Australia and the Politics of the Armenian Genocide

Armenia, Australia & the Great War, edited by Vicken Babkenian and Peter Stanley, Sydney, NewSouth Publishing, 2016, 336 pp., AUD$34.99 (paperback), ISBN: 9781742233994, Publisher’s website: www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/armenia-australia-great-war/ The Great War was momentous for so many people and there is no doubt that this was the case for both the Armenian and Australian peoples. On the eve of the Great War the Armenians were a historic community mostly living in Asia Minor and Transcaucasia who were trying to secure their existence in the face of the violent disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Australia had officially been a nation for barely a generation and was still coming to terms with its role in the world. For the Armenians and the Australians, the Great War proved catastrophic in terms of casualties; the difference being the Genocide which took well over one million non-combatant Armenian lives. Yet for both the war proved instrumental for the character of their subsequent respective nation-states.