Foreign Missionary Activity Prior to and During the Armenian Genocide

This article discusses how pre-Genocide foreign missionary activity prepared the way for relief and existential support during and after the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1921. Examples are drawn from American, British, and German Protestant missionary organisations, especially the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the Turkish Missions Aid Society or Bible Lands Missions Aid Society, and the Christlicher Hilfsbund im Orient. These agencies developed missionary and relief methods and transnational networks which were utilised by the Action Chrétienne en Orient (ACO) and other twentieth-century mission agencies in their work among Armenian communities.

Հայոց ցեղասպանության արձագանքները կոմպոզիտոր Արամ Սաթյանի ստեղծագործության մեջ

Aram Satyan addressed the issue of the Armenian Genocide in the 21st century by composing “Chinar es[Slim Like a Poplar]” for duduk and symphony orchestra, and “1915” for duduk, chamber orchestra and kettledrums. Both pieces feature the duduk as soloist. The composer intertwined in a masterly manner the timbre of the Armenian folk instrument with the sound of a symphony orchestra, in one case, and a chamber orchestra with kettledrums – in another. Incidentally, the composer had not shown any interest in duduk in his earlier works. Obviously, in the timbre dramaturgy of the composer, duduk associates with the Armenian Genocide, with the suffering and tragic pages in the history of the Armenian people.By concluding his “1915” with the intonations of “Hovareq [Cast a Shade]” (in our opinion, in the lyrics of the song, the ‘indifference’ of the mountains may be perceived as the lack of empathy the world communityhad shown toward the tragedy ofArmenians), rather than with the lively intonations of “Yerkingnampel e [The Skies Are Overcast]”, communicating the idea of inventive and peaceful nature of the Armenian people, A. Satyan must have had the presentiment of the 44-Day War of 2020, when the world once again remained unresponsive to the woes of Armenians. Therefore, we dedicate this article to the 44-Day Warheroes, the memories of whom will never fade.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF STAGES AND METHODS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND TUTSI GENOCIDE IN RWANDA

In genocide studies, for a more comprehensive, objective study of genocide committed against victim groups, the method of comparative analysis is used, which allows to identify both similarities and features between different examples of this crime. In the framework of the article, a comparative analysis of the stages and methods of the Armenian-Tutsi genocides was made. The choice of the Rwandan genocide as a subject of comparison with the Armenian Genocide is due to the fact that, unlike the organizers of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, who were convicted by Turkish military tribunals, the organizers of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda were prosecuted by the International Tribunal, created by the UN Security Council in 1994. Revealing the similarities between the stages and methods of committing two identical crimes will provide an opportunity to reveal the precedent of condemning the Rwandan Genocide in the International Tribunal and the possibilities of applying it to the Armenian Genocide case in the future in an international court. As a result of the comparative analysis of the stages of the two genocides, the methods of implementation, in addition to many similarities, significant differences were registered, from which we have separated the following: 1. In order to end the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish authorities chose the period of World War II, when influential world politicians were engaged in hostilities on different fronts of the war and they would not be able to intervene and prevent its implementation, while the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda took place during the civil war that broke out in this country. 2. If the Russian Caucasus Army was an obstacle to the criminal policy of genocide of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire, which during the hostilities on the RussianTurkish front with the support of Armenian volunteer units occupied the provinces of Erzurum, Van, Bitlis in Western Armenia, as well as Trabzon. The complete extermination of the Tutsis in Rwanda was halted by the advance of their military formation, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RWF), which managed to enter the capital, Kigali, to end the Houthi regime's criminal policy against the Tutsis. Unlike the RSF, the Armenian volunteer detachments in the Russian Caucasus Army did not act independently, they were not a military force capable of stopping the genocidal policy of the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian population. 3. The presence of the Russian Caucasus Army in some parts of Western Armenia, which was to some extent a guarantee of security for the genocidal Armenian population, as well as the Russian-Turkish front line, only temporarily stopped the continuation of the criminal policy of the Turkish authorities towards Armenians. During the revolutionary upheavals in Russia in 1917, the Russian Caucasian army was demoralized and disbanded, after which the Turkish authorities were able to continue the policy of the Armenian Genocide not only in the territories of Western Armenia formerly controlled by Russian troops, but also in Eastern Armenia and the Caucasus. The same can be said about Cilicia, when after the departure of the French troops, the Kemalists had the opportunity to continue the policy of genocide against the Armenians of Cilicia.

Watershed moment in US-Turkey relations

President Joe Biden recognized atrocities committed against Armenians as the Armenian Genocide in his statement on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (24 April 2021). The statement represents a watershed moment in US-Turkey relations. President Tayyip Erdogan can address US and international concerns prior to the Biden-Erdogan summit on the margin of June’s NATO meeting, or he can double down and intensify repression against Turkey’s ethnic and religious minorities. Erdogan’s course will define international relations prior to the centennial of the founding of the Turkish republic in 2023.

“Never Trust a Survivor”: Historical Trauma, Postmemory and the Armenian Genocide in Kurt Vonnegut’s Bluebeard

The article focuses on Kurt Vonnegut’s lesser-known and underappreciated 1987 novel Bluebeard, which is analyzed and interpreted in the light of Marianne Hirsch’s seminal theory of postmemory. Even though it was published prior to Hirsch’s formulation of the concept, Vonnegut’s novel intuitively anticipates it, problematizing the implications of inherited, second-hand memory. To further complicate matters, Rabo Karabekian, the protagonist-narrator of Bluebeard, a World War II veteran, amalgamates his direct, painful memories with those of his parents, survivors of the Armenian Genocide. Both the novel and the theory applied to it centre on the problematics of historical and personal trauma, engendered by two genocides which are often the object of comparative analyses: the Armenian Genocide, also referred to as the Armenian Holocaust, and the Jewish Holocaust. The latter is central to Hirsch’s interdisciplinary work in the field of memory studies, encompassing literature, the visual arts and gender studies. In Bluebeard, Vonnegut holds to account a humanity responsible for the atrocities of twentieth-century history: two world wars and two genocides for which they respectively established the context. The article examines the American writer’s reflection on death and violence, man’s destructive impulse and annihilation. In a world overshadowed by memories of mass extermination, Vonnegut interrogates the possibility of a new beginning, pointing to women as agents of renewal and sociopolitical change. He also identifies the role that art plays in the process of potential reconstruction, the story of Karabekian, a failed artist and highly successful art collector, being a Künstlerroman with a feminist edge.

U.S. Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide: The Clash between Idealism and Pragmatism

The article focuses on the conduct of American foreign policy on the subject of the Armenian genocide. This conduct serves as an excellent study of a major theme in the history of the formulation of American foreign policy – the clash between moral values and pragmatic economic and strategic interests and constraints and between the declared policy of President Wilson and the real policy of his and subsequent American administration on the Armenian genocide issue. A special emphasis was placed on “denial” as the final stage of a genocide.