In this presentation, Professor Akçam will explore the contrasting popular and scholarly views of the role of Cemal Pasha in Ottoman and Armenian history. While a commonly-held view of non-historians considers Cemal Pasha to be one of the “Three Pashas” (along with Talat Pasha and Enver Pasha) who were largely responsible for the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian Genocide (1914-1923), many historians in fact have argued that he actually opposed the annihilationist policies directed toward Armenians.
The Armenian Genocide has long been side-lined in the histories of Europe and the world. This poses a whole series of problems for how we understand the past. In this talk, Stefan Ihrig will show how and why the Armenian Genocide was a central event for 20th century world history.