AustLit

'Gallipoli and the Armenian genocide began at the same time in the same country and continued for approximately the same period of time. Their respective historiographies have generally treated them as occurring in completely separate universes. However, some international scholars have recently suggested a substantive historical relationship between them. Yet only one Australian (popular) historian, Alan Moorehead in his Gallipoli written more than 60 years ago, has ever done so. This article retrieves his analysis of this link, contending that Moorehead reworked material from two American diplomats working in Constantinople in 1915. This tripartite thesis is examined for its feasibility, especially its focus on the failed Allied naval attack of 18 March as precipitating the Armenian massacres. It is then briefly contrasted with contemporary scholarship that has also acknowledged Gallipoli, albeit in different ways, as a factor in the Armenian catastrophe. Using both the early and later suggestions of this linkage as a starting point, I offer an outline of a possible interpretation of the Gallipoli–Armenian genocide nexus. This article is intended as an introductory approach to this question.' (Publication abstract)