New Texts Out Now: Bedross Der Matossian, Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire

Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book?

Bedross Der Matossian (BDM): I have always been interested in the history of the late Ottoman period, in particular the era of Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) and the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918). Most of the scholarship about the period in the past has been written from the perspective of the dominant ruling elite/political center. It is only in the past decade that we see new studies that provide a broader picture of the period by incorporating non-dominant groups. It is with this intention in mind that I decided to concentrate on examining one of the most important turning points in the beginning of the modern Middle East from the perspective of the non-dominant groups.

Much has been written on the causes and initial implementation of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. There is, however, a dearth of material that appropriately addresses its complexity and its impact on the worldview of the different non-dominant groups in the post-revolutionary period. Existing scholarship on the impact of the Young Turk Revolution on the Ottoman society is divided into two groups. One views the Revolution as a factor that led to the debilitation of interethnic relations leading to the rise of ethnic nationalism among the non-dominant groups, while the other romanticizes the period as the beginning of “civic nationalism” under the rubric of Ottomanism which was interrupted by World War I. I argue in the book that both approaches fail to adequately problematize the Revolution and demonstrate its complexities.

The Role of Historians of Turkey in the Study of Armenian Genocide

Erik Jan Zürcher 

On the occasion of the centenary of the Armenian genocide someone like me, who sees himself as a historian of Turkey in the twentieth century, has to speak out.

In the first place, there are moral and ethical reasons why this is so.  Historians of the late Ottoman Empire and Turkey in the twentieth century have a special responsibility, because we have been part of the fabric that maintained the silence for so long. We cannot allow a situation to continue such as I knew it when I was a student and a young university teacher in the nineteen seventies and eighties, when –in spite of the fact that outside our field the genocide had been an object of historical research for 50 years– we were barely aware of what had happened in 1915. Our textbooks only mentioned it as a footnote to history, if at all, and never defined it as a genocide. Our teachers never discussed it.

A Monument for the Just

Edmond Y. Azadian

While Armenians around the world are gearing up to commemorate the centennial of the Genocide, another calamity in our history must not be overlooked: the atrocities perpetrated against our beleaguered nation during the Stalin period.

It would not be historically proper to draw parallels between the two tragedies in terms of cause and effect, but the net outcome in both cases was the destruction of the creative minds of our people.

It is ironic that the executioners of history seem to be well versed enough in literature, arts and scholarship to be able to pick out the cream of the crop and target them for extermination — or else they employ advisors with enough intellectual capacity for this grisly selection.

Leading Muslim Cleric Issued Fatwa, Condemning Turks for Killing Armenians

Harut Sassounian

 

I recently came across an extremely significant Islamic document that severely criticizes Turks for using religion as a cover to killing Armenian Christians.

This rarely seen document is a Fatwa or religious decree issued in May 1909 by Grand Sheikh Salim al-Bishri of Egypt, condemning Turkish Muslims for massacring 30,000 Armenians in Adana, a major city in the Ottoman Empire.