In the early part of the twentieth century, as Europe began its descent into the First World War, the Ottoman world - once the largest Empire in the Middle East - began to experience a revolution which would culminate in the new, secular Turkish state. Alongside this, in 1915, as part of an increasing nationalism, it enacted a genocide against its Armenian citizens. In this new study, Hans-Lukas Kieser marshals a dazzling array of scholars to re-evaluate the approach and legacy of the Young Turks - whose eradication of the Armenians from Asia Minor would have far-reaching consequences. Kieser argues that genocide led to today's crisis-ridden Middle East and set in place a rigid state system whose effects are still felt in Turkey today.Featuring new and groundbreaking work on the role of bureaucracy, the actors outside of Istanbul and re-centreing Armenian agency in the genocide, The End of the Ottomans is a vital new study of the Ottoman world, the Armenian Genocide and of the Middle East.
'One of the most important essay collections in existence on the mass
violence at the end of the Ottoman empire...a superb collection of the
best-established scholars of the Armenian genocide and some excellent
younger scholars who are clearly destined to have fine academic
reputations. The major "selling point" of this volume is the quality
and depth of research at the meso- and micro-levels. In short, this
volume is not just a sign of but a major contribution to the coming-ofage
of the scholarship on the Armenian genocide and associated issues'
