Name Edward Erickson | Role Author | |
 | ||
Education University of Leeds, Colgate University Books Ordered to Die, Ottomans and Armenian, A Military History of the Ottom, Gallipoli: The Ottoman, Defeat in detail | ||
Edward j erickson lecture part 2 ottomans and armenians a study in counterinsurgency
Edward J. Erickson is a retired regular U.S. Army officer at the Marine Corps University who has written widely on the Ottoman Army during World War I. Additionally, Erickson is an associate of International Research Associates, Seattle, Washington and as of July 2016 was also listed as an advisory board member of the Ankara-based, Turkish government aligned think-tank, Avrasya Incelemeleri Merkezi (AVIM), which goes by the English name Center for Eurasian Studies.
Contents
- Edward j erickson lecture part 2 ottomans and armenians a study in counterinsurgency
- Ottoman history during world war i prof edward j erickson part 3 4
- Biography
- Views on the Armenian Genocide
- Writings
- Military awards
- References
Ottoman history during world war i prof edward j erickson part 3 4
Biography
He was born in Norwich, New York, USA. After military service as an infantry non-commissioned officer, he was commissioned in the Field Artillery in 1975. During his career, Erickson served with the 509th Airborne Infantry Battalion, the 8th Infantry Division (Mechanized), the 24th Infantry Division, the 528th Field Artillery Group, and the 42nd Field Artillery Brigade. During the Persian Gulf War, he served as the Operations Officer (S3) of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery in the 3rd Armored Division at the Battle of Wadi Al Batin. In the latter phase of his career, he served in NATO assignments in Izmir, Turkey and in Naples, Italy as a Foreign area officer specializing in Turkey and the Middle East. In 1995 he was assigned to the NATO Headquarters in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he served as a Military Assistant to Commander, Implementation Force (IFOR) (COMIFOR).
Erickson retired in October 1997 to teach world history at Norwich High School, but was recalled to active duty in March 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom and was assigned as the Political Advisor to Major General Ray Odierno, 4th Infantry Division. After six months in Tikrit, Iraq, Erickson returned to civilian life. During his military service Erickson won many awards, including the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. In 2005 he received his Ph.D in history at the University of Leeds in United Kingdom. From 2007 to 2008, Erickson was professor of political science in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, Baghdad, Iraq.
Erickson is a professor of military history and teaches in the War Studies Department at the Command and Staff College, Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia.
Views on the Armenian Genocide
Erickson claims in his various publications that the Armenian Genocide relocation of the eastern Ottoman Armenians was a result of a military decision process. On 21 September 2004, Vahakn Dadrian published an article criticizing Erickson's Ordered to Die. A History of the Ottoman Army in the First World War, characterizing it as "methodologically contaminated" due to the source material (Turkish military archives) and Erickson's relationship to that material. Erickson responded two years later due to being in Iraq, in which he labeled Dadrian's allegations as "deliberate obfuscations, misquotes, and slanderous comments."
Erickson's article on Ottoman military policy was also critiqued in an article published in 2014 in Genocide Studies International for an egregious error concerning the Armenian volunteer units that fought with the Russian Army. Erickson claimed that they were made up entirely of Ottoman Armenian citizens who had crossed the border into Russia, a claim that is "flatly contradicted by many sources showing that the four volunteer regiments formed were composed primarily of Russian Armenians." The claim is also contradicted by Erickson's earlier 2001 book.