Ottomans and Armenians: A Study in Counterinsurgency ISBN: 1137362200 Published by Palgrave Macmillan on November 12, 2013
Genres: Strategic Studies
Pages: 316
Erickson’s book was called “courageous and provocative” by Tomlinson prize-winner Sean McMeekin. It offers a counterinsurgency military explanation for the 1915 relocation of the Armenians in eastern Turkey.
Erickson documents the beginning of the Armenian insurgency with the secret committees of the 1890s and their evolution into the Armenian armed resistance. When the Ottomans launched an offensive against Russia in late 1914 a small number of Armenians in the eastern provinces of Turkey rose in revolt and menaced the vulnerable Ottoman rail link to the Caucasus front. Threatened in the Dardanelles by Great Britain and France, pressured in the South by British forces, the Ottoman Army countered the Armenian uprising in the East using population relocation.
A successful counterinsurgency strategy against the Armenians became a public relations nightmare as thousands of Armenians were massacred or simply died of exposure during their relocation. The Ottomans were and remain defiant in defending their actions. Some Armenians continued to be killed for years, yet, as Erickson argues, more than 300,000 were allowed to remain in their homes in western Turkey. The “Armenian genocide” remains highly controversial.
Reviewed by Anne Merritt
Airships in International Affairs, 1890-1940 by 
Petain: How the Hero of France Became a Convicted Traitor and Changed the Course of History by 
Rewriting the First World War: Lloyd George, Politics and Strategy, 1914-1918 by 
Spies of the Kaiser: German Covert Operations in Great Britain during the First World War Era by 
British Army Uniform and the First World War: Men in Khaki by 
Ottomans and Armenians: A Study in Counterinsurgency ISBN: 9781137362209 
Leadership in the Trenches: Officer-Man Relations, Morale and Discipline in the British Army in the Era of the First World War by 
The Undermining of Austria-Hungary: The Battle for Hearts and Minds by 
The Western Front: Battleground and Home Front in the First World War by 
British Culture And The First World War by 
Shell Shock: Traumatic Neurosis and the British Soldiers of the First World War by 
British Intelligence and the Japanese Challenge in Asia, 1914-1941 by 
Pacifists, Patriots and the Vote: The Erosion of Democratic Suffragism in Britain During the First World War by 
The Zionist Masquerade: The Birth of the Anglo-Zionist Alliance 1914-1918 by 
Conservative Party and Anglo-German Relations, 1905-1914 by 
Publishing in the First World War: Essays in Book History by 
Britain, France and the Entente Cordiale since 1904 by 
The Versailles Settlement: Peacemaking After the First World War, 1919-1923 by 
Living with Enza: The Forgotten Story of Britain and the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918 by 
British Silent Cinema and The Great War by 
Camp and Combat on the Sinai and Palestine Front: The Experience of the British Empire Soldier, 1916-18 by 
Men of War: Masculinity and the First World War in Britain by 
Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War by 
The Soldiers' Press: Trench Journals in the First World War by 
Militarism and the British Left, 1902-1914 by 
Abandoning American Neutrality: Woodrow Wilson and the Beginning of the Great War, August 1914 – December 1915 by 
The Great War and Veterans’ Internationalism by 
