gust provide researchers and policy makers with a deeper understanding of the actions and the motives of the Armenian Genocide, from the official records of Germany, Turkey’s very own wartime ally.

Perhaps some of the most significant passages from the book, revealing Germany’s complicity in the Armenian Genocide, are from correspondence between the German ambassador in Constantinople, Count Paul Wolff-Metternich, to the Imperial Chancellor in Berlin, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg:

Following the German publication in 2005, his book played a major role in raising awareness among Members of the German Bundestag on their own Foreign Office Archives related to the Armenian Genocide, which led the German Bundestag to acknowledge the Armenian massacres as genocide in 2016.

The former Co-Chair of the Green Alliance Party, Cem Ozdemir, stated the following in a visit to the Zoryan Institute offices in Toronto 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 Zoryan Institute’s Executive Director, George Shirinian, had this to say about Wolfgang Gust:

I had the honour of working closely with him for over a year. I learned that he became interested in this subject out of a deep moral commitment to truth and justice. The importance of his contribution to our understanding of the Armenian Genocide cannot be overstated. His work in this field continues to be an inspiration to the many friends and colleagues he has around the world, who still speak warmly about him when they write and talk to each other. I learned a lot from him, and he was a pleasure to work with.

The Zoryan Institute, its directors and staff are incredibly grateful for Gust’s years of dedication to unearthing some of the most important research demonstrating the incontestability of the Armenian Genocide. As a friend and scholar, he will be greatly missed by the Institute and the international community at large. We share our sincere condolences to his wife Ingrid, and the rest of his family and loved ones.