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Haig Tahta,
April 1915,
(London and Reading: Taderon Press) 2006,
440 pp., ISBN 1903656540, maps, paperback GB£15.00 / US$24.00. .
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April 1915 is probably one of the most ambitious
literary accounts of the destruction of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey
in 1915. It is historically perceptive and intellectually
challenging. The background to the book is formed by the Allied
Gallipoli campaign, the Ottoman army’s siege of Van, and Turkish
nationalist chauvinism. Tahta examines the period through the
personal lives of four families in Constantinople and the provinces
as the ravages of war and ideology destroy Armenians and the Ottoman
Empire. Written in 57 chapters, the narrative flows seamlessly. The
initial chapters are gentle and endearing, but the work becomes
highly disturbing, as persecution and massacre take hold. The
critical date, around which the book revolves, is 24 April 1915.
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