WASHINGTON, DC — The American Hellenic Institute Foundation (AHIF), the Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at Queens College, CUNY, and the Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center (AMPHRC) have announced the release of a special thematic digital issue of the Journal of Modern Hellenism devoted to the genocide of the Christian populations of the Ottoman Empire.

Published as Journal of Modern Hellenism 37 (Winter 2025–26), the issue is available free of charge through the AHIF publications website and represents a major scholarly contribution to the comparative study of genocide affecting Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians in the early twentieth century.

The volume continues the long-standing collaboration between AHIF and the Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at Queens College in the co-publication of the journal. It also reflects the academic mission of the Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center, which has played a central role in advancing rigorous, comparative research on the genocide of Ottoman Christian populations and promoting public education on the subject.

Dedicated to George Mavropoulos

This special issue is dedicated to the memory of George Mavropoulos (1938–2024), founder of the Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center. Mavropoulos devoted decades to fostering balanced, inclusive, and serious scholarship on the genocide of Ottoman Christians. As noted by Dr. Constantine G. Hatzidimitriou, Managing Editor of the Journal of Modern Hellenism, Mavropoulos’s life’s work was marked by a “tireless and unselfish devotion to truth, justice, and to remembering those lost during that dark period.”

A comparative scholarly approach

Guest-edited by historian and genocide scholar George N. Shirinian, JMH 37 examines a shared historical trajectory “from second-class citizenship to violent persecution and genocide, to forcible expulsion and dispersion.” Beyond documenting historical events, the issue explores the enduring post-genocidal legacy, including intergenerational psychological trauma and the role of genocide memory in shaping modern national identities.

In the Preface, Dr. Hatzidimitriou emphasizes that the subject matter “resonates not only with Greeks but with other ethnicities that shared a common catastrophic and tragic experience,” noting that similar patterns of victimization remain relevant in the contemporary world.

In his Introduction, Shirinian underscores that the genocidal and post-genocidal experience has become “as much a marker of national identity as language, religion, and cultural tradition,” reinforcing the importance of studying the Greek experience alongside those of Armenians and Assyrians—a comparative framework long championed by Mavropoulos.

Contents of the issue

Journal of Modern Hellenism 37 (Winter 2025–26) includes fourteen peer-reviewed scholarly articles, three archival and primary-source studies, and three book reviews, organized into thematic sections:

• Part I: Genocide features nine articles examining the genocides of Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians during the Ottoman and early Kemalist periods. Topics include state ideology and racism, deportations and massacres, American eyewitness testimony, U.S. institutional involvement, interethnic dynamics of genocide, and mechanisms of memory transmission.
• Part II: Aftermath, Representation, and Denial presents four articles analyzing political, cultural, and legal consequences, including postwar territorial claims, religion and culture in Trebizond, memoir and memory, and national-security rationales for mass violence.
• Archives and Sources includes three contributions drawing on previously unpublished or underutilized materials, such as archaeological and anthropological research, diplomatic and personal correspondence, and documentary evidence related to Asia Minor, Chios, Northern Epirus, and Smyrna.
• Book Reviews assess three recent publications addressing the Greek Genocide, Smyrna during World War I, and the Greek War of Independence.

Expanding access to genocide scholarship

With its digital release, JMH 37 significantly broadens public and scholarly access to current research on genocide, memory, and justice, while honoring the legacy of George Mavropoulos—a legacy that helped shape modern Hellenic studies and the historiography of Asia Minor.