Prominent Armenian Genocide scholar Vahakn Dadrian dies aged 93

Prominent Armenian Genocide scholar Vahakn Dadrian dies aged 93

PanARMENIAN.Net - Renowned American Armenian scientist, lawyer and historian, Doctor, Professor Vahakn Dadrian passed away on August 2 at age 93, MassisPost reports.

Dadrian had a degree in Mathematics, History and Law. His interdisciplinary background gave him a multifaceted look at historical and social problems, especially genocide. Dadrian was not only an authority on Armenian genocide, but also on genocide studies and theory in general, being part of the so-called “first generation” of genocide scholars, who created this area of study in the 1970s.

Given his command of several languages, Dadrian was able to do research in various archives around the world, revealing previously unknown documents about the Armenian genocide and creating sociological typologies about the event that have become a reference for all scholars of the subject. One of his last works was the book Judgments in Istanbul, co-authored with Prof. Taner Acam.

On August 4, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian sent a message to his family to express condolences over the death of the prominent scholar.

"I knew Doctor Dadrian not only as a brilliant scholar but also as an excellent expert of international relations and a person communication with whom was instructive and gratifying. These recollections and memories of him will always stay bright with those who knew him and appreciated his accomplishments," the President said.

Dadrian was born in 1926 in Istanbul, Turkey to a family that lost many members during the Armenian Genocide. Dadrian first studied mathematics at the University of Berlin, after which he decided to switch to a completely different field, and studied philosophy at the University of Vienna, and later, international law at the University of Zürich. He completed his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Chicago.

In the 1970s, Dadrian participated in the creation of the comparative study of genocide.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree for his research in the field of Armenian Genocide Studies by the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, and later, in 1998, he was made a member of the Academy and honored by the President of Armenia, the republic’s highest cultural award, the Khorenatzi medal. In 1999, Dadrian was awarded on behalf of the Holy See of Cilicia the Mesrob Mashdots Medal. The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation sponsored him as director of a large Genocide study project, which culminated with the publication of articles, mainly in the Holocaust and Genocide studies magazines. He was the keynote speaker at the centennial of the John Marshall Law School and delivered a lecture to the British House of Commons in 1995. He also received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He has lectured extensively in French, English and German in the Free University of Berlin, the Universities of Munich, Parma, Torino, Zürich, Uppsala, Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, Bochum, Münster, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Geneva, Brussels and UNESCO’s Paris center.

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