The latest issue of the Journal of Genocide Research, which is affiliated with the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and which just came off the press in London, has a detailed and multi-faceted study by Prof. Vahakn Dadrian of the Zoryan Institute on children as victims of the Armenian Genocide.

"We are very pleased to see that Prof. Dadrian's scholarly output is continuing unabated," remarked George Shirinian, Director of the Zoryan Institute. "We are especially gratified that Armenian Genocide studies are at a stage where we no longer have to defensively attempt to prove that genocide took place, but are now able to explore important themes of how and why the Armenian Genocide took place," he continued.

Prior to submitting this study for publication, Dr. Dadrian presented it at a number of academic conferences, where scholars have the opportunity to share and discuss their research. It was first used by the organizers of the annual Holocaust commemorative ceremonies in London in 2001; subsequently it was posted on the website of the British Ministry of Education. Earlier this year, it was read at the conference titled, "Dialogue Between Turkish and Armenian Historians" at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis (also known as the "Third Turkish-Armenian Workshop"). Most recently, the paper was presented at the Fifth Biennial Conference of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that was held at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, in June.

Several holocaust and genocide scholars have commented on the significance of this specialized and pioneering study by Prof. Dadrian, which can serve as a model for research in other cases of genocide. While collecting his research material, Prof. Dadrian himself admitted, "I was astounded to discover that the fiendish killing operations of children were not limited to the three standard methods commonly utilized in the Armenian Genocide, namely, murder through mutilation, mass drowning in rivers and lakes, and burning alive huge masses of people in stables, haylofts, and other dwellings. In the case of infants and children, burying the victims alive in large ditches was also a method frequently used," he reported, "and there is one case involving the steaming to death of babies, which reminds one chillingly of the Nazi gas chambers.

This new publication is amply documented with forty-five endnotes and contains seven sections: The General Picture; The Variety of Methods Used in the Liquidation of Children; Trabzon, a Microcosm of Multi-level Child-killings; The Drowning Operations; Serial Rapes; Other Sites of Drownings and Serial Rapes; The Scope of Homosexual Rapes; The Holocaust of Armenian Children: Infernal Mass Deaths by Burning Alive; The Elements of License for Fiendishness against Armenian Children; Scant Exceptions: Benign Turks.

In preparing this study, Prof. Dadrian relied almost entirely on non-Armenian sources, mainly German, Austrian, Swiss, Swedish, and American eyewitnesses, to maximize objectivity and reliability. The study also contains some rare Turkish eyewitness accounts.

The full reference to the article is, Vahakn N. Dadrian, "Children as Victims of Genocide: The Armenian Case," Journal of Genocide Research 5, no. 3 (September 2003): 421-437.