This book is an historical example of the manipulation of truth and morality by leaders to acquire power, radicalize their party and nation, and perpetrate crimes against humanity. Authoritarianism, dark personalities, and the use of psychological mechanisms by Turkish leaders converged to drive group divisions, violent discrimination and genocide.
During the genocidal period of 1915 to 1923, the Turks exterminated through a variety of means well over three million Christians including approximately one and a half million Armenians. The radical decisions and orchestrated actions of their leaders reveal numerous psychological components, as this study demonstrates.
Overview
The approach of late Ottoman Turkish leaders to radicalize their followers and support a genocidal agenda is revealed through an analysis that goes beyond merely identifying historical events, policies, and extremist ideologies linked to genocide risk factors. This book examines archival communications from these leaders in the period leading up to the 1915 Armenian genocide - including the actual minutes from decision-making meetings on genocide, internal documents, letters, speeches, and assorted communications.
By applying contemporary psychological frameworks to these archival materials, the author demystifies how the leaders’ narratives shaped the beliefs and attitudes of Turkish citizens, thereby enhancing the recruitment and radicalization of party members and the broader public in support of aggressive discrimination against Christians. Drawing on current psychological research and historical documents, a detailed study of the Turkish leaders identifies their exclusionary ideologies, dark personality traits, and propensity for mechanisms of moral disengagement. A common core of callous social manipulation is associated with these dimensions, providing the foundation for weaponizing propaganda and garnering widespread Turkish support for the extermination of Armenians.
In the final chapter, a theory is developed that focuses on the interdependency of Turks ideologies, dark personality traits, and propensity for mechanisms of moral disengagement in justifying and orchestrating the genocide. A case is made that the Turkish leaders’ socially antagonistic ideologies, personality traits, and social-cognitive manipulations created multiple pathways through which their propaganda incited aggressive discrimination, violence, and mass murder.
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