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Armenia and Karabagh: The Struggle for Unity
Fine Paperback Minority Rights 1991. 162 pages. "A unique work on the subject, this book also presents an objective history of the Armenian people in the USSR, Turkey and the diaspora." FINE SOFTCOVER.. Soft Cover. Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.
176 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 5, 2024
*4.5 rounded up to a 5*
Excellent book to gain some historical background on Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Zangezur, Nakhchivan, and the historical struggle for the unification of these regions to the Armenian homeland. This book goes into fascinating detail on early Armenian history: detailing the development/trajectory of its language, alphabet, religion, DNA, and more. The book mentions how Armenians descend from ancient tribes who inhabited their traditional homeland in Eastern Anatolia since pre-historic times. Before 1000 BC, Armenia was inhabited by a people known as the “Urartians” (Urartu meaning Ararat in the Assyrian language). The ancient inhabitants of Armenia/Urartu actually didn’t die out: they became intermingled with subsequent invading forces who came across many centuries (the Scythians, the Medes, etc). I found this to be really cool, and I very much enjoyed getting a deep dive into the ancient history of my culture.
Additionally, the book details the Hamidian massacres of the 1890s and touches upon the genocide of 1915. Following this, the author makes a very important analysis of Kemalist Turkey: the transition to the Republic of Turkey following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Many people, even Joseph Stalin, wrongly perceived Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as an anti-bourgeois and secular figure in the post-WW1 Muslim world. The author, through access to government documents, performs a brilliant expose on how Armenians were deliberately oppressed in post-Ottoman Kemalist Turkey. He mentions how Armenian churches and orphanages were demolished for futile reasons, as well as widespread “Turkification” of Armenian schools: ie not allowing Armenian children to pray in school, not enrolling children into the schools on the grounds of their parents being registered as Christian, etc. These claims prove that post-Ottoman Turkey was still incredibly hostile to Armenians.
The book further goes on to examine Soviet Armenia, the wrongful annexation of Armenian Karabakh to the Azeri SSR, and the inability of Soviet leaders (mainly Stalin, Gorbachev, and Brezhnev) to listen to Armenian demands for the reunification of Nagorno-Karabakh to the Armenian SSR.
Although this book was written before the fall of the Soviet Union, making some of the analysis pretty outdated, this is still a worthwhile book to read in order to gain some insights into Armenian history.
Excellent book to gain some historical background on Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Zangezur, Nakhchivan, and the historical struggle for the unification of these regions to the Armenian homeland. This book goes into fascinating detail on early Armenian history: detailing the development/trajectory of its language, alphabet, religion, DNA, and more. The book mentions how Armenians descend from ancient tribes who inhabited their traditional homeland in Eastern Anatolia since pre-historic times. Before 1000 BC, Armenia was inhabited by a people known as the “Urartians” (Urartu meaning Ararat in the Assyrian language). The ancient inhabitants of Armenia/Urartu actually didn’t die out: they became intermingled with subsequent invading forces who came across many centuries (the Scythians, the Medes, etc). I found this to be really cool, and I very much enjoyed getting a deep dive into the ancient history of my culture.
Additionally, the book details the Hamidian massacres of the 1890s and touches upon the genocide of 1915. Following this, the author makes a very important analysis of Kemalist Turkey: the transition to the Republic of Turkey following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Many people, even Joseph Stalin, wrongly perceived Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as an anti-bourgeois and secular figure in the post-WW1 Muslim world. The author, through access to government documents, performs a brilliant expose on how Armenians were deliberately oppressed in post-Ottoman Kemalist Turkey. He mentions how Armenian churches and orphanages were demolished for futile reasons, as well as widespread “Turkification” of Armenian schools: ie not allowing Armenian children to pray in school, not enrolling children into the schools on the grounds of their parents being registered as Christian, etc. These claims prove that post-Ottoman Turkey was still incredibly hostile to Armenians.
The book further goes on to examine Soviet Armenia, the wrongful annexation of Armenian Karabakh to the Azeri SSR, and the inability of Soviet leaders (mainly Stalin, Gorbachev, and Brezhnev) to listen to Armenian demands for the reunification of Nagorno-Karabakh to the Armenian SSR.
Although this book was written before the fall of the Soviet Union, making some of the analysis pretty outdated, this is still a worthwhile book to read in order to gain some insights into Armenian history.
June 15, 2013
Even though the various essays were written before, or on the brink of Armenia's independence from the USSR, it gives a very enlightening view on the Armenian history, and through that wraps the case of NK's desire to re-unify with Armenia. The book stops in 1991 just before the worst was yet to come: the full blown war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the NK. Due to this book my position on the NK has changed ( my bad, lack of historic knowledge on NK and Armenia, and the historic political errors that were allowed to happen to separate NK from Armenia). I found this a very informative book.
July 3, 2025
Not finished, but rated so I can write down my own notes.
my friend, poetic interludes, already wrote down an extensive review summarizing key information from this book. what i found tragic, but also interesting, was how the armenian pogroms in 1895 (known as the hamadian massacres) acted as a prelude to what was to come in 1914. though my historical and political knowledge about ottoman and turkish history is still limited at the moment (planning on changing that by the end of this summer), my guess is that pan-turanism -- the idea of establishing a massive turkic superstate -- was the catalyst that inspired the ottoman state, and later turkey, to wage a relentless campaign against its ethnic minorities to "turkify" the country.
in this context, turkish fascism, spurred by the notion of establishing a state of turks, for turks, was directly responsible for the armenian genocide. it is also this ideological underpinning which continues to characterize its actions against the kurdish people. it also explains why, despite its hostile appearance to israel, turkey continues to do nothing in genocide of the palestinian people. let's not forget that azerbijian, partner to turkey, used israeli weapons and tactics in its campaign in karabakh that led to the illegal annexation of the territory in 2023.
my friend, poetic interludes, already wrote down an extensive review summarizing key information from this book. what i found tragic, but also interesting, was how the armenian pogroms in 1895 (known as the hamadian massacres) acted as a prelude to what was to come in 1914. though my historical and political knowledge about ottoman and turkish history is still limited at the moment (planning on changing that by the end of this summer), my guess is that pan-turanism -- the idea of establishing a massive turkic superstate -- was the catalyst that inspired the ottoman state, and later turkey, to wage a relentless campaign against its ethnic minorities to "turkify" the country.
in this context, turkish fascism, spurred by the notion of establishing a state of turks, for turks, was directly responsible for the armenian genocide. it is also this ideological underpinning which continues to characterize its actions against the kurdish people. it also explains why, despite its hostile appearance to israel, turkey continues to do nothing in genocide of the palestinian people. let's not forget that azerbijian, partner to turkey, used israeli weapons and tactics in its campaign in karabakh that led to the illegal annexation of the territory in 2023.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews