Table Of ContentT M g g
he aking of The reek enocide
War and Genocide
General Editors: Omer Bartov, Brown University; A. Dirk Moses, European
University Institute, Florence, Italy / University of Sydney
In recent years there has been a growing interest in the study of war and geno-
cide, not from a traditional military history perspective, but within the framework of
social and cultural history. This series offers a forum for scholarly works that reflect
these new approaches.
“The Berghahn series Studies on War and Genocide has immeasurably enriched the
English-language scholarship available to scholars and students of genocide and, in
particular, the Holocaust.” —Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions
For a full volume listing, please see back matter
T M g g
he aking of The reek enocide
Contested Memories of the Ottoman
Greek Catastrophe
Erik Sjöberg
berghahn
N E W Y O R K (cid:127) O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
Published in 2017 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2017 Erik Sjöberg
All rights reserved.
Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes
of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A C.I.P. cataloging record is available from the Library of Congress
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78533-325-5 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78533-326-2 ebook
c
onTenTs
R
Acknowledgments vi
Abbreviations vii
Introduction: Cosmopolitan Memory and the Greek Genocide Narrative 1
Chapter 1
Ottoman Twilight: The Background in Anatolia 17
Chapter 2
“Right to Memory”: From Catastrophe to the Politics of Identity 54
Chapter 3
Nationalizing Genocide: The Recognition Process in Greece 73
Chapter 4
The Pain of Others: Empathy and the Problematic Comparison 118
Chapter 5
Becoming Cosmopolitan?: The Americanized Genocide Narrative in the
Diaspora 155
Chapter 6
“Three Genocides, One Recognition”: The “Christian Holocaust” 188
Conclusion 223
Reference List 239
Index 251
a
cknowledgMenTs
R
T
his study was made possible by the support of various institutions
and individuals in different countries. The Swedish Research Council
(Vetenskapsrådet) provided me with the funding that enabled me to
carry out this project. I am grateful to Sam Wineburg, who welcomed
me as a postdoctoral fellow to Stanford University between 2013 and
2015, where much of this book was written. I am also indebted to several
other colleagues (in no particular order of hierarchy) for their advice,
encouragement and helpful assistance in matters large and small:
Taner Akçam, Peter Balakian, Cecilie Stokholm Banke, Petter Bergner,
Magdalena Gross, Antonis Liakos, Norman Naimark, Christian Axboe
Nielsen, Mogens Pelt, Catharina Raudvere, Doyle Stevick, Eric Weitz,
and Trine Stauning Willert. At Berghahn Books I would like to thank
Chris Chappell and the anonymous reviewers of the proposal for this
book as well as for the final manuscript. Any remaining errors in the
text are, of course, my own.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Elisabeth Hallgren Sjöberg,
for her love and encouragement over the years, and to acknowledge
the support of our respective families and friends: Gunnel and Johan
Sjöberg, Gunnar and Birgit Hallgren, Anna Sjöberg-Smith, Monica
Bergman, Torbjörn Hallgren, Kristina Blombäck, Annika Rubinstein,
Jacob Stridsman, AnnaSara Hammar, Linn Holmberg, Robert Eckeryd,
Olivia Ekman, Annette and Johan Nilsson, Tomas Karlsson, and Per-
Olof Grönberg. Without you this book might never have come into being.
Umeå, May 2016
a
bbreviaTions
R
AHIF American Hellenic Institute Foundation
AKP Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (Justice and Development
Party)
ANCA Armenian National Committee of America
ANEL Anexartitoi Ellines (Independent Greeks)
ASALA Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia
CUP Committee of Union and Progress
DIMAR Dimokratiki Aristera (Democratic Left)
EDA Eniaia Dimokratiki Aristera (Unified Democratic Left)
EEE Ethniki Enosis tis Ellados (National Union of Greece)
IAGS International Association of Genocide Scholars
ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia
KEPOME Kentro Pontiakon Meleton (Center for Pontian
Studies)
KKE Kommounistiko Komma tis Elladas (Communist Party
of Greece)
KMS Kentro Mikrasiatikon Spoudon (Center for Asia Minor
Studies)
LAOS Laïkos Orthodoxos Synagermos (Popular Orthodox
Rally)
ND Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy)
OPSE Omospondia Prosfygikon Somateion tis Elladas
(Federation of Refugee Associations of Greece)
OPSVE O mospondia Pontiakon Somateion Voreiou Ellados
(Federation of Pontian Associations of Northern Greece)
viii Abbreviations
PASOK P anellinio Sosialistiko Kinevma (Panhellenic Socialist
Movement)
PKK P artiya Karkerên Kurdistan (Kurdistan Workers’ Party)
POE Pampontiaki Omospondia Ellados (Pan-Pontian
Federation of Greece)
POPS P anellinia Omospondia Pontiakon Somateion
(Panhellenic Federation of Pontian Associations)
SAE Symvoulio Apodimou Ellinismou (World Council of
Hellenes Abroad)
SEKE Sosialistiko Ergatiko Komma tis Ellados (Socialist
Labor Party of Greece)
SYN Synaspismos tis Aristeras kai tis Proodou (Coalition of
the Left and Progress)
SYRIZA Synaspismos tis Rizospastikis Aristeras (Coalition of
the Radical Left)
i
nTroducTion
C m G
osmopolitan emory and the reek
G n
enoCide arratvie
R
O
n 11 March 2010, the Parliament of Sweden voted to endorse
a motion calling for recognition of the “1915 genocide of Armenians,
Assyrians/Syriacs/Chaldaeans and Pontic Greeks” as a historical fact.1
The motion, which passed the vote by narrow majority, stirred an emo-
tionally charged debate, with allegations on the one hand of history
being politicized, and on the other hand accusations of genocide denial
for the sake of good relations with Turkey, the successor state to the
crumbling empire of 1915’s perpetrators. Sweden’s government, for
which the Parliament’s resolution was a source of diplomatic embar-
rassment, maintained that history should be left to the historians, not
to legislative assemblies. Those who supported the recognition of the
atrocities committed against Ottoman Christians as an act of genocide
argued that the historians had already established the facts. The geno-
cide was a reality and it was now the politicians’ duty to urge Turkey
to face its own history. But while the plight of the Armenians and of
other Christians in Eastern Anatolia was never disputed in the debate,
the Pontic (or Pontian) Greeks mentioned among the victims seemed to
raise a few eyebrows. One commentator claimed that there had never
been a genocide of the Greeks once inhabiting the region of Pontos in
northern Turkey, and that the Swedish Parliament and certain histo-
rians had bestowed an “inaccurate historiography with legitimacy.”2
Few seemed to recall ever having heard of this community and an event
