Skulls of Armenians massacred in Urfa – What do we know exactly about the Armenian genocide?
August 18, 2015 – History / World: //www.slate.fr/story//
History and posterity of a centennial genocidal process, the historiographical apprehension of which still faces political urgency.
One hundred years after the first genocide of the 20th century, Mikaël Nichanian takes stock of the current state of knowledge on the Armenian genocide. He questions more broadly the genocidal process, its construction over time, its consequences in the medium and long term while evoking the difficulties of the historian in the apprehension of such facts. At the time of Holocaust denial, this book recalls that the genocide affected almost all of the two million Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, and that it is the only belligerent of the First World War to be directly the instigator the deaths of two-thirds of the civilian victims in its own territory.
Conditions and complexity of the genocidal process
From the introduction, the author clearly states his problem:
“What are the conditions for the possibility of genocide, that is to say, […] what are the historical factors which made it possible, within the Ottoman elites, to design and carry out a genocidal program in 1915? ”
First of all, it sets out to recall the intellectual and political context of Europe. On the eve of the First World War, Turkey looked towards Europe and wondered about the concepts of nation in France (tradition of Ernest Renan) and in Germany (predominance of the concept of race). In search of a national identity, she both envies and rejects this same Europe.
Skulls of Armenians massacred in Urfa, surrounded by Armenian dignitaries and women from the women’s shelter in Urfa’s Monastery of St. Sarkis in June 1919. | AGBU via Wikimedia CC License by
www.slate.fr/story/104888/quel-bilan-actuel-pour-le-genocide-armenien
