Armenian genocide

This publication offers a compelling and comprehensive look at one of the darkest chapters in modern world history: the liquidation of the Ottoman Armenians – the Aghet – by the Young Turk dictatorship. Based on a thorough study of source materials, the author systematically analyses the causes of the Aghet (including the presence of a single-party dictatorship, the emerging geopolitical order of nation-states, and a world war that fanned the flames of violence on an unprecedented scale), its course, and its consequences. Through contemporary documents and the testimonies of survivors and foreign witnesses (missionaries, ambassadors, representatives of foreign institutions, etc.), the book allows the reader to better understand the events that culminated in the Armenian genocide in 1915. The author does not shy away from the complex and sensitive topic of the relationship between politics and memory in the attempts to recognise or, conversely, deny the genocide. Last but not least, the book also presents Czech reflections on the Armenian events in the contemporary press and in the work of the humanist and traveller Karel Hansa.