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.
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HISTORY AS A SCIENCEQuestions of the Theory and Methodology of History
Scholars who once questioned the science of history relied on the fact that, unlike the natural sciences, the laws and even the basic regularities characteristic of the natural sciences are not applicable to the realm of history, which is created by human will and reason. Here, beyond very general laws, only the force of custom is at work. However, if this particularity of history makes it difficult to deduce laws from it, this does not mean that history is not a science. Moreover, when in the 19th century positivist philosophy (O. Conte, H. Spencer and others) attempted to interpret history from the point of view of the laws of natural science, such obvious vulgarization was soon subjected to harsh criticism by the Baden Neo Kantian schools, and in the 20th century – by the Annales school.
From all this, it became clear that, like nature, history is also a reality, but in our thinking. Consequently, while nature and the natural sciences are governed by immutable laws, history is primarily governed by human reason and will, something that nature lacks.
The whole problem is that the subjective factor has moved from the realm of history to historiography.
Currently, against the backdrop of chaotic events unfolding around the world, there is a growing desire among representatives of countries and peoples pursuing aggressive goals to transform historical science from an instrument of falsification into a weapon of political propaganda. Lacking a scientifically proven historical past, our neighbors are already resorting to the tactic of hiring scientists and entire research institutes and turning their grandiose fabrications into the subject of large scale electronic propaganda. Therefore, in this publication, while comprehensively criticizing the propaganda practices of Azerbaijani “historians,” we consider this as a new challenge to historical science.