George Shirinian

George Shirinian was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, the son of two orphan survivors of the Armenian Genocide. His parents, Mampre and Mary Shirinian, were members of the group known as the Georgetown Boys.

 

In 1975, he went to work for the City of York Public Library, holding many positions over the years, departing in 1998 as the Acting Chief Executive Officer.

 

In 1986, he became a supporter and volunteer of the Zoryan Institute of Canada. From 1990 to 1994, he was chairman of its Academic Board of Directors. After a hiatus, he returned to the Institute to become its Executive Director in 1999. He is currently the Executive Director of the Zoryan Institute and the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (A Division of the Zoryan Institute), which are devoted to documentation, research, publication and education in the fields of Genocide Studies, Diaspora Studies and Armenia Studies. In this capacity, he is an official of the IIGHRS’s journal Genocide Studies International and one of the organizers of the annual Genocide and Human Rights University Program, run in partnership with the University of Toronto.

 

Publications

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Shirinian, George. “Problems of Bibliographic Control in Armenian Studies: Computers and Armenian Bibliography.” Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 6 (1992-1993): 83-98.

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Chorbajian, Levon and George Shirinian, editors. Studies in Comparative Genocide. London & New York: Macmillan & St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

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Shirinian, George N. “The Armenian Massacres of 1894-1897: A Bibliography.” Armenian Review 47, no. 1-2 (2001): 113-64. (An updated version is available at http://www.zoryaninstitute.org/bibliographies/The%20Armenian%20Massacres.pdf)

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Shirinian, George N., editor. The Asia Minor Catastrophe and the Ottoman Greek Genocide: Essays on Asia Minor, Pontos and Eastern Thrace, 1913-1923. Bloomingdale, IL: The Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center, 2012.

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Shirinian, George. “Mampre Shirinian, Ottoman Empire (Turkey).” In Flight and Freedom: Stories of Escape to Canada, edited by Ratna Omidvar and Dana Wagner, 13-20. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2015. (Interview)

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Shirinian, George N. “Ermenileri Kurturan Müsülmanlar: Soykırım Günlerinde Insanlık Arayışı [Muslim Rescuers of Armenians: A Search for Humanity During Genocide].” In Ermeni Soykirimi’nda Vicdan Ve Sorumluluk: Kurtulanlara Dair Yeni Arastimalar [Conscience and Responsibility for the Armenian Genocide: The Survivors Regarding New Research], 25-52. Istanbul: Hrant Dink Vakfı, 2015.

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Shirinian, George N. “Turks Who Saved Armenians: Righteous Muslims during the Armenian Genocide.” Genocide Studies International 9, no. 2 (2015): 208-27.

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Contributor to The Armenian Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide, edited by Alan Whitehorn. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2015.

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Shirinian, George N., editor. Genocide in the Ottoman Empire: Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks 1913-1923. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2017.

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Shirinian, George N. "Starvation and Its Political Use in the Armenian Genocide." Genocide Studies International 11, no. 1 (2017): 8-37

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