Political analyst Vicken Cheterian considers the legacy of World War I and the tremendous political, demographic and social transformation it brought about in the area we now call the Middle East. Dr. Cheterian focuses particularly on the absence of the Armenian Genocide from the historical narrative of the Middle East and the way in which this persistent omission, denial and finally, lack of accountability over the last one hundred years have shaped the ongoing political struggles and violence that continue to destabilize the region today.
War, Genocide and Remembrance in the Modern Middle East
Armin T. Wegner’s photographs taken as a young German medic in the Ottoman Empire during World War I remain some of the most important visual archive of the Armenian Genocide surviving today. Here, Dr. Johanna Wernicke-Rothmayer considers Wegner’s journey as a writer, poet, and playwright committed to telling the truth about the unimaginable horrors he witnessed in the Ottoman Empire in the shadows of WWI. She describes Wegner’s activities during and after the war and explains how he paid a high price for speaking out against tyranny and injustice throughout the post-war years, until his exile in Italy in 1936 where he spent the rest of his life.
Armin T. Wegner: Bearing Witness to the Armenian Genocide
Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) started his career as a remarkable scientist, adventurer and polar explorer, admired throughout the European continent. After World War I, he worked for the League of Nations and became a central figure in tackling the issue of prisoners of war and of the European refugee crisis after the decline of the multi-ethnic Ottoman, Romanov, Habsburg and Hohenzollern empires. In 1922, Nansen received the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Roy Knocke sheds light on Nansen merits during the interwar period and its impact on the history of humanitarianism.