Politics of Naming the Armenian Genocide

Vartan Matiossian is a historian and literary scholar living in the United States. He received his PhD from the Academy of Sciences of Armenia and has taught Armenian history and language in Buenos Aires and New Jersey from 1988-2004 on primary, secondary and college levels. He has authored four books in Armenian three books in Spanish, has edited or co-edited three volumes (Spanish, English, and Armenian), and translated 12 volumes from Armenian into Spanish.

• AcknowledgmentsA Note on TransliterationIntroduction Silencing the NamePart I Language and HistoryChapter 1 Yeghern until the Late Nineteenth CenturyChapter 2 Yeghern before and after 1915Chapter 3 Medz Yeghern and “Genocide” in Armenia and the DiasporaPart II Politics and LanguageChapter 4 Vatican: “From the Depths of the Metz Yeghérn” Chapter 5 Turkey: “The Denial of the Great Catastrophe”Chapter 6 United States: “Genocide of the Armenians” and “Meds Yeghern” Chapter 7 From Uruguay to the United States: On Words of RecognitionConclusion Unsilencing the NameAppendix A The Meaning of Yeghern in ScholarshipAppendix B Yeghern and “Genocide” in Memorial Inscriptions Bibliography

Vartan Matiossian’s book is an erudite overview of the uses of the Armenian word Yeghern across the ages and an in-depth study of the systematic misuses of this same word in translation within the languages of the civilized world, especially in the last few decades, allegedly for the sake of reconciliation or for more obscure political reasons. The Politics of Naming the Armenian Genocide offers its readers a superb demonstration of the fact that, at least in the cases where genocidal will is at work, an event can acquire a historical existence only through its meaningful reception. This is yet another confirmation of the Hegelian law according to which there can be reality only there where some sense is involved, albeit retrospectively.