Book Reviews : Armenia: the Survival of a Nation, by Christopher J. Walker, Croom Helm, London, 1980. £14.95
| Author | M.R. Brett-Crowther |
| Published date | 01 April 1981 |
| Date | 01 April 1981 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/004711788100700121 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
1084
This
book
makes
the
impact
of
a
speech-writer’s
most
moving
pass-
ages
anthologised.
It
also
provokes
the
reader
because
it
is
elliptical,
seem-
ingly
incoherent
in
places,
and
as
inflexible
as
Begin.
Its
analyses
are
not
complete;
there
is
no
one
pattern
to
them;
their
question
are
more
often
stated
or
ducked
than
answered.
But
as
a
statement
of
the
problems
of
Israel
in
a
time
of
great
tension,
the
book
will
lay
on
every
reader
a
burden
of
responsibility
to
pray
for
the
peace
of
Jerusalem.
Some
may
also
see
that
the
prayer
must
be
in
terms
more
akin
to
students
of
com-
parative
religion
than
to
students
of
the
more
reactionary
schools
through-
out
the
Middle
East.
—M.
R.
Brett-Crowther.
Armenia:
the
Survival
of
a
Nation,
by
Christopher
J.
Walker,
Croom
Helm,
London,
1980.
£14.95.
The
Armenians
have
been
neglected
by
scholars
and
shamefully
abused
by
politicians
in
this
century.
But
the
Armenians
have
now
secured
the
loyalty
of
an
excellent
historian.
This
book
represents
a
kind
now
unfamiliar
but
in
imperial
days
common
enough:
a
survey
of
a
minority
or
un-British
group
which
by
its
characteristics
evoked
both
admiration
and
something
of
love.
Walker
is
a
credit
to
the
English
Church,
which
shaped
his
heart,
and
Oxford
history
which
has
trained
his
mind.
He
is
therefore
sensitive
to
the
significant
differences
in
his
subject
and
his
powers
of
expression
are
a
welcome
relief
from
the
jargon
of
much
current
’learned’
work.
He
points
out
that
in
British
universities
the
subject
of
Armenia
is
not
taught.
Departments
of
History
and
of
International
Relations
would
be
greatly
improved
by
attention
to
this
sad,
instructive
record.
Courses
on
’the
Eastern
Question’,
or
attempts
to
mount
courses
on
ambiguities,
interconnexions
and
guilt
in
twentieth
century
foreign
policy,
or
on
minorities
in
the
late
Ottoman
Empire
would
make
a
valuable
contribution.
Walker
traces
the
history
of
Armenia
from
its
beginnings
to
the
pre-
sent.
He
shows
that
the
geographical
character
of
Armenia
made
it
vulner-
able
to
many
greater
powers,
and
by
the
time
he
reaches
the
nineteenth
century
(p.42)
he
has
sketched
the
series
of
problems
which
weakened
Armenia.
Thus
(p.26)
the
mild
monophysitism
of
the
Armenian
Apostolic
Church
strengthened
the
identity
of
Armenia
against
Byzantine
power
and
Eastern
Orthodoxy,
but
left
the
country
exposed
to
invasion
on
the
edges
of
civilization.
Eventually,
Russian
and
Ottoman
spheres
of
influence
or
outright
possession
meant
that
Western
Armenia
(Ottoman)
was
not
only
a
subject
but
a
perpetual
victim.
Ottoman
cruelty
and
perversion
were
reinforced
by
Islamic
fanaticism
and
pan-Turkism.
One
suspects
that
these
were
increased
by
the
loss
of
Greece
and
the
need
to
visit
vengeful
des-
truction
on
other
Christian
subjects.
The
decay
of
the
Russian
and
Ottoman
Empires
caused
manifold
suffering
in
Armenia.
Wilfrid
Scawen
Blunt
found
that
in
1895
the
Russian
policy
became
encouragement
of
the
Sultan
to
exterminate
the
Armenians
because
they
were
allies
of
Russia’s
Nihilists.
The
Western
Powers,
and
mainly
Great
Britain,
failed
to
persuade
Abdul
Hamid
II
to
undertake
reforms.
They
never
pressed
their
case
because
they
wished
to
keep
the
Ottoman
weak
while
using
it
for
profitable
trade
and
as
a
sort
of
defence
against
Russia.
Nearly
all
the
book
is
painful
and
infuriating.
The
British
policy
of
backing
(or
bleeding)
the
Ottoman
against
Orthodoxy
and
Tsardom
was
like
the
stupid
tolerance
of
errors
of
policy
in
the
decline
of
the
Romanovs.
But
it
is
the
hypocrisy
of
Abdul
Hamid
which
occupies
much
of
the
book,
and
that
of
his
non-sectarian
successor,
Ataturk.
It
is
sad
to
see
(p. 160)
that
Herzl
helped
to
discredit
Armenians
in
Europe
in
the
belief
that
the
Sultan
would
help
him
to
colonize
Palestine.
Walker
documents
especially
the
Tsarist
massacre
at
Baku
in
1905
and
the
Ottoman
massacres
at
Sasun
and
throughout
Anatolia
and
Turkish
Armenia
in
1895,
and
those
of
1915.
As
he
says,
the
Young
Turks
’were
imbued
with
a
race
consciousness
which
was
essentially
of
the
twentieth
century
in
its
ferocity,
and
in
the
fact that
it
excluded
all
other
considera-
tions. It
is
this
that
makes
the
use
of
the
word
&dquo;genocide&dquo;
perfectly
appli-
cable,
even
though
it
was
not
invented
until
1944.’
(p.236f).
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