Forced into Genocide: Memoirs of an Armenian Soldier in the Ottoman Turkish Army

This memoir recalls Yervant Alexanian’s death-defying experiences in the center of the Armenian Genocide. Like other Armenians of his generation, he was an eyewitness to the massacre and dislocation of his family and fellow countrymen in Ottoman Turkey during World War I. Alexanian was conscripted into the Turkish army—but unlike others so conscripted, he survived.

Alexanian was forced to become an onlooker while he watched the atrocities unfold. His story of resourceful action and fateful t...