A New ‘Theory’ of the Armenian Genocide

Armenians and Turks aren’t known for sharing a historical perspective on the Armenian genocide—generally, the Armenians support its recognition, the Turkish deny it happened—but a book out this month describes a conspiracy theory that actually has a foothold in both populations. In this version, Jews are to blame for the massacre. According to this counter-history, says historian Rifat Bali in A Scapegoat for All Seasons: The Döonmes or Crypto-Jews of Turkey, the Ottoman Empire’s Jewish bourgeoisie conceived of and carried out the mass slaughter of the Armenians, who (the theory goes) were their rivals for financial control of the region. This idea’s progenitors—who are mostly members of Turkish and Armenian Islamist factions—claim that it was specifically the Sabbateans, or Dönme, followers of the 17th-century Jewish-mystic-turned-Muslim Sabbetei Zevi, who perpetrated the slaughter. (Naturally, the Freemasons helped, too.) An excerpt from the book appears in The Armenian Weekly. If, after that, you still haven’t gotten your fill of Ottoman crypto-Jews, another book on the subject—The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks—comes out this month.

A Recent Anti-Semitic Theme: The Sabbatean Role in the Armenian Genocide [The Armenian Weekly]