Armenians in Turkey After the Second World War - (Armenians in the Modern and Early Modern World) by Talin Suciyan (Paperback)

About the Book

First-hand testimony and reports collected by the Soviet Consulate in Istanbul during the 1940s, likely the only foreign mission which documented in detail oral testimonies of Armenian genocide survivors seeking to emigrate to USSR Armenia.

Book Synopsis

This reader brings to light newly discovered archival material compiled by the Soviet Consulate in Istanbul. The book reveals the lives and experience of Armenians in Turkey in the 1940s, with a particular focus on the process of emigration to Soviet Armenia. The accounts, translated for the first time into English, are comprised of Soviet officials' reports and first-hand testimony by survivors of their lives during the post-genocide period, making this an invaluable new contribution to the existing collections of Armenian survival testimonies. Placing the archival records on emigration in the context of both life in post-genocide Turkey and the 'repatriation' (nergakht) project in the Armenian Diaspora, this book, which also includes the original Russian documents, will be a useful resource for researchers and students of Armenian and Turkish history.

Review Quotes

"Talin Suciyan reveals the multiple challenges linked to the Great Repatriation Campaign of 1945-46 to Soviet Armenia from the consular files of the Soviet embassy in Istanbul. She provides a fascinating account of the finally unsuccessful campaign that triggered an enormous wave of hope for escape from the unbearable living conditions among forcibly Islamized and non-Islamized Armenian survivors from the provinces and the capital of post-genocidal Turkey." --Annika Toerne, PhD, Geneva University, Switzerland.

"Dr. Suciyan's latest work is a welcome addition to the history of Armenians in republican Turkey, the 'Great Repatriation' to Soviet Armenia of about 89,000 Diasporan Armenians from twelve different countries across three continents, and the history of Armenians in the Cold War era in general." --Ara Sanjian, Associate Professor, University of Michigan, USA