{"title":"Armenian Genocide Studies: Development as a Field, Historiographic Appraisal, and the Road Ahead","authors":"Stephan H. Astourian","doi":"10.3138/gsi-2023-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi-2023-0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay is a survey of the field of Armenian Genocide studies, which outlines its academic development over the past sixty years and the conditions of its production. The latter refers to the state-sponsored denial of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey, and to the collusion, or at least acquiescence, of some Middle East studies scholars or organizations with such a denial. The essay assesses the state of the current historiography and the issue of access to the main relevant archival sources. Finally, it points to some of the current debates and gaps in the existing literature, and possibly to the road that lies ahead.","PeriodicalId":40844,"journal":{"name":"Genocide Studies International","volume":"31 1","pages":"120 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139293536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quality Genocide Education in American Schools: An Armenian Lens for Hope","authors":"Zepure Merdinian","doi":"10.3138/gsi-2023-0928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi-2023-0928","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40844,"journal":{"name":"Genocide Studies International","volume":"32 1","pages":"157 - 159"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139302316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What Obligation Does the Global Community Have to Prevent Genocide, and What Form(s) Should these Prevention Efforts Take?","authors":"Soline Fisher","doi":"10.3138/gsi-2023-0927","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi-2023-0927","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40844,"journal":{"name":"Genocide Studies International","volume":"32 1","pages":"160 - 162"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139294562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Legal Violence and the Gendered Necropolitics of Coloniality: Feminicide, Socioeconomic Marginalization, and Housing Rights Violations against Indigenous Women in Guatemala and Canada","authors":"Lauren E. Grant","doi":"10.3138/gsi-2021-0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi-2021-0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This paper argues that feminicidal and sexual gender-based violence faced by Indigenous women in Guatemala and Canada is a cause and consequence of these states' failure to effectively guarantee Indigenous women's intersecting socio-economic rights, namely their right to adequate housing. Exposing the historically-rooted, economic and political interests and investments of the two countries, this paper argues that Indigenous women's rights have been co-opted by legal violence in both contexts. Revealing the complicity of settler democratic states and the international human rights regime in sustaining these rights violations, this paper evidences Indigenous women's socio-economic marginalization, inadequate housing, and consequential feminicidal violence as the product of the gendered necropolitics of coloniality. Interrogating why and how these colonial genocidal structures sustain the subjugation of Indigenous women's bodies, this paper exposes how colonial genocidal structures have rendered Indigenous women illegible for protection under international human rights law. Highlighting a range of performative attempts undertaken by the Guatemala and Canada to address the grave rights violations facing Indigenous women, this paper provides a feminist, decolonial framework that evidences why and how Indigenous women's experiences of socioeconomic marginalization, inadequate and unsafe housing, and the alarming rates of feminicidal and sexual gender-based violence continue to persist unabated.","PeriodicalId":40844,"journal":{"name":"Genocide Studies International","volume":"64 1","pages":"121 - 144"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139304960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Penal Battalions and Genocidal Warfare: History's Warnings, Wagner's Global Footprint, and Ukraine","authors":"Christopher Harrison","doi":"10.3138/gsi-2023-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi-2023-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The expendability of penal battalions has provided genocidal regimes with ample fodder for conventional wars, genocidal warfare, and cases in which such conscripts may become either perpetrators or victims. The unresolved charges of those who massacred civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, in 2022 extend to include suspects from a private military security company (PMSC) known as the Wagner Group. Vladimir Putin's regime has regularly contracted Wagner since its founding in 2014 in operations that led to its adaptation and development as a tool for war and very likely also the world's first for-hire band of perpetrators. This study tracks histories of penal battalions before outlining the evolution of Wagner as a significant force in global politics and conflict. The findings suggest that prosecution, prevention, or intervention will become even more difficult than it already is for institutions of international law. The apparent successes and rapid growth of Wagner tend to indicate that the use of penal battalions in genocidal wars is not confined to the pages of history. The unaccountability of such suspects could increase both the recruitment of many more genocidal offenders and further risk the expendability of what Richard L. Rubenstein identified as surplus populations. By framing penal battalions that die en masse in genocidal wars, the case of the Wagner Group may ultimately include civilian victims in Ukraine, perpetrators for-hire, and victims within the group's own battalions that the Kremlin deployed to die across the war's frontlines.","PeriodicalId":40844,"journal":{"name":"Genocide Studies International","volume":"30 1","pages":"145 - 156"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139293959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From War Crimes to Crimes against Humanity and Genocide: Turkish Responsibility after World War I","authors":"E. Gzoyan","doi":"10.3138/gsi-2022-0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi-2022-0020","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:On 24 May 1915, the Triple Entente powers of Britain, France, and Russia issued a joint declaration that qualified the massacres, imprisonments and violence inflicted on the peaceful Armenian population as \"crimes against humanity and civilization.\" The concept of crimes against humanity was further developed and explained by the Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties (hereinafter: Commission), which was formed during the Paris Peace Conference to investigate violations of the laws and customs of war and prosecute war criminals. This article traces the evolution of discussions held within the Commission regarding the atrocities committed by the Ottoman Turkish government against its Armenian population, which technically fell outside the jurisdiction of the crimes specified in these talks, as the atrocities were committed not against the population of a belligerent state but, rather, against their own nationals. These discussions played a major part in the development of international criminal law; particularly of the concept of crimes against humanity. The Armenian Memorandum and the list of perpetrators of the Armenian atrocities were also presented to the Commission, which (together with other data and information collected) identified the crimes committed against the Armenian population by the Ottoman authorities, thus defining the concept of crimes against humanity and the acts that fell within its scope. Although post-World War I efforts for justice are generally assessed as a failed effort, crimes against humanity first materialized as a term in international law during this period and its development was based on the Armenian atrocities, which provided a critical basis for the International Military Tribunal's later convictions and contributed to the concept's evolution into its present-day significance.","PeriodicalId":40844,"journal":{"name":"Genocide Studies International","volume":"24 1","pages":"79 - 98"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139304035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Uncovering the Truth behind Azerbaijan’s “Ecological” Blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh: The Role of Government-Linked Volunteer Organizations in the Lachin Corridor","authors":"Lindsey Snell","doi":"10.3138/gsi-2023-0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi-2023-0014","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article presents an analysis of the ongoing blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, which, for almost five months, was under the guise of an ecological protest. It examines the role of volunteer organizations linked to the Azerbaijani government in coordinating the volunteer protestors blocking the Lachin Corridor, as well as the demographic makeup of these volunteers, the majority of whom are students from Azerbaijan’s public universities. The article delves into the origins and objectives of these organizations, as well as the benefits that Azerbaijani youth gain by joining them. The article also touches on the organizations’ next goal, which is to utilize the same student volunteers to influence media coverage of the “West Azerbaijan community,” an initiative introduced by the Azerbaijani government to justify its territorial claims on sovereign Armenian territory. The study contributes to the understanding of the political and social dynamics of the so-called ecological protest in Azerbaijan and its potential consequences for the broader conflict in the region.","PeriodicalId":40844,"journal":{"name":"Genocide Studies International","volume":"15 1","pages":"69 - 76"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45299926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alex Alvarez, Adam Muller, Jennifer E. Rich, Henry C. Theriault
{"title":"The Azerbaijani Blockade of the Lachin Corridor and the ICJ Decision: Can the Destruction of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the NKR Armenian People Be Prevented?","authors":"Alex Alvarez, Adam Muller, Jennifer E. Rich, Henry C. Theriault","doi":"10.3138/gsi-2023-0722","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi-2023-0722","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue, dedicated to the Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin Corridor, takes up Hirsch’s plea by highlighting the gross violations of the human rights of Armenians of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic2 (NKR), casting a critical eye on the current responses (or lack thereof) from the international community and offering practical steps toward the worthy goal of doing no harm. The independent area of the NKR, home to 120,000 Armenians, is surrounded by the territory of Azerbaijan. There is only one route that connects the Armenian Republic with the NKR—that connects families and friends, that carries everything from basic supplies to lifesaving medications—the Lachin Corridor. For over six months (at the time of this writing), the government of Azerbaijan and its proxies have blockaded the Lachin Corridor, effectively strangling the Armenian community in the NKR. This has resulted in preventable deaths due to dramatic shortages of food, medicine, and energy, and denial of medical care. The situation unfolding in the NKR is outlined in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order issued in response to Armenia’s case against Azerbaijan for imposition of the blockade and other human rights violations.3 The ICJ order issued in February 2023 is a positive step forward, though a more careful reading suggests that it does not go far enough. It includes a legally binding requirement that Azerbaijan actively work to ensure free movement in both directions along the Lachin Corridor, refuting the false assertions made by the Azerbaijani government that there","PeriodicalId":40844,"journal":{"name":"Genocide Studies International","volume":"15 1","pages":"1 - 6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42355000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Failure of the European Union to Address the Threat of Ethnic Cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh","authors":"Karena Avedissian","doi":"10.3138/gsi-2023-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi-2023-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The ceasefire that ended the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War paused the fighting but also precipitated major challenges to human rights and humanitarian issues. Nagorno-Karabakh’s status remained unresolved, even as Azerbaijan gained control of large parts of the region. Since then, Azerbaijan’s impunity and ethnic animus against Armenians has created fears of ethnic cleansing. Azerbaijan’s 2022-2023 blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh in particular which has deprived the Armenian population of food and medicine, directly contravenes its obligations under the ceasefire. The European Union is striving to negotiate a settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan but has faced criticism for not substantively addressing these human rights and humanitarian issues. Despite having the political and legal tools, the EU’s lack of engagement on these concerns threatens regional stability and undermines its credibility as an ethical international actor. If a mass atrocity occurs while the EU actively seeks a settlement but fails to intervene, it would bear responsibility for the outcome.","PeriodicalId":40844,"journal":{"name":"Genocide Studies International","volume":"15 1","pages":"34 - 44"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43510636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Karabakh Flashpoint: Turkish Authoritarian Rule and the Recurrence of Genocide","authors":"Ani Garabed Ohanian","doi":"10.3138/gsi-2023-0721","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3138/gsi-2023-0721","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, currently a serious humanitarian crisis, is often categorized as a post-Soviet conflict. This article challenges that conceptualization and reframes the historiography of Nagorno-Karabakh by shedding light on Bolshevik-Kemalist collaboration in the South Caucasus. The true flashpoint of the conflict stems back to 1917, a period of imperial decline, which occurred during the ongoing process of the Armenian Genocide. The cooperation between Turkish and Azerbaijani actors between 1917 to 1921 demonstrates the intent to undermine the Armenian national pattern in the Karabakh region, as well as other regions including Zangezur, and Nakhichevan. Present-day grievances reflect similar Turkish and Azerbaijani intentions. The collapse of the Russian, and Ottoman Empires had severe consequences for the Armenians of the Karabakh region, as Bolsheviks and Kemalists supported genocidal policies towards them. From a historical perspective, Bolshevik-Kemalist cooperation in the South Caucasus provides a disturbing precursor to the region’s current authoritarian actors and their impact on enflamed ethno-territorial tensions and the region’s cycles of stability.","PeriodicalId":40844,"journal":{"name":"Genocide Studies International","volume":"15 1","pages":"60 - 68"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42998172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}