Concentration Camps of the Armenian Genocide

Bedross Der Matossian is Professor of Modern Middle East history and the Hymen Rosenberg Professor in Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. He is the author, editor, and co-editor of seven books, including Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire (2014) and The Horrors of Adana: Revolution and Violence in the Early Twentieth Century (2022). He serves on the editorial board of journals, including the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES).Edita Gzoyan is Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Foundation in Yerevan, Armenia. She has authored, co-authored, and edited four books, most recently The Silenced Crime: Forcible Child Transfer During the Armenian Genocide (Brill, 2025), and has published numerous articles in national and international journals, including Genocide Studies International and the Journal of Genocide Research. She serves as the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies.

• IntroductionBedross Der Matossian (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA) and Edita Gzoyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)PART I - The Global History of Concentration CampsChapter 1. Concentration CampsDan Stone (University of London, UK)Chapter 2. Concentration Camps during the Armenian Genocide in a Global Historical ContextKhatchig Mouradian (Columbia University, USA)Chapter 3. The Committee of Union and Progress and the Concentration Camps: A Universal Idea into Action Regina Galustyan and Mihran Minassian (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)PART II - Concentrations Camps as a Method of Destruction: From Decision to Implementation Chapter 4. The Young Turk regime and the decision to liquidate the last deportees Raymond H. KévorkianChapter 5. The Humanitarian PerversionHatice Ayse Polat (Columbia University, USA)PART III - Documenting the Atrocities in Concentration CampsChapter 6. The Testimonies collected by Aram Andonian about Armenian Deportees in Concentration Camps in Syria Mihran A. Minassian (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)Chapter 7. “Rescue” as Genocide: According to the First Collection of Testimonies of Survivors on the Road to Exile Harutyun Marutyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)Chapter 8. Archeology of the Armenian Genocide on the Source Study and Discovery of Massacre and Mass Burial Places Shushan Khachatryan and Hayk Hakobyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)PART IV - Destination Nowhere: Reconstructing Deportation Routes and Concentration Camps through Survivors’ MemoirsChapter 9. Deportations of Armenians of Erzerum: From Keghi to Der Zor Anna Kazaryan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)Chapter 10. The Deportation Route from Mets Nor Gyugh to Ras-ul-Ain according to the Memoir of Yervant Sharapkhanyan Gohar Khanumyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)Chapter 11. “Becoming Animals”: Father Der Nerses Tavukjian as a Witness of the Misery in the CampsVahe TachjianChapter 12. Zepyur Metspahkian’s Memoires of Exile and Salvation Lusine Abrahamyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)PART V - Life-and-Death Struggle: “Life” in Concentration CampsChapter 13. Exile in a Transit Camp: 'Life' of Armenian Deportees in Akçakoyunlu Railroad Station in 1915-1916Ümit Kurt (The University of Newcastle, Australia)Chapter 14. Experiencing a Genocide Concentration Camp: Katma in the Eyes of the Armenian RefugeesAntranik Dakessian (Haygazian University, Lebanon)Chapter 15. Concentration Camps in Smyrna as Reported in Eyewitness AccountsTehmine Martoyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute-AGMI)Chapter 16. Sensing Golgotha’s Trail: Towards a Sensory History of the Medz YeghernJames Carl Lagman Osorio (Brown University, USA)PART VI - Resisting Death in Concentration CampsChapter 17. Armed Resistance Attempts of Deported Armenians from Zeytun in the Desert of Der Zor Robert Tatoyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)Chapter 18. Children at Concentration Camps during the Armenian Genocide: Suffering and SurvivalAram Mirzoyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)PART VII - Acting and Reacting: Foreign Intervention and Help Chapter 19. German Missionary Stations and the Armenian Genocide: The Problems of Continuity of Financial Flows from Europe and their DistributionsHayk Martirosyan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)Chapter 20. The Attitudes of Bedouin Arabs towards Armenian Refugees in the Concentration Camps Narine V. Margaryan (Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute, Armenia)Chapter 21. “Managing the Undesirables:” Humanitarian Encampment in Post-WWI Aleppo Melanie Tanielian (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, USA)

Armenian Genocide studies has avoided or neglected the topic of concentration camps. Therefore, this book provides a new lens through which to understand the horrors of 1915–1916. The period of what has become known as the second phase of the genocide — roughly after 1915, once the majority of Armenian victims had been deported to the Syrian deserts and incarcerated in camps — has not been investigated as thoroughly as in this work. As someone who has written a book on the Armenian Genocide, I learned enormous amounts and was saddened, not only by the tragic stories in this collection of excellent essays, but by the fact that I did not have this work to use in my 2015 book.