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Justin McCarthy (American historian)
Encyclopedia
Justin A. McCarthy is an American demographer, professor of history at the University of Louisville
, in Louisville, Kentucky
. He holds an honorary doctorate from Boğaziçi University
, Turkey, and is a board member of the Institute of Turkish Studies
. His area of expertise is the history of the late Ottoman Empire
.
While he has written on various topics, McCarthy has attracted most attention for his view of the events known as the Armenian Genocide
, occurring during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire
. Most genocide scholars
label these massacres as genocide
, but McCarthy views them as part of a civil war
, triggered by World War I, in which equally large numbers of Armenians and non-Armenians died. Because his work denies the genocidal nature of the Armenian Genocide
, he has often faced harsh criticism by other scholars who have characterized his views as genocide denial
. He has been described as a "scholar on the Turkish side of the debate".
in Turkey
, from 1967–1969, where he taught at Middle East Technical University
and Ankara University
. He earned his Ph.D. at University of California, Los Angeles
in 1978. He later received an honorary doctorate from Boğaziçi University
. McCarthy is also a board member of the Institute of Turkish Studies
.
.
about the Armenian Genocide
in 2006. Aviel Roshwald
describes JcCarthy's "version of these events" as "defensively pro-Turkish."
i historian Yair Auron
, McCarthy, "with Heath Lowry, Lewis'
successor in Princeton, leads the list of deniers of the Armenian Genocide." Among other criticisms, he has been accused by Colin Imber of following a Turkish nationalistic agenda. McCarthy is a member of, and has received grants from, the Institute of Turkish Studies
. According to Richard G. Hovannisian
, Stanford Shaw, Heath Lowry and Justin McCarthy all use arguments similar to those found in Holocaust denial
. The historian Mark Mazower
considers McCarthy's sources and, in particular, his statistics to be "less balanced" than those of other historians working in this area (Mazower fails to mention their names).
criticised both Justin McCarthy
and the Political Scientist Guenter Lewy
with the statement "Scholars who dispute what happened to the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 constitutes genocide blatantly ignore the overhelming historical and scholarly evidence. Most recently, this is the case with the works of Mr. Justin McCarthy and Mr.Guenter Lewy
, whose books engage in severely selective scholarship that grossly distorts history" .
, a University of Edinburgh
historian specializing in genocide studies, acknowledges that "McCarthy's work has something to offer in drawing attention to the oft-unheeded history of Muslim suffering and embattlement... It also shows that vicious nationalism was by no means the sole preserve" of the Ottoman ruling elite. Nevertheless, he identifies McCarthy's work in this field as part of a wider project of undermining scholarship affirming the Armenian Genocide, by reducing it to something analogous to a population exchange. Bloxham writes that McCarthy's work "[serves] to muddy the waters for external observers, conflating war and one-sided murder with various discrete episodes of ethnic conflict... [A] series of easy get-out clauses for Western politicians and non-specialist historians keen not to offend Turkish opinion."
, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts, writes that Armenians caused the deaths of many Muslims — including by massacres, in Van during the insurrection of Spring 1915, elsewhere during the Russian offensives of 1916 then during the Russian retreat of 1917-1918 —, and that the numbers of deaths may be equal on both sides, and so that Justin McCarthy is right in stressing that "the Armenians were not the only ones to suffer horribly and that Muslims, too, lost their life in large numbers during World War I"; Guenter Lewy nevertheless maintains that "none of this can compare or compensate for the special calamity of the Armenians, who lost not only their lives but also their existence as an organized ethnic community"; Guenter Lewy rejects both the "genocide" label and the "civil war" version of Justin McCarthy.
claims that McCarthy lent support to the Assembly of Turkish American Associations
, which led an effort to defeat recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1985.
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...
, in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
. He holds an honorary doctorate from Boğaziçi University
Bogaziçi University
Boğaziçi University is a public university located on the European side of the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul, Turkey. It has five faculties and two schools offering undergraduate degrees, and six institutes offering graduate degrees...
, Turkey, and is a board member of the Institute of Turkish Studies
Institute of Turkish Studies
The Institute of Turkish Studies is a foundation based in the United States with the avowed objective of advancing Turkish studies at colleges and universities in the USA....
. His area of expertise is the history of the late Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
.
While he has written on various topics, McCarthy has attracted most attention for his view of the events known as the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
, occurring during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. Most genocide scholars
International Association of Genocide Scholars
The International Association of Genocide Scholars is a global, interdisciplinary, non-partisan organization that seeks to further research and teaching about the nature, causes, and consequences of genocide, and advance policy studies on prevention of genocide. The Association, founded in 1994 by...
label these massacres as genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
, but McCarthy views them as part of a civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
, triggered by World War I, in which equally large numbers of Armenians and non-Armenians died. Because his work denies the genocidal nature of the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
, he has often faced harsh criticism by other scholars who have characterized his views as genocide denial
Genocide denial
Genocide denial occurs when an act of genocide is met with attempts to deny the occurrence and minimize the scale or death toll. The most well-known type is Holocaust denial, but its definition can extend to any genocide that has been minimized or met with excessive skepticism.Where there is near...
. He has been described as a "scholar on the Turkish side of the debate".
Background
McCarthy served in the Peace CorpsPeace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, from 1967–1969, where he taught at Middle East Technical University
Middle East Technical University
Middle East Technical University is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey...
and Ankara University
Ankara University
Ankara University is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in the Turkish Republic....
. He earned his Ph.D. at University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
in 1978. He later received an honorary doctorate from Boğaziçi University
Bogaziçi University
Boğaziçi University is a public university located on the European side of the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul, Turkey. It has five faculties and two schools offering undergraduate degrees, and six institutes offering graduate degrees...
. McCarthy is also a board member of the Institute of Turkish Studies
Institute of Turkish Studies
The Institute of Turkish Studies is a foundation based in the United States with the avowed objective of advancing Turkish studies at colleges and universities in the USA....
.
On Ottoman Empire
McCarthy's studies concentrate on the period in which the Ottoman Empire crumbled and eventually fell apart. McCarthy believes that orthodox Western histories of the declining Ottoman Empire are biased, since they are based on the testimonies of biased observers: Christian missionaries, and officials of (Christian) nations who were at war with the Ottomans during World War I. Able to read Ottoman Turkish, he focuses on changes in the ethnic composition of local populations. Thus, he has written about the ethnic cleansing of Muslims from the Balkans and the Caucasus, as well as the Armenian massacres in Anatolia. Even his critics acknowledge that McCarthy has brought forth a valuable perspective, previously neglected in the Christian West: that millions of Muslims and Jews also suffered and died during these years. His current concentration is on the factors that caused the Ottoman loss in the East in World War I. According to him, the milestone events are the Battle of Sarikamish and what he terms the "Armenian Revolt" at VanVan, Turkey
Van is a city in southeastern Turkey and the seat of the Kurdish-majority Van Province, and is located on the eastern shore of Lake Van. The city's official population in 2010 was 367,419, but many estimates put this as much higher with a 1996 estimate stating 500,000 and former Mayor Burhan...
.
Armenians
McCarthy does not deny that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died, but claims that millions of Muslims in the region were also massacred in this period and many in the hands Armenian insurgents and milita. He has contended that all of those deaths during World War I were the product of intercommunal warfare between Muslims and Armenians, famine and disease, and did not involve an intent or a policy to commit genocide by the Ottoman Empire. McCarthy has been active in disseminating the results of his work and analysis, that Ottomans never had a policy of genocide, through books, articles, conferences, and interviews. This has made him a target of much criticism from mainly strong Armenian diaspora organizations and historians. He was one of four scholars who participated in a controversial debate hosted by PBSPublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
about the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
in 2006. Aviel Roshwald
Aviel Roshwald
Aviel Roshwald is an American historian and Professor of history at Georgetown University.He received is B.A from the University of Minnesota in 1980, and his PhD from Harvard University in 1987....
describes JcCarthy's "version of these events" as "defensively pro-Turkish."
Criticism
McCarthy's work has been the subject of criticism from book reviewers and genocide scholars. According to IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i historian Yair Auron
Yair Auron
Yair Auron is an Israeli historian, scholar and expert specializing on Holocaust and Genocide studies, racism and contemporary Jewry...
, McCarthy, "with Heath Lowry, Lewis'
Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, FBA is a British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University...
successor in Princeton, leads the list of deniers of the Armenian Genocide." Among other criticisms, he has been accused by Colin Imber of following a Turkish nationalistic agenda. McCarthy is a member of, and has received grants from, the Institute of Turkish Studies
Institute of Turkish Studies
The Institute of Turkish Studies is a foundation based in the United States with the avowed objective of advancing Turkish studies at colleges and universities in the USA....
. According to Richard G. Hovannisian
Richard G. Hovannisian
Richard G. Hovannisian is an American historian and scholar. He was born and raised in Tulare, California. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles. He was also Associate Professor of History at...
, Stanford Shaw, Heath Lowry and Justin McCarthy all use arguments similar to those found in Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
. The historian Mark Mazower
Mark Mazower
Mark A. Mazower is a British historian. His expertise is Greece, the Balkans and, more generally, 20th century Europe. He is currently a professor of history at Columbia University in New York City.-Career:...
considers McCarthy's sources and, in particular, his statistics to be "less balanced" than those of other historians working in this area (Mazower fails to mention their names).
International Association of Genocide Scholars
The IAGSInternational Association of Genocide Scholars
The International Association of Genocide Scholars is a global, interdisciplinary, non-partisan organization that seeks to further research and teaching about the nature, causes, and consequences of genocide, and advance policy studies on prevention of genocide. The Association, founded in 1994 by...
criticised both Justin McCarthy
Justin McCarthy
Justin McCarthy was an Irish nationalist and Liberal historian, novelist and politician. He was a Member of Parliament from 1879 to 1900, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland- Early life :He was born in Cork, and was educated at a school there...
and the Political Scientist Guenter Lewy
Guenter Lewy
Guenter Lewy is an author and political scientist who is a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts. His works span several topics, but he is most often associated with his 1978 book on the Vietnam War, America in Vietnam, and several controversial works that deal with the...
with the statement "Scholars who dispute what happened to the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 constitutes genocide blatantly ignore the overhelming historical and scholarly evidence. Most recently, this is the case with the works of Mr. Justin McCarthy and Mr.Guenter Lewy
Guenter Lewy
Guenter Lewy is an author and political scientist who is a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts. His works span several topics, but he is most often associated with his 1978 book on the Vietnam War, America in Vietnam, and several controversial works that deal with the...
, whose books engage in severely selective scholarship that grossly distorts history" .
Donald Bloxham
Donald BloxhamDonald Bloxham
Donald Bloxham is a Professor of Modern History, specializing in genocide, war crimes and other mass atrocities studies. He is the editor of the Journal of Holocaust Education....
, a University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
historian specializing in genocide studies, acknowledges that "McCarthy's work has something to offer in drawing attention to the oft-unheeded history of Muslim suffering and embattlement... It also shows that vicious nationalism was by no means the sole preserve" of the Ottoman ruling elite. Nevertheless, he identifies McCarthy's work in this field as part of a wider project of undermining scholarship affirming the Armenian Genocide, by reducing it to something analogous to a population exchange. Bloxham writes that McCarthy's work "[serves] to muddy the waters for external observers, conflating war and one-sided murder with various discrete episodes of ethnic conflict... [A] series of easy get-out clauses for Western politicians and non-specialist historians keen not to offend Turkish opinion."
Guenter Lewy
Guenter LewyGuenter Lewy
Guenter Lewy is an author and political scientist who is a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts. His works span several topics, but he is most often associated with his 1978 book on the Vietnam War, America in Vietnam, and several controversial works that deal with the...
, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts, writes that Armenians caused the deaths of many Muslims — including by massacres, in Van during the insurrection of Spring 1915, elsewhere during the Russian offensives of 1916 then during the Russian retreat of 1917-1918 —, and that the numbers of deaths may be equal on both sides, and so that Justin McCarthy is right in stressing that "the Armenians were not the only ones to suffer horribly and that Muslims, too, lost their life in large numbers during World War I"; Guenter Lewy nevertheless maintains that "none of this can compare or compensate for the special calamity of the Armenians, who lost not only their lives but also their existence as an organized ethnic community"; Guenter Lewy rejects both the "genocide" label and the "civil war" version of Justin McCarthy.
Armenian Assembly of America and Turkish American Associations
- The Armenian Assembly of AmericaArmenian Assembly of America
The Armenian Assembly of America aims to "strengthen U.S./Armenia and U.S. relations, promotes Armenia's democratic development and economic prosperity and seeks universal affirmation of the Armenian Genocide" via "research, education and advocacy."...
claims that McCarthy lent support to the Assembly of Turkish American Associations
Assembly of Turkish American Associations
-Snapshot:Assembly of Turkish American Associations is the umbrella organization to create cohesion and cooperation between the large numbers of social/cultural Turkish American organizations around the United States. ATAA informs the Turkish American community on how to foster Turkish-American...
, which led an effort to defeat recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1985.
Awards
- Şükrü Elekdağ Award of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations
- Chairman's Education Award of the Turkish American Friendship Council
- Order of Merit of Turkey (1998)
External links
- Armenian-Turkish Conflict (2005), by Justin McCarthy