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Nonfiction Reviews: Week Of 5/25/2009

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  • Nonfiction Reviews: Week Of 5/25/2009

    NONFICTION REVIEWS: WEEK OF 5/25/2009

    Publishers Weekly
    May 26 2009

    Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-long
    Struggle for Justice Michael Bobelian. Simon & Schuster, $26 (320p)
    ISBN 978-1-4165-5725-8

    The 1915 genocide perpetrated by the Turkish government against
    its Armenian subjects drags on in the form of Turkish denial and
    global indifference, according to this rancorous history. Journalist
    Bobelian gives a sketchy rundown of the massacres ("what difference
    did it make if several hundred thousand Armenians died rather than
    1.5 million?"), but his main story is the ensuing refusal of Turkey
    and the international community--especially the United States--to
    properly acknowledge the crime. He chronicles a generations-long
    contest between moral claims and realpolitik; after initial Western
    outrage, the genocide was shoved off the agenda of Turkish-American
    relations by commercial interests and the anti-Soviet alliance. The
    book provides an exhaustive account of the perennial battles between
    Armenian-American activists and Turkey's lobbyists over congressional
    genocide resolutions. The victimization of the Armenians' excuses much
    for Bobelian, who blames Armenian terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s--he
    sympathetically profiles an aging survivor who assassinated two Turkish
    diplomats--on "frustration and rage" over Ankara's denials. One leaves
    this j'accuse wondering if the quest for justice can be taken to an
    unhealthy extreme. (Sept. 1)
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