Bloomsbury Publishing has presented a groundbreaking study of the concentration camps of the Armenian Genocide.

ArmInfo.  Bloomsbury has published the collection The Concentration Camps of the Armenian Genocide, edited by Professor Bedross Der Matossian and genocide studies specialist and former head of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Edita Gzoyan.

As Gzoyan reported on her Facebook page, the publication is 500 pages long.  "The book was published as part of the book series Armenians in the Modern and Early Modern World, edited by Professor Bedross Der Matossian of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Despite the significant progress made in research on the Armenian Genocide in recent decades, the system of concentration camps established by the Ottoman authorities, particularly in the territory of present-day Syria, remains insufficiently studied to this day," the specialist noted.

According to her, this is the first collection to offer a comprehensive and in-depth study of these camps. Gzoyan noted that the collection examines the formation and development of the camp system and documents the crimes committed in Deir ez-Zor, Ras al-Ayn, Meskene (the main centers of the concentration camps—ed.) and other locations.

As Gzoyan explained, the collection includes twenty-one chapters written by historians and social scientists from Armenia, France, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Lebanon and Australia. According to her, special attention is devoted to the testimonies of genocide survivors—their memoirs and diaries document the experiences they endured during deportation and in the camps.

"The history of this volume began in 2023, when Bedross Der Matossian and I discussed the prospects for developing the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute as a research institution. We decided to engage in international publishing as well and began with the topic of a conference held several months earlier. Our goal was to hold an annual conference devoted to an important but relatively understudied topic and then publish a corresponding volume based on the conference materials. I was especially pleased that this volume was to include the research of many of my colleagues: at last, our voice was to be heard," Gzoyan wrote.

The project was implemented with the support of the Friedman Foundation, the Hyman Rosenberg Professorship Program and the Department of History at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.