My grandmother's father and brother were killed in this
genocide, Another of Grandma's brothers was a slave
laborer for about a year in this period.

The main phase of the genocide was carried out by the
Young Turks (rulers of the Ottoman Empire after the
sultan was deposed in 1908)in WWI, especially 1915; but
the slaughter continued under Ataturk as he rose to
power after the war. Pontic Greeks and Assyrians were
also the victoms of genocide. The final phase climaxed
with the burning of Smyrna in September of 1922, as
chronicled by my mother, Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, in
her book "Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City."
This book, which was chosen by the London Times as
Book of the Year in 1971, is now in print again in a
paperback edition from Newmark Press. For more details
(on the genocide or the book), please feel free to
write to me.

-Jay Dobkin

On Tue, 06 February 2001, "F. Leon Wilson" wrote:

>
> CHOMSKY:
>
> Comments on the article below?
>
> F. Leon
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> A glance at the February 8 issue of the "London Review of
> Books": The Armenian tragedy and the meaning of genocide
>
> The article is available online at <http://www.lrb.co.uk/>
>
> Mark Mazower, a professor of history at Birkbeck College of the University
> of London, reviews the history of the massacre of Armenians by Turks
> during World War I and the debate over the use of the term "genocide" to
> describe the mass killing. While "genocide" was not a term that was used
> before World War II, Mr.  Mazower finds many parallels between the
> treatment of the Jews by the Germans and of the Armenians by the Turks.
>
> "In both cases, a murderous policy was shaped in wartime by high officials
> of state with far more single-minded objectives than those of the
> populations at large. They prevailed thanks to their control of the
> machinery of violence, both formal and informal," he writes. Mr. Mazower
> notes differences between the two events, but says there is "enough
> similarity" for the treatment of the Armenians to qualify as genocide.
> Scholars have created the field of genocide studies, Mr. Mazower writes,
> and he expresses surprise "at how far an academic dispute" over what
> qualifies as genocide "has pushed itself into the public domain." He lists
> the variety of reasons Armenians today insist on calling the massacres
> genocide and the reasons Turkish leaders resist such a move. Mr. Mazower
> doubts that Turkey is ready to face the truth about the Armenians, but he
> hopes that one day it will. To do so, he writes, would "be a sign of
> vitality and resilience in Turkish society, an indication that Ataturk's
> work has been done, and that the country could now move on."