Dadrian, Vahakn N. 1926-

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Dadrian, Vahakn N. 1926-

(Vahakn Norair Dadrian)

PERSONAL:

Born May 26, 1926, in Istanbul, Turkey; immigrated to the United States, 1947, naturalized citizen, 1961; son of Hagop and Mayreni Dadrian. Education: Attended University of Berlin, University of Vienna, and University of Zurich; Wayne State University, M.A., 1950; University of Chicago, Ph.D., 1954.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Conesus, NY. Office—Zoryan Institute, 255 Duncan Mill Rd., Ste. 310, Toronto, Ontario M3B 3H9, Canada.

CAREER:

Sociologist and educator. Washington College, Chestertown, MD, assistant professor of sociology, 1955-56; Boston University, Boston, MA, assistant professor, 1957-59; Raytheon, senior analyst in the Department of Strategic Studies, Division of Missiles and Space, 1962-63; Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge, MA, research fellow, 1961-62; Boston College, Boston, lecturer, 1963-65; Wisconsin State University, Superior, associate professor, 1965-67; Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, associate professor, 1967-68, professor, 1968-70; State University of New York (SUNY), Geneseo, NY, professor, 1970-91; H.F. Guggenheim Foundation, Consensus, NY, director of genocide study project, 1991; Zoryan Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, director of genocide research. Also visiting scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for International Studies, 1960-61; guest scholar at the Institute for Research on Soviet Union, Munich, Germany, 1962; visiting professor at Duke University, 1971. Also lecturer at universities, conferences, and on television in the United States, Europe, former Soviet Union, and South America.

MEMBER:

Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Delta Tau Kappa (honorary).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Wisconsin University Board of Regents award, 1966; St. Vartan medal for scholarship in field of Soviet nationalities, Cardinal Aghadjanian, Rome, 1968; Khorenatzi Medal, Armenia, 1998; Ellis Island medal of honor, 2005; Lifetime Achievement award, International Association of Genocide Scholars, 2005; Lifetime Achievement award, Scholars Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, 2005. Recipient of grants from the Harvard Lab for Social Research, 1959; American Philosophical Society, 1961; Wenner-Gren Foundation, 1963, 1965; American Council of Learned Societies, 1966; National Science Foundation, 1968, 1973, 1976; State University of New York (SUNY), 1974; H.F. Guggenheim Foundation, 1990-91.

WRITINGS:

Genocide As a Problem of National and International Law: The World War I Armenian Case and Its Contemporary Legal Ramifications, Yale Law School (New Haven, CT), 1989.

Parliamentary and History Bipolar Assessment of the Armenian Genocide, Baikar (Watertown, MA), 1995.

The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus, Berghahn Books (Providence, RI), 1995, 4th revised edition, 2003.

German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide: A Review of the Historical Evidence of German Complicity, foreword by Roger W. Smith, Blue Crane Books (Watertown, MA), 1996.

The Key Elements in the Turkish Denial of the Armenian Genocide: A Case Study of Distortion and Falsification, Zoryan Institute (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

Warrant for Genocide: Key Elements of Turko-Armenian Conflict, Transaction Publishers (New Brunswick, NJ), 1999.

Also editor and translator of United and Independent Turania, by Zarevand, 1971. Contributor to World Book Encyclopedia, 1972—; Encyclopedia of Genocide, 1999; Encylopedia Mondiale des génocides, 2001; Encylopedia of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity, 2005; contributor of analysis to Armenia 1915: What the German Imperial Government Concealed from Its Subjects: The Slaughter of a Civilized People at the Hands of the Turks, by Heinrich Vierbucher, Armenian Cultural Foundation (Arlington, MA), 2006; contributor of articles to professional journals and periodicals; consulting editor to International Journal of Contemporary Sociology.

SIDELIGHTS:

Vahakn N. Dadrian is a sociologist whose research has focused on Armenian and Jewish genocide. He is also the author or coauthor of several books on various aspects of the Armenian genocide carried out or secretly sponsored by the Turks during the 1910s and 1920s. In his book Warrant for Genocide: Key Elements of Turko-Armenian Conflict, Dadrian draws on both Ottoman and Turkish documents and other sources to outline how xenophobia in Turkey led to the use of Islam as a way to incite Ottomans to secretly harass and kill Armenian Christians. The author also "analyzes the origin, elements, and evolution of the Turko-Armenian dispute and concludes that Armenian genocide was but a byproduct of the conflict," as noted by William A. Mitchell in the Journal of Church and State. In addition, the author explores various other aspects of the genocide, including the role played by Germany. In his review, Mitchell called the book "an important addition to the growing literature" on this subject. Writing in the Social Science Journal, Mary Schaeffer Conroy commented that the author "delivers intriguing insights into Ottoman-Kurdish relations and the views of individual Turkish statesmen regarding Armenians, and … suggests convincing theories for Turkish massacres of Armenians."