The changing face of mass murder: massacre, genocide, and postgenocide

This contribution argues the case for the efficacy of labelling distinct episodes of extreme violence. While accepting common ingredients in what are here denoted as examples of ‘massacre’, ‘genocide’, and ‘post‐genocide the clue to their ’ separateness lies not in the form but in the historical framework within which each occurs. Only by examining patterns of historical process, in this case in the late‐Ottoman empire, are we likely to be able to build a broader analysis of the nature and causation of chronic and systemic violence in the modern world.