Year of the Sword: The Assyrian Christian Genocide, a History

The 1915 genocide of the Assyrians has often been overshadowed by that of the Armenians, but Yacoub, an emeritus professor of political science at Catholic University of Lyon, France, brings it back into the light and exposes Turkey’s multipronged effort to erase millennia of Christian history from its territory. Yacoub, whose ancestors faced death and banishment at the hands of the Turks, connects the genocide with the 21st-century horror of ISIS and a period of renewed uncertainty and danger for Christians across the Middle East. In a scholarly, erudite work that draws liberally from primary sources in a plethora of languages, Yacoub demonstrates that “sufficient evidence has been presented to conclude that the events of 1915 constitute a genocide.” His argument is correct, though it is not the facts that are in dispute so much as a public apathy that has allowed the Assyrians to slip into the mist of history. Of the current moment, Yacoub notes “that a people as suffering and oppressed as the Assyrians should be fully integrated into the conscience of humanity and justice finally handed to them.” Yacoub succinctly and irrefutably makes his case, but the success of his mission is far from assured. (Nov.) This review has been corrected to reflect the updated price and publication date for the book.