The genocide of the indigenous Christians of the Ottoman Empire (Armenians, Greeks, Syro-Aramaeans/Assyrians/Chaldeans) A detailed documentation with three modules of nine teaching units each Verlag v. Hase & Koehler 2024

Abstract

According to Max Weber, “power” represents the condition of being able to assert one's will (also) against the will of others. For its own permanence, power generates knowledge and education. Information always also means the path to information, which brings us to the political character of all education. If we want to exemplify this complex in the context of Armenian culture, the genocide of 1915 comes to mind historically, as well as the current expulsion of the Armenians in Karabakh by Azerbaijan, which is to be regarded as genocide. What does the path to information about the 1915 genocide and Karabakh look like and how is it organized afterwards? Are we in a mosque environment, at a German regulars' table or somewhere else where the topic might be discussed - it seems important to know this. But more important, because it is more comprehensive, is to know who or what paved the educational path and how. The conditions for the respective recipients of information, of education per se, are then derived from this.

The state-organized institution of the school is responsible for education, with decisions on the path to education being made on a case-by-case basis. The state character of education must be emphasized here, as can be seen in the example of Germany, where the historical connection to two genocides (namely 1915 and World War II) has had a significant impact and may lead to interference and confusion in its practical perception. If we introduce the issue of information about the Armenian genocide into the construction of a history textbook, we enter federal territory in Germany: In the so-called textbook affair in the state of Brandenburg in 2005, the then MP Platzeck, under pressure from Turkey, had the word “genocide” in connection with the Armenians removed from school textbooks, so that the issue could not be addressed and took a back seat to the Shoah. A second example: On April 24, 2024, the anniversary of the genocide, German President Steinmeyer visited Atatürk's mausoleum and grave in Turkey. Both actions reflect the Germans' relationship to their own history: Hierarchies that exist in principle but are not explained thematically in history books, instead receding behind them as part of them and unrecognized, narrow the view of one's own history as conveyed in this way to a mere representation of state ideology and its practice. This results in the need for a teaching and learning tool that provides guidance on understanding the information conveyed and the ways to access it. In relation to the topic of genocide, this means that the background factors that lead to genocide, but also to its informal processing, can be identified. This also means that genocides can be compared and differentiated in terms of their comparability.