I found this book Illuminating and if the narrative swirls this is a good reflection of the confused histories, identities and affiliations of the region. De Bellaigue is criticized when an article he we writes for the New York Review of Books appears skewed to the Turkish state in the matter of the1915 Armenian "genocide". To redress the balance he spends 3 years in the region of Varto, trying to understand the people and politics of Eastern Anatolia better.

And so we learn of the 1915 deportations, story so confused that de Bellaigue still cannot come to a firm conclusion as to whether the massive killings were premeditated, spontaneous opportunism, the settling of grudges or some combination of all 3, at least in the Varto area. We learn of the confused identities of Kurds and Alevis, the history of the PKK in the area and of many local squabbles, deceptions and feuds. It's fascinating stuff, and if one message comes out its that everyone has their own version of truth and that the empirical truth is very hard to pin down

But the book could do with an index and a chronology as the links between some of the characters are hard to remember. But it's a fascinating read ( )

Intent is good - elucidate important and difficult historical, political, ethnic issues of the region by focusing on small town of Varto. There are many versions of each story, depending on who tells it. But the author's narrative becomes lost as he winds and twists through the plethora of people and place names, events, etc. Lack of any index does not help. It became a chore to get through this book even though it is only a moderate 264 pages. The author wrote this as a corrective response to his own earlier essay in N.Y. Review of Books, which the author admits rested on Turkish or pro-Turkish sources. Whether this now is an over-correction is difficult to say, but possible. The entire subject of Turkish-Armenian-Kurdish relations is complex, bloody, sad. Need to look elsewhere to continue to try to understand all of the complexities. ( )