The League of Nations and the Origins of Armenian Genocide Denial

On April 28, 2008, AUA’s School of Political Science and International Affairs hosted a public lecture entitled “Interwar Trafficking in Women and Children: The League of Nations and the Origins of Armenian Genocide Denial” by Dr. Keith David Watenpaugh. Dr. Watenpaugh is Associate Professor of Modern Islam, Human Rights and Peace in the Religious Studies program of the University of California, Davis. He is the author of Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism and the Arab Middle Class and several articles published in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Social History, and Middle East Report.

During the lecture Dr. Watenpaugh pointed out that “alongside the massacres, mass rape and episodes of ethnic cleansing during the genocide, Ottoman civilian and military officials had participated in the trafficking of Armenian women and children on a massive scale.” This is demonstrated by data on the large numbers of women and children – the genocide survivors – residing in Aleppo’s Rescue House and Istanbul’s Neutral House during the rescue movement.

The scope of work of these rescue institutions pushed the League of Nations to concentrate on the repatriation and safety of deported women and children. According to Dr. Watenpaugh, the way the League of Nations created the rescue institutions was an important moment in the evolution of ideas about rights of women and children: the rights of women and children as individuals were recognized for the first time internationally.  According to Dr. Watenpaugh, the collision between these interwar Western ideas, on the one hand, and Ottoman legal, moral and political claims, on the other hand, “has shaped the rhetoric of Armenian Genocide denial.”