Edward J. Erickson

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.^[1] 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.^[2][3]

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

Erickson claims in his various publications that the Armenian Genocide was a result of a military decision process.^[4][5] 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.^[6] Erickson responded two years later due to being in Iraq, in which he labeled Dadrian's allegations as "deliberate obfuscations, misquotes, and slanderous comments."^[7] The problem remains that Erickson's emphasis on Turkish Army records obscures the fact that the decision-making concerning the Genocide was done within the ruling Committee of Union and Progress and not within the government or army, and was implemented using CUP channels and through the Special Organization (Teşkilât-i Mahsusa ). This is the consensus among genocide scholars that Erickson is disputing.

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.^[8]

Writings

• The Euphrates Triangle: Security Implications of the Southeast Anatolia Project, co-author with F.M. Lorenz, Natl Defense Univ Pr, (1999), ISBN 1-57906-021-8
• Ordered to Die: A History of the Ottoman Army in the First World War, Greenwood Press (2000), ISBN 0-313-31516-7
• Defeat in Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912–1913, Praeger Publishers (2003), ISBN 0-275-97888-5
• "Turkey as regional hegemon—2014: strategic implications for the United States," Turkish Studies, V-3, 2004, pp. 25-45.
• Ottoman Army Effectiveness in World War I: A Comparative Study, Routledge (2007), ISBN 978-0-415-77099-6
• Gallipoli & The Middle East 1914–1918, London, Amber Books (2008), ISBN 978-1-906626-15-0
• A Military History of the Ottomans, From Osman to Atatürk, co-author with Mesut Uyar, Westport, Connecticut, Praeger Publishers (2009), ISBN 978-0-275-98876-0
• By the Light of a Candle. The Diaries of a Reserve Officer in the Ottoman Army - First World War Diaries and Other Records of the Period of 1915-1919, Istanbul-Piscataway (New Jersey): The Isis Press/Gorgias Press, 2009 (introduction and comments).
• Gallipoli, The Ottoman Campaign, Barnsley, UK, Pen and Sword Books (2010), ISBN 978-1-84415-967-3
• "Template for Destruction: The Congress of Berlin and the Evolution of Ottoman Counterinsurgency Practices," in Hakan Yavuz et Peter Slugett (ed.), War and Diplomacy. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and the Treaty of Berlin, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2011.
• "In the Nick of Time: Transformation in the Ottoman Army, 1911," in Peter Dennis and Jeffrey Grey (ed.), 1911 Preliminary Moves. The 2011 Chief of Army History Conference, Canberra: Big Sky Publishing, 2011.
• Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Oxford-New York, Osprey Publishing, 2013.
• Ottomans and Armenians. A Study in Counter-Insurgency, New York, Palgrave MacMillan, 2013.

Military awards

• Bronze Star Medal (1st Oak Leaf) – Fourth Infantry Division, Tikrit, Iraq, 2003
• Bronze Star Medal – Third Armored Division, Safwan, Iraq, 1991
• Legion of Merit – NATO Hqs, Naples, Italy, 1997
• Joint Service Commendation Medal – NATO Hqs, Sarajevo, Bosnia, 1996
• Defense Meritorious Service Medal – NATO Hqs, Izmir, Turkey, 1994
• Meritorious Service Medal – Germany, Turkey, USA
• Army Commendation Medal – Germany, USA

References