Armenian-American historian and genocide researcher Vahakn Dadrian dies aged 93

Renowned American Armenian scientist, lawyer and historian Doctor, Professor Vahakn Dadrian passed away on August 2 at age 93.

Vahakn N. Dadrian re-ceived his undergraduate edu-cation in Europe at the University of Berlin (mathe-matics), the University of Vienna (history) and the University of Zürich (inter-national law). He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.

​His academic background includes affiliations with Harvard University as a Research Fellow, the Massa-chusetts Institute of Tech-nology as a Guest Professor, and Duke University as a Visiting Professor.

​In the last twenty years he has lectured extensively in French, English and German in such institutions as the Free University of Berlin and the Universities of Munich, Parma, Torino, Zürich, Uppsala, Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, Bochum, Münster, Amster-dam, Utrecht, Geneva, Brussels, UNESCO’s Paris center, and the U.N. in New York under the sponsorship of the Permanent Missions of Armenia and Rwanda. He was the keynote speaker at the centennial of the John Marshall Law School, along with the renowned legal scholar, M.C. Bassiouni.

    Professor Dadrian was the first Armenian scholar invited in 1995 to the British Parl-iament, House of Commons, to deliver a lecture commem-orating the 80th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. In 1998, in a special ceremony, he was inducted into the ranks of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. At the same time, he was decorated by that republic’s president with the Khorenatzi Medal, Armenia’s highest cultural award, and in May 2009, he was honored with the Republic’s highest award, the President’s Prize of a Gold Medal.

    His groundbreaking re-search has been supported by two large grants from the National Science Foundation, resulting in the publication of two separate monographs by the Yale Journal of Inter-national Law.

One of them is a legal analysis of the Armenian genocide from the perspective of international law; the other, published in 1998, examines within the same perspective the comparative aspects of the Armenian and Jewish cases of genocide.

Following a series of specifically arranged lectures in Armenia in April 2005 commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, Prof. Dadrian was declared Honorary Professor by two universities in Armenia. Additionally, he received three gold medals, one of which was presented by the Rector of Yerevan State University, and the other by the President of Yerevan’s Law School—both of them being the highest awards of these institutions.

    The International Associ-ation of Genocide Scholars, during its Sixth Biennial Conference, June 4-7, 2005, bestowed on him its Lifetime Achievement Award—the first ever granted. In May 2005, he was chosen as a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

     After serving as Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York from 1970 to 1991, Dadrian shifted his academic career to conducting research full-time on the Armenian Genocide. For several years he was engaged as Director of a large Genocide Study Project sponsored by the H.F. Guggenheim Foundation. The project’s first major achieve-ment was the publication, now in its seventh printing, of an extensive volume titled The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus. This work has appeared in numerous languages. Another major work, German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide: A Review of Historical Evi-dence of German Complicity, was published in 1996 and is now in its third edition. His next book, Warrant for Genocide: The Key Elements of the Turko-Armenian Conflict, appeared in 1999, the same year as Key Elements of the Turkish Denial of the Armenian Genocide. His most recent book, Judgment at Istanbul, appearing in 2011, is a massive legal and historical study of the post-WWI Turkish Military Tribunals on the Armenian Genocide.

Professor Dadrian has been Director of Genocide Re-search at the Zoryan Institute since 1999.

​          AWARDS

​Presidential Awards (Republic of Armenia)

President of the Republic Prize Gold Medal (including $10,000) (President Serge Sarkisyan), May 2009.

Movses Khorenatsi Medal (President Robert Kocharian), May 1998.

Citation of Merit on the 80th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide (President Levon Ter Petrosyan), April 1995.

         Medals from Academic Institutions

Kladzor University, Yerevan, Gold Medal, May 2009.

Yerevan State University, Faculty of Oriental Studies, April 2005.

National Academy of Sciences, Yerevan, Gold Medal, April 2005.

Kladzor University, Yerevan, Gold Medal, April 2005.

Apovian Pedagogical University, Yerevan, Gold Medal, March 2005.

Yerevan State University, Faculty of History and Political Science, Gold Medal, March 2005.

State Committee for the Commemoration of the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, April 2005.

Armenian Institute of International Law and Political Science, Moscow, October 2002.

State Committee for the Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, April 1995.

Harvard University, Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations – Veritas Gold Medal, April 2001.

          Medals from Civic Societies

Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Spring 2005.

U.S. Congress Medal of Esteem for Scholarship, April 2005.

Center for Russian-Armenian Initiatives Jury Award, April 1996.

          Medals, Decorations, Citations from Law Schools and Lawyers

Diaspora Ministry of Armenia’s Gold Medal, December 2010.

Armenian Bar Association Hrant Dink Freedom Award. (Hand-crafted miniature replica of Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell), April 2007.

Moscow University Law School, Yerevan Branch, Gold Medal, May 2005.

John Marshall Law School, Chicago, 100th Anniversary Conference’s Lifetime Achievement Medal April 2000.

University of West Los Angeles Law School Citation, Spring 1997.

          Medals from Religious Authorities

St. Sahag and St. Mesrob Medal and Encyclical from His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, March 2005.

Lifetime achievement award by the Armenian Church of America Eastern Diocese, April 2005.

Lifetime achievement award by the Armenian Church of America Western Diocese, April 2005.

St. Mesrob Mashdotz Gold Medal and Encyclical from His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, August 1999.

Primate of Nicosia Silver Medal, November 1981.

St. Lazarus, Venice, Mechitarist Congretation Medal, Summer 1979.

Vaticican Cardinal Aghjanian, Special Medal, Summer 1968.

          Certificates of Recognition

International Association of Genocide Scholars, Lifetime Achievement Award, June 2005.

Mantz University Certificate, Yerevan, May 2005.

Scholars Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, 35th Anniversary, “Special Honors in Recognition of his Lifetime of Distinguished Work,” March 2005.

Fridjof Nansen Memorial Medal from the President of the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Armenia, September 2006.

State University of New York – Geneseo, Citation for Fifteen Years of Excellent Service, October 1985.

La Associacion Interamericana de Studies Criminologicos y La Sociedad Americana de Criminilogica, November 1972.

Universidad Argentina John F. Kennedy, Buenos Aires, December 1971.

Delta Tau Kappa International Social Science Honor Society, March 1969.

        or, Kladzor University, Yerevan, April 2005.

Profess  Honorary Titles

Professor, Hratchia Adjarian University, Yerevan, Otober 1998.

          Honors from Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh)

Artsakh Ministry of Education, Atayan Memorial Gold Medal, May 2000.

Artsakh State University Gold Medal, May 1999.

          BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PUBLISHED WORKS

I. ON GENOCIDE AND GENOCIDE-RELATED TOPICS

BOOKS

With Taner Akçam. Judgment at Istanbul: The Armenian Genocide Trials.

Oxford and New York: Berghahn, 2011, 363p.

With Taner Akçam. “Tehcir Ve Taktil.” Divan-ı Harb-I Örfî Zabıitları: Ittihad Ve Terakki’nin Yargılanması 1919-1922.

Istanbul: Bilgi Universitesi Yayınları, 2008, 732p.

Ittifak Devletleri Kaynaklarında Ermeni Soykırımı. Toplu Makaleler 3.

[The Armenian Genocide as Documented in the Central Powers’ Sources]. Attila Tuygan, transl.

Istanbul: Belge Uluslararası Yayıncılık, 2007, 412pp.
History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus.

Providence/Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2005, 460 pp. Revised and Expanded 7th edition. Text, xxviii pp. Preface and Introduction. Extensive bibliography in Turkish, German, English, French, and Armenian. The earlier editions up to 1995 have special annotations to selected works used in the book. Subject and Name Index.

The following are translations of History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus

1. (in Turkish) Ermeni Soykırımı Tarihi: Balkanlardan Anadolu ve Kafkasya’ya Etnik Çatışma.

Istanbul: Belge Uluslararası Yayıncılık, 2008, 663pp.

1. (in Spanish) Historia del genocidio armenio.

Buenos Aires: Imago Mundi, 2007.

1. (in Italian) Storia Del Genocidio Armeno. Conflitti Nazionali dai Balcani al Caucaso. Alessandra Flores d’Arcais, transl. Milan: Guerini Publishing House, 2005, 491 pp. Name Index.

2. (in Greek) Historia Tis Armenikan Genoktonias.

Athens: Stokhastis, 2002, 685 pp.

1. (in French) Histoire du Génocide Arménien: Conflits Nationaux des Balkans au Caucase.

Marc Nichanian, transl. Paris: Editions Stock, 1996, 682 pp. Text, 19 pp. Bibliography, Subject and Name Index.

1. Russian translation and publication in Moscow in progress.

Türk Kaynaklarında Ermeni Soykırımı. Toplu Makaleler 2.

[The Armenian Genocide in Turkish Sources.] (Collection of Dadrian’s Articles.) Attila Tuygan, transl. Istanbul: Belge Publishers, 2005, 384 pp.

Ermeni Soykırımında Kurumsal Roller. Toplu Makaleler 1.

 [The Role of Institutions in the Armenian Genocide.] (Collection of Dadrian’s Articles). Attila Tuygan, transl. Istanbul: Belge Publishers, 2004, 329 pp.

Warrant for Genocide: Key Elements of Turko-Armenian Conflict,

3rd edition. New Brunswick, NJ/London: Transaction Publishers, 2003, 214 pp. Subject and Name Index.

The Key Elements in the Turkish Denial of the Armenian Genocide: A Case Study of Distortion and Falsification.

Cambridge, MA and Toronto: Zoryan Institute, 1999, 92 pp.

The following are translations of The Key Elements in the Turkish Denial of the Armenian Genocide

1. (in Bulgarian) Kliuchovi elementi v tourskoto otrichane ng Armenskiya Genotzid: izsledvaneh na chasten slouchai na izopachavane i Falshificatzia.

Bohos K. Mesrob, transl. Bourgas: Hayer, 2005, 68 pp.

1. (in Armenian)The Key Elements in the Turkish Denial of the Armenian Genocide: A Case Study of Distortion and Falsification.

Yerevan: Zoryan Institute, 2005.

1. (in Turkish) Türklerin Ermeni Soykırımını Inkârında Anahtar Unsurlar.

Attila Tuygan, transl. In Türk Kaynaklarında Ermeni Sokırımı. Toplu Makaleler 2, cited on pg. 1, Ch. 4, pp.183-235. Istanbul: Belge Publishers, 2005.

1. (in Spanish) Los Elementos Clave en el Negacionismo del Genocidio Armenio.

Ed. Karsaclian, transl. Buenos Aires: Fundacion Armenia, 2002, 79 pp.

The Ottoman Empire: A Troubled Legacy. Views, Comments, and Judgments by Noted Experts Worldwide.

Compiled for the Association of Genocide Scholars. Second revised and expanded edition. Cambridge, MA and Toronto: Zoryan Institute, 1997, 125pp.

German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide: A Review of the Historical Evidence of German Complicity.

Cambridge, MA: Blue Crane Books, 1996, 304 pp. Text, xvi pp. Photos, Bibliography, Subject and Name Index.

Ulusal ve Ulusarası Hukuk Sorunu Olarak Jenosid

Yavuz Alogan, transl. [Genocide as a Problem of National and International Law]. Istanbul: Belge Publishers, 1995, 204 pp. Turkish translation of the 1989 monograph published by Yale Journal of International Law, cited under Legal Articles.

​

Haigagan Tzeghasbanoutiunu Khorturanayeen yev Badmakeedagan Kunnargoumnerov

[The Treatment of the Armenian Genocide by the [Ottoman] Parliament and Its Historical Analysis]. Boston: Baikar, 1995, 142 pp. In Armenian. Bibliography in English.

LEGAL ARTICLES

“The Armenian Genocide: Review of Its Historical, Political, and Legal Aspects,” University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy V, no. 1 (Fall 2010): 135-194. Also reprinted and distributed separately to law schools and university libraries in the US, Canada and Europe.

“The Armenian Genocide as a Dual Problem of National and International Law,” University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy IV, no. 2 (Spring 2010): 60-82. Also reprinted and distributed separately to law schools and university libraries in the US, Canada and Europe.

 “The Armenian Genocide and the Legal and Political Issues in the Failure to Prevent or to Punish the Crime,” University of West Los Angeles Law Review 29 (1998): 43-78.

“The Armenian Genocide and the Evidence of German Involvement,” University of West Los Angeles Law Review 29 (1998): 79-122.

“The Historical and Legal Interconnections Between the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust: From Impunity to Retributive Justice,” Yale Journal of International Law 23, no.2 (Summer 1998): 504-559.

“Der Genozid an den Armeniern und das Völkerrecht” [The Armenian Genocide and International Law]. In Raffi Kantian, ed., Phönix aus Asche. Armenien 80 Jahre nach dem Genozid. Hannover: Carl Küster Publishing House (Deutsch-Armenische Gesellschaft), 1996, pp. 35-56.

“The Complicity of the Party, Government, and the Military. Select Parliamentary and Judicial Documents,” (Recently uncovered and obtained relative to the Armenian Genocide.) Journal of Political and Military Sociology 22, no.1 (1994): 29-96.

“A Textual Analysis of the Key Indictment of the Turkish Military Tribunal Investigating the Armenian Genocide,” Journal of Political and Military Sociology 22, no.1 (1994): 133-171.

“The Documentation of the World War I Armenian Massacres in the Proceedings of the Turkish Military Tribunal,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 23, no. 4 (November 1991): 549-576. [Republished in the Journal of Political and Military Sociology 22, no. 1 (1994): 97-131.]

“Genocide as a Problem of National and International Law: The World War I Armenian Case and Its Contemporary Legal Ramifications,” Yale Journal of International Law 14, no. 2 (Summer 1989): 221-334. Also printed separately with two Appendices and Bibliography, 134 pp.