Politics and Demography

A decades-old controversy over population statistics has occupied an important place in the efforts of the Turkish government and others to deny that the Ottoman Armenians suffered a genocide. Officials, propagandists and historians have tried to minimize the numbers of Armenians killed by minimizing the total number of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Marashlian's work is the most comprehensive and systematic discussion to date on the population problem. He examines critically the arguments and numbers offered by such protagonists of low numbers as Justin McCarthy and Kemal Karpat and views the issue in the context of current political considerations and general Turkish historiography. Maps and tables included.

"Marashlian asserts that a variety of factors support the contention that there were at least 2 million Ottoman Armenians on the eve of WWI... It is an essential guide to the sources and the methodologic and political dimensions of the statistical controversy which has become an important part of the broader and still-unresolved Armenian Question."
-Richard H. Dekmejian

Co-published with Aristide D. Caratzas, publisher.