Judgment At Istanbul
The Armenian Genocide Trials
Published on 1. December 2011
Book
Hardback
376 pages
978-0-85745-251-1 (ISBN)
Description
Turkey's bid to join the European Union has lent new urgency to the issue of the Armenian Genocide as differing interpretations of the genocide are proving to be a major reason for the delay of the its accession. This book provides vital background information and is a prime source of legal evidence and authentic Turkish eyewitness testimony of the intent and the crime of genocide against the Armenians. After a long and painstaking effort, the authors, one an Armenian, the other a Turk, generally recognized as the foremost experts on the Armenian Genocide, have prepared a new, authoritative translation and detailed analysis of the Takvim-i Vekayi, the official Ottoman Government record of the Turkish Military Tribunals concerning the crimes committed against the Armenians during World War I. The authors have compiled the documentation of the trial proceedings for the first time in English and situated them within their historical and legal context. These documents show that Wartime Cabinet ministers, Young Turk party leaders, and a number of others inculpated in these crimes were court-martialed by the Turkish Military Tribunals in the years immediately following World War I. Most were found guilty and received sentences ranging from prison with hard labor to death. In remarkable contrast to Nuremberg, the Turkish Military Tribunals were conducted solely on the basis of existing Ottoman domestic penal codes. This substitution of a national for an international criminal court stands in history as a unique initiative of national self-condemnation. This compilation is significantly enhanced by an extensive analysis of the historical background, political nature and legal implications of the criminal prosecution of the twentieth century's first state-sponsored crime of genocide.
Reviews / Votes
"This volume is the most comprehensive and analytical work to address the Armenian genocide from legal-criminal perspective to date. ...[It] should be regarded as an important contribution to the field of Armenian genocide studies, Ottoman legal history, and the history of War Tribunals... It provides readers with a compelling argument about the historical veracity of the Armenian genocide." * The Cyprus Review"Dadrian's and Akcam's handbook must already be considered as an indispensable tool for all who are dealing with the Armenian genocide but also for all those who are involved with the judicial processing of 'crimes against humanity' in the international context of the 20th Century." * Neue Historische Literatur
"This book [by Vahakn Dadrian and Taner Akcam, one Armenian, one Turkish, both noted scholars of the Armenian Genocide] stands as a monument of original scholarship on the facts of the Genocide. The wealth of specific citations, the multiplicity of sources surveyed make this volume an invaluable and fundamental source for any future study." * The Armenian Mirror-Spectator
"...an exhaustive and definitive treatment of the rise and demise of these trials,.. The book offers meticulous accounts of the Ottoman collapse in 1918 and the question of postwar punitive justice, the preparations, initiation, proceedings, and conditions of the courts-martial, and finally examines the societal context in which the tribunal operated. The authors must be commended for their assiduous engagement with a range of sources. The most innovative of these are articles from the Ottoman press in the armistice, which clearly demonstrate that condemnation of the Armenian genocide was ubiquitous in Ottoman society... a useful reference book this volume was highly due and will prove indispensable for any student of the Armenian genocide." * H-Soz-u-Kult
More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Library binding
Illustrations
Bibliography; Index
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
694 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-85745-251-1 (9780857452511)
DOI
10.3167/9780857452511
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
12/2011
Berghahn Books
€111.99
Available for download
Persons
Vahakn N. Dadrian (1926-2019) was director of a large Genocide Study Project with sustained support by the National Science Foundation and the H. F. Guggenheim Foundation. The project's first major achievement was the publication of an extensive volume, The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus (Berghahn Books 1995), now in its 8th edition, which has been translated into Arabic, French, Greek, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. In 2005, he received four separate awards for his lifetime contribution to genocide studies. He taught at the State University of New York (SUNY) system (1970-1991) and was Director of Genocide Research at the Zoryan Institute.
Content
Ottoman-Turkish Words and Names
Preface
Vahakn N. Dadrian and Taner Akcam
PART I: THE CONDITIONS SURROUNDING THE TRIALS
Chapter 1. History of the Turko-Armenian Conflict
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 2. Military Defeat and the Victors' Drive for Punitive Justice
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 3. The Preparations for Court-Martial
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 4. The Initiation of Courts-Martial
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 5. Emergent Kemalism and the Courts-Martial
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 6. The Series of Major Trials and the Related Verdicts: The Falsification of the Arguments of "Relocation," "Civil War" and "Intercommunal Clashes"
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 7. Legal Proceedings as a Conceptual Framework
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 8. A Summary of the Conditions Surrounding the Trials
Vahakn N. Dadrian
PART II: THE TRIALS AND BEYOND
Chapter 9. The Full Texts in English of the Indictments and Verdicts
Chapter 10. The Judicial Liquidation of Some of the Arch Perpetrators by both CUP and the Kemalist Authorities and the Demise of Other Accomplices
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 11. Death Sentences Handed Down by the Military Tribunal in Istanbul
Taner Akcam
Chapter 12. Coverage of the Trials by the Istanbul Turkish Press
Taner Akcam
Chapter 13. Formation and Operation of the Ottoman Military Tribunals
Taner Akcam
Appendix
Glossary of Terms
Bibliography
Preface
Vahakn N. Dadrian and Taner Akcam
PART I: THE CONDITIONS SURROUNDING THE TRIALS
Chapter 1. History of the Turko-Armenian Conflict
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 2. Military Defeat and the Victors' Drive for Punitive Justice
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 3. The Preparations for Court-Martial
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 4. The Initiation of Courts-Martial
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 5. Emergent Kemalism and the Courts-Martial
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 6. The Series of Major Trials and the Related Verdicts: The Falsification of the Arguments of "Relocation," "Civil War" and "Intercommunal Clashes"
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 7. Legal Proceedings as a Conceptual Framework
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 8. A Summary of the Conditions Surrounding the Trials
Vahakn N. Dadrian
PART II: THE TRIALS AND BEYOND
Chapter 9. The Full Texts in English of the Indictments and Verdicts
Chapter 10. The Judicial Liquidation of Some of the Arch Perpetrators by both CUP and the Kemalist Authorities and the Demise of Other Accomplices
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 11. Death Sentences Handed Down by the Military Tribunal in Istanbul
Taner Akcam
Chapter 12. Coverage of the Trials by the Istanbul Turkish Press
Taner Akcam
Chapter 13. Formation and Operation of the Ottoman Military Tribunals
Taner Akcam
Appendix
Glossary of Terms
Bibliography