From Empire to Republic, Turkish Nationalism & the Armenian Genocide, Taner Akcam (softcover)

One of the earliest books by Taner Akçam in English, “From Empire to Republic” examines the relationship between Turkey’s transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic, the Armenian Genocide, and the process of democratization in Turkey today. The book is a set of interrelated essays on the place of the Armenian question in Turkish public life. The first three chapters provide the reader with a framework for understanding Turkish nationalism, its origins, and its ongoing relationship to the Armenian Genocide. In chapters four and five Akçam follows the changes in Ottoman Turkey’s political climate that led to the decision of genocide and the implementation of the Genocide itself. He focuses on the mentality of the perpetrator rather than the victim, and argues that the humiliating transformation from empire to republic was the key experience leading to the emergence of a genocidal mentality among the Young Turks.