Crime of Numbers: The Role of Statistics in the Armenian Question (1878-1918) / Edition 1

by Fuat Dundar

Overview

Statistics have played an important role in the recognition of the Armenian question on the international landscape as well as its "definitive solution" resulting in the Armenian genocide. The importance of statistics first surfaced at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, where differences in the approach toward numbers between the Armenian and the Ottoman Empire, and the role of statistics within the Ottoman state apparatus, became an issue. At that international gathering, the Armenian question was considered part of the "Eastern Question" paradigm of Western diplomacy. It would soon become a code word for the question of "civilization" itself.

Those administering the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire perceived the Armenian issue not only through ethnic and religious perspectives, but also through statistics. As Dundar shows, statistics became the vehicle through which the Ottoman state apparatus was forced to include non-Muslim populations of the Empire in the state apparatuses and local councils. This occurred long before the Armenian question surfaced. The aim of Ottoman reforms was to ensure that all communities participated in the affairs of the state and that such participation was proportionate to their numbers. Through its role in these reforms, statistics emerged as a constant matter of debate in the Armenian question.

As a result of the Armenian genocide, the statistical record has become quite sensitive. Today, accounting for the numbers of Armenians murdered in 1915 usually means calculating the number of Armenians who were massacred or died of other causes such as disease, hunger, exhaustion, and the like during deportations or immediately after. This is a work of brilliant archival history and imaginatively uses social statistics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412811002
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	06/15/2010
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Fuat Dündar was born in a Kurdish county. He is the author of three books in Turkish: Modern Turkey’s Cipher—Ethnicity Engineering of the Committee Union and Progress (1913-1918), The Settlement Policy of Muslims (1913-1918), and Minorities in Turkish Censuses. He is visiting professor of history at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations ix

Preface xiii

Introduction 1

1 Diplomacy and Statistics: The Emergence of the Armenian Question (1878-1913) 11

First Period: The Congress of Berlin and the Emergence of the Armenian Question, 1878 11

Second Period: The 1895 Memorandum 31

Third Period: "Vilayat-i Sarkiyye Islahati," Reform of the Oriental Provinces, in 1914 51

2 War, Massacre, and Statistics (1914-1918): The "Definitive Solution" of the Armenian Question 67

Political Persecution 68

Deportation, the Suez Canal Operation, and the Persecution of Deserters in Zeytun 71

Massacres: The Van Resistance/Rebellion and Further Deportations 79

July 20, 1915: Secret Order Concerning Counting and Mapping 94

Dispersing Armenians according to the Principle of 2%, 5%, and 10% 103

Photographing Armenians, Covering the Massacres: The Construction of an Official Ideology 123

3 The Number in the Crime: Counting the Armenian Dead 141

4 Some Remarks 157

Appendices 173

Bibliography 225

Index 233

Editorial Reviews

[Crime of Numbers] is a much needed work on what continues in Turkish and Armenian history to be a very problematic topic, namely the investigation of what has been referred to as 'the Armenian question' that emerged between 1878 and 1918 to still haunt both the Turks and the Armenians almost a century later…Fuat Dündar brings to this scholarship the much needed analysis of the role of statistics that played an inordinately significant role not only during the period leading to such deportations, but also in its aftermath as many attempted and still endeavor to interpret what transpired. Dündar's meticuolus use in particular of existing Ottoman and Allied documentation on the Armenian Question makes this book a must-read for all those interested not only in this issue, but also one the use of the modernity of quantification for destructive ends.” – Fatma Müge Göçek, The University of Michigan

From the Publisher