Vahakn Dadrian
Encyclopedia
Vahakn N. Dadrian currently the director of Genocide Research at Zoryan Institute
, is a professor of sociology, and an internationally-renowned expert on the Armenian genocide
.
at the University of Berlin, after which he decided to switch to a completely different field, and studied history
at the University of Vienna
, and later, international law
at the University of Zürich
. He completed his Ph.D.
in sociology
from the University of Chicago
.
The particularity of Dadrian's research is that by mastering many languages, including German
, English
, French
, Turkish
, Ottoman Turkish
and Armenian
; he has researched archives of different countries, and extensively studied materials in various languages in a way that very few, if anyone has done before him. He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree for his research in the field of Armenian Genocide Studies by the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, and later, in 1998, he was made a member of the Academy and honored by the President of Armenia
, the republic's highest cultural award, the Khorenatzi medal. In 1999, Dadrian was awarded on behalf of the Holy See of Cilicia the Mesrob Mashdots Medal. The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
sponsored him as director of a large Genocide study project, which culminated with the publication of articles, mainly in the Holocaust and Genocide
studies magazines.
While Dadrian's specialization is genocide in general, most of his study concerns the Armenian genocide, even though he has publications regarding such cases as the Holocaust and the destruction of the American Indians.
Dadrian's latest project is the translation of the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-20
from Ottoman Turkish to English.
One of the main critics of Dadrian is Guenter Lewy
, who, in a response to critics equating Lewy's position on the Armenian genocide "with that of the Holocaust-denier David Irving", accuses Dadrian of being "guilty of willful mistranslations, selective quotations, and other serious violations of scholarly ethics." In his book, Guenter Lewy mentions, among others, V. N. Dadrian's defense of the authenticity of the book published by Mevlanzade Rifat, and of the "Ten Commandments" (both regarded as dubious, or fakes, even by some supporters of "genocide" label, because the analysis by Canadian historian Gwynne Dyer
in 1973), V. N. Dadrian's allegations against Turkish sociologist Ziya Gökalp
, the use of Jean Naslian's Memoirs (criticized as unreliable even by Dashnak intellectual James H. Tashjian and pro-Dashnak writer Yves Ternon
) praising of Turkish court-martial of 1919-1920 (whose material is entirely lost, and which did not allow to the defendants the right of cross-examination of testimonies and documents produced by the prosecution), and misleading references to writings of Esref Kuscubasi Bey and German General Felix Guse. Similarly, Malcolm E. Yapp, professor emeritus at London University, estimates that V. Dadrian's method "is not that of an historian trying to find out what happened and why but that of a lawyer assembling the case for the prosecution in an adversarial system"; Mary Schaeffer Conroy, professor of Russian history at Colorado University, Denver, criticizes V. N. Dadrian's inaccuracies, selective use of sources and failure to use Turkish archives, then concludes: "This book is more a work of journalism than solid history and is not recommended".
Hilmar Kaiser, a German historian who supports the "genocide" label for Armenian case, said however that "serious scholars should be cautioned against accepting all of Dadrian's statements at face value", because his frequent "misleading quotations" and the "selective use of sources". Donald Bloxham
expresses a similar view: the accusations leveled by V. Dadrian "are often simply unfounded"; especially, "the idea of a German role in the formation of genocidal policy [...] has no basis in the available documentation"; and if V. Dadrian supports the authenticity of the so-called "Ten Commandments", on the other hand, "Most serious historians accept that this document is dubious at best, and probably a fake. It was the subject of controversy some twenty years before Dadrian rediscovered it for publication in 1993. The document's donor originally offered it for sale to the British authorities in February 1919, a time when numerous fraudulent documents were in circulation. Reference to this supposed 'smoking gun' is tellingly absent in the best recent scholarship on the development of the genocide by the likes of Hans-Lukas Kieser, Hilmar Kaiser, Taner Akcam, Halil Berktay and Ronald Suny." Clive Foss considers that V. Dadrian's conclusions are "based on circumstantial and often dubious evidence" and that he "has simply failed to make his case".
In 1991, Dadrian was dismissed from State University College at Geneseo
for sexual harassment after a female student had complained he had kissed her on the lips. Prior to this, a college arbitrator had found him guilty on four charges of sexual harassment in 1981, but had allowed him to return to work because the arbitrator believed they were singular events that would not happen again.
Zoryan Institute
The Zoryan Institute was established in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1982, and The Zoryan Institute of Canada, was merged in Toronto in 1984, as a non-profit research institute...
, is a professor of sociology, and an internationally-renowned expert on 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...
.
Biography
Dadrian first studied mathematicsMathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
at the University of Berlin, after which he decided to switch to a completely different field, and studied history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
, and later, international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
at the University of Zürich
University of Zurich
The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....
. He completed his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
.
The particularity of Dadrian's research is that by mastering many languages, including German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, Ottoman Turkish
Ottoman Turkish language
The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
and Armenian
Armenian language
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
; he has researched archives of different countries, and extensively studied materials in various languages in a way that very few, if anyone has done before him. He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree for his research in the field of Armenian Genocide Studies by the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, and later, in 1998, he was made a member of the Academy and honored by the President of Armenia
President of Armenia
President of Armenia is the title of the head of state of Armenia since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.-Democratic Republic of Armenia :*Avetis Aharonyan *Avetik Sahakyan *Avetis Aharonyan -Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and Armenian...
, the republic's highest cultural award, the Khorenatzi medal. In 1999, Dadrian was awarded on behalf of the Holy See of Cilicia the Mesrob Mashdots Medal. The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation was established by Harry Guggenheim to support research on violence, aggression, and dominance.The foundation writes: "He was convinced that solid, thoughtful, scholarly and scientific research, experimentation, and analysis would in the end accomplish more...
sponsored him as director of a large Genocide study project, which culminated with the publication of articles, mainly in the Holocaust and 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...
studies magazines.
While Dadrian's specialization is genocide in general, most of his study concerns the Armenian genocide, even though he has publications regarding such cases as the Holocaust and the destruction of the American Indians.
Dadrian's latest project is the translation of the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-20
Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-20
Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919–20 were courts-martial of the Ottoman Empire after the armistice of Mudros during the aftermath the World War I, which the leadership of the Committee of Union and Progress and selected former officials were court-martialled with/including the charges of subversion...
from Ottoman Turkish to English.
One of the main critics of Dadrian is 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...
, who, in a response to critics equating Lewy's position on the Armenian genocide "with that of the Holocaust-denier David Irving", accuses Dadrian of being "guilty of willful mistranslations, selective quotations, and other serious violations of scholarly ethics." In his book, Guenter Lewy mentions, among others, V. N. Dadrian's defense of the authenticity of the book published by Mevlanzade Rifat, and of the "Ten Commandments" (both regarded as dubious, or fakes, even by some supporters of "genocide" label, because the analysis by Canadian historian Gwynne Dyer
Gwynne Dyer
Gwynne Dyer, OC is a London-based independent Canadian journalist, syndicated columnist and military historian.Dyer was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and joined the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve at the age of sixteen...
in 1973), V. N. Dadrian's allegations against Turkish sociologist Ziya Gökalp
Ziya Gökalp
Ziya Gökalp was a Turkish sociologist, writer, poet, and political activist. In 1908, after the Young Turk revolution, he adopted the pen name Gökalp , which he retained for the rest of his life...
, the use of Jean Naslian's Memoirs (criticized as unreliable even by Dashnak intellectual James H. Tashjian and pro-Dashnak writer Yves Ternon
Yves Ternon
Yves Ternon is a French physician, author of historical books about the Jewish Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide. Doctor of medicine's history of University Paris IV Sorbonne...
) praising of Turkish court-martial of 1919-1920 (whose material is entirely lost, and which did not allow to the defendants the right of cross-examination of testimonies and documents produced by the prosecution), and misleading references to writings of Esref Kuscubasi Bey and German General Felix Guse. Similarly, Malcolm E. Yapp, professor emeritus at London University, estimates that V. Dadrian's method "is not that of an historian trying to find out what happened and why but that of a lawyer assembling the case for the prosecution in an adversarial system"; Mary Schaeffer Conroy, professor of Russian history at Colorado University, Denver, criticizes V. N. Dadrian's inaccuracies, selective use of sources and failure to use Turkish archives, then concludes: "This book is more a work of journalism than solid history and is not recommended".
Hilmar Kaiser, a German historian who supports the "genocide" label for Armenian case, said however that "serious scholars should be cautioned against accepting all of Dadrian's statements at face value", because his frequent "misleading quotations" and the "selective use of sources". Donald Bloxham
Donald 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....
expresses a similar view: the accusations leveled by V. Dadrian "are often simply unfounded"; especially, "the idea of a German role in the formation of genocidal policy [...] has no basis in the available documentation"; and if V. Dadrian supports the authenticity of the so-called "Ten Commandments", on the other hand, "Most serious historians accept that this document is dubious at best, and probably a fake. It was the subject of controversy some twenty years before Dadrian rediscovered it for publication in 1993. The document's donor originally offered it for sale to the British authorities in February 1919, a time when numerous fraudulent documents were in circulation. Reference to this supposed 'smoking gun' is tellingly absent in the best recent scholarship on the development of the genocide by the likes of Hans-Lukas Kieser, Hilmar Kaiser, Taner Akcam, Halil Berktay and Ronald Suny." Clive Foss considers that V. Dadrian's conclusions are "based on circumstantial and often dubious evidence" and that he "has simply failed to make his case".
In 1991, Dadrian was dismissed from State University College at Geneseo
State University of New York at Geneseo
The State University of New York at Geneseo—also known as SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo State, or, colloquially, Geneseo—is located in Geneseo, Livingston County, New York, United States. It is a University College of the State University of New York...
for sexual harassment after a female student had complained he had kissed her on the lips. Prior to this, a college arbitrator had found him guilty on four charges of sexual harassment in 1981, but had allowed him to return to work because the arbitrator believed they were singular events that would not happen again.