The Armenian Genocide w/ Ron Suny

The Road to Now

Benjamin Sawyer

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ron Suny joins Ben for a conversation about the Armenian Genocide. Ron, one of the world's foremost experts on the history of the Armenian genocide, explains why the Ottoman government tunred on its Armenian subjects during World War I and the methods it used to carry out this atrocity. He also explains why, in spite of the evidence, recognizing this as genocide remains a political hotspot both internationally and within modern Turkey, and why it is important to remember tragedies even when doing so makes us uncomfortable.

Dr. Ronald Grigor Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago. He is the author of numerous books, including "They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else:" A History of the Armenian Genocide (Princeton University Press, 2015).

This is a rebroadcast of RTN #92, which originally aired on April 23, 2018. In 2019, the both houses of US Congress recognized the Armenian Genocide.

This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the Road to Now.
0:07.0	This Sunday, April 24th is Remembrance Day for the Armenian Genocide, a horrific event that occurred during World War I.
0:16.0	And I thought this would be a good time to cover the topic on the show. Fortunately for us,
0:22.9	we did a great episode on this topic. And I can't even believe this four years ago. I was in my 30s then.
0:29.3	But I had the honor of speaking with Ron Sunni. Ron is professor of history at the University of Michigan.
0:36.9	One of the icons in the field of not only
0:39.8	Soviet and Russian history, but also the history of nationalities. Someone who understands the
0:45.5	notions of ethnicity and nationalism, he himself studied in the Soviet Union, has connections
0:52.2	with the modern nation of Armenia, which was one of the former
0:55.7	Soviet republics. And this conversation was brilliant. Ron is just a, he's a sage. And our conversation
1:04.2	covered so many more topics than just the Armenian genocide. We spoke about the way people
1:09.6	imagine history, the way that
1:11.6	who we are is tied up in it and how that can prevent us from actually understanding our past
1:17.7	better. I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed listening back to this episode. I'm also going to say
1:23.7	there's a little discussion about Russia in the modern times and Putin at the end.
1:29.9	I think it'll be an interesting reflection for anybody who is now watching what's happening
1:34.9	in Ukraine, the horrors and the brutality being unleashed by Russia, Putin's madman's war.
1:41.0	But yeah, so it's really nice to be able to share this episode. Again, Ron was always
1:46.2	so kind to me when I was a graduate student in Michigan State. I would go visit University of
1:51.0	Michigan and went to workshops there. Just really a guy who welcomed me in. And I think anybody
1:55.8	who has ever met this guy will tell you he is a kind, kind person. Speaking of kind people, want to say a shout out to our patrons. You guys keep us going. Guys, if you're listening to this show and you enjoy it and you know, you got a couple extra bucks a month, hey, there you go. You can still, yeah, let's be fair. You can still get this podcast even if you don't pay for it. But if you
2:19.2	did, that'd be helpful to all of us because this thing costs money. Fortunately, a lot of people
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