It has been a major bone of contention for nearly a century, but recently the U.S. House of Representatives voted to finally condemn as genocide the mass killings of Armenians early in the last century. How the killings should be characterized has been under debate since the event, and into the 21st century, both the Obama and Bush administrations had lobbied against such resolutions, fearful of offending Turkey and, as The New York Times termed it, “jeopardiz[ing] delicate efforts at Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.” From the Times:

Historians say that as many as 1.5 million Armenians died amid the chaos and unrest surrounding World War I and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey denies, however, that this was a planned genocide, and had mounted a vigorous lobbying campaign against the resolution.

For a firsthand perspective on those events, see the Cosimo Classic Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story: A Personal Account of the Armenian Genocide, first published in 1918.

By the early 1900s, the Ottoman Empire was beginning to dissolve. Upon seeing this weakness, Germany set its own plans into action in the capital of Constantinople to bring the vast Turkish Empire under its control. Here, American statesman Henry Morgenthau Sr. (1856-1946) details how Turkey fell under the influence of Germany and how this led to the Armenian genocide. In a trial run of the extermination of the Jews, the Germans orchestrated the murder and exile of the Armenians from Turkey, with “Turkey for the Turks” as a rallying cry. The similarities to the Holocaust are chilling. Anyone intrigued by the history and politics of Eastern Europe will find Morgenthau’s memoir enlightening. And scholars will gain great insight from reading this first-hand account of an often forgotten tragedy.

60 Minutes recently covered the events that Armenians call their holocaust — watch the video here.

Cosimo books are available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.