The Young Turks' Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire

by Taner Akçam

Overview

An unprecedented look at secret documents showing the deliberate nature of the Armenian genocide

Introducing new evidence from more than 600 secret Ottoman documents, this book demonstrates in unprecedented detail that the Armenian Genocide and the expulsion of Greeks from the late Ottoman Empire resulted from an official effort to rid the empire of its Christian subjects. Presenting these previously inaccessible documents along with expert context and analysis, Taner Akçam's most authoritative work to date goes deep inside the bureaucratic machinery of Ottoman Turkey to show how a dying empire embraced genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Although the deportation and killing of Armenians was internationally condemned in 1915 as a "crime against humanity and civilization," the Ottoman government initiated a policy of denial that is still maintained by the Turkish Republic. The case for Turkey's "official history" rests on documents from the Ottoman imperial archives, to which access has been heavily restricted until recently. It is this very source that Akçam now uses to overturn the official narrative.

The documents presented here attest to a late-Ottoman policy of Turkification, the goal of which was no less than the radical demographic transformation of Anatolia. To that end, about one-third of Anatolia's 15 million people were displaced, deported, expelled, or massacred, destroying the ethno-religious diversity of an ancient cultural crossroads of East and West, and paving the way for the Turkish Republic.

By uncovering the central roles played by demographic engineering and assimilation in the Armenian Genocide, this book will fundamentally change how this crime is understood and show that physical destruction is not the only aspect of the genocidal process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691153339
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	04/15/2012
Series:	Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity , #15
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Taner Akçam, the first scholar of Turkish origin to publicly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, holds the Kaloosdian and Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University. His many books include A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility (Metropolitan Books).

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Guide to Ottoman Turkish Words and Names xxxvii

Abbreviations xxxix

CHAPTER ONE Ottoman Sources and the Question of Their Being Purged 1

CHAPTER TWO: The Plan for the Homogenization of Anatolia 29

CHAPTER THREE: The Aftermath of the Balkan Wars and the"Emptying" of Eastern Thrace and the Aegean Littoral in 1913-14 63

CHAPTER FOUR: The Transformation of Ottoman Policies toward the Ottoman Greeks during the First World War 97

CHAPTER FIVE: The Initial Phase of Anti-Armenian Policy 125

CHAPTER SIX: Final Steps in the Decision-Making Process 157

CHAPTER SEVEN: Interior Ministry Documents and the Intent to Annihilate 203

CHAPTER EIGHT: Demographic Policy and the Annihilation of the Armenians 227

CHAPTER NINE: Assimilation: The Conversion and Forced Marriage of Christian Children 287

CHAPTER TEN: The Question of Confi scated Armenian Property 341

ELEVEN Some Official Denialist Arguments of the Turkish State and Documents from the Ottoman Interior Ministry 373

CHAPTER TWELVE: Toward a Conclusion 449

Selected Bibliography 453

Index 471

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Akçam's newest book on the Armenian genocide is based on stunning documentation from the Ottoman Turkish archives. Arguing that the annihilation of the Armenians (and the ethnic cleansing of the Ottoman Greeks) was based primarily on the Young Turks' commitment to demographic engineering, Akçam also explores the forced conversion and assimilation of Armenian children and the seizure of Armenian property. The book stands as powerful testimony to those who perished and as an unimpeachable rebuttal to denial."—Norman M. Naimark, author of Stalin's Genocides

Editorial Reviews

Co-Winner of the 2013 Albert Hourani Book Award, Middle East Studies

One of ForeignAffairs.com's Best Books on the Middle East for 2012

From the Publisher

"Akçam has long been the most vocal Turkish scholars regarding the Ottoman participation in genocidal acts against Armenians. Here, using Ottoman archival sources, the author makes his case that the Young Turk government had planned prior to WWI to remove the empire's Christian and no-Turkish Muslim population. . . . The author's discussion of the removal and execution of the Armenians is extremely detailed and well documented, and his usage of Ottoman sources, although questioned by Turkish nationalist scholars, is a very important addition to the study of this issue."

Choice

"[T]he fact that a Turkish historian with access to the Ottoman archives has written this book is of immeasurable significance."

Foreign Affairs

[A] major breakthrough in the our understanding of the social engineering that led to the near destruction of the Armenians of Anatolia, and of the dual-track mechanism for organizing it that the Young Turks employed. . . . [A] must for serious scholars of the Armenian Genocide.

American Diplomacy - John M. Evans

Akçam has long courted controversy in Turkey, where he was jailed as a student activist in the 1970s before claiming asylum in Germany, but his intellectual courage is beyond question. Moreover, while Turkey's official account of what happened in 1915 is unchanged, Turkish public and intellectual opinion is now much more open to debate. This dispassionate, scholarly study is a valuable contribution to help that debate move on.

Financial Times - Delphine Strauss

Akçam has long courted controversy in Turkey, where he was jailed as a student activist in the 1970s before claiming asylum in Germany, but his intellectual courage is beyond question. Moreover, while Turkey's official account of what happened in 1915 is unchanged, Turkish public and intellectual opinion is now much more open to debate. This dispassionate, scholarly study is a valuable contribution to help that debate move on.
— Delphine Strauss

Financial Times

[A] major breakthrough in the our understanding of the social engineering that led to the near destruction of the Armenians of Anatolia, and of the dual-track mechanism for organizing it that the Young Turks employed. . . . [A] must for serious scholars of the Armenian Genocide.
— John M. Evans, former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia (2004-2006)

American Diplomacy