In the early part of the twentieth century, as Europe began its descent into the First World War, the Ottoman world - once the largest Empire in the Middle East - began to experience a revolution which would culminate in the new, secular Turkish state. Alongside this, in 1915, as part of an increasing nationalism, it enacted a genocide against its Armenian citizens. In this new study, Hans-Lukas Kieser marshals a dazzling array of scholars to re-evaluate the approach and legacy of the Young Turks - whose eradication of the Armenians from Asia Minor would have far-reaching consequences. Kieser argues that genocide led to today's crisis-ridden Middle East and set in place a rigid state system whose effects are still felt in Turkey today.Featuring new and groundbreaking work on the role of bureaucracy, the actors outside of Istanbul and re-centreing Armenian agency in the genocide, The End of the Ottomans is a vital new study of the Ottoman world, the Armenian Genocide and of the Middle East.

1. Introduction (Margaret Lavinia Anderson and Hans-Lukas Kieser)Part I - Biography and Genocide. A perpetuation of Young Turk pattern and practices2. Mehmed Talaat: Demolitionist founder of post-Ottoman Turkey (Hans-Lukas Kieser)3. A Perpetrator, a Savior and an Enigma: Cemal Pasha, Arabs and Armenians (Ümit Kurt)4. Honour and Shame: The Diaries of a Unionist and the "Armenian Question" (Ozan Ozavci)5. Tahsin Uzer: Talaat's Man in the East (Hilmar Kaiser)6. Pro-active local perpetrators: Ahmed Faik Erner and Mehmet Yasin Sani Kutlug (Ümit Kurt)7. A Man for all Regions: Aintabli Abdulkadir and the Special Organization (Hilmar Kaiser)8. Zohrab and Vartkes: Reform-minded Ottoman Deputies. Intimates and Victims of the CUP (Raymond Kévorkian)9. Aram Manoukian, Armenian leader in Van (Khatchig Mouradian)Part II - Exploring genocide on the spot10. The War before War at the Caucasus Front: A matrix for genocide (Candan Badem)11. The state, local actors and mass violence in the Bitlis province (Mehmet Polatel)12. From Aintab to Gaziantep: The Reconstitution of an Elite on the Ottoman Periphery (Ümit Kurt)13. Scenes from Angora, 1915: The Commander, the Bureaucrats, and Muslim Notables during the Armenian Genocide (Hilmar Kaiser)14. The Very Limit of our Endurance': Unarmed Resistance in Ottoman Syria during: Armenian Agency in Syria in World War I (Khatchig Mouradian)15. Afterword: Violence, ethics, historiography (Hamit Bozarslan)ChronologyIndex