International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies

Karnig G. Bodourian, Տարագրի յուշեր 1915-1917 [Memoirs of a Deportee 1915-1917], Memoirs of Survivors of the Armenian Genocide, 8. Editor, author of the preface and references Mihran A. Minassian, Yerevan: AGMI Publishing, 2022, 527 pp.

2024-02-03T22:24:18+00:00

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Harutyun Grigoryan, Իմ կենսագրությունը [My Biography], Memoirs of Survivors of the Armenian Genocide, 10. Editor, author of the preface and references Regina Galustyan. Yerevan: AGMI, 2023, 304 pp.

2024-02-03T22:27:28+00:00

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Mass Destruction of Armenian Cultural Heritage during the Hamidian Massacres (1894-1896)

2024-02-03T21:55:52+00:00

The policy of destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage in the Ottoman Empire began with the conquest of Western Armenia and has continued until the present day. Over the centuries, Armenian culture, as part of the Empire’s Christian culture, has either been destroyed spontaneously, in vast swathes or undergone various manifestations of neutralisationby various Turkish regimes. The first part of this article will outline the approaches made by Genocide study theorists concerning the origin and definition of the term “cultural genocide” existing until today, including the attempts at revising or even re-naming it. The second part outlines the chronology of Armenian cultural heritage destruction. A detailed description of the policy of demolition of the Armenian cultural heritage during Hamidian massacres as a manifestation of vandalism or cultural genocide will also be presented.

Variations on a Dirge of Extermination: “Der Zor Çölünde” and the Armenian Genocide

2024-02-03T22:03:05+00:00

In one of his lectures at Northwestern University, Eli Wiesel (1977) stressed that “if the Greeks invented tragedy, the Romans the epistle, and the Renaissance the sonnet, our generation invented a new literature, that of testimony.” However, Wiesel suggested the generation of the Holocaust and most likely have forgotten the eyewitness survivors of the Armenian Genocide. In this article, I focus on a specific kind of testimony that emerged amongst the survivors of the Armenian Genocide: the song-testimony.
Thinking about music and sound is important as the experience of genocide stretches far beyond the visual-oriented notions of such tragedy. It is in this spirit that I write this essay to investigate “Der Zor Çölünde,” a series of song-testimonies that musically charts the experience of Armenians during the Genocide of 1915–1923. I primarily argue that Armenian deportees appropriated the musical and lyrical template of “Der Zor Çölünde” by creating new verses. In doing so, Armenians illustrated and immortalized what they saw, felt, and experienced during the deportations and forced marches. Considering the multifaceted nature of “Der Zor Çölünde,” this essay reimagines the Armenian Genocide experience through the voice(s) of its protagonists. Furthermore, I emphasize the importance and implication of listening to the performances of “Der Zor Çölünde” against the official narratives of genocide denial.

Ethnic Cleansing In Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh): Issues of Definition and Criminal Responsibility

2024-02-03T22:08:14+00:00

After ten months of blockade-resulted starvation and medical emergencies, on 19 September 2023, Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh Republic, was brutally attacked by Azerbaijan, resulting in a forced capitulation of the de facto state. Considering the long-lasting history of violence, institutionalized anti-Armenian hatred, persecution, and annihilation of Armenians by the Republic of Azerbaijan, an exodus of Armenians began in the following days, resulting in forced displacement of nearly 120,000 Armenians from their indigenous lands.
These atrocious events were soon labeled as ethnic cleansing by some actors of the international community. Currently, there is no legal definition of ethnic cleansing; using the term to mark the forced displacement of Armenians from Artsakh raises issues of definition and responsibility. This article aims to analyze the concept of ethnic cleansing in its historical and legal development and evaluate its application in the context of the forced displacement of Armenians from Artsakh.

Why Prevention Fails: Chronicling the Genocide in Artsakh

2024-02-03T22:18:48+00:00

Azerbaijan’s September 19, 2023 attack on the Republic of Artsakh resulted in the almost total displacement of the indigenous Armenian population, making it one of the most successful genocides in history. For over a year before Azerbaijan’s attack, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention viewed Artsakh as the “perfect storm” for genocide prevention and was using as many strategies as possible to urge Western leaders to recognize the threat and take effective action. Any leader willing to challenge Azerbaijan diplomatically would have had the work of many genocide scholars and genocide prevention organizations to back them up. We still believe that coordinated pressure from the Western powers could have had a chance of avoiding genocide and may have resulted in finding a secure, and perhaps independent, space for Artsakh Armenians in their ancestral homeland. This article aims to show how the case of genocide in Artsakh is an object lesson in how diplomatic silences, shaped by geopolitical interests, can provide the power framework in which genocide can easily take place, offer diplomatic cover for the state or organization committing the crime, and normalizing the crime within international relations. It proposes that the genocide in Artsakh ushered in a new “New Imperialism”, in which the post-1945 law-based world order is jettisoned for raw power, threatened communities and unwanted peoples are less safe than they were before September 19, 2023, and genocide will become the order of the day – unless we find new mechanisms to prevent it.