The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia 1913–1950, by Üğur Ümit Üngör

Scholarship on the Armenian massacres of 1915 in Diyarbakır, a largely Kurdish region, reveals a complex and often overlooked narrative. While atrocities occurred, the term 'genocide' is rarely applied by experts due to the context of military emergency, including an Armenian uprising, and the lack of systematic extermination efforts. The study, originally a Dutch M.A. thesis on Diyarbakır, expands to examine the shifting dynamics of Kurdish tribes and the cultural transformations of the 1930s, such as the renaming of place-names from Armenian and Kurdish to Turkish. It highlights the grim fate of Armenians, Syriac Christians (Jacobite), and Chaldeans (Nestorian), including mass imprisonments, executions, and forced marches, with survivors facing epidemics and starvation in Syrian camps. The research approach combines historical analysis with first-hand accounts, providing a nuanced understanding of the region's turbulent history.

Stone, N. (2013). The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia 1913–1950, by Üğur Ümit Üngör. The English Historical Review, 128(530), 198–199. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ces374