Introduction
This edited volume, The Genocide of the Christian
Populations in the Ottoman Empire and Its Aftermath
(1908–1923), by Taner Akçam, Theodosios Kyriakidis,
and Kyriakos Chatzikyriakidis brings together
interdisciplinary scholarship examining the destruction of
Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Christian communities
during the final decades of the Ottoman Empire and the
early Turkish Republic. Originating from a 2019
international conference held at Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki, the anthology situates the mass atrocities
faced by the non-Muslim Millets within the broader
process of imperial collapse and nation-state formation.
By adopting a comparative framework, the editors seek
to overcome the historiographical fragmentation that has
traditionally separated the Armenian, Greek, and
Assyrian cases and to analyze them instead as
interconnected manifestations of a sustained genocidal
process. In doing so, the volume aligns with and builds upon earlier scholarship by
Taner Akçam [1], Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi [2], George Shirinian [3], and others,
who have argued for an “ecumenical” approach to late Ottoman state violence—one
that recognizes shared structures, ideologies, and mechanisms without collapsing
distinct victim experiences.
Content
The preface by the editors Akçam, Kyriakidis, and Chatzikyriakidis establishes the
volume’s central historiographical intervention: the study of the genocide of Ottoman
Christians as a long-term and multi-phased process carried out by successive
regimes representing a relatively stable ruling elite. Rather than focusing exclusively
on 1915, the editors emphasize continuity from the late nineteenth century through
the early Republican period, thereby normalizing the use of terms such as “Ottoman
genocide” within scholarly discourse. While the Armenian Genocide has long
dominated scholarly discourse, the editors argue that this focus has marginalized
Greek and especially Assyrian experiences. The volume thus contributes to
comparative genocide studies by integrating diverse archival materials, survivor
testimonies, and theoretical approaches across national and disciplinary boundaries.
The volume opens with an introductory chapter by Taner Akçam, who proposes the
concept of an “Ottoman Genocide” unfolding between roughly 1876 and 1924.
Akçam distinguishes between a long-term genocidal process and discrete genocidal
moments, situating the Armenian Genocide as its most intense manifestation rather
than an isolated event. His framework rests on three interrelated dynamics: persistent
Muslim–Turkish intolerance toward non-Muslims, the destabilizing transition from
empire to nation-state, and a recurring cycle of reform demands, massacres, foreign
intervention, and territorial secession. This conceptualization is one of the volume’s
major strengths, even where its application across cases remains uneven.
Subsequent chapters are organized into three thematic sections, each containing
three to five contributions. Part I focuses on documentation and historical
perspectives, introducing previously unused archival sources from Greek, American,
French, German, and Polish contexts. These studies illuminate local and international
dimensions of anti-Christian violence and reassess the roles of state actors, foreign
observers, and military planners. Part II addresses memory, recognition, and
denialism, with particular emphasis on the late internationalization of the Assyrian
Genocide, survivor memory, diasporic cultural production, and the mechanisms of
Turkish state-sponsored denial. Part III examines legal and human-rights dimensions,
situating the genocides within early international legal discourse, contemporary
human-rights frameworks, and efforts by institutions such as the League of Nations to
address the aftermath, particularly concerning women and children.
While these chapters collectively enrich the empirical base of Ottoman genocide
studies, this review focuses primarily on the two contributions that address the
Assyrian Genocide, which remain among the least studied components of this
historical process.
In David Gaunt’s “Late Recognition of the Assyrian Genocide,” the author
investigates why the mass destruction of Assyrians during World War I — despite its
scale and extensive contemporary documentation — remained largely unrecognized
for much of the twentieth century. Gaunt estimates that up to half of the Assyrian
population of the Ottoman and Persian Empires perished through mass killings,
forced displacement, and destruction, yet the genocide failed to gain sustained
international or communal acknowledgment in the immediate post-war period.
Gaunt frames his analysis through the sociological theory of collective trauma,
emphasizing that recognition depends not merely on historical fact but on the
presence of a cohesive “carrier group” capable of producing and disseminating a
unified narrative of catastrophe and identifies structural fragmentation as a central
obstacle to recognition. He argues that the Assyrian case failed to meet these
conditions for nearly sixty years, resulting in what he terms a prolonged period of
silence from the 1920s to the 1980s.He demonstrates how Assyrian recognition
efforts were undermined by internal fragmentation along ecclesiastical, linguistic, and
regional lines, institutional silence — particularly from the Syriac Orthodox Church
supposedly seeking to protect remaining communities in Turkey — and geopolitical
marginalization after the Treaty of Lausanne. As a result, memory of the genocide
survived primarily through family oral traditions, songs, and village narratives, rather
than through public commemoration or historical writing. Though, existing narratives
were geographically limited, confessional in perspective, or politically ineffective. No
authoritative “master narrative” emerged that could unify western and eastern
Assyrians, define perpetrators clearly, or mobilize broader international sympathy.
Gaunt identifies a turning point in the late twentieth century with the growth of the
Assyrian diaspora in Europe, particularly from Tur Abdin, beginning in the 1960s and
accelerating in the 1970s. Central to this process was the revival and standardization
of the term Sayfo (“the year of the sword”) as a unifying concept for the genocide,
and increased scholarly engagement, which together enabled the gradual
internationalization of Assyrian genocide memory.
From the late 1990s onward, academic scholarship expanded significantly,
incorporating archival research, sociological analysis, and legal perspectives. At the
same time, Assyrian activists adopted a new strategy of coalition-building with
Armenian and Greek organizations, amplifying political lobbying efforts and
increasing their effectiveness in securing parliamentary recognitions.
Mary Akdemir’s “Big Secrets, Small Villages” complements Gaunt’s institutional and
political analysis by examining the cultural transmission of genocide memory,
particularly through music, oral history, and attachment to place among Assyrians
from the Tur Abdin region. Rather than focusing on political recognition or institutional
silence, Akdemir centers on everyday cultural practices—especially diaspora
music—as key vehicles of collective memory and intergenerational trauma.
The chapter opens with the case of Azakh, a village whose inhabitants famously
resisted Ottoman and Kurdish forces in 1915 but whose last Assyrian residents fled
in the 1990s amid continued persecution. Akdemir uses this example to illustrate how
physical separation from ancestral lands has not severed memory; instead, it has
intensified symbolic attachment. Drawing on Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de
mémoire (“sites of memory”), she argues that Assyrian villages, churches, and
landscapes function as repositories of genocide memory, even when Assyrians
themselves are no longer physically present. Akdemir situates her analysis within a
concise historical overview of Assyrian identity, emphasizing the centrality of
Christianity, language (Turoyo/Surayt and Syriac), and territorial rootedness in Tur
Abdin.
A core contribution of the chapter is its analysis of Assyrian music as an archive of
collective trauma. Building on Naures Atto’s work on oral transmission, Akdemir
analyzes songs circulated via YouTube and diaspora media to demonstrate how
genocide memory is passed down across generations.
Through detailed analysis of diaspora songs and survivor testimonies — especially
those related to the village of Iwardo (Ayn Wardo) — she argues that collective
memory encompasses not only trauma and loss but also narratives of resistance and
heroism. Akdemir further situates these cultural practices within the context of post-
genocide Turkification policies, linguistic repression, and ongoing denial, framing
Assyrian music as both commemoration and political critique.
Brief Assessment
The volume’s principal strength lies in its comparative and integrative approach,
which advances genocide studies beyond nationally segmented narratives. Akçam’s
conceptual framework provides a coherent analytical backbone, while the diversity of
sources — particularly diplomatic and oral materials — adds significant empirical
depth. Chapters drawing on missionary accounts, diplomatic correspondence, and
League of Nations records underscore the importance of Western witnesses in
documenting atrocities and contesting denial. The engagement with memory politics –
- especially the cycles of remembrance, suppression, and rediscovery explored in the
Assyrian-focused chapters — adds a valuable cultural and sociological dimension to
the historical analysis.
The sections dealing with legal responsibility, mens rea, and postwar justice
significantly strengthen the volume’s contribution to genocide and human-rights
studies. By examining early efforts to conceptualize “organized and premeditated
collective crime” and to prosecute perpetrators, these chapters illuminate the long-
term implications of Ottoman atrocities for international law and contemporary
human-rights discourse.
Within the broader field of genocide studies, this volume contributes to ongoing
efforts to contextualize the Armenian Genocide alongside parallel campaigns against
Greeks and Assyrians. It aligns with recent scholarship that emphasizes process,
continuity, and regional interconnectedness, while also addressing long-standing
gaps in Assyrian genocide research. By foregrounding memory, denial, and cultural
transmission, the book bridges historical analysis with sociological and cultural
approaches increasingly central to genocide scholarship.
Concluding Remarks
The Genocide of the Christian Populations in the Ottoman Empire and Its Aftermath
is a significant and timely contribution to comparative genocide studies. Its greatest
value lies in its insistence on studying the destruction of Ottoman Christian
communities as a unified historical process and in its inclusion of underrepresented
Assyrian perspectives. The chapters by David Gaunt and Mary Akdemir are
especially compelling, offering complementary insights into the politics of recognition
and the Assyrian cultural afterlives of genocide. They deepen our understanding of
how genocide is remembered, silenced, and resisted across generations.
The volume will be of considerable interest to scholars and graduate students in
genocide studies, Ottoman history, memory studies, and human rights, and it
provides a strong foundation for future research on the Assyrian Genocide and its
place within the broader history of mass violence in the late Ottoman world.
The book can be obtained here:
https://www.routledge.com/The-Genocide-of-the-Christian-Populations-in-the-
Ottoman-Empire-and-its-Aftermath-1908-1923/Akcam-Kyriakidis-
Chatzikyriakidis/p/book/9781032075082
[1] Taner Akçam, Ermeni Soykırımı’nın Kısa Bir Tarihi (A Short History of the
Armenian Genocide), Aras: Istanbul, 1921; see my review:
https://seyfocenter.com/english/review-of-taner-akcams-new-book-a-short-history-of-
the-armenian-genocide/
[2] Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi, The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey’s Destruction of
Its Christian Minorities 1894-1924, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2019
[3] George Shirinian (Ed.), Genocide in the Ottoman Empire: Armenians, Assyrians,
and Greeks 1913-1923, Berghahn Books: New York, 2017
