The Armenian Genocide in the Italian Protestant Press (1915-1918): The Distinctive Viewpoint of a Minority
This article analyzes the reception of the Armenian Genocide in the contemporary Italian Protestant sources (1915-1918), mainly Methodist, Baptist, Waldensian, and non-denominational journals and magazines. It is a case study that shows how a religious minority perceived (and reflected upon) what ha...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Print Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
Published: |
[2017]
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In: |
Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
Year: 2017, Volume: 83, Issue: 2, Pages: 436-458 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Southern Italy (motif)
/ Protestantism
/ Religious press
/ Armenians
/ Genocide
/ History 1915-1923
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IxTheo Classification: | CG Christianity and Politics KBJ Italy KDD Protestant Church |
Further subjects: | B
Minorities
B minoranze B Genocidio armeno B Italian Protestantism B Italian press B auto-rappresentazione B stampa periodica italiana B Self-representation B Armenian Genocide B protestantismo italiano |
Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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Summary: | This article analyzes the reception of the Armenian Genocide in the contemporary Italian Protestant sources (1915-1918), mainly Methodist, Baptist, Waldensian, and non-denominational journals and magazines. It is a case study that shows how a religious minority perceived (and reflected upon) what happened to another minority. This research reveals that Italian Protestants had a "distictive viewpoint" on the Armenian Genocide, if compared with other contemporary Italian press (Catholic magazines and national newspapers). That perspective was connected to the self-representation of the Evangelical minority in Italy. For example, the Methodist (anti-Vatican) perspective, emphasizing an argument shared with part of the national press: that of the "pope's silence" on the war crimes of the Central Powers. The Armenian Genocide, hence, became one of the instances where the Italian Protestants could highlight their own stance, in its connection with the Entente's one and in its difference from the Vatican's one (according to the way they interpreted it). The distinctive feature of the Waldensians was that of deep empathy, and almost of their identification with the Armenians (this explicit in a source of 1896, at the time of the Hamidian massacres), in the light of the common experience of having suffered a systematic extermination plan (for the Waldensians, especially in the 16th-17th centuries). |
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ISSN: | 0081-6175 |
Contains: | In: Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
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