Hilmar Kaiser is a German historian who has a PhD from European University Institute, Florence.

Hilmar Kaiser is widely regarded as one of the world's leading experts on late Ottoman history. He is particularly distinguished for his pioneering and meticulous research across more than 60 international archives, including being one of the first Western scholars to gain extensive access to the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul. Hilmar Kaiser is known for recognizing the Armenian genocide but rejecting the genocide label for Greeks and Assyrians, which he argues lacked the same top-down premeditation. He classifies the Greek experience primarily as ethnic cleansing through deportation and views the attacks on Assyrians as inconsistent, localized massacre carried out by autonomous actors rather than the central government. He rejects the Late Ottoman genocides Thesis (the idea of a unified genocide project against all Christians.) Kaiser focuses on distinct regional dynamics. This view is shared by Erik Sjöberg , Andrekos Varnava, and Mark Biondich, who attribute the atrocities to wartime radicalization rather than a monolithic conspiracy.

Works

  • Kaiser, Hilmar (1997). Imperialism, Racism, and Development Theories: The Construction of a Dominant Paradigm on Ottoman Armenians. Gomidas Institute. ISBN 978-1-884630-02-6.
  • Eskijian, Luther; Kaiser, Hilmar; Eskijian, Nancy (2001). At the Crossroads of Der Zor: Death, Survival, and Humanitarian Resistance in Aleppo, 1915-1917. Signalman Publishing. ISBN 978-1-940145-72-3.
  • Kaiser, Hilmar (2014). The Extermination of Armenians in the Diarbekir Region. İstanbul Bilgi University Press. ISBN 978-605-399-333-9.