The destruction of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-16 was
the greatest atrocity of World War I. Around one million Armenians were
killed, and the survivors were scattered across the world. Although it
is now a century old, the issue of what most of the world calls the
Armenian Genocide of 1915 is still a live and divisive issue that
mobilizes Armenians across the world, shapes the identity and politics
of modern Turkey, and has consumed the attention of U.S. politicians for
years.
In Great Catastrophe, the eminent scholar and reporter Thomas de Waal
looks at the aftermath and politics of the Armenian Genocide and tells
the story of recent efforts by courageous Armenians, Kurds, and Turks to
come to terms with the disaster as Turkey enters a new post-Kemalist
era. The story of what happened to the Armenians in 1915-16 is
well-known. Here we are told the "history of the history" and the
lesser-known story of what happened to Armenians, Kurds, and Turks in
the century that followed. De Waal relates how different generations
tackled the issue of the "Great Catastrophe" from the 1920s until the
failure of the Protocols signed by independent Armenia and Turkey in
2010. Quarrels between diaspora Armenians supporting and opposing the
Soviet Union broke into violence and culminated with the murder of an
archbishop in 1933. The devising of the word "genocide," the growth of
modern identity politics, and the 50th anniversary of the massacres
re-energized a new generation of Armenians. In Turkey the issue was
initially forgotten, only to return to the political agenda in the
context of the Cold War and an outbreak of Armenian terrorism. More
recently, Turkey has started to confront its taboos. In an astonishing
revival of oral history, the descendants of tens of thousands of
"Islamized Armenians," who have been in the shadows since 1915, have
begun to reemerge and reclaim their identities.
