Thanksgiving for Americans, We Mourn Massacred Armenians”
Commemoration, Identity, and the Search for Prevention in the American Armenian Response to the Hamidian Massacres of the 1890s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11047113 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gevorg H Vardanyan (0000-0002-6033-9482, North Carolina State University Libraries, corresponding author), Narine S Hakobyan (0009-0004-5372-1677, Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute), Narine Hakobyan (Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Foundation) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 325-345 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Nationalities Papers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/nps.2025.30 |
| OpenAlex | W4410644580 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 39 |
In response to the Hamidian massacres of 1894–1897, Armenian immigrants held commemorative events in the US that concurred with their activism for the Armenian Question. Although largely overlooked in scholarship, these commemorative practices offer insights into the early history of this community and the memory of the late Ottoman state violence. We explore how American Armenians commemorated the Hamidian massacres, addressing this gap in scholarship. Specifically, we delve into the socio-political and cultural sphere, analyzing the agencies and narratives involved in these commemorative practices. Through a close examination of various commemorative forms, we find that the incentives of American Armenians went beyond simply honoring the victims. We argue that the motives of mourning loss and striving to prevent violence from recurring were intricately intertwined in the commemoration. Despite the unsuccessful outcome, the search for prevention remained an important driving force behind commemorating Ottoman violence in the following years. By integrating its memory into their public life, communal leadership aimed not only to foster social cohesion among Armenian immigrants but also to garner public empathy and sympathy within the host society, ultimately translating it into political support for the Armenian Question, which was believed could prevent future atrocities
Aesthetics · Ancient history · Armenian · Art · Identity (music · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Turkey's Politics and Society
Watergate in American memory
How Societies Remember
Exhibiting Atrocity
Memory Activism
Collective memory
Memorial Museums
The Invention of Tradition
Cartoons and Monuments
The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Politics
On Collective Memory
Armenian Resistance to the Hamidian Massacres
Remembering to Prevent
Torn between Two Lands
Turkish-American Treaty Relations
The Making of the Domestic Occasion
After virtue
A responsibility to protest? The public, the Powers and the Armenians in the era of Abdülhamit II
Collective Memory and Cultural Constraint
On Thanksgiving and Collective Memory
Sites of Terror and the Role of Memory in Shaping Identity Among First Generation Descendants of the Holocaust
Collective Memory and Cultural Identity
Elites and Institutions in the Armenian Transnation
In the name of God, civilization, and humanity
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Language, Counter-Memory, Practice
Iconography and Collective Memory
The Counter-Monument
The Armenian Question Is Finally Closed
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |