Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide

312 Pages·2015·2.34 MB·English

by  Thomas de Waal

GREAT
CATASTROPHE
Q

GR E AT
C ATASTROPHE
Q
ARMENIANS AND TURKS IN THE
SHADOW OF GENOCIDE
THOMAS DE WAAL
1
1
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© Thomas de Waal 2015
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
De Waal, Thomas.
Great catastrophe : Armenians and Turks in the shadow of genocide / Thomas de Waal.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978–0–19–935069–8 (hardback : alkaline paper) 1. Armenian massacres,
1915–1923—Influence. 2. Armenian massacres, 1915–1923—Political aspects.
3. Armenia—Relations—Turkey. 4. Turkey—Relations—Armenia.
5. Memory—Political aspects—Armenia. 6. Memory—Political aspects—Turkey.
7. Turkey—Ethnic relations. 8. Collective memory—Turkey. 9. Genocide—Political
aspects—Case studies. I. Title.
DS195.5.D49 2015
956.6′20154—dc23
2014020230
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To my mother, Esther Moir de Waal,
who first taught me about history

Q
Contents
Author’s Note ix
Map 1. The Ottoman Empire in 1914 xiii
Map 2. Turkey in 2014 xiv
Introduction: Requiem in Diyarbakir 1
1. The Catastrophe 18
2. The History 42
3. From Van to Lausanne, 1915–1923 65
4. Aspects of Forgetting 91
5. Postwar Politics 111
6. Awakening, 1965 126
7. Assailing Turkey 149
8. A Turkish Thaw 178
9. Independent Armenia 196
10. The Protocols 214
vii
viii contents
11. Hidden Histories in Diyarbakir 235
12. Two Memorials in Istanbul 248
Great Catastrophe Chronology 261
Notes 269
Index 291
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Author’s note
In my work In the South Caucasus in the 1990s, coming from the
Russian side, I slowly began to feel the importance of an issue that still
had a dark and muffled resonance in the region from three generations
before: the fate of the Ottoman Armenians in 1915. It is not an issue to
be approached lightly, and it was only after many years and many trips
to Turkey that I felt able to do so.
A lot of good histories have been written about the Armenian
Genocide, and this is not an attempt to write another one. My aim is to
provide a book for the general reader about what came after 1915: how
different eras and political agendas shaped the Armenians, changing
relations between Armenians and Turks, the politics of genocide, and
the dynamic and often more hopeful events of the last 15 years.
I use the term “Armenian Genocide” in the book, having, after much
reading, respectfully agreed with the scholarly consensus that what
happened to the Armenians in 1915–1916 did indeed fit the 1948 United
Nations definition of genocide. At the same time, along with many
others, I do so with mixed feelings, having also reached the conclusion
that the “G-word” has become both legalistic and over-emotional, and
that it obstructs the understanding of the historical rights and wrongs
of the issue as much as it illuminates them. As the reader will see, this
is one of the themes of the book.
ix