In the conditions of genocide, the confrontation between victim and perpetrator transcends the boundaries of mere physical annihilation, assuming the form of an irreconcilable ontological struggle. This article offers a comparative analysis of the opposing positions articulated in the periodicals Mshak and Tachar during the years 1915–1918. Within these publications, two fundamentally divergent approaches emerge: while the Armenian press of Tiflis foregrounded the political responsibility of the perpetrator, a dangerous tendency toward self-blame came to dominate the Armenian discourse in Constantinople. Drawing on the conceptual frameworks of Karl Jaspers and Paul Ricoeur, the article argues that the artificial internalization of “guilt” by the victim is, on the one hand, a consequence of totalizing oppression, and on the other, a manifestation of the fragmentation, or even dissolution, of subjectivity. This process, traces of which can still be observed today, may be understood as a continuous extension of genocide itself. Its function is to strip the victim of the moral legitimacy of self-defense and to retrospectively legitimize the actions of the perpetrator.
