They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else

A History of the Armenian Genocide

By: Ronald Grigor Suny

Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin

Starting in early 1915, the Ottoman Turks began deporting and killing hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the first major genocide of the 20th century. By the end of the First World War, the number of Armenians in what would become Turkey had been reduced by 90 percent - more than 1,000,000 people. A century later, the Armenian genocide remains controversial but relatively unknown, overshadowed by later slaughters and the chasm separating Turkish and Armenian versions of events. In this definitive narrative history, Ronald Suny cuts through nationalist myths, propaganda, and denial to provide an unmatched account of when, how, and why the atrocities of 1915-1916 were committed.

As it lost territory during the war, the Ottoman Empire was becoming a more homogenous Turkic-Muslim state, but it still contained large non-Muslim communities, including the Christian Armenians. The Young Turk leaders of the empire believed that the Armenians were internal enemies secretly allied to Russia and plotting to win an independent state. Suny shows that the great majority of Armenians were in truth loyal subjects who wanted to remain in the empire. But the Young Turks, steeped in imperial anxiety and anti-Armenian bias, became convinced that the survival of the state depended on the elimination of the Armenians. Suny is the first to explore the psychological factors as well as the international and domestic events that helped lead to genocide.

Drawing on archival documents and eyewitness accounts, this is an unforgettable chronicle of a cataclysm that set a tragic pattern for a century of genocide and crimes against humanity.

©2015 Princeton University Press (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

No words

What can one say about something so horrific? And what can be added to an account that is so honest and truthful, that it leaves it all on the table? There is no bias here, just truth in all its horror. Eric Martin’s even but exceptionally powerful narration provides just the right earnest tone.

Astounding Historical Sensitivity

If you are expecting a long and dry telling of horrors, this is not that. The dedication for capturing a mental portrait of a highly complex society is what really makes this an amazing read.

This book deals as much with the colonial misperceptions of Ottoman life as it does with Turkish and Kurdish sensibilities, and a very diverse mosaic of Armenian communities, ambitions, and thinking. You’ll see through the eyes of outsiders who witnessed the Genocide, and hear from the perpetrators themselves.

The Armenian Genocide is a close cousin to the Jewish Holocaust, but also as utterly unique and different as the world where it happened. This book reconjures that world. Amazing work.

Excellent historical analysis

The historical detail is amazing. It covers approximately 100 years of Armenian/Turkish interactions. There were spots where the names and translations of Turkish and Armenian phases gets deep, but the historical detail is important in understanding these dark events.

Suny's Writing....

While the subject matter of this book is truly harrowing to read, it is also an extremely important study of the Armenian genocide. Dr. Sunny is a thorough researcher and a thoroughly excellent writer I highly recommend this book and anything else Suny has ever written.

Great , Even-handed History

Suny is able to create in the reader 's mind a well rounded picture of the pre-WWI complex situation in the Ottoman Empire. He then shows how pre-existing affective dispositions amongst the elite were transformed by the fear and opportunity that the war created, leading eventually to genocide.