Հայոց ցեղասպանության տարիներին հայ կանանց ֆիզիկական դիմադրության տեսական և պատմագիտական հիմնադրույթները

The contemporary reconceptualization of the notion of “resistance” in genocide studies makes it possible to move beyond one-sided approaches centered on victimization and to reconsider the actions of victims in the context of the Armenian Genocide. Drawing on contemporary theories in genocide studies and sociology, this article approaches resistance not only as armed struggle, but also as a “survival strategy” aimed, under extreme circumstances, at preserving subjectivity and human dignity, as well as an expression of agency. From this perspective, the study of women’s resistance is of particular significance, since under conditions of genocidal violence, women’s bodies and gender identities often became direct targets of violence and control. Under such systematic violence against the female body, the protection of bodily integrity becomes a primary form of resistance. Within the framework of this study, the physical resistance of Armenian women during the Armenian Genocide is classified and analyzed along two main dimensions: organized armed and unarmed situational resistance. The former includes participation in communal self-defense battles, the formation of tactical groups, and the situational use of weapons, through which women acted as active defenders. The latter is characterized by the absence of weapons but encompasses immediate physical responses, the use of available household means and objects against perpetrators, as well as suicide as a conscious extreme act aimed at avoiding humiliation and dishonor. Thus, every purposeful action undertaken by Armenian women during the years of the genocide demonstrates that they were not passive victims but active defenders of their own lives and identities.