Genocide as a Problem of National and International Law: The World War I Armenian Case and its Contemporary Legal Ramifications, Vahakn N. Dadrian (softcover)

This booklet presents an influential paper published in the Yale Journal of International Law. The first section examines the Islamic tenets that shaped the Ottoman Society and shows how these religious beliefs led the Turks to subvert the European efforts at humanitarian intervention. The second section discusses the implementation of the Armenian Genocide by the Ittihadist regime in Turkey under the cover of World War I. The third section looks at the efforts at retribution and details the divisions within the European powers and the nationalistic pressures within Turkey that doomed these efforts to failure. The paper concludes by considering the lessons that the history of the genocide has for modern efforts at outlawing such acts of mass murder.