On October 27 at 7 P.M., E.T., noted scholar Khatchig Mouradian will discuss his new book, The Resistance Network: The Armenian Genocide and Humanitariansm in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1918 (Michigan State University Press, 2021) with Gross Center Advisory Board member Ani Tchaghlasian who also serves on the National Board of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Mouradian challenges depictions of Armenians as passive victims of violence and subjects of humanitarianism. It demonstrates the key role Armenian community members played in organizing a humanitarian resistance against the destruction of their people. Piecing together hundreds of accounts, official documents, and missionary records, Mouradian presents a social history of genocide and resistance in wartime Aleppo, including the network of transit and concentration camps stretching from Bab to Ras ul-Ain and Der Zor. Mouradian ultimately argues that, despite the violent and systematic mechanisms of control and destruction in the cities, concentration camps, and massacre sites in this region, the genocide of the Armenians did not progress unhindered—unarmed resistance proved an important factor in saving countless lives. The Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Armenian National Committee of New Jersey are co-sponsoring the program.