White genocide (Armenians) explained

White genocide (Armenian: սպիտակ ցեղասպանություն|spitak tseghaspanutyun) is a descriptive term that is used in the Armenian diaspora,[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] for the threat of assimilation, especially in the Western world.[7] [8]

During the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, the Armenians who lived in their ancestral lands that were then part of the Ottoman Empire were targeted for systematic extermination. From 1894 to 1896, up to 300,000 Armenians were killed in the Hamidian massacres.[9] From 1915 to 1923, the Armenian genocide took the lives of around 1.5 million Armenians, who were killed by the Ottoman government.[10]

The German political scientist Christoph Zürcher wrote in his 2007 book The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus:

"Genocide" became a key word, which had several connotations. "White" genocide or "white" massacre denoted the repression, assimilation, or forced migration of Armenians from their historical lands (which were far larger than Soviet Armenia and included Karabakh, as well as areas belonging to contemporary Turkey).[11]

Western Armenians consider Armenians who assimilate to the local population of the country to which they were eventually forced to emigrate (such as United States, France, Argentina, Brazil and Canada) as lost to their nation because of the continuing exile after the actual genocide itself, and they thus consider that lost Armenian to be another victim of the genocidal attempt to eliminate the Armenians.[12] [13]

The term has also been used by some Armenians to describe the discrimination and assimilation against Armenians since 1918 in Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhchivan, which has caused Armenians to leave their homes.[14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] Some have also used it for the Javakheti, which includes an Armenian population.[20] Slogan "cultural genocide" was applied for the 2023 ethnic cleansing of the Armenians in Karabach.[21]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Armenian Church: 1976–1980, Volumes 19–23, Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, p. 30, "The Armenian community is shaken in all parts of the world by civil war, revolution, and the "white genocide" of assimilation."
  2. Conflict Studies, Issues 223–236, Current Affairs Research Service Centre, 1989, p. 1 " ...subject to being assimilated, a situation referred to by some Armenians as the "white genocide."
  3. Carolin Alfonso, Waltraud Kokot, Khachig Tölölyan. Diaspora, Identity and Religion: New Directions in Theory and Research, Routledge, 2002,, p. 72 "Interethnic marriages, on the other hand, would eventually lead to a loss of identity and to so-called 'white genocide'; 'white genocide' is a popular term describing the threat of assimilation used in the dominant discourse of identity in Armenian diaspora communities all over the world."
  4. Huberta Von Vos. Portraits of Hope: Armenians in the Contemporary World, Berghahn Books, 2007,, p. 128 "The catholicos is thoroughly opposed to the growing assimilation of diaspora Armenians, and coins for it a strong term, for it: 'white genocide', or also 'disappearance by assimilation'."
  5. The re-appropriation of the past: History and politics in Soviet Armenia, 1988—1991, Harvard University, ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2003. p. 392 "For example, environmental degradation was 'ecological genocide,' while assimilation and outmigration were viewed as 'white genocide'."
  6. We are thankful for the blessing of hope, Armenian Reporter, November 29, 2008 "It was hope of survival as a people that kept 'White Genocide' at bay. It was hope of a return to the homeland that nurtured generations and trained them to love the ethereal idea of a homeland."
  7. MultiCultural Review: Dedicated to a Better Understanding of Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Diversity, Volume 7, GP Subscription Publications, 1998, p. 12 "Armenian Americans face other challenges. Kasbarian describes the "White Genocide," the gradual assimilation of Armenian immigrants and their descen- dents into the broader American culture...".
  8. Book: Melkonian, Markar. My brother's road: an American's fateful journey to Armenia. 2004. I. B. Tauris. London. 9781850436355. 78. Markar Melkonian. ...by facilitating Armenian emigration from the Middle East to assimilation in the West, the Council had implicated itself in a "white genocide" that would put the oldest and strongest Armenian communities of the diaspora..
  9. [Taner Akçam|Akçam, Taner]
  10. Derderian. Katharine. 2005. Common Fate, Different Experience: Gender-Specific Aspects of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917. Holocaust and Genocide Studies. en. 19. 1. 1–25. 10.1093/hgs/dci001. 20684092. 8756-6583. the figure of 1.5 million people is generally accepted as a reasonable estimate.
  11. Book: Zürcher, Christoph. The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus. limited. 2007. New York University Press. New York. 9780814797099. 156. Christoph Zürcher.
  12. Donald Eugene Miller, Lorna Touryan Miller, Survivors: An Oral History Of The Armenian Genocide, p. 166
  13. Waltraud Kokot, Diaspora, Identity and Religion: new directions in theory and research, p. 72
  14. New Times, New Times Publishing House, 1994 "This would inevitably result in a "final solution," a new carnage of Karabakh Armenians or, at best, if international control is established, in "white genocide," that is, the breaking up and ousting of the national group by economic means...".
  15. Tsypylma Darieva, Wolfgang Kaschuba. Representations on the Margins of Europe: Politics and Identities in the Baltic and South Caucasian States, Campus Verlag GmbH, 2007,, p. 111 "Thus, the notion of 'genocide', as perceived by the people, included the expressions 'white genocide' (bearing in mind the example of the ethnic cleansing of Nakhichevan and Nagorno- Karabagh of Armenians)...".
  16. Ole Høiris, Sefa Martin Yürükel. Contrasts and solutions in the Caucasus, Aarhus Univ. Press, 1998,, p. 234 "...the Azerbaijanization of Nakhichevan is called a 'white genocide', that is, one that operates by erasure of evidence of Armenian residence"
  17. Mark Malkasian, Gha-ra-bagh!: the emergence of the national democratic movement in Armenia, p. 56
  18. Stuart J. Kaufman, Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War, p. 55
  19. James Sperling, S. Victor Papacosma, Limiting Institutions?: the challenge of Eurasian security governance, p. 51
  20. Yerevan protest urges respect for Armenian cultural heritage in Georgia, BBC Monitoring Central Asia, December 11, 2009
  21. Maranci, Christina, (October 12, 2023). "What cultural genocide look like for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh," Time, https://time.com/6322574/cultural-genocide-armenia-nagorno-karabakh-essay/

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