[MGSA-L] Tessa Hofmann, Matthias Bjørnlund and Vasileios Meichanetsidis (eds) _The Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks_

[Christos D. Katsetos]

The Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks -- Studies on the State Sponsored
Campaign of Extermination of the Christians of Asia Minor (1912-1922) and
Its Aftermath: History, Law, Memory

Edited by Tessa Hofmann, Matthias Bjørnlund and Vasileios Meichanetsidis 

Aristide D. Caratzas, Publisher -- Melissa International Ltd.
http://www.caratzas.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=531

The period of transition from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire to the foundation

of the Turkish Republic was characterized by a number of processes largely guided
by a narrow elite that aimed to construct a modern, national state. One of these 
processes was the deliberate and planned elimination, indeed extermination, of the
Christian (and certain other) minorities. According to demographic studies, the 
numbers are stark: In 1912 the areas of Asia Minor and Thrace were inhabited by 
about 4-5 million Christians and 7-8 million Muslims; by 1923 only 250-300,000 
Christians remained.

Raphael Lemkin, the legal scholar who introduced the term genocide into 
international law, formulated his early ideas on the definition of this war crime by
studying the destruction of the Christians of Asia Minor, while the distinguished 
Turcologist Neoklis Sarris has noted that the annihilation of the Christian minorities 
represented an integral element in the formation of the Turkish Republic. As the editors
of this volume note the recent resolution by the International Association of Genocide
Scholars recognizing the Greek and Syriac genocides suggests a wider range of 
victim groups. This volume therefore represents an effort to provide an outline and 
a direction of a more extensive study of the deliberate destruction and elimination 
of a Greek presence that spanned over three millennia, in the space that became
the Turkish Republic.

The last two decades have seen a massive amount of research of the genocide 
of the Armenian population in the Ottoman/Turkish space; our publishing house 
has produced a number of works, most notable of which was the eyewitness 
testimony of the Leslie A. Davis, US Consul in Harput (The Slaughterhouse Province:
An American Diplomat's Report on the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917). Much 
less scholarly work has been done on the genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor
and Thrace; there are many reasons for this, including the fact that Turkish 
governments have been successful in intimidating diplomats in the context of 
Turkish-Greek relations of the last generation, and of subverting academic integrity
(inducing some scholars to make a career as denialists supported by international 
NGOs, all in the name of countering nationalism).

The volume includes article contributions on the areas subtitled: Historical Overview, Documentation, Interpretation; Representations and Law; Genocide Education; 
Memorialization; Conceptualization; and a very extensive Bibliography.

http://www.caratzas.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=531
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