Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Keywords
genocide, ethnic cleansing, geopolitics, Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire
Abstract
This paper looks at ethnic cleansing as a geopolitical strategy of the Russian and Ottoman Empires as they clashed in the Caucasus and eastern vilayets of Ottoman Empire. I take interest in how imperial competition of Ottoman and Russian Empire produced genocidal policies that have changed the geopolitical situation in the Caucasus and eastern vilayets of the Ottoman Empire. After a comparative historical outline, I develop a claim that erasure and re-writing of space was the ultimate rationale behind the two genocides. Ottoman and Russian empires with their religious and ethnic diversity had to be erased so that Turkey and Russia with their uniformity could project and inscribe their national mythologies into the territories they have taken over. Finally, the paper assesses the geopolitical impact of these genocides on recurrent ethnic violence in Balkans and Caucasus and on creating obstacles to peace, security, political integration and economic development in these two regions.
Recommended Citation
Jaksa, Urban, "Geopolitics of Genocide: Comparing Ottoman and Russian Empire’s ethnic cleansing policies against Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and Circassians in late 19th and early 20th centuries" (2015). CHGS Conference Proceedings. 39.
https://commons.clarku.edu/chgs_papers/39
Comments
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A DRAFT PAPER – PLEASE DO NOT CITE OR CIRCULATE!