Race Annihilation, War, and the Global Imperial Order

The centenary of the genocide of the Ottoman Armenians was commemorated in 2015 by the worldwide Armenian diaspora community, as well as within Armenia itself. This chapter critically examines the ways in which the memory of the genocide of the Armenians has been framed in terms of race, with Western observers from 1915 on applying racialized discourses to the Ottomans and the events of the Armenian genocide. The chapter considers the evolution of notions of “racial extermination” and racial incompatibility and incommensurability in the era of imperialism prior to and during the First World War, and draws attention to the nexus between imperial revisionism, global politics, and genocidal racial violence. Finally, the chapter considers the links between the Armenian genocide and the genocidal politics of the Nazi regime.