Learning from a Genocide Past

A new study surveys descendants of the Armenian genocide to learn about generational consequences of violence

Tsitsernakaberd, the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

In August, the International Association of Genocide Scholars released a report stating that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. A tenuous ceasefire has since started, but there is no doubt that, even if the peace holds, Palestinians will face long-term consequences from the genocide.

In a time of rising global violence, understanding the repercussions of culturally traumatic violence like genocide is of the utmost importance. In a recent research article, political scientist Max Schaub uses the first ever representative survey of the demographic and attitudinal legacies of the Armenian genocide to show how violence reverberates through generations.

Publishing in Post-Soviet Affairs, Schaub analyzes this original dataset to examine how violence shapes societies. He finds that survey respondents who lost family members in the Armenian genocide showed higher levels of ethnocentrism. However, the same people were far less likely to support militaristic solutions to societal problems.

The Armenian genocide

The Armenian genocide stands among the most extensive and brutal ethnic cleansings in the history of the world. On the night of April 24, 1915, the Ottoman Turks launched an assault on Armenian civic leaders in Constantinople, arresting more than 200 people. The attackers’ goal was to preempt resistance from Armenians over what was to come.

After that night, the Ottoman government authorized the forcible removal of Armenians from their homes across the Turkish empire. The next eight years saw special government forces systematically removing Armenian civilians from their homes and villages, either brutally killing them or forcing them on “death marches” hundreds of miles east into the Syrian desert.

It is estimated that approximately 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the genocide — roughly half of the ethnic Armenian population at the time. Today, only 32 countries outside of Armenia formally recognize the Armenian genocide.

Studying cultural trauma

Schaub recognized that there had to date been no large-scale quantitative work studying the cultural legacies of the Armenian genocide. In autumn and winter of 2018, he conducted an original survey in Armenia to do just that.

Schaub drafted the survey, and then a local Armenian research institute with experience conducting similar surveys within the country implemented it. Data collection involved field work throughout Armenia with the permission of local leaders. Survey respondents were compensated for their participation.

In the end, the survey reached a total of 2,637 people across Armenia. Figure 1 from the article shows the approximate locations where survey interviews took place.

Figure 1 from Schaub’s article.

What the survey reveals about the legacies of the Armenian genocide

Schaub’s data provides a rich pictrue of how the genocide continues to shape Armenian society. The survey estimates that between 45% and 54% of modern Armenians can trace their ancestry back to people who fled Turkey during the genocide.

About a third of the survey respondents were certain that they lost a family member in the genocide. The study finds that descendents of genocide victims tend to be better educated, more religious, and have family members living in other countries.

The analysis shows that descendents of genocide victims were less likely to support government policies favoring immigration for people who are not ethnic Armenians. Descendents of genocide victims were also less likely to support aggressive military action.

Perhaps most unexpectedly, these same people placed less importance on international recognition of the genocide.

The data shows that older descendents of genocide victims tend to have even stronger positions on these outcomes than younger descendents of genocide victims. This result suggests that the genocide’s cultural effects may be fading gradually over time.

How do we learn from the findings?

Schaub’s study reminds us that we can and must understand how cultural trauma from genocide and war reverberates through time. More than 100 years on from the Armenian genocide, there are still very real consequences among descendants of its victims, from a general unwillingness to approve of violence to heightened ethnocentrism.

We continue to see violence and genocide across the globe; genocide in Gaza has continued even after the recent ceasefire and the war in Ukraine continues, even seeming to get more unstable.

While we cannot expect Palestinians and Ukrainians to react the same way in a century’s time as Armenians have, Schaub’s study shows us that there will be consequences to the violence that we will see for generations to come.

This post is part of a 3Streams partnership with the Minority Serving Institution Research Academy (MSIRA) at UC Riverside.