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While scholarship on the Armenian Genocide has expanded significantly in recent years, the history of the concentration camps in present-day Syria, where Ottoman authorities deported Armenians during the death marches, remains largely understudied. This is the first book to offer an in-depth and multifaceted examination of these camps. The chapters trace the origins and development of the camp system and document the atrocities committed at infamous sites such as Deir ez-Zor, Ras al-Ain, Meskene and others. Contributors explore the brutal realities of daily life in the camps, the interactions between deportees and local populations, as well as the ways in which some Armenians managed to resist and survive against overwhelming odds. Combining a comparative perspective that situates the camps within a global context with detailed analyses of specific locations, this volume provides critical new insights into the operation and function of concentration camps during the Armenian Genocide.
List of contents
Introduction
Bedross Der Matossian (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA) and Edita Gzoyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
PART I - The Global History of Concentration CampsChapter 1. Concentration Camps
Dan Stone (University of London, UK)
Chapter 2. Concentration Camps during the Armenian Genocide in a Global Historical Context
Khatchig Mouradian (Columbia University, USA)
Chapter 3. The Committee of Union and Progress and the Concentration Camps: A Universal Idea into Action
Regina Galustyan and Mihran Minassian (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
PART II - Concentrations Camps as a Method of Destruction: From Decision to Implementation Chapter 4. The Young Turk regime and the decision to liquidate the last deportees
Raymond H. Kévorkian
Chapter 5. The Humanitarian Perversion
Hatice Ayse Polat (Columbia University, USA)
PART III - Documenting the Atrocities in Concentration CampsChapter 6. The Testimonies collected by Aram Andonian about Armenian Deportees in Concentration Camps in Syria
Mihran A. Minassian (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
Chapter 7. "Rescue" as Genocide: According to the First Collection of Testimonies of Survivors on the Road to Exile
Harutyun Marutyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
Chapter 8. Archeology of the Armenian Genocide on the Source Study and Discovery of Massacre and Mass Burial Places
Shushan Khachatryan and Hayk Hakobyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
PART IV - Destination Nowhere: Reconstructing Deportation Routes and Concentration Camps through Survivors' MemoirsChapter 9. Deportations of Armenians of Erzerum: From Keghi to Der Zor
Anna Kazaryan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
Chapter 10. The Deportation Route from Mets Nor Gyugh to Ras-ul-Ain according to the Memoir of Yervant Sharapkhanyan
Gohar Khanumyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
Chapter 11. "Becoming Animals": Father Der Nerses Tavukjian as a Witness of the Misery in the Camps
Vahe Tachjian
Chapter 12. Zepyur Metspahkian's Memoires of Exile and Salvation
Lusine Abrahamyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
PART V - Life-and-Death Struggle: "Life" in Concentration CampsChapter 13. Exile in a Transit Camp: 'Life' of Armenian Deportees in Akçakoyunlu Railroad Station in 1915-1916
Ümit Kurt (The University of Newcastle, Australia)
Chapter 14. Experiencing a Genocide Concentration Camp: Katma in the Eyes of the Armenian Refugees
Antranik Dakessian (Haygazian University, Lebanon)
Chapter 15. Concentration Camps in Smyrna as Reported in Eyewitness Accounts
Tehmine Martoyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute-AGMI)
Chapter 16. Sensing Golgotha's Trail: Towards a Sensory History of the Medz Yeghern
James Carl Lagman Osorio (Brown University, USA)
PART VI - Resisting Death in Concentration CampsChapter 17. Armed Resistance Attempts of Deported Armenians from Zeytun in the Desert of Der Zor
Robert Tatoyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
Chapter 18. Children at Concentration Camps during the Armenian Genocide: Suffering and Survival
Aram Mirzoyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
PART VII - Acting and Reacting: Foreign Intervention and Help Chapter 19. German Missionary Stations and the Armenian Genocide: The Problems of Continuity of Financial Flows from Europe and their Distributions
Hayk Martirosyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
Chapter 20. The Attitudes of Bedouin Arabs towards Armenian Refugees in the Concentration Camps Narine V. Margaryan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)
Chapter 21. "Managing the Undesirables:" Humanitarian Encampment in Post-WWI Aleppo
Melanie Tanielian (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, USA)
About the author
Bedross Der Matossian is Professor of Modern Middle East history and the Hymen Rosenberg Professor in Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. He is the author, editor, and co-editor of seven books, including Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire (2014) and The Horrors of Adana: Revolution and Violence in the Early Twentieth Century (2022). He serves on the editorial board of journals, including the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES).Edita Gzoyan is Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Foundation, Yerevan, Armenia. She has published extensively in national and international journals including Genocide Studies International and the Journal of Genocide Research. Dr. Gzoyan is an editor of the International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies and an assistant editor of Ts’eghaspanagitakan Handes.
