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MENENDEZ AND ROYCE LEAD CAPITOL HILL ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION

April 10, 2014, 10:39 am
Next Senate Foreign Relations Committee Adopts Armenian Genocide Resolution
Previous Washington DC ARS and ARF Host Town Hall Meeting on Syrian Armenians
with Guest Speaker Zepure Reisian
0
0

Congressional Remembrance Features Powerful Call for Recognition by Noted
Turkish Dissident Ragip Zarakolu

WASHINGTON, DC—The leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the
House Foreign Affairs Committee—the two Congressional panels that conduct
oversight of U.S. foreign policy—joined with more than two dozen of their
legislative colleagues on April 9 at a Capitol Hill remembrance of the Armenian
Genocide, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). The
annual observance featured, for the first time ever, a speech by a Turkish human
rights leader calling for American recognition of the Armenian Genocide and an
end to Turkey’s denial of truth and justice for this crime against humanity.

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A scene from the event (photo by Arsineh Valladian)

The Armenian Genocide remembrance, organized by the Congressional Caucus on
Armenian issues, in coordination with the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia,
the Office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Armenian American organizations,
was held before a standing-room-only crowd in the historic Gold Room of the
Rayburn House Office Building. Dr. Ara Chalian, a regional and national ANCA
leader, from Philadelphia, moderated the event, which, in addition to Chairman
Robert Menendez and Chairman Ed Royce, included remarks and participation by
Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Massachusetts Senator
Ed Markey, Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank

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Chairman Robert Menendez (Photo by Arsineh Valladian)

Pallone (D-NJ), as well as, Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Judy Chu
(D-CA), David Cicilline (D-RI), Katherine Clark (D-MA), John Conyers (D-MI), Jim
Costa (D-CA), Danny Davis (D-IL), Janice Hahn (D-CA), Jim Langevin (D-RI),
Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Adam Schiff
(D-CA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Jackie Speier (D-CA), John Tierney (D-MA), and Dina
Titus (D-NV). Remarks were also offered by Armenian Ambassador to the U.S.
Tatoul Markarian and Representative of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Robert
Avetisyan. Bishop Anoushavan Tanielian, vicar general of the Eastern Prelacy of
the Armenian Apostolic Church of America and Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Legate
of the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, offered the spiritual messages
of the evening.

“We are deeply gratified that Ragip Zarakolu’s courageous message was heard this
evening in the halls of the U.S. Congress,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram
Hamparian. ”The powerful words of a respected Turkish dissident—along with
those of Chairman Menendez, Chairman Royce, and nearly two dozen other federal
legislators—sent a strong signal to Ankara and its allies here in Washington
about our community’s principled stand and enduring commitment to truth and
justice.”

Dr. Chalian, in introducing Mr. Zarakolu, said: “It is his courageous message of
truth and justice—not the official genocide denials of Turkish government—that
should be encouraged and empowered by President Obama. Sadly, even as
Mr. Zarakolu, a Turkish citizen, traveled across an ocean to speak to us today,
representatives of our own White House and State Department are prohibited from
even setting foot in this room to hear his message of truth and justice. One
more tragic example of our White House accepting Ankara’s gag-rule on the
Armenian Genocide. So, while we do regret the lack of courage on this issue
coming from our own White House, we can celebrate the surplus of courage that
Mr. Zarakolu has brought with us from Turkey and that he will share with us
today.”

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Noted Turkish dissident Ragip Zarakolu (photo by Arsineh Valladian)

In his keynote address, Mr. Zarakolu stressed: “They [the Turkish Government]
are busy making public opinion by absurdization—making a human tragedy absurd.
Is it a genocide or isn’t it a genocide? Unfortunately, the American government
became a part of that ‘play.’ I am so sorry. These policies give courage for
authoritarianism all around the world. Sure, the United States is a good friend
of Turkey, but if it is a real friend of Turkey, they must act differently.
They must support democratization in Turkey, and the real democratization in
Turkey can begin by facing the history, our history, the reality of 1915.”

Chairman Menendez announced, during his remarks, that the panel he chairs will
hold an April 10th vote on the Armenian Genocide Resolution, S.Res.410. He went
on to underscore that: “To me, to all men and women of good will, I would think
there is a simple statement—genocide is genocide, and you cannot call it
anything else but that and you need to have a recognition of that. Next year
when we mark a century—a hundred years ago that the Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turkey, it seems to me that with most of the survivors gone, but with a
few left—it is incredibly important for us to lead globally at this time.”

In his speech, Chairman Royce, noted that he served in the California
legislature when the first Armenian Genocide was adopted, and announced that
this year, “On the 24th of April, I will be in Yerevan with a bi-partisan
delegation to recognize the Armenian Genocide.” Chairman Royce continued to
explain that “In terms of the consequences in human affairs, a genocide like
this, so vast and so deep, was then to be followed by the attempt to extinguish
not only a population but their memory in terms of their church property, in
terms of their artifacts.” To that end, Chairman Royce cited the need for
Congressional passage of the recently introduced Return of Churches Resolution
(H.Res.4241), which would mandate the State Department to put together a list of
confiscated religious properties and demand the return of those properties by
the current Turkish Government.

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Chairman Ed Royce (Photo by Arsineh Valladian)

Following the Capitol Hill Armenian Genocide Observance, Congressional Armenian
Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) noted, “Tonight, we commemorate the 99th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and remember the lives of the one and a
half million Armenians who were needlessly slaughtered by Ottoman Turks between
1915 and 1923. This anniversary, nearly a century later, gives us an
opportunity to acknowledge the atrocities committed against the Armenian people
for exactly what it was—genocide. As we join together to renew our commitment
to prevent and end injustices where they exist, Turkey must also come to terms
with its own history and prevent a shroud of denial from covering up one of the
most horrific tragedies in world history.” Fellow Co-Chair Michael Grimm (R-NY)
concurred, noting, “The only way to truly honor the countless victims of the
Armenian Genocide and build a world that rejects hatred is to remember and
commemorate the sacrifices of these innocents. Our remembrance ensures that we
never permit or tolerate such atrocities ever again. I hope that my colleagues
on both sides of the aisle will join me in commemorating those lost in the
Armenian Genocide, and thank their descendants and successors for honoring the
sacrifice of their forebears through the many labors and ambitions that helped
make this great nation what it is today.”

Complete coverage of Congressional statements and guest speakers will be
provided in upcoming days.

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SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE ADOPTS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

April 10, 2014, 11:46 am
Next Commemoration at Museum to Feature Dorjee, Kasongo, and Mouradian
Previous Menendez and Royce Lead Capitol Hill Armenian Genocide Commemoration
0
0

Chairman Menendez spearheads successful campaign for truth over strong
opposition from White House; Turkish Government

WASHINGTON, DC—For the first time in nearly a quarter century, a U.S. Senate
committee today adopted an Armenian Genocide Resolution, calling upon the Senate
to commemorate this crime and encouraging the President to ensure that America’s
foreign policy reflects and reinforces the lessons, documented in the U.S.
record, of the still-unpunished genocide, reported the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA).

“Today’s vote affirms America’s commitment to truth, deals a serious setback to
Turkey’s campaign of genocide denial, and sends a clear message to President
Obama that he must end his Administration’s complicity in Ankara’s cover-up of
this crime,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. ”We thank
Chairman Menendez for his powerful leadership and express our thanks to each of
the Senators who cast their votes for this human rights measure.”

With a vote of 12 to 5, the Committee voted to condemn and commemorate the
Armenian Genocide.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) spearheaded
the effort to have this influential foreign policy panel speak

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Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

clearly regarding the Ottoman Turkish Government’s centrally planned and
systematically carried out campaign of genocide from 1915-1923, which resulted
in the deaths of over 1.5 million men, women and children.

Senator Menendez announced the vote at the Armenian Genocide Observance on
Capitol Hill yesterday evening, where he told his colleagues and attendees, “To
me, to all men and women of good will, I would think there is a simple
statement—genocide is genocide, and you cannot call it anything else but that
and you need to have a recognition of that. Next year when we mark a century—a
hundred years ago that the Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turkey, it seems to
me that with most of the survivors gone—but with a few left—it is incredibly
important for us to lead globally at this time.”

For more information regarding the historic vote, visit the ANCA Facebook page
at http://www.anca.org/Facebook or the ANCA website at www.anca.org

COMMEMORATION AT MUSEUM TO FEATURE DORJEE, KASONGO, AND MOURADIAN

April 11, 2014, 6:17 am
Next Armenians Seek Justice Once Again
Previous Senate Foreign Relations Committee Adopts Armenian Genocide Resolution
0
0

WATERTOWN, Mass.—On Sunday April 27, the Armenian Museum of America will present
a joint commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, the Tibetan Genocide, and the
Genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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“Anguish” by Krikor Khandjian (1926-2000)

As it has been our custom in recent years, each April, we commemorate with other
victim groups. Armenian-Americans understandably focus each April on
commemorating the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide provided a blueprint
for all too many Genocides in the 20th century. Sadly, Genocides continue; only
the victims change, and we must share and remember their pain as well.

This year’s joint commemoration will feature talks by Tenzin Dorjee, former
executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, Anthony Kasongo, executive
director of Congolese Genocide Awareness, Inc., and Khatchig Mouradian, editor
of the Armenian Weekly. Photographic exhibitions on Tibet and Congo, and our
Museum’s Traveling Armenian Genocide Exhibit will be on display in the 3rd floor
galleries. The Museum’s permanent Armenian Genocide exhibition is on display on
the 2nd floor.

Date and time: Sunday, April 27th at 2:00PM

Location: The Armenian Museum of America, 65 Main St, Watertown, MA 02472 (3rd
Floor Gallery)

Admission: Free and open to the public

Reception following program

ARMENIANS SEEK JUSTICE ONCE AGAIN

April 13, 2014, 6:05 am
Next Women Deacons in the Armenian Apostolic Church Revisited
Previous Commemoration at Museum to Feature Dorjee, Kasongo, and Mouradian
0
0

Boston, Mass.—The Armenian nation is far too familiar with the struggle of
maintaining our identity and the challenge to persevere through the many
inhumane cards life has dealt us. Due to the safe haven Armenians found in the
Syrian community following the events of the Armenian Genocide, the small
northwestern town of Kessab was once densely populated by Armenians. However,
we have yet again been confronted with defending our homes as the population was
forced to evacuate. Forced to flee to nearby Latakia and Bassit, over 700
Christian families of Kessab have been displaced.

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A scene from the protest in Boston (photo by Ken Martin)

On Friday, April 4th the Armenian community of the Greater Boston area gathered
at the entrance of the Tip O’Neill Federal Building in downtown

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A scene from the protest in Boston (photo by Ken Martin)

Boston to bring awareness to the current events taking place in Kessab and to
condemn Turkey’s role in the destruction. Organized by the Armenian Youth
Federation (AYF) Boston “Nejdeh” Chapter and the Armenian National Committee of
Eastern Massachusetts, over 100 human rights activists gathered to protest the
State Department’s failure to condemn the perpetrators of the invasion and
occupation. The Massachusetts offices of the Department of State are located in
the O’Neill building, making it the ideal spot to stress the hypocrisy evidenced
by the Department’s silence regarding the role of its NATO-ally Turkey.
According to eyewitness accounts, the Al-Qaeda affiliated extremists openly
passed through a Turkish military base to cross the Syrian border and attack the
town and villages of Kessab.

The group marched holding signs stating the facts and chanted various slogans,
“Obama, Open up your eyes!

Don’t support terror! Turkey run, Turkey hide, Turkey’s on Al Qaeda’s side.
State Department, can’t you see, Al Qaeda’s ally is Turkey,” as officials and
passers-by read through pamphlets, asked questions, and made phone calls
spreading the word. The Armenian Youth Federation of the Greater Boston “Nejdeh”
Chapter and the Armenian National Committee of Eastern Massachusetts seek
justice once again and stand in solidarity with our fellow diasporans who have
recently been forced out of their homes in Kessab.

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A scene from the protest in Boston (photo by Ken Martin)

The post Armenians Seek Justice Once Again appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

WOMEN DEACONS IN THE ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH REVISITED

April 13, 2014, 8:24 am
Next Seeking to be Armenian
Previous Armenians Seek Justice Once Again
0
0

For more on the subject of Armenian women deacons and monastics in the Armenian
Apostolic Church, see Shepherds of the Nation and A Nearly Forgotten History:
Women Deacons in the Armenian Apostolic Church in the April 21, 2012 and July 6,
2013 issues of The Armenian Weekly.

The legacy of sublime love and humble service to God and the Armenian Nation
left by the women monastics of the ArmenianApostolicChurch throughout the
centuries is a priceless treasure and a source of awe and inspiration. Even
during times of enormous adversity of which there were far too many in the
history of this Christian nation, these unassuming and visionary women
undauntedly persevered in their ordained work. With the passing of time,
however, as well as changing times, these women—nuns, acolytes, sub-deacons,
deacons, archdeacons, scribes, illuminators, paper and parchment makers,
binders—and their work have been nearly forgotten. Fortunately, their legacy
survives, albeit in fragile old books written in an ancient language that some
cannot read and in a small but growing number of women today who have also
selected to serve their Church and Nation, as is evident in some of the examples
that follow.

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St. Stepanos nun-deaconesses

The Kalfayan Sisterhood, founded in 1866 in Constantinople, Turkey, by Sister
Srpouhi Nshan Kalfayan as the “Kalfayan National Orphanage of Three Years
Dedicated to the Holy Virgins,” had a number of sisters throughout its history.
The orphanage was celebrated for its excellent education. “All its members were
deaconesses and the abbess, protodeaconess.” Sister Kalfayan was born in 1823
and “became a nun at the age of eighteen. . . She opened a trade-school for
poor boys and girls in the Khaskeuy section of Constantinople. . .” After her
visit to Europe in 1858, she founded the above mentioned orphanage. The honored
archdeaconess died on June 4, 1889, and was buried in the yard of the
orphanage. Sister Christine Papazian became Mother Superior of the orphanage
after the death of Srpouhi Mayrabed (Mother Superior). “She had earlier worked
as a nurse in the National Hospital during her early days as a nun. . .”
Although the order no longer exists, at present Sister Kayane Dulkadiryan (born
1966), a sub-deacon, continues in the footsteps of these women. “She is active
in the church, and she can read the Bible in the church,” wrote Archbishop Aram
Atesyan, Deputy General of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Istanbul,
Turkey, in a recent email communication I had with him. “The Kalfayan
Orphanage,” the Archbishop explained, “still exists with approximately 70 girls
between the ages of ten and seventeen, and it is run by a Board of Directors,
which is elected by the community.”

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Two St. Catherine’s nun-deaconesses pictured with a “wooden bell” (Photo from R.
C. Colliver’s book: Persian Women and Their Ways)

The religious order of the Kalfayan Sisterhood and other such orders left an
indelible impact on the ArmenianApostolicChurch and the people they served,
especially the orphans entrusted to their care. The following poem titled
Mayrabednern Ukhdavor (Pilgrim Nuns) by Melkon Asadour from the village of Khas
in Turkey (translated by Knarik O. Meneshian), serves as a poignant
illustration. Published on May 19, 1933, in Sion, a periodical of the Armenian
Patriarchate of Jerusalem since 1866, the poem is dedicated to Mother Aghavni
and Sister Mariam of the Kalfayan Orphanage who had gone on a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem in 1933.

Pilgrim Nuns

Since childhood, you have promised your lives to the Church,
And to serve our Lord’s Altar.
With an ornate staff in hand,
A dedicated blessed veil on the head,
The silvery rays of a bright comet above,
Early, you two Sisters departed for your journey.
“Let the Lord guide your steps!”
After traveling from road to road, Sisters,
You reached the Promised Land.

There you presented your sacrifice, offerings for a Mass—
Your gifts, your prayers, and your incense
Mixed with the anguished tears of orphans.
With heads bowed and kneeling side by side,
You blessed the tombstones.

As sobs mixed with your invocations and entreaties,
And the yearnings of your bright-eyed orphans—
High above Golgotha,
Jesus heard.
And in Bethlehem’s Blessed Holy Manger,
The healing of the sufferers’ pain and anguish,
The repentance of the sinner—oh, always,
Mixed with soft vapors—the breath
Of the cow, the sheep, and the lamb.

Since childhood, you have promised your lives to the Church,
And to serve our Lord’s Altar.
With an ornate staff in hand,
You walked the same path as Jesus did,
And handed to you
Were the uneducated flocks of orphans
To nourish with bread and wine….

In turn, the kind traveler, the Samaritan,
Will ponder your reward
Announcing sweetly,
“Live long, live long, Sisters!
You have done enough for us orphans, for me!

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The nun-deaconesses helping Father Chiftjian during baptism in Lebanon (Photo
provided by Father Chiftjian)

***

The following article, Hay Grchuhiner (Armenian Women Scribes), written by
Bishop Nerses Tsovagan and published in the April-May 1954 issue of Sion on the
topic of Armenian women scribes reveals the legacy they left for their beloved
Church and Nation. The mentioned works copied or illuminated, at times both, are
the Bible, Text of the Creed, Book on the Interpretation of Dates, Book on the
Interpretation of a Prayer Book, Book on the Interpretation of Solomon’s
Proverbs, Book on the Interpretation of Luke, Book on Spiritual Advice;
canonicals, memoirs; history, hymn, prayer, and sermon books.

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Mother Superior/Archdeanconess Hripsime Tahiriants (Photo from Father K.
Khutsyan’s book: Tiflsi Surp Stepanos Kusants Anapati Badmutiune

Armenian Women Scribes

In our history of manuscript production, a chapter must be devoted to women
scribes, who have left a legacy of their manuscript copying works. Many women
scribes were nuns, some of whom were known as monastics in the 17th century at
the Shenher and Shorot monasteries/convents/cloisters (in the Julfa region in
Nachichevan), where manuscripts were illuminated. During the revival of
manuscript production in the 17th century, women monastics, like others, were
inspired by the revival. During the 17th century alone, we know of more women
scribes than all others prior to that century. The most prolific woman scribe
known to us is Brabion Nodar (Note Taker) of whose works nine are known. It is
also worth mentioning several women who prepared the paper or parchment for
their manuscripts.

Shakar Havadavor (Believer) was the daughter of Father Vartishkhan. The two
commissioned, in Jerusalem, the renowned scribe Stepanos Yergayn to copy a 1321
Bible, and they gifted it to the Hreshtagabed Monastery. Shakar also had
engaged in preparing paper for manuscripts.

Khabib Khatun was the wife of the scribe Father Garabed. She had copied a Bible
in 1451 in Van. She had also worked as a paper maker.

Mariam Grich yev Ngarich (Scribe and Illuminator) copied and illuminated a book
of sermons by Krikor Datevatsi, in 1456.

Gohar was the daughter of manuscript scribe and illuminator Yerzngatsi
Hovhannes’s brother and Malkhatun. She helped her uncle during the years
1484-1486 in Gesaria by preparing the parchments and paper for a Bible and a
missal.

Altun was the daughter of scribe Hovhannes Yerets, who in 1621 wrote about his
daughter: “And so my daughter Altun became my helper and prepared the paper and
lit my light, and for the whole night she worked alongside of me and prepared my
food…”

Goharine Kuys yev Grich (Nun and Scribe) was a scribe in 1630 at the Yerek
Khorank Monastery in the village of Avandonts. She copied a canonical book.

Marinos Grigoruhi Kuys copied Megnutiun Domari by Bishop Hagop Ghrimetsi, in
1637, and Harants Vark in 1650, in the village of Arkosh.

Mariam Grich was the daughter of Bishop Margos’s brother. In 1647, in the
village of Khanatsakh in Gharabagh, she copied a hymnbook by Nerses Shnorhali.

Mariam Kuys was the daughter of Markar and Antaram, and the niece of Kavich
(Atoner) Father Giragos. In 1651, at the Shenher Convent she copied Krikor
Datevatsi’s Vosgeporik.

Varvare Kuys. Three of her works are available: Hishadagaran, written in 1647;
Zhamagirk, copied in 1655, and Karozagirk of Krikor Datevatsi, copied in 1684 at
the Pokr Siunik Convent.

Hripsime Kuys Mayrabed (Mother Superior) copied, in 1651, a prayer book, an hour
book, and a calendar of holidays for “Yeghisabet,” and in 1653 Megnutiun
Zhamagirki at the Halidzor Cloister.

Varteni Abashkharogh (Penitent) copied one Sandukht Book in 1657.

Shushan Norashingetsi Kuys was the daughter of Bashkhi and Khurmi, and sister of
Aristakes Vartabed (celibate priest). In the village of Shorot, she copied the
Badmagirk of Yeghishe, of Khorenatsi, etc., in 1664 when she was 43 years old.
In 1666, at the request of her brother Father Aristakes, she copied Megnutiun
Aragats Soghomoni.

Margarid Kuys copied Nerses Shnorhali’s Gir Havado in 1669 and a Bible in 1676,
at Surp Asdvatsatsin Convent in the village of Shorot, located in the district
of Yernjag.

Erine Kuyr (Sister) copied Adeni Zhamagirk at the Shenher Convent in 1673.

Maryam Grich was a student of Father Nahabed, who later became Catholicos
(1691-1705). She copied the following works between 1673 and 1678: Hayli Varuts,
a translation of Stepanos Lehatsi; Harants Vark and Vosgeporik at St. Hagop in
Jerusalem as a gift to her godfather, Vartabed Nahabed.

Khanum Dbir (Acolyte) copied a Bible at St. Gevork Church in the village of Agn,
in 1682, at the request of Mrs. Nur Melik.

Goharine Kuys copied Krikor Naregati’s Prayer Book at Shorot Cloister in
1687-1688. She was the daughter of Bedros and Hripsime.

Marinos Kuys bound the manuscript copied by Goharine at Shorot Cloister in
1687-1688.

Soghovme copied a book titled Khrad Hokevork in 1730.

Brabion Nodar yev Gragruhi (Note Taker and Secretary) was a student of Mateos
Gragir. She copied the following books in Constantinople: Badmutiun Zhoghovats
Yeprosi yev Kaghgeton, 1772, at Palat’s (section in Constantinope) Surp
Hreshdagabed Church as a gift to Bishop Hovhannes Mamigonetsi; Andar Noraguyn
Mdatsmants, 1773; Badmutiun Zhoghovats, 1774, at Palat’s Surp Hreshdagabed
Church; Megnutiun Hngamadeni, 1779, for Vartan Vartabed; Megnutiun Yergots
Yergooyn, 1780, for Vartan Vartabed; Megnutiun Madteosi of Nerses Shnorhali and
Hovhannes Yerzngatsi, 1781; Khosk Hin Yeranutiun of Grigor Niusatsi, 1783, (at
times, this manuscript was at Armash Monastery, [built in 1611, near Izmit,
Turkey]); Havakatsu Muh, which contained the work of Hovhannes Kahana (priest)
titled Haghags Anguinavor Tvots, 1786. The manuscript is at the Yerevan
Madenadaran (Repository) #2595; Karozgirk of Patriarch Hagop Nalian, 1788, for
Baghdasar Vartabed of Jerusalem.

Heghine Abashkharogh copied Iknadeos Vartabed’s Megnutiun Ghugasu in the 17th
century. Exact date and place unknown.

Husdiane Kuys copied Anastas Kahana’s Aghotagirk and Yeprem the Assyrian‘s
Zhamagirk and Aghotk in the 17th century. Exact date and place unknown.

Mariam Grich is assumed to have copied a Karozagirk by Krikor Datevatsi in the
17th century. Since there were three other scribes named Mariam during this
period, it is uncertain which Mariam is actually the one.

***

The eleven-stanza poem Srpuhi Mariam (Saint Mary), (translated by Diana Der
Hovanessian and Marzbed Margossian), is the only surviving work by the 8th
century hermit Sahakdoukht Siunetsi (of Siunik), who was of noble birth.
Foreign invaders destroyed her works, just as they destroyed the countless works
of numerous other Armenians throughout the centuries. She spent her life in
seclusion in a cave in Garni, located in the center of Armenia, near churches,
monasteries, and a first-century pagan temple. Sahakdoukht was a scholar, poet,
and hymnographer. She composed liturgical chants, wrote devotional poems, and,
while seated behind a curtain, taught sacred music to musicians and students.
The following are the first two stanza’s of the poem:

Saint Mary

Saint Mary, Incorruptible altar,
Giver of life, mother of life-giving words,
Blessed are you among women,
Joyful virgin mother of God.

And spiritual orchard, bright flower,
You conceived from God, as from rains
Flowing through the soul, the word,
And with the shield of your body
Made it apparent to men…

***

In a section from Kristonya Hayastan Hanragitaran (The Encyclopedia of Christian
Armenia) titled Halidzori Kusanats Anapat (The Convent of Halidzor), the
convent, located in Armenia’s Siunik Region, is described as follows:

Halidzor Convent is located in the Halidzor Fortress, on the slopes of a
forested mountain, on the right bank of the Voghj River near the village of Bekh
in the Kapan region of Siunik. It was established during the first half of the
17th century. In 1653, the Mother Superior of the convent was Hripsime, who is
mentioned as a manuscript copier. In 1668, the convent had 70 members. In
1711, the abbot of Datev Monastery, Bishop Arakel, was viciously murdered at the
convent. In the 18th century, Davit Bek (a prominent military figure of noble
lineage, died in 1728) converted the convent into a fortress due to its
strategic position, and even then the convent operated as one. In 1727, when
the Turkish army surrounded Halidzor, the nuns participated in the fortress’
defense. Walls on a square foundation surround the complex. The only tower is
located at the southwestern corner. The church is built of basalt stone…and
from the rooftop canons were used to fight the enemy. The strategic position of
the convent helped Davit Bek and his small group of fighters successfully defend
against the numerous attacks of the thousands in the Turkish army.

***

Another example of the legacy left by the women monastics of the Armenian
Apostolic Church is detailed in the book Tiflisi Surp Stepanos Kusanats Anapati
Badmutiune (The History of Tiflis’s St. Stepanos Convent), which is in Holy
Etchmiadzin’s library. It was published at the request of Archdeacon Hripsime
Tahiriants, who, in October 1911, was appointed Mother Superior of St. Stepanos
Convent. The generous and diligent nun-deaconess, upon realizing that a history
of the convent had not been written, requested that Reverend Father Khoren
Khutsyan write it. She provided him with the archives and funds for the book’s
publication. The book contains several photos.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The destruction of a tombstone (Photo from Chookaszian’s book: Archag
Fetvadjian)

The following are highlights from the 100-page book:

Hermetic life existed in Armenia even before Christianity. The beginnings of
Armenian Christianity are connected with the names of the virgins Hripsime and
Gayane. Convents came into existence in Armenia along with Christianity. St.
Nerses the Great established walled convents. Women’s monastic life was not
widespread, even now.

St. Stepanos Convent, which had numerous nuns, was established in 1725 in
Tiflis, Georgia. Girls from prominent and noble or princely families and girls
from poor families joined the convent. Because of the convent’s high moral
reputation, families also sent delinquent girls to the convent to be
disciplined. St. Stepanos’s Mariamyan-Hovnanyants Girls’ School was opened in
1877 with funds from Stepan Hovnanyants. The school was built next to the
convent and placed under the care of the nuns.

Initially, nuns had no clerical status but were all equal. Eventually, the
seniority system developed and by 1780 St. Stepanos Convent had a Mother
Superior. Many of the girls who entered the convent were illiterate and spoke
only Georgian, and therefore learned the prayers by memorization. The prelate
often visited the convent and encouraged the women to strive for even more
education, especially in the study of Grabar (Classical Armenian). When a
postulant made her final decision to serve the church, the Catholicos approved
her acceptance into the order. Sister Takuhi, the first Mother Superior of St.
Stepanos served in that position from 1790 to 1799. She came from a wealthy
family and bequeathed her wealth to Jerusalem and Etchmiadzin. In 1796, the
Catholicos sent a few of the nuns to Astrakhan, Russia.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Sister Knarik helping during baptism (photo provided by Father Chiftjian)

The names and dates of the women who served as Mother Superior at the convent
after Takuhi were: Katarine Amaduni; Husdiane Asdvatsaduriants (1806-1839), who
came from a wealthy family; Mariam; Gayane Ghorghanyan, a humble and affable
person who entered the convent at age 14, began learning Armenian and church
rituals, became a nun-deaconess, built a church to replace the convent chapel,
wove many gold and silver threaded pieces for the Etchmiadzin and Jerusalem
cathedrals, became Mother Superior in 1840 and served in that capacity for 35
years; Hripsime Begtabekyants was a tbir (acolyte) and a vocalist with music
training; Yepemia Behboutyants; Katarine Arghutyan (of a princely family)
entered the convent at age 7, ordained nun in 1836, became Mother Superior in
1877, and served in that capacity until 1898 during which time she made many
renovations to the church and convent at her expense; Pepronia Khubyants entered
the convent in 1826 at the age of 7; Heprosine Abamelikyan (of a princely
family) entered the convent at age 13. Hripsime Tahiriants, the daughter of a
wealthy and influential family who wanted her to join the religious order,
entered the convent at a very young age. She became a nun-deaconess, initiated
the writing of the bylaws of the convent for approval by the Catholics, and
became the last Mother Superior at St. Stepanos.

In an article about nuns on the official Web Site of The Armenian Church –
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the following was written about Archdeacon
Hripsime Tahiriants, “With Sovietization, monastic life was disrupted, the nuns
scattered, and the facility was confiscated. In a destitute state, Sister
Hripsime (who once donated great sums of money to wherever she saw the need) was
given refuge in Holy Etchmiadzin where she eventually died. Her burial place
can be visited at the monastery of St. Gayane.”

Currently in Armenia, some of the nuns of the Surp Hripsimyants Order of The
Armenian Apostolic Church are preparing to take minor orders.

In L. B. Chookaszian’s recently published book, the author has included photos
of St. Stepanos Armenian Convent/Monastery in Tiflis, Georgia, before its
takeover by the Georgian government and transformation into a Georgian church
(between the late 20th century and first decade of the 21st century). Also
included in the book are photos documenting the Georgian government’s
destruction of the monastery’s facade, altar and marble cross, and tombstones of
the Armenian women monastics.

***

As mentioned in Part 1 of this article (The Armenian Weekly, July 6, 2013),
Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian, Primate of the Western Diocese, ordained Seta
Simonian Atamian acolyte in Cupertino, California, in 1984, and in 2002
Archbishop Gisak Mouradian, Primate of Argentina, ordained Maria Ozkul to the
diaconate. I would like to add that in 1986 Donna Barsamian Sirounian, acolyte,
served on the altar with Deaconess Hripsime Sasunian of the Kalfayan Sisterhood
at St. Thomas Armenian Church in Tenafly, New Jersey, during her visit to the
U.S.

***

In a recent email communication I had with the Very Reverend Father Krikor
Chiftjian, Prelate of the Armenian Diocese of Azerbaijan (Adrbadagan), Iran, he
graciously provided the following information on St. Catherine’s Convent in New
Julfa titled Surp Gadarinyan Menadune (St. Catherine’s Convent). He also
provided recent photos (taken by his staff at his request) of the complex, an
old photo of the nuns (from a 2012 book titled The Immortals by Alice
Navasartian), a photo of the nunnery, which is now a school, and a photo of a
wool carpet made by the nuns. On the top right-hand corner of the carpet appears
the date 1802. “The carpet,” Father Chiftjian wrote, “is in the Prelacy of
Isfahan, in the Prelate’s room, as a historical piece of art.” In addition, he
also provided information on the Halidzor Convent and the nun-deaconesses in
Lebanon.

Saint Catherine’s Convent

The Convent is located in the Charsu neighborhood on the south side of St.
Hovhan Church. It was built in 1623. The church, a small and simple building
with 8 windows, is situated in the center of the courtyard of the convent. On
the upper part of the altar are paintings of Jesus, the Apostles, and the Virgin
Mary…In the parishioner’s section hang the paintings of St. Catherine and St.
Mesrop Mashdots. At the baptismal font there is a small, double door with
paintings of Jesus. There are writings on the walls of the church. An example
is, “In Memory of Virgin Catherine.”

The convent has had up to 32 members. It had very small cells on the eastern,
southern, and northern sides of the church. At the beginnings of the 20th
century, the cells on the eastern and southern sides were demolished and in
their place in 1907 Bagrat Vartabed Vartazarian built a two-story building to be
used as an orphanage, workshop, and carpet factory. On the western side of the
building, there is a stained-glass window with the inscription, “St. Catherine’s
Orphanage and Workshop, 1907.”

Of the nuns’ cells, only a few are left, one of which has paintings on the
walls. At the eastern entrance of the church, hangs the church’s wooden “bell”
which in the past was used in place of a bell. Recently, during the renovation
of the church, a colorful painting was discovered on the external wall of the
northern door.

In 1964, the building that housed the carpet factory, which consisted of a few
rooms and located at the eastern side of the convent, was demolished. The plan
was to build an orphanage but instead a nursing home was built, which later was
turned into apartments.

In 1858, the first girls’ school was established at the convent. In 1900, a
separate building for the school was built and called Gadarinyan (Catherine’s)
School. The school still exists, but today it is a boys’ school. At the
present, on St. Catherine’s name day mass is performed at the convent’s church.

As the number of monastic women at the convent progressively decreased, the
doors of St. Catherine’s were finally closed in 1954.

In C. Colliver Rice’s book (1923) titled Persian Women and Their Ways, the
author includes a photograph of the wooden “bell” pictured with two of the nuns
at St. Catherine’s Convent (page 185). The caption below the photo reads,
“Beating the board as a summons to worship is a relic of ancient times when
there were no bells. The sounds are soft and musical and very much like bells.”
On page 279, the author describes the work of one of the Armenian deaconesses
in these words: “There are various agencies at work in the hope of helping
women to make good, among them the Mothers’ Union has branches in different
towns, and has an Armenian deaconess working among the carpet-weavers of
Kirman. She is a trained nurse and has several weekly clinics for Moslem women
of various classes, which are largely attended and increasingly appreciated.
There is a large branch of the Mothers’ Union among the Armenian women of
Julfa. They have a great idea of sharing the help they get with others.”

In his email, Father Chiftjian (born 1969, Beirut, Lebanon), wrote that before
his election as prelate in 2012, he served from 2009 to 2011 as the “spiritual
advisor and dean of the Gayanayants Sisterhood in Jbeil, Lebanon, and the
spiritual director of the Bird’s Nest Orphanage.” In 1983, the Armenian
Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon, under
Catholicos Karekin II, founded the Sisterhood. Among the Sisters’ various
duties are the care and nurturing of the children at the orphanage and assisting
the priest during the baptism of orphans. To date, the Gayanyants Sisterhood
has three nun-deacons. They are Knarik Gaypakian, Shnorhig Boyadjian, and
Gayane Badakian.

Among Father Chiftjian’s numerous accomplishments since his ordination as
celibate priest in 1990 was the position of staff bearer to Catholicos Karekin
II and, after the latter became Catholicos Karekin I of All Armenians in 1994,
the new Catholicos’s secretary. Father Chiftjian has taught at the Kevorkian
Academy in Etchmiadzin, authored 20 books, and edited more than 20 publications.

***

Although the following women were not monastics, they served the Armenian Church
and Nation by having churches built. The 2007 calendar of the Diocese of the
Armenian Church of America (Eastern), Built by Women, highlights their work.

Princess Mariam, daughter of King Ashot I Bagratuni and wife of Prince Vasak
Gabur of Siunik, built Sevanavank in 874 AD.

Queen Mlke and King Gagik Artsruni of Armenia’s Vaspurakan Region built Surp
Khach Church of Aghtamar Island in 915-921.

Princess Sopia (Ajarian spelling), sister of King Gagik Artsruni and wife of
Prince of princes Smpad of Siunik, built Gndevank in 931-936, which later became
a monastery.

Queen Khosrovanush, wife of King Ashot the Merciful, authorized the construction
of Haghpat Monastery in 976-991.

Queen Khushush (Ajarian spelling), daughter of King Gagik Bagratuni and wife of
King Senekerim of Vaspurakan, sponsored the construction of Surp Sopia Church of
Varag Monastery in 981.

Queen Catherinade, daughter of King Vasak I of Siunik and wife of King Gagik I
Bagratuni, continued the construction of the Ani Cathedral after the death of
her husband, in 998-1001.

Note: The Convent of Ani, at Ani, is believed to have had a community of nuns.
The convent is also known as the Hripsimian Kusanant Vank, Kusanats Vank, and
Surp Hripsime. It was built sometime between the early 11th and early 13th
centuries. Photos of the convent are included in the book Armenia:1700 Years of
Christian Architecture.

Princess Shahandukht, daughter of King Sevada the Glorious and wife of Prince
Smbat of Siunik, built Vorotnavank in 1000.

Princess Mariam, daughter of King Gyurige II, built one of the three churches
named Mariamashen in the monastic complex of Kobayravank in 1171.

Arzukhatun, a noblewoman of the Vakhtangian princely dynasty, a painter,
embroiderer, and weaver, revitalized Dadivank in 1214 (date in Ulubabyan), and
built a church that surrounded the graves of her husband and two sons.

Mamakhatun and her husband, Prince Vache Vachutian, constructed Saghmosavank in
1215. In 1232, Mamakhatun was the principal supporter of the construction of
Tegheri Monastery.

Princess Gontsa, under her patronage, initiated the construction of Spitakavor
Surp Asdvadzadzin Church in 1301.

***

Sources:

Ajarian, Hratchya. Hayots Antsnanunneri Bararan (Dictionary of Armenian Personal
Names). Aleppo: Kilikia, 2006.

Anahid, Flora. “Women In Western (Turkish) Armenian Culture.” A.R.S. (Armenian
Relief Society) Quarterly 10, no. 1 (October 1948): 54.

Asadur, Melkon. “Mayrabednern Ukhdavor” (Pilgrim Nuns), a poem. Sion (Armenian
Patriarchate of Jerusalem), (May 19, 1933).

Chookaszian, L. B. Archag Fetvadjian. Yerevan: Printinfo, 2011.

Hasratyan, Murad and Sargsyan, Zaven. Hayastan: Kristonyakan Jartarapetutyan
1700 Tarin (Armenia: 1700 Years of Christian Architecture). Yerevan: Moughni
Publishers, 2001.

Haykakan Sovetakan Hanragitaran (Soviet-Armenian Encyclopedia), vol. 8. Yerevan,
1982.

Khutsyan, Reverend Khoren. Tiflisi Surp Stepanos Kusanats Anapati Badmutiune
(The History of St. Stepanos Convent of Tiflis). Tiflis (Georgia): Esperanto,
1914.

Kristonya Hayastan Hanragitaran (Encyclopedia of Christian Armenia). “Halidzori
Kusanats Anapat” (The Convent of Halidzor). (Place and date unavailable.)

Mkrtichian, Samuel, ed. Selected Armenian Poets. “Srpuhi Mariam” (Saint Mary), a
poem. Yerevan (Armenia): Samson Publishers, 1993.

Navasartian, Alice. The Immortals. (Place and publisher unavailable, 2012.)

Oghlukian, Father Abel. The Deaconess In the Armenian Church – A Brief Survey.
New Rochelle (New York): St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, 1994.

Rice, C. Colliver. Persian Women and Their Ways. London: 1923.

The Armenian Church, Etchmiadzin, Armenia, Web Site. “Nuns.” Accessed in 2013.

Tsovagan, Bishop Nerses. “Hay Grchuhiner” (Armenian Women Scribes). Sion
(April-May, 1954): 133-135.

Ulubabyan, Bagrat. Artsakhi Badmutiune (The History of Arstakh). Yerevan: M.
Varandian, 1994.

***

The author would like to express her deep appreciation to the following for
kindly responding to her inquiries regarding The Armenian Apostolic Church and
for graciously providing material on the subject:

Deacon Levon Altiparmakian, Director of St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, New
Rochelle, NY.

Archbishop Aram Atesyan, Deputy General of the Patriarchate of Constantinople,
Istanbul, Turkey.

Very Reverend Father Krikor Chiftjian, Prelate of the Armenian Diocese of
Azerbaijan (Adrbadagan), Iran.

Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate, Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic
Church of America.

Ms. Hasmik Melkonyan of the Etchmiadzin Library, Etchmiadzin, Armenia.

The post Women Deacons in the Armenian Apostolic Church Revisited appeared first
on Armenian Weekly.

SEEKING TO BE ARMENIAN

April 14, 2014, 8:05 am
Next The Quest for Aurora: On ‘Ravished Armenia’ and its Surviving Fragment
Previous Women Deacons in the Armenian Apostolic Church Revisited
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An initiative introduced by the Armenian government to stop the reduction in
numbers of its citizenry was the law of dual citizenship. The law which came
into effect in 2008 ensured that while large numbers of Armenians continued to
leave the country in search of a better life, they did not need to relinquish
their Armenian citizenship in order to attain a new nationality and passport. At
the same time the law allowed those Armenians whose forebears had escaped the
Armenian Genocide and made a new life in a foreign land to become Armenian
citizens while retaining the passports of their host country.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The Near East Relief ID of orphaned Armenian Genocide survivor Aharon
Meguerditchian

My motivation to attain Armenian citizenship is driven by my simple right to be
a citizen of the nation-state of Armenia. It can best be explained through my
grandfather’s story.

Aharon Meguerditchian was born in the town of Hasanbey near the city of Adana on
what is today the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. At the age of seven
his family and the families of his friends, were rounded up in the town centre
by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire. That’s where Aharon’s father, Hovsep, was
separated from his family. Along with all the other men of the town, his
father’s hands were tied behind his back and his beard set alight as Aharon and
his younger brother Manassee, just five, watched on. Aharon, Manassee and their
mother, Persape, were instructed to join the caravan of women, children and the
elderly in forced marches further south. A few hours into the march, Aharon was
told to run as fast and as far as he could with Manassee. The instruction this
time did not come from the soldiers; it came from the familiar, loving voice of
his mother. Aharon and Manassee did just that: They ran as fast as they could,
over the ridge and beyond, without looking back or turning around, until they
were alone, until they were “safe.”

In a matter of hours, Aharon was no longer a child; he was Manassee’s protector.
Luckily, Aharon and Manassee came across Danish missionaries, who placed them on
a ship and sent them on their way to a new world. The next ten years Aharon and
Manassee spent in an orphanage in Lebanon. Aharon’s journey took him from Adana
to Beirut, Buenos Aires, Marseille, back to Beirut and eventually to Sydney
where he passed away surrounded by family in 1985.

Despite his burning desire, Aharon never had the chance to be a contributing
citizen of the Armenian state. The only ‘Armenian’ document he ever had was his
Near East Relief ID provided by the orphanage. I, however, do have that
opportunity. Being a citizen makes me no more Armenian but it is a right I
choose to exercise and a responsibility I choose to accept.

It is not enough to simply be satisfied that there is now an independent
Armenia. As descendants of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, we have a
responsibility to ensure that the Armenian nation state fulfils its purpose of
serving the needs and protecting the rights of the Armenian people. Armenian
citizenship provides us diasporans the legal rights to have a say in the affairs
of the Armenian state. Concerns surrounding state polices on health, education,
social welfare, trade, infrastructure and foreign affairs can be more
legitimately raised by citizens.

It also gives us the right to put our capabilities, skills and expertise to
serve and represent Armenia as fully-fledged citizens of the state where and
when required on the international stage.

This should be the purpose driving diasporans to seek Armenian citizenship and
it is disappointing that not more of us are choosing to exercise that right. It
was recently reported that some 21,000 Armenians applied for Armenian
citizenship in 2013. This represents just a small fraction of the Diaspora and
clearly more of us need to be seeking and attaining Armenian citizenship.

But just as we have a responsibility to the Armenian state, the state has a
responsibility to us.

The Diaspora Ministry of Armenia website still notes that “the dual citizenship
institute is a novelty in Armenia and, as every mechanism it requires more
improvement, mitigation and simplification.” The passage continues, “This was
not intended to cause any trouble for anyone.”

A welcome acknowledgement, but six years after the dual citizenship law came
into effect, merely recognising the cumbersome nature of the process is simply
not good enough. With acknowledgement comes responsibility.

My journey toward seeking Armenian citizenship was somewhat challenging. It
required multiple back and forth visits to a number of Armenian ministerial and
departmental offices including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
Department of Passports and Visas. On one of those visits I was even instructed
to attain verification of my personal documents from the Armenian Embassy in
Australia. The staffer was seemingly unaware that there is no Armenian
diplomatic representation in Australia. Nonetheless, my application was finally
submitted in July 2013 and I expect to attain my Armenian passport during my
next visit to Armenia this year.

There are an estimated ten million people who identify as Armenian across the
world while just over three million of these hold Armenian citizenship. Armenia
must streamline the process of citizenship and actively recruit individuals. It
must do so to encourage these people to contribute to the development of
Armenian society and nation building from the sciences to the arts, sports and
the political arena. It must do so in the interests of national security and
prosperity.

After all, a nation state of ten million contributing citizens is much more
influential than a state of just three million.

The post Seeking to be Armenian appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

THE QUEST FOR AURORA: ON ‘RAVISHED ARMENIA’ AND ITS SURVIVING FRAGMENT

April 15, 2014, 5:00 am
Next An Encounter with Djemal Pasha
Previous Seeking to be Armenian
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Special for The Armenian Weekly April Magazine

A personal memoir

Four score and 15 years ago, “Ravished Armenia” (or “Auction of Souls”), the
silent movie where Aurora Mardiganian (1901-94) played her own story of survival
of the Medz Yeghern (Great Crime), came onto the silver screen as the earliest
example of a genocidal crime embedded into a Hollywood production. The outcome
was not very enlightening, as film historian Anthony Slide, one of its most
knowledgeable students, has argued: “Despite the high moral tone surrounding the
production (…) it is obvious that ‘Ravished Armenia’ was really nothing more
than a carefully orchestrated commercial production.”1

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La Razon, Buenos Aires, August 31, 1920 (Photo courtesy of Eduardo Kozanlian)

Nevertheless, its PR impact as “a frank straight-forward exposition of
sufferings of Armenia, which makes a sincere and powerful appeal to every drop
of red blood in America’s manhood and womanhood,”2 as well as its vanishing from
worldwide film vaults—a metaphor of the wall of silence that for decades
surrounded the wholesale extermination—have aroused widespread interest.

The story had already caught my eye as a high school senior in Buenos Aires. My
father had a few collections of Armenian newspapers, including the independent
Armenian Argentinean biweekly Hamazkayin (1964-68, in Armenian and Spanish),
where the early Spanish translation of Aurora Mardiganian’s story was serialized
in 1965. Years later, a very informative article by Armenian-American book
collector Mark A. Kalustian in The Armenian Mirror-Spectator helped complete the
picture.3

After some time, I passed the article on to a friend of mine, Eduardo Kozanlian,
who had been hunting down all sorts of Mardiganian-related materials for a very
long time. Seventy-five years after the first screening of 1919, he discovered
the surviving fragment of approximately 15 minutes. One night in 1995, in my
Buenos Aires home we watched those silent images that had once tried to
represent the Aghed (Catastrophe). Over the years, I would urge him to write
down an account drawn from his extensive collection of memorabilia, but, for
different reasons, it never happened.

Attorney Siruhi Belorian-Piranian in 1999 sponsored a reprint of the Spanish
translation of “Ravished Armenia” in Buenos Aires on the 80th anniversary of the
first edition. Kozanlian loaned his own copy and provided pictures and other
materials. He was asked to write an introduction to this second edition, but for
unknown reasons and without further explanation, the text was dropped from the
final printing.4

In late 1996, Kozanlian had traveled to the United States to pursue his
research. He presented VHS copies of the film segment to people interested in
the subject or who had helped him in his endeavors. Anthony Slide was likely
referring to those copies in 1997 when he wrote, “Rumors abound of a videotape
representing 10 percent of the production circulating in the Armenian-American
community.”5

One of the copies was probably “pirated” for an anonymous VHS commercial release
of the segment circa 2000, without identification of publisher, place, or date;
I saw it on sale in 2002 at the Sardarabad bookstore in Glendale, Calif. The
back cover of the jacket only mentioned “a researcher in Buenos Aires, South
America.” Some footage appeared in Andrew Goldberg’s PBS documentary “The
Armenian Americans” (2000), which included Kozanlian’s name among the credits,
but did not identify the movie as the ultimate source.6

There was no reference to the story in the DVD released in 2009 by the Armenian
Genocide Resource Center of Northern California, spearheaded by late genocide
researcher Richard Diran Kloian (1939-2010). It included the fragment cleaned
up, edited, and captioned after the titles of the book, with Samuel Barber’s
“Adagio for Strings” as background music—the same music of the VHS—and the
addition of a slideshow of the stills. Filmmaker Zareh Tjeknavorian’s “Credo,” a
22-minute video of the film together with Armin Wegner’s photographs from the
genocide, footage of the 80th anniversary of the genocide in Yerevan, and the
music of Loris Tjeknavorian’s “Second Symphony,” was uploaded on YouTube in
April 2009. The accompanying note stated: “Incredibly, all copies of ‘Ravished
Armenia’ were lost until a 15-minute fragment resurfaced in France in the
1960’s. The reel was preserved by a cinematographer named Yervand Setyan, and is
presented here in full.”7

As the second Spanish edition of 1999 was out of print, researcher Sergio
Kniasian in 2011 published a digital version of the Spanish translation on a CD,
which also included his article on the discovery and another by film scholar
Artsvi Bakhchinyan on early cinematography on the genocide, together with many
illustrations.8

I revisited those silent images in April 2010 at the screening of the DVD in St.
Leons’ Armenian Church of Fair Lawn, N.J., and talked about the discovery during
the question and answer session that followed Anthony Slide’s lecture. Upon his
request to write down the story, I started to draft an article that would
include other pieces of information I had uncovered over the years.9 The 20th
anniversary of the discovery is an opportunity as good as any to write the last
word and to set the record straight.

Armenian reception of the film

A few quotes from Armenian-American newspapers in 1919 have appeared in
Bakhchinyan’s encyclopedic study of Armenians in world cinema.10 Otherwise,
those collections do not seem to have been scrutinized by researchers of
“Ravished Armenia,” at least in the United States. There were very few
English-language newspapers—Arshag D. Mahdesian’s The New Armenia, an
independent monthly, and The Armenian Herald, a monthly briefly published by the
Armenian National Union. Party organs published their newspapers in Armenian:
Hairenik (Armenian Revolutionary Federation, or ARF) in Boston; Azk (Armenian
Constitutional Democratic Party), the predecessor to the now defunct organ of
the Armenian Democratic Liberal (Ramgavar) Party, Baikar, also in Boston;
Yeridasart Hayastan (Social Democrat Hunchakian Party), in Providence at the
time; and Asbarez (ARF), then in Fresno.

Apart from a few other short-lived publications in Armenian, whose collections
are more difficult to trace, we must make particular mention of Gochnag (renamed
Gochnag Hayastani in 1919 and Hayastani Gochnag in 1921), published by the
Armenian Educational Foundation in New York, which represented the views of the
evangelical section of the community and widely supported charity work,
particularly by the Near East Relief, which was presided over by missionary
James L. Barton, under whose auspices the book had been published and the story
filmed. A search of the collection of this weekly between November 1918 and May
1920, nevertheless, did not yield references to Mardiganian’s book (of which two
American editions were released in 1918-19), or to the movie, which was
premiered at the Plaza Hotel of Manhattan in February 1919 as “the official
photo-drama of the National Motion Picture Committee of the American Committee
for Relief in the Near East.”11 Such a glaring omission is odd; the promotion of
the film claimed that “although it is probably the most sensational film ever
produced, the best people, including churches, in every community, are giving it
their unqualified support because of its overwhelming truths.”12

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La Nacion, Buenos Aires, August 29, 1920 (Photo courtesy of Eduardo Kozanlian)

Only a brief report of the screening of the film in Worcester, Mass., on June 2,
1919 appeared out of the blue. Even today, a reader unaware of the existence of
the film would not realize that it alluded to it. The report noted the
“presentation called ‘Ravished Armenia’ that depicts the Armenian misery, whose
heartbreaking scenes could not awaken but sad feelings in the hearts of any
Armenian. Watching those images representing the calamitous state of our
sisters, s/he seemed to hear a voice in his/her soul, the voice rising from the
wounded hearts of thousands of miserable Armenians who called for help.”
Fourteen Armenian young girls wrapped in Armenian and American flags—their names
were listed—served as ushers and worked in the fundraiser that followed. Another
young girl played the piano.13 The word nergayatsum (literally “presentation”)
may also mean “performance,” “play,” or even “exhibition,” and ‘Ravished
Armenia’ could be taken for a slideshow of photographs of the Medz Yeghern.14

A cursory and partial look at the issues of Hairenik, Azk, and Yeridasart
Hayastan has not revealed negative reactions from the community. Nevertheless,
there were reports about problems of censorship due to the graphic nature of the
images on the eve of the commercial release (May 1919):

“To make ‘Ravished Armenia’ a source of profit, its moving picture [շարժուն
պատկեր] was made to be exhibited. The New York newspapers devoted wide pages to
it and confessed that no moving picture leaves such a horrifying impression as
‘Ravished Armenia’ does; judging from the images that have been brought out, we
admit that these moving pictures invited more compassion and pity than the
descriptions of ‘New York American.’15 Today, however, the government has set a
prohibition and does not allow the moving picture ‘Ravished Armenia’ to be
exhibited, because many girls and women could not contain their shock during the
showing and fell and fainted. How should we not remember here and ask: What
happened to those who were the spectators and the unfortunate subjects of all
that? Of course, we cannot say with certainty that the cause of this suspension
is emotion or some political motive. This will be known in the future…”16

Mardiganian’s story during and after the production of the movie mixed stardom
and exploitation. According to Slide, who explored the issue in detail and was
fortunate to interview her in 1988, “No more sorrowful exploitation by the film
industry of a tragic event in world history exists than that of the filming of
‘Auction of Souls.’”17

It is not known, however,that the community actually took an interest in the
young survivor’s troubles and tried to help her. We have at least one documented
reference from the Armenian National Union, an umbrella organization founded in
1917 in Boston to pursue the Armenian Cause. This was a branch of the homonymous
organization founded earlier that same year in Egypt as the outcome of an
inter-party agreement. It was initially comprised by six main organizations: two
churches, the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Evangelical Church;
three parties, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Social-Democratic
Hunchakian, and the Reorganized (Veragazmeal) Hunchakian (the 1896 splinter that
became one of the founding parties of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party in
1921); and a charity, the Armenian General Benevolent Union. Divergences arose
within the organization in the beginning of 1919, after the all-community vote
to elect delegates for the Armenian National Congress held in Paris the same
year. As a result, first the ARF and later the Hunchakian Party left the Union.

The Union lobbied to stop the exhibition of “Auction of Souls.” The whereabouts
of its files are unknown to us, but fortunately there is a copy of its four-year
report (1917-21), published in Armenian. It contains the following paragraph:
“The Union worked to suspend the performances of the photoplay [պատկերախաղ]
‘Ravished Armenia’ or ‘Auction of Souls,’ shown to the benefit of the American
[Near East] Relief everywhere in the United States, whose features hurt Armenian
feelings.”

A footnote to the paragraph clarified: “An Armenian girl who was the main
actress of this photoplay had come to America and was being exploited. The known
chemist, Dr. Moosheg Vaygouney18 [Մուշեղ Վայկունի], came from San Francisco to
New York to make the same protest to the American Relief, both to stop the movie
and the exploitation of the girl.”19

This may have not been the only case of opposition and outrage. An article by
Karekin Boyajian in Hairenik spoke of an unnamed film, promoted throughout the
community as a depiction of “the real picture of the Armenian tragedy.” Three
people had protested to the Armenian Prelacy, while others had been a hindrance
to the screening: “However, the exhibition of the images…did not give the real
value of our national profile and moral principle. … In their dishonest role of
exploitation, the Armenian members of the Armenia Film Company came to our
wounded hearts to open new wounds. … Shame on such Armenians, who wanted to show
once again to [the] Armenian and foreign public the Turkish impudent barbarism
on our virtuous sisters’ honors.”20

Quoting these excerpts, published in April 1921, Bakhchinyan has suggested that
the article may have referred to “The Hero of Armenia,” a film with Armenian
national hero General Antranig as the main character (and seemingly containing
real footage of him), produced by Armenia Film Company. The announcements in the
press that the film, otherwise unknown, was ready in April 1920 did not make any
mention of genocide scenes, though.21 It is also possible, then, that the
company actually rented and showed “Ravished Armenia” to make a quick buck, as
the vague description seems to fit Aurora Mardiganian’s film better.

Negative reactions, which need to be further explored, were likely motivated by
the realization that, “while the text tried to sanitize the brutalities of the
Turkish gendarmerie, the film went as far as to deliver a sensational exposé of
sexual transgression that objectified women and girls, thus downplaying the
gravity of the committed crimes.”22 The infinite violence of the Medz Yeghern
had broken all moral standards. The exhibition of such scenes was seen as a
continuation of that violence.

‘Ravished Armenia’ in Buenos Aires: 1920s

Mardiganian’s memoir had reportedly reached 360,000 copies in circulation by
1934.23 It was translated twice into Armenian before the release of the movie,
and serialized in Hairenik and Yeridasart Hayastan, but none of those
translations were turned into a book. Both were published in 1918, after the
serialized version in the Hearst newspapers and not after the book, whose first
edition was in December 1918.24 Other translations would be published in book
form much later, in the 1960’s (Western Armenian) and 1990’s (Eastern
Armenian).25

It seems that the second edition of the memoir was simultaneously reprinted and
translated into Spanish, as both publications were printed in 1919 by
International Copyright Bureau, a literary agency based in New York. The Spanish
translation bore the title “Razed Armenia. Auction of Souls. The Story of Aurora
Mardiganian, the Young Christian Girl Survivor of the Terrible Massacres.”26
There was a subtle change in the title: while the English ravished presented a
double meaning (“raped,” in the usage of the day, now old-fashioned, or “damaged
and robbed,” also today), the similarly sounding Spanish arrasada plainly meant
“razed” or “destroyed,” without any sexual connotation.

A Spanish translation of an English book outside of Spain and Latin America was
not a surprising event, even a century ago. There were also precedents of
Spanish translations of French books published in Paris. As far as we know, this
was actually the third translation on the topic in Spanish. The previous two
such translations, Arnold Toynbee’s Atrocities in Armenia (1916)27 and
Faiz-el-Ghusein’s Martyred Armenia (1918),28 were published in Great Britain.

The movie reached Latin America and was shown in Mexico, Cuba, and Argentina.29
Its title, “Subasta de almas o Armenia arrasada,” was a combination of both
Spanish titles of the book. It was premiered in the Callao Cinema of Buenos
Aires on Sept. 1, 1920. Advertisements appeared in the dailies La Nación and La
Razón, and there were likely others. After the title of the film, the ad in La
Nación quoted a lengthy paragraph from the book—the scene where a blonde girl
delivers herself to the soldiers, in vain, to try to save her mother—followed by
a picture of a crucified woman (suggesting that the girl was her) and the
conclusion: “Aurora Mardiganian, the Christian young girl surviving among so
many undefended women, narrates scenes like this, which the public may learn
watching the film…”30 An ad in another newspaper, La Razón, published the day
before the premiere, highlighted that the film was a “remarkable cinematographic
work which recounts the sad story of Aurora Mardiganian, the Christian young
girl miraculously saved from death, who in the book Auction of Souls, dedicated
to all parents, says (. . .).” The same picture of the crucified woman was
interposed, with a quote from the memoir, a note on the movie theater and the
date of release, and mention that the film premiered in New York at $10 per
ticket and that Mardiganian herself was the protagonist. The distributor of the
film, Manuel Sáenz, and his address were also given.31

Unfortunately, we know nothing about the echoes of the film. Besides, there were
no Armenian newspapers to chronicle any reaction from the community. La Nación,
after giving a summary of the film in its column on new movies, had concluded
before the premiere: “It is, then, the story of a true scene that serves as plot
to the whole history of Armenia. And the film can be judged only with it. In its
scenes, in its various episodes, one must see the development of a document
which is the protest of an oppressed people.”32

The print of the film was still available in 1926, when the Buenos Aires chapter
of the Armenian General Benevolent Union organized a screening.33 The minutes of
the board meeting of July 21, 1926 recorded: “Although the board had decided to
organize the performance of a play, due to the absence of an appropriate script,
it decided to make a contract with a cinema to show two films from Armenian
life: ‘Miss Arshalus [sic] Mardiganian’ and ‘Oriente.’” The minutes do not
mention who owned them. After various inquiries, they finally found a movie
theater in the neighborhood of Boca, the Teatro José Verdi, quite close to the
Armenian-populated areas of the city, and rented both films, “Subasta de almas”
(60 pesos) and “El Oriente” (80 pesos); the name and origin of the latter, as
well as its actual relation to Armenian themes, is unknown. The minutes from
Sept. 29 noted, “Both films being sad ones, it was decided to rent a comic one
too.” The screening was scheduled for Oct. 24, and 800 tickets were put on sale.

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French brochure about Le martyre d’un peuple

Unfortunately, we do not have any further information about the event, or the
reaction of the public; a few short-lived newspapers existed in the community
between 1922 and 1925, but 1926 marked a gap in the history of the press. The
Armenian-Argentinean community at that time, unlike its North American
counterpart in 1919-20, was mostly made up of newly arrived people who, after
enduring the genocide, had escaped either the massacres of Cilicia in 1920-21 or
the catastrophe of Smyrna in 1922. The Argentinean weekly Caras y Caretas wrote
in 1923 that they “only speak of war, of crimes, of fires, of deportations, of
political assassinations, of the death of Enver Bey or Talaat Pasha…and find in
these red themes their favorite conversation, while the children entertain
themselves playing incendio [fire] in one of the corners of the house.”34

‘The Despoiler’ and ‘Châtiment’

In a book on the 100th anniversary of the first Armenian movie, Bakhchinyan
called attention to “The Despoiler,” a film by American director Reginald Barker
(1886-1945), with screenplay by J. G. Hawke and famous
actor-director-screenwriter-producer Thomas H. Ince (1882-1924), “which
reflected the tragic events and episodes of Armenian resistance” and whose
scenes “took place at the Turkish-Armenian border.” It was filmed in
August-October 1915 and released by Triangle Film Corporation in the United
States on Dec. 15 of the same year.35 This film had a very intriguing and
trouble-ridden history, which has not been entirely clarified.

“The Despoiler” (also registered as “War’s Women”) had a pacifist tone, the same
as Ince’s important anti-war movie, “Civilization” (1916), which he co-directed
with Barker and others.36 It ran into problems with censorship from the
beginning: 10 days after its release, on Dec. 24, 1915, George H. Bell, the
commissioner of the New York Department of Licenses, judged the film to be
“indecent, immoral, contrary to public welfare, and not fit to be exhibited in a
licensed theatre.”37 The screenings ended in late January 1916; the film was
sold to the Fulton Feature Film Corporation (a subsidiary of the Triangle),
re-issued in early 1917 in a revised version due to an injunction by the New
York State Court on charges of immorality, and re-released in January 1920 as
“The Awakening..” Barker established his credentials as a daring filmmaker:
“‘War’s Women’ was in effect banned because of its perceived attitude toward sex
and sexuality but it was as much a film sending out a message about female
liberation and social, political, and cultural freedoms about to come, as it was
a movie designed purely for titillation.”38 However, the synopsis does not show
any Armenian connection. In war-torn Europe, Colonel Damien (Charles K. French)
seizes an enemy town and the Emir of Balkania (Frank Keenan), the commander of
the supporting native troops, threatens to unleash his men on the women who are
staying in the town abbey to persuade the defeated soldiers to give up their
ill-gotten money. Damien gives the captured men a payment deadline and falls
asleep on a chair. Meanwhile, the emir goes to the abbey where Sylvia (Enid
Markey), the colonel’s daughter, is secretly staying. He offers to free the
other women in exchange for her sexual favors, but she shoots him after
complying with his demands. When Damien discovers the emir’s corpse, he orders
the assassin shot. Covered by a veil, Sylvia is promptly executed. The colonel
is overcome with grief after her body is identified. Finally, he wakes up in his
armchair and, realizing that the tragedy was only a dream, orders his troops to
leave the town in peace.39

The Armenian connection appeared in the French version of the film, “Châtiment”
(Punishment), released in Paris on May 18, 1917. Thomas Ince was introduced as
the director, something that happened frequently with films he produced. The
critic of the weekly La Rampe wrote: “Ince’s ‘Châtiment’ is a marvelous and
poignant film. Ince, a great artist, has given his measure once again. One has
to watch ‘Châtiment,’ which represents superbly the bestiality of Armenian
persecutions and shows the risk of the Boches in exciting vile passions among
the Kurds.”40 The specialized weekly Ciné pour tous, in an extensive article
about the productions of Triangle Film Corporation, characterized Châtiment as a
film-à-thèse in 1921, writing, “the situations are of rare power and, as always,
the many psychological notes on the margin of the intrigue make ‘Châtiment’ much
more than a successful drama.”41

It is not clear how and where the film changed setting and plot. The only
available copy of “The Despoiler,” shorter than the American original and with
some losses, was restored by the Cinemathèque Française in 2010 (a five-minute
trailer is available at its website). The fact that the movie was silent allowed
the modification of the montage and the title cards. And thus the American
original, set in an imaginary European area, with the main villain being a
colonel with a vaguely French name, was turned into a realistic film of
anti-German propaganda. The Kurdish troops of Khan Ouardaliah, led by German
colonel Franz von Werfel, are operating on the Turkish-Armenian border. Both
bandits enter Armenia and terrorize Kerouassi. Women and children take refuge in
an abbey, while the notable men of the town are arrested; if they do not yield
their assets and properties, their women and daughters will be sent into
captivity. Beatrice, the daughter of the colonel, who was looking for her
father, also reaches the abbey. The blackmail has no effect and von Werfel
leaves the abbey spurring Ouardaliah’s rage, who covets Beatrice. The young girl
accepts to give herself to the khan, on condition that her unfortunate
companions are spared. After the horrible sacrifice, the half-mad girl kills her
sleeping torturer with his weapon. Vvon Werfel sends the killer to the firing
squad without realizing that she was his own daughter. Guilt-stricken, he spares
the unfortunate women and takes his mercenaries elsewhere.42

It is ironic that the name of the German colonel is similar to Franz Werfel’s,
the author of The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, who was a soldier in the Austrian
army during the war. But the coincidence ends there.

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Yervant Setian (a.k.a. Cine Seto, 1907-1997)

Film scholar Marc Vernet has recently remarked: “In any case, it does not look
likely that the French distributor of ‘Châtiment’ had the possibility of
reworking the material of 1915 to update it; it is much more likely that the
French version of 1917 comes in fact from the American version of 1917, after
the retreat of January 1917 and in the moment of entrance of the United States
into the war in April 1917. Basically, the version of 1917, both American and
French, just erases a little the self-imposed censorship of 1915 (fuzziness of
locations, names, and procedures of the main character who just dreams)
maintaining the imposed censorship (the scene judged blasphemous).”43

The film had its name and contents changed for its commercial exploitation in
France; there seems to be no evidence that the American original also changed
its plot at the time of its re-release as “The Awakening” in 1920. It shows a
remarkable parallel with the fate of “Ravished Armenia,” which changed its name
and presentation in France some time between 1920 and 1925.

Le martyre d’un people

The first frame of the extant segment of “Ravished Armenia” offers a puzzle that
only makes sense for readers of the Armenian language: the title is spelled in
Soviet Armenian orthography and has nothing to do with the original film itself.
This is a silent reminder of where these fragments were found: Yerevan. The
story has a long and fascinating thread.

In October 1988, the Soviet Armenian monthly Sovetakan Hayastan (1945-89), a
publication for the Armenian Diaspora by the state-run Committee for Cultural
Relations with Armenian Abroad, featured an article by Gevork Mirzoyan in its
section, “In the Shelter of the Motherland,” which included stories of
repatriates who had successfully lived and thrived. It profiled Yervant Setian
(1907-97), a survivor of the Medz Yeghern born in Adapazar, who had worked as a
cameraman in Marseilles, France, before settling in Armenia during the
post-World War II repatriation, where he continued his career in the Armenfilm
studios over the next 30 years, with credits in popular movies like “Aurora
Borealis,” “I Know Personally,” “Why the River Makes Noise.” The quotations
below are taken verbatim from the translation, which appeared simultaneously in
the English and Spanish digests of Sovetakan Hayastan—presumably in other
languages, too—called Kroonk. The English publication included the photograph of
Setian in his old age, as well as a picture of him in 1945 filming the unveiling
ceremony of the statue of General Antranig in the Parisian cemetery of Père
Lachaise.

In the summer of 1925, Setian, then 18 years old, watched a film called “Le
martyre d’un people” (The Martyrdom of a People) in a movie theater in
Marseilles. “To the solemn accompaniment of the piano, scenes of the Armenian
deportations and of the unprecedented atrocities they were subjected to were
shown on the screen. In the cinema hall, the film aroused the fury of the
audience. Not only Armenians but foreigners as well burst into tears and were
beside themselves with rage protesting vociferously against the perpetrators of
the slaughter,” wrote Mirzoyan. He quoted Setian: “I was filled with thoughts of
desire for revenge, which bound [me] more closely to the cinema. I made up my
mind definitely to become a camera man.”44

Meanwhile, Black Cat Films screened a double program on May 11 and 18, 1928, at
the Omnia-Pathé movie theater of Paris. It included the films “Poupée de Vienne”
(The Vienna Doll) and “Le martyre d’un people.”45 The headquarters of this
production and distribution company were in the 10tharrondissement of Paris, an
area densely populated by Armenians; it had moved from 44 Rue de l’Échiquier to
the second floor of 5 Rue des Petites-Écuries on Sept. 15, 1926.46 Its directors
were Messrs. Desmet and Malbrancke, who had established a solid reputation and
represented six production companies, including Black Cat Films.47 It was listed
at the same address in 1931 together with other French producers, renters,
distributors, and agents.48

However, in the same way that the plot and location of “The Despoiler” had
changed from the United States to France, the plot and the location of “Le
martyre d’un people” would change within France, as the commentary of Les
Spectacles reflected. The Armenians were replaced by the Balkanic peoples in the
Paris screenings:

“We are here in a grandiose evocation of the troubling times when the Balkanic
people fought each other to the profit of the third neighbor, who meanwhile
grabbed the wealth of the warring people.

“We attend in this Martyre d’un peuple to the massacres that, regrettably,
bloodied Eastern Europe towards the middle of the world war. These are authentic
documents patiently collected or sometimes reconstituted following the reports
of the embassies.

“One has to see this poignant misery, the torments that endure an entire hungry
people, dying from thirst, whose residences are robbed, women are kidnapped, and
young girls are ignominiously tortured amid the storm, while the little children
sow their bodies along the tough road of exile and slavery.

“All the episodes of this vivid tragedy are found in this production of a
shocking realism, which the Black Cat Film may feel proud of having in order to
show to the people who want peace all unknown horrors that happened in faraway
countries, where it seems that civilization should plant less ferments of hate
and more happiness for people of good will.”49

Here we have a puzzle. Accepting that Setian had watched “Le martyre d’un
people” as an Armenian-related production in 1925, we find that it was turned
into a non-Armenian movie in 1928 and, a few months later, it became an
Armenian-themed movie once again. The newspaper Aztag of Beirut in January 1929
informed of the screening of «Մարտիրոս ժողովուրդ մը» (Martiros zhoghovurd me, A
Martyr People) at the movie theater El Dorado of Marseilles, based on the
testimonies of James Bryce and Henry Morgenthau, and “according to the witness
testimonies of an Armenian woman who survived the deportations.” The short
report noted the absence of identification of both executioners and victims.50
Abaka, another Armenian newspaper based in Paris, wrote in February 1929,
probably after another screening, that the film “was a martyrdom, a cumulated
and enriched combination of terrible scenes taken from a Life of the Saints or a
Synaxarion. It was a true suffering for an Armenian to be present, and a
foreigner would have thought how a people allowed such savagery to be enacted
over themselves, their women, and children.”51

Yervant Setian, known by the nickname Ciné Seto, went on to film several
documentaries related to Armenian community life in France during the 1930’s,
including “Faces of Armenian Scientists,” “Memorial of Armenia,” the
consecration of the Armenian church of Marseilles, the burial of ARF
intellectual Mikayel Varandian, the departure of 800 repatriates to Armenia, and
others.52 The silent film era was already history when he stumbled upon a copy
of “Le martyre d’un people”: “I used to attend the cine-photo exhibition of
Paris held in February every year, and in 1938 as usual I was there. After
visiting the exhibition I went to George Miller’s film company. He welcomed me
warmly and said: Mr. Setian, I have to inform you about an interesting film
dedicated to Armenian life, or to be more accurate to the 1915 Armenian tragedy.
I believe you’ve seen it, it’s called ‘Martyrdom of a Nation’ and was shot in
England.

I told Miller I had seen it in 1925 and asked him to give me a special viewing.
The lights went down and I saw the scenes I had seen several years ago. After
the show Miller told me that he had come across the film while putting the old
film library in order. He had remembered me. George mentioned the price which
was quite a big sum for those years, but you could not bargain with Miller. I
did not possess the required amount so I told him I’d buy it in a few days’
time. This treasure could not be lost. I borrowed the money from a Parisian
friend of mine and after two days I was with George again. He told me he didn’t
have a license to release the film and so it could be shown only in close
circles with special invitations. He advised me to take a 16 mm copy from the 35
mm one, to change the title and make some changes in the structure of the film
itself. I thanked George and asked him to give me a brochure of the film. A week
later he handed me a photocopy of a brochure from the archives, on the front
page of which one could see the emblem of the British ‘Black Cat’ Film Studios,
then read the following: ‘Martyrdom of a Nation – the greatest tragedy in
history,’ and beneath it, ‘This film is shown on the documentary evidence of
Eliza Kreterian, one of the survivors of the tragedy of a hundred thousand
Armenian girls, as well as on the testimony of Reverend Father Rouben and 1st
Viscount James Bryce of England.’ The inside pages contained four stills from
the film. Neither the director nor the camera man’s name were mentioned. On the
last page only the emblem of the film studio was printed.”53

The Armenian original of the article gave the correct translation of the French
original film title («Մի ժողովրդի մարտիրոսութիւնը», The Martyrdom of a People).
Nowhere does Setian give any indication of having changed either the title or
the structure of the film, as Miller had advised him, or having showed it in
France. The war and the German occupation probably prevented him.

Mirzoyan’s article in Sovetakan Hayastan included a picture of the front page of
the French brochure, missing from the English translation in Kroonk. The
explanatory note beneath the logo of Black Cat Films shows some significant
differences with the English-mediated translation, starting from the name of the
purported narrator of the story. Most likely, Setian provided a paraphrase in
Armenian rather than a textual translation. The short description spells the
name of the narrator differently, claims that she was the only survivor of a
wholesale massacre of young women (without identifying their nationality), and
mentions an additional source:

LE MARTYRE D’UN PEUPLE

LA PLUS GRANDE TRAGÉDIE DE L’HISTOIRE

Reconstituée d’après les récits de Mlle. Elise Grayterian, seule rescapée des
cent mille jeunes femmes massacrées, par les comptes rendus de Vicomte BRYCE,
par les documents des Missions et par le rapport du Réverend Père RUPEN.

Or,

The Martyrdom of a People

The Greatest Tragedy of History

Reconstituted after the accounts of Miss Elise Grayterian, the only survivor of
a hundred thousand massacred young women, through the reports of Viscount Bryce,
the documents of the Missions, and the report of Reverend Father Rupen.”54

Miller’s statement that the movie had been filmed in Great Britain made Setian
think that Bryce had thrown his influence behind the shooting of the film:
“Beyond doubt, only through the efforts of a great and influential statesman
could the film studio consent to shoot such a film, which is indeed of paramount
importance for us as it is made by a foreign company, a representative of Great
Britain at that! But alas, it was too soon withdrawn from the market for which
two explanations only could be made; either the studio received a great amount
of money from the Turks to destroy all copies of the film, or British Diplomatic
Circles ordered its withdrawal. I was glad, however, to be able to save one copy
of it and bring it safely to Soviet Armenia.”

Mirzoyan concluded: “Yervant Setian, together with other French-Armenian
emigrants, repatriated to Soviet Armenia in 1947. Bringing this and other films
to the Motherland, he handed them over to the Yerevan cinedocumentary
archives.”55

The discovery of ‘Ravished Armenia’

The year 1988 saw a national awakening with the beginning of the
Nagorno-Karabagh movement. Very few people had watched a two-part film that was
said to contain documental images of the genocide. The only copy was in the Film
Archive of Yerevan, located in the suburban area of the city.

Film scholar Vladimir Badasyan watched the film in 1988 and wrote about it three
years later. For unknown reasons, he identified the 20-minute long film as Der
Zor, the name of the Syrian desert that had become the ultimate Armenian
slaughterhouse. Much of the available information was hearsay: “They say that it
is a film of four to six hours of duration. I have to say that I barely believe
it. Moreover, I do not discard that we have the entire film, perhaps with some
loss of frames. But I have to say that very few claim that what is represented
has a documentary nature. I think that even the eye of the non-specialist will
realize that most of the scenes are performed.”56 Following Setian’s claim,
Mirzoyan had written that the film “combined documentary footage with the
testimonies of witnesses who had survived the genocide.”57

It was believed that the film had been shot in the first half of the 1920’s,
wrote Badasyan (he gave the date 1926 in the title), and that it was based on
the recollections of the young girl seen at the end hanging from a cross; the
still was printed along with the article. Setian had spoken about himself and
the film in Ara Mnatsakanyan’s 10-minute “Yervand Setyan, 82nd Spring,” released
by Hayk Documentary Film Studio in 1988, but without giving further details.58

In 1947, after his arrival to Yerevan, the cameraman had followed Miller’s
advice and made a film montage of “Le martyre d’un people” with war footage.
Bakhchinyan has quoted two flyers of this newfangled movie, which we assume the
cameraman himself wrote—the language is in Western Armenian—and probably
circulated among the repatriates; it stated sensitive issues for those times:
the film “had been brought out thanks to American Ambassador Mr. Morgenthau and
Viscount Bryce of England,” while it also included “the promises of the Allies
and the history of the boundaries of Armenia.” Such statements were safe in the
period between 1945 and 1947, when the Soviet Union had briefly affirmed its
claims towards territories of Western Armenia, now in Turkey. The national
awakening of the 1960’s allowed the making of Soviet Armenian TV films about the
genocide, which made use of the surviving scenes, the same as Artavazd
Peleshyan’s critically acclaimed film-essay, “We” (1967).59

The article in Sovetakan Hayastan makes crystal-clear that Setian never
suspected the actual identity of the film he had purchased in France. On the
other hand, Badasyan had rightfully noticed that the film was not a documentary.
“Le martyre d’un people” was the retitled copy of “Ravished Armenia” and “Elise
Grayterian” was Aurora Mardiganian. One may only speculate whether this
reconversion was done in England, where the film had been censored and released
with cuts in 1920.60

An Armenian from the other side of the world would solve the puzzle. Born in
Bucharest, Romania, Eduardo Kozanlian migrated to Argentina in 1952, at the age
of five, following the Communist takeover. He found a copy of Aurora
Mardiganian’s Spanish book in his father’s library when he was a high school
student, at the age of 13 or 14, and was enthralled by the account. Years later,
he started to amass a collection of materials related to the book, the film, and
their heroine.

He would strike gold during a trip to Armenia in 1994. An academic recommended
that he speak with the director of the Film Archive. There he came across the
film that Badasyan had identified as “Der Zor,” but the opening frame was
different. It showed the date “1915” and the title, in Soviet Armenan spelling,
“Հայ ժողովրդի ամենամեծ ողբերգությունը” (Hay zhoghovrdi amenametz voghberkutyune,
The Greatest Tragedy of the Armenian People). Setian had apparently merged the
original “The Martyrdom of a People” and the description “The Greatest Tragedy
of History” of the French brochure.

The first two and half minutes and the last 55” did not belong to the original.
Kozanlian compared the remaining 14 minutes with the stills he knew and
identified it as part of “Ravished Armenia.” The harrowing scene at the end
corresponded to the picture published in the Argentinean newspapers of 1920. The
coincidence of this scene with Aurora Mardiganian’s reference to crucifixion in
the book—an American sanitized version of actual impalement, as she told
Slide61—was a solid confirmation that the segments belonged to the movie, as
hers was, as far as we can ascertain, the only such testimony in the extensive
bibliography of survivor memoirs.

It turned out that the end of Setian’s story about “Le martyre d’un people” was
not what it looked like. His departure from France had actually written a new
and fateful chapter in the odyssey of the unrecognized copy of “Ravished
Armenia,” as Kozanlian found out when he paid a visit to the 87-year-old former
cameraman, who lived with his wife and two children and passed away on Jan. 26,
1997. He told his visitor: “I think that the Istanbul government paid the film
production company to burn all the negatives. My rolls were the only remainders.
Only this fragment has been conserved.”62

The film had come with him, but never arrived in Yerevan. Kozanlian gave the
following version of its fate in an interview during another trip to Armenia in
1999: “When Setian came to Armenia in 1947, he also tried to bring his films.
The security service confiscated the cargo in Batum and did not return it.”63 In
the same way that religious literature was systematically confiscated, the
feared Ministry of State Security (MGB, grandfather of the KGB) would have
hardly allowed any politically sensitive material to enter the country.

In an ironic twist of fate, the all but forgotten protagonist of this
decades-long search, Aurora Mardiganian, passed away in 1994, the year of the
film’s discovery, without even the consolation of seeing a happy end to her
tragic story. Two years after her death, Matilde Sánchez, a journalist of
Clarín, the most widely read newspaper of Argentina, wrote a three-page essay on
the film and its discovery, using materials provided by Kozanlian, as part of a
lengthy discussion of the genocide. She noted that oblivion had covered
Mardiganian’s trail, and her final paragraph reflected the lack of information
at the time about her life after the film: “The journalist admits to being
unaware of the actual whereabouts of the exile, who supposedly lived a few years
in California, where she had a daughter [sic!] of remarkable similitude to her.
But that girl, of course, carried another surname.” Her caveat sounds almost
comic when read today: “Unless Aurora was an actress who had loaned her figure
for the drama, mounted by the department of Armenian propaganda of the Relief in
order to call the attention of American citizens and move the Congress…” Some
factual mistakes appeared: The article claimed that Setian had actually
recognized ‘Auction of Souls’ after watching the film at the time of his
purchase, although no source substantiates that, and that the film, together
with other cargo, had been robbed in transit from Batum to Yerevan.64 The two
claims were included in the summary that historian Barbara J. Merguerian
published a few weeks later in the Armenian Mirror-Spectator, which was
translated into Armenian in the now defunct Nor Gyank weekly of California.65

The back jacket of the videocassette released in the early 2000’s omitted
Kozanlian’s name and added unwarranted claims: “It presumably lost to history
until the year 2000 when a researcher in Buenos Aires, South America, who for
years had diligently investigated every lead to find the lost reels, came
forward with this surviving 15-minute segment. He related the tragic fate of the
film in the 1930’s and 1940’s and how the remaining reels of the rare nitrate
based film were truly lost, presumably sunk with a ship on their way to the port
of Batum.”66 It is clear by now that the segment was not discovered in
2000—perhaps the year when the anonymous publisher “discovered” his/her
source—while the hitherto unheard suggestion that the film had been lost in the
sea on its way to the Soviet Union (wrongly ascribed to Kozanlian) may be
dismissed; this version leaves aside the basic question of how two fragile
nitrate reels survived the shipwreck, while the others got lost.67 Nevertheless,
the date 2000 is useful as terminus a quo for the release of the video.

A recent study of the Library of Congress revealed that of the 10,919 silent
films produced between 1912 and 1929 in the United States, only 3,313 still
exist, including incomplete ones. The reasons given are either the complete loss
of material value at the onset of the sound movie era (the studios cleared their
vaults and eliminated their original source of wealth) or destruction by
degradation of materials.68 There seems to be nothing extraordinary in the
apparent total loss of “Ravished Armenia”; foul play—Turkish direct or indirect
intervention—remains within the boundaries of speculation. “But just as history
can be revised and rewritten, so can films be restored, and rediscovered,” Slide
had written in 1997. “Perhaps there is still hope of the resurrection of the
film version of ‘Ravished Armenia.’”69 Unexpected findings have shaken silent
movie buffs in the last years, such as Mary Pickford’s earliest film found in
the attic of a barn in New Hampshire (2006);70 a complete copy of Fritz Lang’s
Metropolis discovered in the Museo del Cine of Buenos Aires, along with three
American and one Soviet silent movie (2008),71 and 75 American silent movies
hailing from New Zealand (2009).72 It is not too bizarre to think that the
elusive, complete version of “Ravished Armenia”—perhaps with a changed
name—could be collecting dust in some forgotten corner of the continental United
States, in Wellington, in Buenos Aires, or in some other place in this wide, yet
small world. Time lends credence to this view and wings to hope.

Sources

1 Anthony Slide (ed.), Ravished Armenia and the Story of Aurora Mardiganian,
Lanham (Md.) and London: Scarecrow Press, 1997, p. 17.

2 Special Report of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, January 25,
1919 (see the photograph in
http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/online_exhibition_6.php).

3 Mark A. Kalustian, “Ravished Armenia: The Auction of Souls,” The Armenian
Mirror-Spectator, Nov. 7, 1987 (see idem, Did You Know That…?: A Collection of
Armenian Sketches, Arlington (Mass.): Armenian Culture Foundation, 2004, pp.
140-145).

4 Aurora Mardiganian, Subasta de almas, Buenos Aires: Akian Gráfica Editora,
1999. For the text of the unpublished introduction, see Eduardo Kozanlian, “A
propósito del libro ‘Subasta de almas’,” Armenia, May 19, 1999. There are also
translations into Western (idem, ‘“Hogineru achurd’ girki masin,” translated by
Vartan Matiossian, Haratch, June 24, 1999) and Eastern Armenian (idem,
‘“Hogineri achurd’ grki artiv,” Yerkir, Aug. 19, 2000).

5 Slide, Ravished Armenia and the Story, p. 17.

6 Goldberg had written to Kozanlian on Sept. 14, 1999: “I am writing, per our
conversation, in search of permission to use your clip of the film Ravished
Armenia starring Aurora Mardiganian. We would like to use your clip in our
documentary on Armenian-Americans. (…) We will provide credit to you and any
organization you are affiliated with at the end of our program” (Eduardo
Kozanlian’s personal files, Buenos Aires).

7 See https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL652B7F8867E55844

8 Aurora Mardiganian, Subasta de almas, Buenos Aires: Arvest Ediciones, 2011.
Contents: Aurora Mardiganian, “Subasta de almas”; Artsvi Bakhchinian, “El
Genocidio Armenio en el cine,” translated by Vartan Matiossian; Sergio Kniasian,
“Un investigador de Argentina descubre el film.”

9 See also Eugene L. Taylor and Abraham D. Krikorian, ‘“Ravished Armenia:
Revisited:’ Some Additions to ‘A Brief Assessment of the Ravished Armenia
Marquee Poster’,” Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies, 2, 2010, p. 187.
I would like to thank Eduardo Kozanlian, Marc Mamigonian, Artsvi Bakhchinyan,
and Sergio Kniasian for providing information and sources for the writing of
this article.

10 Artsvi Bakhchinyan, Hayere hamashkharhayin kinoyum (Armenians in World
Cinema), Yerevan: Publishing House of Museum of Literature and Art, 2003, p. 47.
The article mentioned in footnote 8 is a Spanish translation of pages 41-50 of
this book.

11 ‘“Ravished Armenia’ in Film,” The New York Times, Feb. 15, 1919.

12 Motion Picture News, July 5, 1919.

13 “Hay gaghtakanutiun” (Armenian Community), Gochnag Hayastani, July 7, 1919,
p. 872.

14 For the sake of example, in October 1919 Armin T. Wegner gave lectures in
Berlin illustrated with slides of his photographs of the genocide (Sybil Milton,
“Armin T. Wegner: Polemicist for Armenian and Jewish Human Rights,” Armenian
Review, Winter 1989, p. 24).

15 It refers to the fact that the memoir was serialized in New York American, a
morning newspaper published by William Randolph Hearst between 1895 and 1937. In
this last year, it merged with his evening newspaper New York Evening Journal to
become the New York Journal-American (1937-1966).

16 Vahan Chukasezian, ‘“Ravished Armenia’n” (“Ravished Armenia”), Yeritasard
Hayastan, May 14, 1919.

17 Anthony Slide, Early American Cinema, new and revised edition, Lanham (Md.)
and London: Scarecrow Press, 1994, p. 214. Mardiganian also appeared in J.
Michael Hagopian’s The Armenian Case (1975) and was interviewed as part of the
Oral History Project of the Zoryan Institute in the 1980s.

18 Moosheg Vaygouney, class of 1904 of the University of California, lived in
Berkeley (“Directory of Older Alumni,” The Journal of Agriculture of the
University of California, April 1917, p. 269).

19 Teghekagir Hay Azgayin Miutian Amerikayi 1917-1921 (Report of the Armenian
National Union of America 1917-1921) (Boston: Azg-Pahak, 1922), p. 40.

20 Karekin Boyajian, “Der ke shahagortzvi hay pative” (The Armenian Honor is
Still Being Exploited), Hairenik, April 26, 1921, quoted in Bakhchinyan, Hayere,
p. 49.

21 See Artsvi Bakhchinyan, Armenian Cinema-100: The Early History of Armenian
Cinema (1895 to mid-1920s), translated by Vartan Matiossian and Susanna
Mkrtchyan, Yerevan: Armenian National Film Academy and Filmmakers’ Union of
Armenia, 2012, pp. 143-146.

22 Shushan Avagyan, “Becoming Aurora: Translating the Story of Arshaluys
Mardiganian,” Dissidences, vol. 4, iss. 8, article 13 (available at
http://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/dissidences/vol4/iss8/13).

23 Slide, Ravished Armenia and the Story, p. 3.

24 The copyright was entered on Dec. 28, 1918 (Catalog of Copyright Entries for
the Year 1919, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1919, p. 21).

25 H. L. Gates (editor), Hogineru achurde. Metz Yeghernen veraprogh hayuhi Orora
Martikaniani vaverakan patmutiune (Auction of Souls: The Authentic Story of
Aurora Mardiganian, an Armenian Woman Survivor of the Medz Yeghern), translated
by Mardiros Koushakjian, Beirut: Zartonk Daily, 1965 (previously serialized in
the daily Zartonk); Hoshotvatz Hayastan. Ays patmutiune Metz Yeghernits hrashkov
prkvatz mi hay aghchka masin e (Ravished Armenia: This Story is about an
Armenian Girl Miraculously Saved from the Medz Yeghern), translated by Gurgen
Sargsyan, Los Angeles: n. p., 1995. It is noteworthy that both modern
translations use the expression Medz Yeghern to translate the “Great Massacres”
of the original (“The Christian Girl Who Lived Through the Great Massacres”/
“The Christian Girl Who Survived the Great Massacres”).

26 Armenia arrasada. Subasta de almas. El relato de Aurora Mardiganian, la joven
cristiana, superviviente de las terribles matanzas, translated by J. R. López
Sena, New York: International Copyright Bureau, 1919.

27 Atrocidades en Armenia. El exterminio de una nación, Edinburgh, London, and
New York: Thomas Melson and Sons, n. d. For the date 1916, see Jean Pierre Alem,
Armenia, translated by Narciso Binayan, Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 1963, p. 118.

28 Fa’iz-el-Ghusein, Armenia sacrificada, London: Oxford University Press, 1918.
On this unknown Spanish translation (a microfilm of the book is available at the
New York Public Library), see Vartan Matiossian, ‘“Armenia sacrificada’, de
Fa’iz el-Ghusein. Un testimonio árabe y su desconocida traducción castellana,”
in Nélida Boulgourdjian-Toufeksian, Juan Carlos Toufeksian and Carlos Alemian
(eds.), Genocidios del siglo XX y formas de la negación. Actas del III Encuentro
sobre Genocidio, Buenos Aires: Centro Armenio, 2002, pp. 277-291.

29 See http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/online_exhibition_6.php

29 La Nación, Aug. 29, 1920.

31 La Razón, Aug. 31, 1920.

32 “Los principales estrenos locales,” La Nación, Aug. 29, 1920.

33 See the minutes of the Buenos Aires chapter of the Armenian General
Benevolent Union, July 21 to Sept. 29, 1926 (in Armenian).

34 Baltasar de Laón, “Las familias armenias evadidas de Constantinopla al entrar
en ella las tropas de Kemal bajá llegan a nuestro país,” Caras y Caretas, Feb.
10, 1923, where a photograph illustrated the game.

35 Bakhchinyan, Armenian Cinema-100, pp. 100-101. As a reflect of the Armenian
tragedy, The Despoiler was preceded by two Russian feature movies, Bloody Orient
(A. Arkadov, released in February 1915) and Under the Kurdish Yoke (a.k.a. The
Tragedy of Turkish Armenia, A. I. Minervin, released in October 1915), of which
there is no extant copy (idem, Hayere, p. 42).

36 Brian Taves, Thomas Ince: Hollywood’s Independent Pioneer, Lexington (KY):
The University Press of Kentucky, 2012, p. 100.

37 See
http://www.cinematheque.fr/sites-documentaires/triangle/impression/archives-photos-et-films-les-films-triangle-la-restauration-de-the-despoiler.php

38 Ian Scott, ‘“Don’t Be Frightened Dear … This Is Hollywood’: British
Filmmakers in Early American Cinema,” European Journal of American Studies
[Online], Special issue 2010, document 5, par. 16.

39 http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=1&Movie=13928

40 Henri Diamant-Berger, “Les films à voir,” La Rampe, May 17, 1917.

4[1] “Une date dans l’histoire du cinéma: La production Triangle 1915 1916
1917,” Ciné pour tous, June 3, 1921, pp. 8-10.

42 See
http://www.cinematheque.fr/catalogues/restaurations-tirages/film.php?id=111751

43 Marc Vernet, “Vite, mettre en scène un génocide : The Despoiler, Reginald
Barker 1915,” Ecrire l’histoire, no. 12, Fall 2013, p. 74 (see
http://cinemarchives.hypotheses.org/1533).

44 Gevork Mirzoyan, “A Spirit of Perennial Youth,” Kroonk, 10, 1988, p. 21.

45 “Les présentations prochaines,” Les spectacles, May 11, 1928, p. 12; “Les
présentations prochaines,” Les spectacles, May 18, 1928, p. 13.

46 See the advertisement in Cinémagazine, Sept. 10, 1926.

47 “Un choix heureuse,” Les spectacles, Sept. 2, 1927, p. 5.

48 Kinematograph Year Book, London: Kinematograph Publications Ltd., 1931, p.
27.

49 “Les présentations,” Les spectacles, May 25, 1928, p. 2.

50 “Haykakan taragrutiants filme” (The Film of the Armenian Deportations),
Aztag, Jan. 19, 1929.

51 Abaka, Feb. 23, 1929, quoted in Bakhchinyan, Hayere, p. 48.

52 Bakhchinyan, Hayere, p. 312.

53 Mirzoyan, “A Spirit,” p. 22.

54 Gevorg Mirzoyan, “Vogin chi tzeranum” (The Spirit Does Not Grow Old),
Sovetakan Hayastan monthly, 10, 1988, p. 34. The identity of “Reverend Father
Rupen” remains undisclosed.

55 Mirzoyan, “A Spirit,” p. 23.

56 Vladimir Badasyan, “Der Zor (1926 t.)” (Der Zor, 1926), Kino, 8, 1991.

57 Mirzoyan, “A Spirit,” p. 23.

58 Badasyan, “Der Zor.”

59 Bakhchinyan, Hayeri, p. 48.

60 “British Drop Film Ban,” The New York Times, Jan. 21, 1920.

61 Slide (ed.), Ravished Armenia and the Story, p. 6.

62 Matilde Sánchez, “Imágenes mudas de Armenia,” Clarín, April 21, 1996. See
Eduardo Kozanlian, “Los ojos de Cine Seto,” Armenia, Oct. 14, 1998 for a
biographical outline of Setian and a personal memoir.

63 Artsvi Bakhchinyan, “Hartsazruyts Eduardo Gozanliani het” (Interview with
Eduardo Kozanlian), Yeter, Nov. 17, 1999.

64 Sánchez, “Imágenes mudas.” For a brief reference to the discovery of the
film, see Narciso Binayan Carmona, Entre el pasado y el futuro: los armenios en
la Argentina, Buenos Aires: n. p., 1997, p. 284.

65 See Barbara J. Merguerian, ‘“Ravished Armenia’ Revisited,” The Armenian
Mirror-Spectator, June 1, 1996 (Armenian translation: idem, “Ravished Armenia,”
Nor Gyank, July 18, 1996).

66 For a picture of the jacket and a short discussion of the VHS and the DVD,
see Taylor and Krikorian, ‘“Ravished Armenia: Revisited,” pp. 187-189, to whom
we owe the identification of the music’s author. It is unclear whether the DVD
used the VHS or one of Kozanlian’s copies as raw material.

67 See also the online exhibition about Ravished Armenia by the Armenian
Genocide Museum-Institute of Armenia, uploaded in 2009, which acknowledges
Kozanlian’s role (http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/online_exhibition_6.php).

68 Nick Allen, “Thousands of silent Hollywood films ‘lost forever,’ The
Telegraph, December 5, 2013.

69 Slide, Ravished Armenia, p. 17.

70 Holly Ramer, “Mary Pickford Film ‘Their First Understanding’ Found in Barn Is
Restored,” Huffington Post, Sept. 24, 2013,

71 Larry Rohter, “Footage Restored to Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis,’” The New York
Times, May 5, 2010.

72 Dave Kehr, “Long-Lost Silent Films Return to America,” The New York Times,
June 7, 2010.

The post The Quest for Aurora: On ‘Ravished Armenia’ and its Surviving Fragment
appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

AN ENCOUNTER WITH DJEMAL PASHA

April 16, 2014, 8:47 am
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Special for the Armenian Weekly

By Missak Vassilian
Translated by Jennifer Manoukian

The following is the account of a 16-year-old Armenian boy’s unexpected
encounter with Djemal Pasha, a member of the the Ittihadist triumvirate of WWI,
in December 1917. It was given to me by his son, Asbed Vassilian, who sees in
this brief exchange a larger story about the resilience and perseverance of the
Armenian people.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Djemal Pasha (on the back seat)

In 1915, the benevolent Turkish government, in its monstrous plan, did not spare
the faculty and students at the Kelegian orphanage in Chork-Marzban (Dortyol),
but instead deported them under the guise of a brief excursion. I think a
Turkish unit from Adana came specifically to organize the deportation. A handful
of students were reunited with their parents, and some of the older students
were sent to the Dar-el-Eytem Turkish orphanage in Adana. According to the
information we received, barely a few months after arriving at the orphanage,
those boys were sent to the deserts of Meskiné and Der-Zor. Finally, around 20
boys, including myself, were transferred to a German orphanage in the village of
Harni. After about two years of studying German, Turkish, and other subjects,
the German orphanage suffered a severe financial crisis; they used to give us
bread made with barley flour that had not been sifted, and even this was
difficult for them to secure. During this period of financial crisis, a couple
of German officers came to the orphanage and met with the administration. A few
days after the officers left, around 20 students who had been studying German
for 2 years were assigned to work as translators at the German military’s
station in Ayran. The purpose of that military facility was to oversee the train
traffic on the narrow rail lines (around 60 centimeters wide) that ran from the
station in Ayran to a station called Incirlik, where two wider rail lines
converged.

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Kelekian orphange (Via AGBU Flickr)

Around this time, some friends and I went for a stroll around the market dressed
in our school uniforms. That day, two Turkish policemen arrested us and brought
us to their guardhouse. One of my friends fled and informed the Germans of our
arrest. A low-ranking officer and a German soldier soon arrived at the
guardhouse. The Turkish policemen who had arrested us fled without saying a
word. The officer then asked us why we did not say that we worked for the German
military. We said that we had told them, but that they had ignored it and
brought us to the guardhouse anyway.

After this incident, they fitted us for German soldiers’ uniforms and turned us
into military personnel, so that a similar event would not happen again. After
the wide rail lines between the Ayran and Incirlik stations were joined, we
moved with the entire military corps to a station called Kelebek. There was work
to be done to complete the joining of the rail lines between Kelebek and
Belemedik. At the station in Kelebek, they housed us in a wooden room in what
they called the barracks. It was one of the nicer Turkish barracks.

Although it was still winter, that day at the end of 1917 was as sunny as a
spring day. Barely a few steps away from where we lived, nearly all the Turkish
officers at that station were lined up. Djemal Pasha had come from Damascus to
meet the officers on his way back to Constantinople. Curious to see him, some
friends and I sat down in front of the barracks, swinging our feet as we waited.
Barely 15 minutes had passed before they announced that he had arrived. He got
out of his special car, dressed in a short coat and flanked by two bodyguards,
and joined the officers a few steps away from us. After the major met Djemal
Pasha, he began to introduce the officers. He had barely introduced the first
officer when the pasha, pointing at us, asked him who the kids were who were
swinging their feet. The major replied angrily:

“Paşa hazretleri, bunlar Alman askiar elbisesi giymiş Ermeni çocuklardır.
Almanlar bunları tohumluk saklıyorlar.” [“Your Excellency, those are Armenian
kids dressed as German soldiers. The Germans are keeping them as seeds for the
future.”]

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Djemal Pasha

The pasha immediately asked him to bring one of the boys over. Since I was the
closest, the major called me over. I approached the pasha and greeted him. The
pasha asked if I was a soldier. I said that all of us were, as if he could not
have guessed from our uniforms. He asked what kind of soldiers we were, and I
said that we were German soldiers. Then, he asked how we became soldiers. I said
that we were transferred to the German orphanage in Harni from the Kelegian
orphanage in Chork-Marzban (Dortyol), and that after studying Turkish and German
for two years, they assigned us to be translators for the German military. After
listening to what I had said, the pasha shook his head slowly, and said:

“Acayip! Demek ki Dörtyol Kelegian mektebinden sürgün oldunuz. İki sene Almanca
öğrendiniz ve Alman ordusunda askiar tercümen oldunuz. Hey Türklük, bu milleti
mahvedemezsiniz ve bu millet mahvolmaz. Yürü, kuzum.” [How strange! This means
that you were all deported from the Kelegian orphanage in Dortyol, studied
German for two years and became translators in the German army. Oh Turkish
people, you cannot destroy this nation and this nation will not be annihilated.
Go on, my son, go.”]

And I went on my way.

The post An Encounter with Djemal Pasha appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

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BOSTON MULLS CENTENNIAL AFTER STATEHOUSE OBSERVANCE

April 16, 2014, 9:25 am
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Special for the Armenian Weekly

BOSTON, Mass.—No sooner had the final prayers been uttered and closing remarks
given by State Rep. Jonathan Hecht that the crowd of 400 spectators gathered for
a reception in the Massachusetts Statehouse on April 11.

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Students of St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School and Armenian Sisters’
Academy sing the U.S. and Armenian National Anthems. (Photo by Tom Vartabedian)

The 99th observance was now history and the crowd couldn’t have seen a more
worthy homage to the Armenian Genocide.

They applauded Governor Deval L. Patrick in his rather eclectic tribute to
Armenians throughout the Commonwealth, especially with the Heritage Park Project
along the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The governor was a strong proponent of the
project.

“You’ve helped me during my constituency and I’m here for you,” he told the
crowd, mindful of his last term in office.

The crowd joined with the governor in remembering the Boston Marathon bombing
that left the region in a state of gloom last April, canceling the observance
and leaving both Boston and Watertown in turmoil.

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California Attorney Mark Garagos delivering his remarks. (Photo by Tom
Vartabedian)

They heard California Attorney Mark Geragos talk at length about restitution and
reparations in Turkey and the various lawsuits he’s pursuing throughout the
community.

They saw children from St. Stephen’s Elementary School and Armenian Sisters’
Academy hold up genocide photos, the brainchild of Northeastern University
activist Anahis Kechejian with her “Stand Up for Your Survivor” mission. And the
50 Homenetmen Scouts who held their place of honor, serving as flag-bearers and
guides. They appeared prim and proper in their khaki uniforms.

The audience embraced three survivors in attendance and acknowledged
representatives from other persecuted countries like Rwanda and China,
eloquently presented by Middlesex County Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian.

A big roar of approval went to the 25 students from Wilmington High School and
their instructors Lisa Joe Desberg and Maura Tucker for promoting genocide and
human rights studies through the Armenian Genocide Education Committee of
Merrimack Valley and Facing History and Ourselves. Projects included letters to
Congressional leaders, essays for the Knights of Vartan, and even an Armenian
symphony that was debuted locally.

The students began their morning at Heritage Park, then trekked their way to the
Statehouse where they were warmly received.

The audience heard House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo talk about the number of
Armenians who have entered public office, along with those like Hecht and Sen.
William N. Brownsberger who are always seeking justice with their lawful
pursuits.

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Wilmington High School students are recognized for promoting genocide/human
rights education through the Armenian Genocide Education Committee of Merrimack
Valley and Facing History and Ourselves.

The memory of Very Rev. Father Raphael Andonian reverberated throughout the
room. The beloved cleric was a popular figure at these commemorations. He was
laid to rest that very evening at Holy Cross Church in Belmont. The mere mention
of his name left Koutoujian and others choked with emotion.

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Middlesex County Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian poses with Homenetmen scouts who
participated in the observance. (Photo by Tom Vartabedian)

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Rep. Jonathan Hecht offers remarks as master of ceremonies. (Photo by Tom
Vartabedian)

Donald J. Tellalian, the architect for the Heritage Park, was more than generous
in his praise for Boston and the leadership that cultivated this monument.

A crowd of 400 packed the Statehouse chambers to the gills, leaving many on
their feet for the 90-minute duration.

“Figure on thousands turning out for the 100th anniversary,” said the Kechejians
(Linda and Steve). “No doubt, you would need a much larger setting for Boston.”

Thoughts of the TD Garden Center (old Boston Garden) were suggested by many;
it’s site of the Boston Bruins, Celtics, university commencements, and other
large events.

Another potential spot is Symphony Hall, bringing into play the FACS (Friends of
Armenian Culture Society) genre that organizes Armenian Night at the Pops each
June, and moving that event back a couple months.

At least two recommendations called for a more unified approach, jettisoning
people to New York and Washington by bus and leaving the local commemorations to
the respective churches on a smaller scale.

“A celebration, not a moment of mourning,” recommended Milka Jeknavorian. “To
highlight the fact we’ve survived and endured over the past 100 years. Let us
showcase our accomplishments.”

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Middlesex County Sheriff Peter L. Koutoujian ponders a point. (Photo by Tom
Vartabedian)

Still another suggestion was to rally the crowd around Heritage Park, moving the
venue entirely outdoors and holding a reception at one of the nearby hotels,
much like the unveiling two years ago.

Special praise went to Lalig Musserian and her committee for their work in
planning this observance after a year’s absence.

The post Boston Mulls Centennial after Statehouse Observance appeared first on
Armenian Weekly.

ONLY A HANDFUL OF SURVIVORS LEFT AS 100TH ANNIVERSARY APPROACHES

April 16, 2014, 11:45 am
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On a recent warm spring afternoon, Azniv Guiragossian sat quietly in a
wheelchair between her daughter Arpi and son Shahen in the living room of the
New York Armenian Home in Flushing, Queens. Dressed in a patterned blouse and a
long black skirt, her tinsel-colored hair tied back in a braid, Azniv turned to
her son and graced his cheek with her red painted nails as she whispered, “How
lucky you are that you were raised by your mother.”

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Azniv Guiragossian with her children Arpi Nardone and Shahen Guiragossian at the
New York Armenian Home

Although the words, spoken in Armenian, were made as an impromptu remark from a
mother to a son, that simple phrase portrayed the she still ache feels as a
genocide survivor, a pain that has lasted almost a century.

Only one years old when she lost both of her parents, her father’s death
resulting from the shock of a death sentence and her mother’s demise on the
marches through Der Zor, Azniv was kidnapped by a Turkish family until her
relatives were able to find her. Unable to care for her, however, they placed
her and her sister in an orphanage in Aleppo, Syria.

“She never had her mother’s love,” said Arpi. “She was starving for her love.”

“She would always say how hungry and cold she was,” added Shahen.

Through an arranged marriage, Azniv married an Armenian choral director and
teacher who later became a priest. Following a move to Beirut, the family of six
settled in New York City in 1950.

“My life was very bad,” said Azniv, 99, who was born in Urfa. “I was on the
streets. But I stayed strong.”

Perouz Kalousdian is another Armenian Genocide survivor who was robbed of a
childhood. She saw the destruction of her family at a young age when Turkish
soldiers tied the males in her family two by two and threw them into the
Euphrates River.

“They took my family,” said Perouz, born in 1909 in Harput. “They separated us
and took them away. I never saw them again.”

Perouz, six years old at the time, recalls being carried on her mother’s back
during the death marches. Surviving the deportations, she and her mother reached
Aleppo, where they stayed before leaving for the United States. There they
reunited with her father, who had fled the genocide.

A third survivor who resides at the Armenian Home is Arsalos Dadir, who was born
in 1913 in Shabin Karahisar. Her father and uncle were killed by the Young
Turks, along with others in their village who were tied up and shot. She
remembers seeing hundreds of bodies piled on top of one another. Her family lost
all of their wealth and land, but was able to settle in Constantinople where
Arsalos married and raised two children, moving to the U.S. later in life.

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Armenian Genocide survivors Perouz Kalousdian and Azniv Guiragossian, holding
copies of ‘The National Geographic Magazine on Armenia and Armenians 1915-1919,’
and Hasan Cemal’s book ‘1915: Armenian Genocide.’

The New York Armenian Home, founded by Sarah Sanossian in 1948, has long served
as a residence for survivors of the Armenian Genocide. An Armenian-only,
private, non-funded home for the elderly, led by Executive Director Aggie
Ellian, it provides around-the-clock care for residents in a culturally rich
setting. The Armenian Home is the annual setting for the Armenian Genocide Media
Day, organized by the Knights of Vartan, where local Armenian and non-Armenian
media interview and record survivors accounts and testimonies from the genocide.

The 99th anniversary commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, sponsored by the
Knights and Daughters of Vartan, will be held in Times Square (43rd St. and
Broadway) on Sun., April 27, from 2-4 p.m.

The post Only a Handful of Survivors Left as 100th Anniversary Approaches
appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

HAIRENIK, WEEKLY CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARIES IN NEW JERSEY

April 17, 2014, 9:54 am
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Previous Only a Handful of Survivors Left as 100th Anniversary Approaches
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ALPINE, N.J.—Mr. and Mrs. Vahe and Shaké Nahapetian hosted a banquet celebrating
the 115th anniversary of Hairenik and the 80th anniversary of the Armenian
Weekly.

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A scene from the event (photo by Zohrab Tazian)

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Novelist Chris Bohjalian was the keynote speaker of the evening. (Photo by
Zohrab Tazian)

ARF Bureau member Hagop Der Khatchadourian, members of the ARF Central
Committees of Canada, the Western U.S. and Eastern U.S., editors of Asbarez, Apo
Boghigian, and Asbarez English edition, Ara Khachatourian, and some 90 community
leaders and activists attended the event.

“I have grown so dependent upon–and appreciative of–the Weekly,” novelist Chris
Bohjalian, the keynote speaker of the evening, said. “We need the Weekly,
because week after week it helps us understand the fiscal and political
realities of the small swatch of earth that today is our homeland, while
informing us of the challenges we face in terms of Genocide recognition and
cultural resurrection,” he added.

“So I thank everyone here who is a part of the Hairenik family. I celebrate what
you have accomplished and what you will do. Thank

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ARF Eastern USA Central Committee member Antranig Kasbarian (photo by Zohrab
Tazian)

you so much for championing day-in and day-out what words and reading and
stories (Our stories!) can mean to the soul,” Bohjalian concluded.

The master of ceremonies of the evening was Dr. Herand Markarian. Brief comments
were offered by Hagop Der Khatchadourian, ARF Eastern Region Central Committee

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The master of ceremonies of the evening, Dr. Herand Markarian (Photo by Zohrab
Tazian)

member Antranig Kasbarian, editor of the Hairenik Weekly Zaven Torigian, editor
of the Armenian Weekly Khatchig Mouradian.

In his remarks, Mouradian announced that beginning in September 2014,
Nanore Barsoumian, currently assistant editor of the Armenian Weekly, will
assume the newspaper’s editorship.

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Hairenik Weekly Editor Zaven Torigian (Photo by Zohrab Tazian)

Hairenik’s most recent publication, Voices from the Past, translated and edited
by Vahe Habeshian, was launched during the evening. Those in attendance received
copies of the book.

Pianist Kariné Poghosyan dazzled the audience with her performance.

On behalf of the organizing committee, Sona Bezdigian thanked the attendees for
their support.

More than $40,000 was raised during the banquet, $10,000 of which was generously
donated by Mr. and Mrs. Nazar and Ardemis Nazarian.

A series of events and banquets celebrating the anniversaries of the newspapers
will be held during the year. The next banquet will be hosted by Arpy Seferian
in Chicago on May 17.

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Armenian Weekly Editor Khatchig Mouradian (photo by Aaron Spagnolo)

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Mr. and Mrs. Vahe and Shaké Nahapetian with members of the organizing committee
(photo by Zohrab Tazian)

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Dr. Raffi Hovannesian, Alex Sarafian, and ARF Bureau member Hagop Der
Khatchadourian (photo by Zohrab Tazian)

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Pianist Kariné Poghosyan dazzles the audience with her performance. (Photo by
Zohrab Tazian)

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(L-R) Shaké Nahapetian, former ARF Eastern USA Central Committee Chairperson
Zohrab Tazian, and Kariné Poghosyan

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(L-R) Armenian Weekly assistant editor Nanore Barsoumian, Aaron Spagnolo, ARF
Eastern USA Central Committee Chairman Richard Sarajian, and ARF Eastern USA
Central Committee member Ari Killian (photo by Zohrab Tazian)

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(L-R) Ardemis Nazarian, Shaké Nahapetian , and Nazar Nazarian (photo by Zohrab
Tazian)

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(L-R) Chris Bohjalian, Shaké Nahapetian , Zohrab Tazian, and Rev. Father Hovnan
Bozoian, pastor of Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Church in Ridgefield, N.J.

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Chris Bohjalian, Kariné Poghosyan, and Khatchig Mouradian

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A scene from the event (photo by Aaron Spagnolo)

The post Hairenik, Weekly Celebrate Anniversaries in New Jersey appeared first
on Armenian Weekly.

ARF WILL NOT TAKE PART IN NEW GOVERNMENT

April 18, 2014, 12:56 pm
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Previous Hairenik, Weekly Celebrate Anniversaries in New Jersey
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YEREVAN—The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) will not take part in the
government of Hovig Abrahamian. This decision was announced in a statement
issued by the ARF Supreme Council of Armenia, ahead of its biennial regional
meeting, known as the Supreme Convention, which is scheduled to begin today
(April 18).

The ARF Supreme Council said that given its complete responsibility and
accountability for the party’s policies during its tenure, the body deemed it
important to convey its positions regarding the current situation in Armenia
prior to the start of the party’s Supreme Convention.

“Today, the Republic of Armenia is facing complex domestic and foreign
challenges. As a result of the socio-economic policies of the government a
significant portion of the population has lost confidence in the future and is
demanding fundamental reforms. We are convinced that these issues can be
resolved by creating an atmosphere of peaceful coexistence by uniting the social
and political forces,” said the ARF in the statement.

“The Armenian Revolutionary Federation has formulated its vision of radical
reforms to create a new system of governance, as has been articulated through a
seven point political and economic plan. We are confident that the step-by-step
yet complete realization of those points will bring the country out of this
severe situation and will guarantee the citizens free and prosperous life. We
will continue to demand the implementation of our program while aspiring to
bring together a wide cross section of the population and political forces,”
explained the statement.

The statement noted that the ARF has decided:

1. To not take part in the new government;

2. To monitor the government’s actions and activities and base our approach and
cooperation with them on its implementation of our proposed program;

3. To continue to work in the opposition field by on the one had aspire to bring
together popular and political forces under our national values and our proposed
solutions, while on the other hand help avoid instability in the country.

“Our goal is and has been to strengthen Armenia’s statehood and to ensure a
decent and prosperous life for our citizens,” explained the statement.

The post ARF Will Not Take Part in New Government appeared first on Armenian
Weekly.

THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH OF A SYRIAN-ARMENIAN DOCTOR

April 18, 2014, 1:06 pm
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Previous ARF Will Not Take Part in New Government
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Special for the Armenian Weekly

“After March 2011, it was clear that Syria was no longer an option,” said Dr.
Karnig Jozigian, as we sat down for coffee in Stepanakert.

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that at least 50
percent of hospitals in Syria have been destroyed or severely damaged, while
more than 15,000 physicians have fled the conflict and found refuge elsewhere.

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Karnig Jozigian inspecting the medicine donated by the ARF’s Help Your Brother
Initiative.

While Jozigian is not practicing medicine in the ghost city of Aleppo, he is
adhering to the Hippocratic Oath by serving the people of another conflict zone:
Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh Republic).

In 2001, he went to Armenia to study medicine at the Yerevan State Medical
University. After completing six years of education and two years of medical
residency in the field of internal medicine, he briefly returned to Aleppo and
completed a three-month medical training program there.

At that time, the medical sector in Syria had far more to offer than the one in
Armenia. Nonetheless, guided by an inherent sense of obligation to serve the
Armenian nation, and his profound love for Datevig, he returned to Armenia.
Jozigian had met Datevig, a pianist from Dilijan, while they were both
university students in Yerevan. By 2011, the couple was married and living in
Dilijan, where Jozigian worked at the newly-established Dilijan Medical Center.

“In the summer of 2012, when Syrian Armenians started migrating to Armenia, the
Republic of Armenia government announced that doctors were needed in the
Independent State of Artsakh,” he said. “After receiving positive feedback from
the [Armenian] Ministry of Diaspora, I visited Artsakh for the first time in my
life.” During this scouting mission, he met with officials from the Ministry of
Health in Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh, as well as with the local
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) leaders. He was informed that doctors
were needed in three primary locations: Lachin, Kalbajar, and Vank.

“It was love at first sight. The second I saw the mountains of Artsakh, I knew I
wanted to live here,” Jozigian said.

He and his wife have been living in Vank (near the Kantsasar Monastery) for the
past nine months. For the time being, they are living in one of the rooms in the
hospital, while they wait to receive funds from the state to renovate their
government-designated home. With assistance from the government, Datevig found a
job as a piano instructor at the local school of art.

“The medical sector in Artsakh is dreadful. The vast majority of the doctors who
return from Yerevan with a medical degree choose to practice in Stepanakert
rather than in their own villages,” he said. “I am the only doctor in Vank and
the surrounding six villages. The hospital has a staff of 20 consisting of 14
nurses, ambulance drivers, accountants, and janitors.”

The fixed income for doctors in Artsakh is 156,000 AMD (roughly $375US; however,
visiting doctors receive an extra percentage (determined by their location of
residency). For example, a visiting doctor receives an additional 40 percent in
Stepanakert, 60 percent in Vank, and 80 percent in Lachin and Kalbajar. In the
past year, around 7,200 people have visited the hospital in Vank. Around 10
percent of the patients were transferred to Stepanakert to receive the proper
medical care.

“Our hospital lacks the proper infrastructure to provide full-scale medical care
to our patients,” he explained. “The hospital has a laboratory for blood tests,
but we do not have an X-ray device or an ultrasound machine. Even our ambulance
is in abysmal condition.” Several months ago, the ARF’s Help Your Brother
initiative sent $15,000 worth of medicine and medical supplies to the hospital
in Vank. That supply of medicine is still being used to treat patients at
Jozigian’s hospital. Over the past nine months, Jozigian has found himself in
numerous emergency situations where he’s had to conduct operations and provide
services that are not usually available due to the lack of infrastructure and
equipment in Vank.

“Traditionally we do not deliver babies at the Vank Hospital. We refer those
cases to Stepanakert,” he said. “But in the past nine months, I have had to
deliver three healthy babies at our hospital, because they were emergency
cases.” Despite the challenges, Dr. Karnig Jozigian affirms his commitment to
serving his nation in Artsakh. “I probably would make a lot more money if I
worked in Yerevan,” he said. “But I prefer the lifestyle here in Artsakh. I will
do everything I can to remain here. I might even invest in farming.” Two other
Syrian-Armenian doctors and one dentist have moved to Artsakh in the past year.
“Aleppo is my birthplace. I have a lot of memories there. I love Syria,” he
said. “But Armenia and Artsakh is my homeland. I am still adhering to the
Hippocratic Oath by serving the people in Artsakh.”

The post The Hippocratic Oath of a Syrian-Armenian Doctor appeared first on
Armenian Weekly.

HUNDREDS ATTEND EASTER SUNDAY MASS IN DIYARBAKIR CHURCH

April 20, 2014, 5:10 pm
Next Kiss My Children’s Eyes: A Search for Answers to the Genocide Through One
Remarkable Photograph
Previous The Hippocratic Oath of a Syrian-Armenian Doctor
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Daughter of Sassoun Armenian Woman Baptized at Sourp Giragos

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (A.W.)—Hundreds turned out for Easter Sunday Mass at the
Sourp Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir today.

Among the attendees were newly-elected Diyarbakir Metropolitan co-mayor Fırat
Anlı and former mayor of the Diyarbakir Sur Municipality Abdullah Demirbaş.

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A scene from Easter Mass led by Der Kevork Çınaryan. (Photo by Guisor Akkum, The
Armenian Weekly)

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Hundreds arrive in anticipation of Easter Mass at Sourp Giragos (Photo by Guisor
Akkum, The Armenian Weekly)

Der Kevork Çınaryan led the Mass at the largest Armenian church in the Middle
East, which was renovated and opened for service three years ago.

Last year, the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul had come under harsh criticism
for not sending a member of the clergy to lead Easter Mass at Sourp Giragos.

Kenan Sarraf, a member of the Sourp Giragis Foundation, told the Weekly that he
was gratified to witness close to 1,500 people attend the Easter celebration at
the church.

An Armenian girl, Amber Kaz, whose mother hails from Sassoun, was baptized after
Easter Mass. Her family currently lives in Istanbul but wanted to see Amber Kaz
baptized at Sourp Giragos.

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Amber Kaz with her mother. (Photo by Gulisor Akkum, The Armenian Weekly)

An exhibition, titled “Bearing Witness to the Lost History of an Armenian Family
Through the Lens of the Dildilian Brothers (1872-1923),” opened after the Easter
Mass.

This report was filed by the Armenian Weekly Diyarbakir correspondent Gulisor
Akkum.

The post Hundreds Attend Easter Sunday Mass in Diyarbakir Church appeared first
on Armenian Weekly.

KISS MY CHILDREN’S EYES: A SEARCH FOR ANSWERS TO THE GENOCIDE THROUGH ONE
REMARKABLE PHOTOGRAPH

April 22, 2014, 5:10 am
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Previous Hundreds Attend Easter Sunday Mass in Diyarbakir Church
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The Armenian Weekly April Magazine

Part One

The looks on their faces are haunting. A sense of fear and uncertainty, doom
even, is evident. Fifty-one men, all Armenian, standing in front of what appears
to be a prison, in the Turkish city of Gesaria (modern Kayseri). In the two
windows behind them, other men are dimly seen. Only the Turkish gendarme at the
end of the third row appears in any way at ease.

As I was to learn, the photograph is a remarkable one. Taken as the Armenian
Genocide of 1915 was about to begin, it is likely the only one to have survived
those massacres. It shows a large group of Armenian men who were martyred, and
identifies them. Being named, their lives—as well as their deaths—can be traced.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The looks on their faces are haunting. A sense of fear and uncertainty, doom
even, is evident.

My assignment to authenticate the photograph seemed a simple one when I took it
on in 2005. Find out why the photograph had been taken and by whom. Who were
these men and why did they look so fearful? Where was the photograph first
published, and why had it remained so little known with its value unrecognized
for so many years? And beyond the photograph’s history, what had become of these
men and their families?

Nearly a decade later, some of the questions about the photograph remain
unanswered, as facts that I unearthed often gave rise to more difficult
questions. But from my pursuit of its origins, I came to value the photograph’s
significance in the field of genocide research and learn the secrets it reveals
about how thousands of Armenians were led to their deaths in that Turkish sancak
(district), and how what took place in Gesaria was a microcosm of the genocide
itself.

The more I dug, the more compelling the photograph became not just in historic
terms but in human ones, as well. The faces of the men, all leaders in Gesaria’s
Armenian community, placed a personal emphasis on what took place in eastern
Turkey so many years ago. The toll could be assessed not solely by numbers but
in actual lives lost.

Consider Vahan Kurkjian (no relation; middle row, sixth from the right), the
dean and teacher at a college, regarded as the most educated of the Armenian
residents, was sentenced to be hanged by a military tribunal for being a member
of the Dashnak Party. Shortly before he was brought to the gallows in August
1915, Kurkjian presented his most prized possession, a fountain pen, to his wife
with the instruction that she give it to the son among their three—Edward,
Walter, and Harry—who turned out to be most like him. With their mother, the
three boys made it to America and all led successful lives, including Walter, a
successful banker and mayor of Merchantville, N.J. The pen remains a family
heirloom.1

Or Karnig Jurjurian (top row, third from the left). Known as an ardent
nationalist, Jurjurian’s two brothers and brother-in-law were also killed during
the summer of 1915. Fearing the worst, he had sent his only son, Artin
Jurjurian, to America before the killings began. Artin went to work for Boston’s
then-public transit system, the Boston Elevated Railway, where he came in
contact with Louis Brandeis, a Massachusetts lawyer who represented the railway
workers. Brandeis, who would become a renowned member of the U.S. Supreme Court,
assisted Artin Jurjurian in filling out the immigration papers to allow his
mother—Karnig Jurjurian’s widow—into the United States following Karnig’s death
in Gesaria.2

Or Mardiros Lousararian, 55, the only banker in Gesaria’s Armenian community,
who was appointed to its city council in 1908, after loaning 500 lira to
Turkey’s central Treasury. (He is shown in the second row of the photograph).
But that didn’t save him from being arrested, brought before a military tribunal
in late May 1915, and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor. But within weeks of
the sentence, Lousararian was taken from the central Gesaria prison, placed on a
caravan with other Armenian men, and never heard from again. Lousararian’s life,
however, would not be forgotten, as his grandson wrote glowingly about his work
in biographical articles about Lousararian and his family.3

I had been shown the photograph originally by Elaine Patapanian of Belmont,
Mass., the granddaughter of one of the men in the front row of the photograph.
She pressed me to determine the circumstances in which it had been taken, and
asked if it were true (as one pamphlet which had reprinted the photograph
stated) that all of the men had been killed an hour later.4 (It was not.)

Questions like hers spurred me to keep digging to learn the photograph’s
origins. From my own personal experience, I knew that the lives of these men
needed to be remembered, as did the survival of their families. Like Armenians
everywhere whose families had lost loved ones in the massacres, my grandfather
had been killed in the genocide, yet my father, a three-year-old in 1915, had
survived to come to America to thrive.5

So even when the expected breakthrough did not quickly take place, I kept
working to tell this story, knowing that if I didn’t no one would, and soon the
story of the photograph, as well as the lives of the men shown in it, would be
100 years in the forgetting.

The difficulty in piecing together a coherent account of the circumstances of
the photograph being taken, as well as what had happened in a single city in
Turkey nearly a century before, is a familiar one for genocide researchers.

The Turkish government long denied Armenian or independent researchers open
access to its archives on the decision-making by its Ottoman rulers during the
genocide, and documents relating to Armenian life in that period. The government
has relented a bit in recent years, but still access is limited and incomplete.
Professional scholarship on the genocide did not begin in earnest until after
1965, a half century after the horrific events took place, which meant that two
generations of survivors died, and with them, their first-hand accounts.

Despite those obstacles, an archival record has begun to be built, much from the
testimony of eyewitnesses, including American diplomats and missionaries. Yet,
that effort has been limited by modest funding—no government agency outside of
tiny Armenia has ever put money into researching what led to the genocide or how
it was carried out—and a lack of coordination among those few who work in the
field. The ongoing and well-funded Turkish state-sponsored denial of the
genocide has forced scholars to expend precious time and resources responding
and re-responding to the distortion of the historical record. As a result, a
chapter in worldhistory equal to the Nazi Holocaust in its horror and
devastation has been reduced to a political battle.

The lack of visual evidence—no films and few photographs—has served to dim the
brutality of the events of 1915 from history’s collective consciousness. Without
the visual testament, Hitler was able to allay the concerns of his Nazi
generations that his campaign against the Poles, and then the Jews in Eastern
Europe, would bring worldwide condemnation.

“Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?” he stated less
than 25 years after the genocide, a quote that is etched on a fourth-floor wall
of the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. as a permanent reminder.6

Samantha Power, whose book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,
won the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction in 2003, agreed that the case for
acknowledging the Armenian Genocide is weakened by the few photographs and no
visual evidence.

“You can never argue against the Holocaust because of the images that emerged
from it. The proof of what happened and the suffering was overwhelming,” Power
said in an interview in 2006, before she became a national security adviser to
President Obama. “Images are what people remember. They cannot be argued away.”7

It was inside a Turkish military newspaper that I found the most convincing
evidence of the photograph’s importance, proof that the men had been executed.
Written in Ottoman Turkish, an issue of the military newspaper Kayseri,
published in early June 1915, contained the verdicts imposed on 46 Armenian
businessmen and community leaders who had been tried by the military tribunal in
the days before.8

Most of those shown in the photograph were listed in the Kayseri newspaper as
having been tried and sentenced by the military tribunal—31 of the 46 to be
precise. (While 51 Armenian men are shown in the photograph, only the names of
46 are provided in whole or in part by first or last name, and in a few cases
with a profession.)

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Letter from Varteres Armenyan written from Talas, July 1915.

The verdicts published in the Kayseri military newspaper also show how weak the
evidence against them was. It was stated at their trials that the men had signed
a secret pledge to wage armed battle for independence for the Armenians, who had
lived for centuries in Asia Minor as an ethnic minority in central and eastern
Turkey. They were convicted of either possession of a weapon and/or membership
in one of two Armenian political parties, the Dashnaks or the Hunchaks.

But the evidence to support those allegations was unconvincing, especially to
justify the death sentences that were to follow. While weapons were found in
many of their homes, Armenians had been given the right to bear arms in 1908,
when the current regime had come to power. As for membership in revolutionary
organizations, it is true that members of both the Hunchak and Dashnak parties
had advocated for an independent Armenia, but neither party had taken steps
towards mounting an armed assault. The defendants were denied their efforts to
offer individual defenses against the charges at their hearings; they were tried
in groups of four and five, and the sessions were finished in a matter of
hours.9

Even being acquitted by the military tribunal, as 2 of the 46 originally tried
were, did not bring freedom. One was placed in an ox-drawn cart within days of
his acquittal and taken with 24 other Armenian men to a remote location several
miles outside of Gesaria. There they were attacked and killed by a group of
murderous chetes (brigands) who had just been released from prison for that
purpose.10 The other, Krikor Gerekmezian, was never heard from again after his
acquittal was posted in the Kayseri newspaper.

According to the memoirs of three eyewitnesses, the hangings began on June 15,
1915, within hours of the verdicts’ being made known. Eleven men, including
seven shown in the photograph (Hagop Merdinian, Avedis Zambakjian, Minas
Minasian, Garabed Jamjian, Hagop Khayerlian, Karnig Kouyoumjian and Hovanes
Nevshehirlian), were awakened at the prison in the center of Gesaria before
dawn, ordered to put on long white shrouds, and taken by oxen cart to a square
known as Komorluku (the Coal Pits) where gallows had been erected. 11

Most limped or had to be carried up the gallows steps; the Turkish police had
tortured them before their trials in hopes of discovering where caches of
weapons might be found, or documents proving membership in one of the Armenian
political parties. The preferred form of torture—bastinado, or falake in
Turkish—consisted of repeatedly beating the soles of the prisoners’ feet with
wooden rods.

In a final insult, the Turkish executioners denied the request of the priests
who had accompanied the men to the gallows to allow them to be given an Armenian
funeral. Instead, their bodies were thrown into a mass grave and buried.

Kevork Vishabian, a strong advocate for Armenian independence, was one of the
first to be hanged. But before the noose was placed around his neck, he shouted
out to the members of the military tribunal who had sentenced him to reconsider
their actions: “Esteemed judges, remain true to your calling, follow the path of
justice and stop persecuting the Armenians.” Vishabian, whose family ran a
tin-making business, was 31 at the time. His pregnant wife was among those who
witnessed his hanging. She screamed at the executioners that if her child was a
boy he would avenge his father’s killing.

But there was no stopping the killing campaign now. On the same day, 400 miles
to the west, in Turkey’s capital of Constantinople, 20 Hunchak Party
activists—among the 200 leaders of the Armenian community who had been arrested
two months before—were hanged in one of the city’s public squares.

The date of the arrests, April 24, 1915, has come to be known asthe beginning of
the Armenian Genocide. The killings would last for more than a year, well into
1916. In the end, hundreds of thousands were killed, many in such brutal fashion
as being hurled off bridges or being burned to death when the churches or homes
they had sought refuge in were set ablaze. Those who survived were robbed of
their property and belongings, and deported under the worst possible
circumstances from central and eastern region of Turkey, where their roots dated
back to the Bronze Age.

It would become characterized as the first modern genocide. Although it was well
documented while the killings were taking place, the horrors of the Armenian
Genocide would dim over time. No lessons would be learned from it or ways to
prevent it, and many such massacres would follow, in Nazi Germany, Cambodia,
Serbia, Darfur, and Rwanda.

For the Armenians, near-extermination in their ancestral homeland has been
followed by an additional injustice: a vociferous, well-funded campaign by the
Turkish government to deny that genocide took place. “Yes, hundreds of thousands
of Armenians died” is the common refrain from the Turkish government, “but
deaths are inevitable during wartime, and there had never been an intentional
initiative to rid the Armenians and their culture from Turkey.”

The International Association of Genocide Scholars adopted a resolution in 1997
affirming that what took place in Ottoman Turkey against the Armenians in 1915
meets the United Nations’ legal definition of genocide. If further evidence is
needed, Raphael Lemkin, whose work in the 1930’s and 1940’s established the
framework for “genocide” and its legal aspects, said the experience of the
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey motivated his work from the outset.

But those acknowledgments have not convinced U.S. officials to take similar
actions. Fearing it would upset the present Turkish government, a national
security ally of the United States, Congress has consistently refused to adopt a
resolution acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. And no recent U.S. president,
including President Obama, who campaigned he would do otherwise if elected, has
used the word genocide in the statements issued every April 24th to express
sadness about what befell the Armenian people in Ottoman Turkey.

But research in the Ottoman archives by, among others, Turkish scholar and Clark
University Professor Taner Akcam, following a historian’s professional path, is
showing how intentional the campaign by the Ottoman rulers to attack the
Armenians was. Akcam has located still-unpublished encrypted communiqués that
the Ottoman regime in Constantinople sent to their functionaries in outlying
districts. These detail an organized campaign first to inflame Muslim sentiments
against the Armenians and then to strike at them.

One of the secret telegrams that Akcam found was sent by Talat Pasha, Turkey’s
Minister of the Interior and chief architect of the genocide, to functionaries
in Gesaria and other provinces in mid-February 1915, a few weeks before the
first roundups of Armenian notables. Complaining that “Armenian bandits” had
been carrying out assaults on Turkish citizens and soldiers in several places
and that “copious bombs” had been found in Armenian homes in Gesaria, Talat
warned that “our enemies are preparing an attempt to revolt in our country.” 12

Another secret telegram rebuts the denial by the modern Turkish government and
its spokesmen of any evidence of state responsibility for the mass killing of
Armenians. Sent by the Turkish Directorate of General Security to officials in
the nearby vilayet of Diyarbakir, the telegram shows the central government was
aware that the prisoners were being dispatched from the prison in Gesaria and
sent via caravans to their death.

Written on June 22, 1915, the day they were taken from the prison, the
communiqué states that about 25 “Armenian revolutionaries” who had been
sentenced by the military tribunal in Gesaria were being sent to Diyarbakir,
more than 300 miles to the east. They were never heard from again. On their
arrival, the instruction called for the “performing and communication of what is
necessary.”13

The language in such official communiqués from Constantinople to the
functionaries in the provinces is most often elliptical, but the uniformity with
which they were carried out with extreme measures has convinced Akcam and other
scholars that the Ottoman rulers had devised a secret code for communicating
their commands.

Over the next several months, from June through October, a total of 13 caravans
filled with Armenian men were dispatched from the prison in Gesaria. Each was
larger in number than the one before, and by the time they ended in October, the
caravans contained more than 600 men each, and the Gesaria prison was emptied of
Armenians.14

Although few Armenian prisoners who were taken away from the prison were ever
heard from again, and the same ox carts and prison guards would return from one
trip only to be used in the next, the prisoners held out hope that they were not
being taken to their death. Had not their guards said that they were just being
taken to another province where they would be incarcerated until the end of the
war, they reasoned.

That sense of guarded hope was evident in a letter that Varteres Armenyan, a
successful copper merchant, with a wife and three children, wrote to his family
from Talas, a few miles north of Gesaria. Taken captive in May, Armenyan was one
of the two Armenians found innocent of all charges by the Ottoman Turkish
military tribunal. But that did not spare him, as he was kept in prison
following the decision of the military tribunal, and within days was placed in a
caravan that headed east from Gesaria. Written in Armenian, the one-page letter
somehow reached Armenyan’s family and has been preserved by Elaine Patapanian,
his granddaughter, who had introduced me to the photograph in question.

In his letter, dated July 5 (or July 18 by the western calendar), Armenyan wrote
that while his caravan had safely arrived in Talas he feared they would be taken
further east to the region of Sivas, where there were rumors about Armenian
killing fields.

“After that it’s not known where we will go,” wrote Armenyan, who would never be
heard from again. “Being in prison doesn’t allow one to write every day. All of
you must pray to God to save us from this trial. My loving best to all… I kiss
my children’s eyes.”15

Part Two

Located in a valley of Mount Argaeus in central Turkey, the city of Gesaria has
always been vulnerable to locusts. Fittingly, such a plague hit in the late
winter and early spring of 1915, and the Turkish authorities ordered all elderly
Armenians and boys under the age of 14 into the fields outside of the city to
attack the waves of insects. For days on end, the Armenians were not allowed to
return to their homes until each had collected enough insects that their sacks
weighed like they had a brick inside them.16

The other Armenian men, those above the age of 14, were allowed to remain in the
city and continue their normal lives—as normal as could be with a sense of doom,
worse even than waves of locusts, approaching.

World War I had spread through Europe and already Turkey was getting the worst
of it. On its west, an armada of British and French warships had begun shelling
the Dardanelles Straits on November 3, 1914, and there was fierce fighting in
Gallipoli.

On Turkey’s eastern border, the Russians had delivered a near-lethal blow to the
Turkish military, at Sarikamish, in early January 1915, killing or wounding a
huge proportion of the 118,000 Turkish troops dispatched in the dead of winter
to confront the czar’s army. War Minister Enver Pasha, one of the leaders of the
Young Turk regime, had given his personal blessing to the attack on the Russian
forces. Humiliated by the loss, he now made his way back to Constantinople,
making a late-night stop in Gesaria to meet with provincial officials.

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The names of the prisoners

The director of the choir of one of the three churches in the Armenian section
of Gesaria, hearing of Enver’s presence in the city, appeared at the government
building in hopes of arranging a recital for the war minister. The director,
like others in Gesaria, was unaware of what had befallen the Ottoman military in
Sarikamish, or how the Turkish government intended to respond. There would be no
listening to an Armenian choir for Enver that night.17

Before the killings began, a 1914 census showed that more than 52,000 Armenians
were registered as living in the Gesaria sancak (district), about 18,000 of them
living in the city itself, mostly in two-story residences built of stone, many
of which still stand. In slightly more than a year’s time, thousands of the men
would be killed, either hanged in the city’s central square or taken to remote
areas and murdered. The rest of the Armenian population, women and children,
would be ordered into caravans and banished from the city and province, never to
return again.

The forced removal of the Armenians was so effective that a census ordered by
Talat in 1917 found that only 6,700 of the 52,000 remained in the sancak. While
1.5 million Armenians were officially recorded as living in Ottoman Turkey
before World War I, Talat’s census in 1917 found that 1.2 million had been
killed or forcibly removed from their homeland.18

Today, the once-active Armenian community in Gesaria has been reduced to a
handful, mostly elderly people who are afraid still to acknowledge their
heritage. The only Armenian landmark is the Church of St. Gregory the
Illuminator, which has no resident priest or regular services. However, to
prevent the confiscation of the church as abandoned property, Armenian priests
travel there from Istanbul to conduct services several times a year.

What happened to the Armenians in Gesaria during the genocide mirrored what took
place in other Turkish provinces, but was worsened by two aggravating
circumstances. First, far more high-level functionaries of the Young Turk Party
were put in place in Gesaria in the months before the onset of the genocide than
in other regions of the country. Their purpose, according to Raymond Kevorkian,
author of The Armenian Genocide: The Complete History, was to “fabricate a
damning case incriminating the Armenians” in a conspiracy against the Turkish
people. Second was the leading role played by Salih Zeki in carrying out the
massacres in Gesaria, once he ascended to a key position in the district of
Gesaria in late February or early March 1915.19

Zeki’s actions proved to be so ruthlessly effective in pushing forward the aims
of the Ottoman rulers in Gesaria that in a little more than a year’s time, he
was promoted to take over as mutasarif (governor) of Der Zor, the region of the
Ottoman Empire (in modern-day Syria) where hundreds of thousands of forcibly
deported Armenians were sent. In Zeki’s hands, Der Zor was turned into the worst
killing fields of the genocide.

Zeki took over as the kaymakam (regional executive) of Gesaria—from an official
who was generally regarded as being benevolent towards the Armenians—following
an explosion in the town of Evereg, 15 miles from Gesaria. A 30-year old
Armenian man, Kevork Defjian, had returned from the United States to Evereg
intent on avenging the killings that he had witnessed 20 years before of his
uncle and nephew. But the bomb that he was making exploded in his hands, killing
him and shattering the silence of the Armenian neighborhood in Evereg. The date
was, by the western calendar, Feb. 24, 1915.20

Vahakn Dadrian, a leader in the field of Armenian Genocide research, calls the
explosion at Evereg a “triggering event” for the massacres in Gesaria. It
provided authorities a spark to ignite fears among the Turkish population that
drastic steps needed to be taken against their Armenian neighbors. In the same
fashion, Dadrian notes, Hitler and his propaganda chief Josef Goebbels incited
Germans in 1938 to believe that all Jews should be held responsible for the
killing of a German diplomat by a Jewish youth in Paris in 1938.

But word of the explosion did not reach Turkish authorities for several days,
until one Turkish worker who lived in the neighborhood let it be known to
officialswhat had happened. Outraged that it had gone unreported for days, the
Ottoman rulers quickly promoted Zeki to kaymakam, and he moved almost
immediately against the Armenians. Among his first actions was to summon a large
group of Armenian leaders to the central points in Evereg and Gesaria. In no
uncertain words, he informed them that the central government in Constantinople
had ordered a crackdown: all guns and munitions in the hands of Armenians were
to be confiscated, and membership in all Armenian political parties was
outlawed.

I believe it was at this time that the photograph that has long captured my
attention was taken. Zeki would have wanted to prove to his superiors in
Constantinople (as quickly as possible following his promotion to kaymakam) that
he had rounded up the key members of the Armenian community. The prison setting
appears similar to the Kale, the military fortress that still dominates the
center of Gesaria, and none of the men show signs of injury (many, as previously
stated, would soon suffer from beatings by the police in an effort to coerce
confessions).

Those torture sessions began sometime in March and took place at the police
station a few blocks away from the fortress. In the days leading up to the first
interrogations, the streets throughout the Armenian sector grew tense. Haig
Ghazerian, who recounted his memories of the genocide in 1931, in a series of
articles in the Beirut Armenian newspaper Lipanan, recalled meeting Kevork
Vishabian, the leader of the local chapter of the Dashnak chapter, on the
streets of Kayseri shortly before Vishabian was arrested.21

“Haig, it’s our time,” Vishabian said as the two men walked to Vishabian’s
house. There, they lit the stove in the middle of the living room and, over
cigars, they burned “every piece of documents we both had,” Ghazerian recalled.

Within two months, Vishabian would be among the first of about 50 men who were
tortured, brought before a military tribunal, and convicted. He was also among
the first sentenced to be hanged in Gesaria’s public square.

But those hanged were not all from the Armenian political elite of Gesaria.
Garabed Jamjian was also among them. He had been taken into custody on the
flimsiest of evidence, a false accusation by a fellow Armenian that Jamjian had
carried a secret note from Etchmiadzin, the seat of Armenia’s high prelate,
urging a public rebellion.

No such note was ever found on him, but in raiding his house the Turks did find
an antique rifle and prosecuted him for it. At his trial, Jamjian asserted that
the rifle had been given to him as a gift by Ottoman leaders for his public
service. But no matter, the tribunal ruled that the gun could have been used
against Turkish citizens, so he was guilty of possessing it.

The hangings in the square would continue for the next 12 months. In all,
according to Raymond Kevorkian’s The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History, the
court martial tribunal condemned 1,095 Armenian men by late September 1915; 857
of them were executed.

The last Armenians removed from the city were those who had been put to work to
kill the locusts that had beset the farmland. As the workers returned to the
central city every night, Ghazerian recalled, they would shield their eyes as
they walked past the gallows, which were left standing whether being used or
not.

“The sad news was taken everywhere,” wrote Ghazerian in 1931. “We were all in
mourning. No one had the courage to go out and look at one another. Life had
stopped in the Armenian neighborhoods.”

The forced deportation of the general population of Gesaria, as well as other
Anatolian cities and villages, began several months later, in mid-August 1915.
(In other areas, the general deportations had begun as early as May.) Depending
on the length of their route, between 30 and 50 percent of those deported from
eastern and central Turkey died along the trek to Aleppo, Syria—victims of
starvation or cholera, or killed by roving bands.22

And for the fortunate ones from Gesaria who made it to Aleppo, a new horror
awaited them, perpetrated by Salih Zeki. Instead of allowing the Armenian
survivors into the city where relief workers were waiting for them, the caravans
were shepherded to refugee camps set up in the deserts of Der Zor. Anyone
seeking to help the Armenians was prohibited from entering the area, and when a
new wave of cholera descended on the camp, the dead went unburied.

An indictment of the Young Turk leadership in 1919 determined that 192,750
people had been murdered in Der Zor in 1916 alone, according to Kevorkian’s The
Armenian Genocide: A Complete History. In 2010, more than nine decades later, a
news crew from “60 Minutes” visited Der Zor with author Peter Balakian and
uncovered human bones in the empty fields. Yet, despite Zeki’s murderous ways,
the end of World War I did not bring him justice or the revenge that he feared.
Although a post-war commission in Turkey charged Zeki with torture, bribery, and
rape, he fled the country before he could be arrested and tried. He lived out
the rest of his life in safety in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Part Three

Although it was taken in 1915, this photograph, which has tested my
investigative reporting skills for much of the past decade, was not published,
as far as I could determine, until 1965. Then, without any explanation as to its
history, the photograph appeared in an anthology compiled on the 50th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in a chapter that described how the
massacres had unfolded in Gesaria.

From the outset, I felt that whatever importance the photograph would have to
the history of the Armenian Genocide depended on my authenticating the
photograph itself, uncovering its origins. Why it had gone undiscovered for half
a century was a key question that needed to be addressed.

Krikor Elmayan, the grandson of Vahan Elmayan, who wrote that chapter, allowed
me access to his late grandfather’s archives at their home in Beirut; Armenian
scholar Ara Sanjian visited the Elmayan home on my behalf and found the copy of
the military newspaper, Kayseri, which contained, in Ottoman Turkish, the
verdict of the military tribunal condemning so many of those in the photograph
to death. (Having grown up in Gesaria, Vahan Elmayan witnessed the massacres as
a teenager and was the first to write about what took place in a series of
articles in Yeritasard Hayastan, a weekly Armenian newspaper published in
Chicago, in 1920. He dedicated the articles to his father, who was among those
martyred.)

In addition, we found a copy of the photograph that Elmayan had used in the 1965
anthology, titled Hushamadean Medz Yegherni (Memorial Book of the Great Crime),
1915-1965.23 Krikor had no idea how his grandfather had come upon the
photograph, nor did Zaven Messerlian, principal of the Armenian Evangelical
College in Beirut and an Armenian historian who had helped in preparing the
1,100-page book for publication.

Messerlian recalled seeking photographs for the editor of the book, Kersam
Aharonian, by placing ads in newspapers that circulated in the Armenian
community in Lebanon as well as worldwide. But he had no recollection of ever
receiving the photograph that was published on page 352 in the anthology. “Vahan
[Elmayan] had to have gotten it on his own,” Messerlian told me.

As it turned out, my best clue on the photograph’s origins—as well as on how
Elmayan had gotten ahold of it—came from the keepsakes of a neighbor in
Watertown, Mass. Alice Nakashian, learning of my research project, shared with
me two copies of the photograph that were among the papers of her father,
Haratoun (Harry) Nakashian, who had been born in Gesaria and died in Boston in
1972. Under one of the photographs, her father had printed the names and
whereabouts of eight of those men. But with the second photograph, the names of
41 had been added in Armenian, and scotch-taped to the bottom of the photograph
itself.

Alice Nakashian recalls her father taking her to the downtown Boston office of
the Armenian newspaper Hairenik and having several hundred copies of the second
photograph printed, which he then mailed to Armenian publications around the
world. John Garabedian, a friend of Harry Nakashian’s, confirmed that he often
made copies of the Kayseri photograph at Garabedian’s pharmacy in the 1950’s and
1960’s to send out to other Armenians.

Was it possible that despite my far-flung search for the photograph, which had
led me to search the catalogues of more than a dozen libraries and archives
throughout the world, my best clue to its origins would come from a woman who
lived less than a mile from my late parents’ home in Watertown?

But a close inspection of the photograph found in Elmayan’s files and published
in the 1965 anthology leaves little doubt that it had come from Nakashian. Not
only is the image the same, but the Armenian lettering containing the names is
exactly the same, as is the title: “The Last Group of Gesaria’s Notable
Intellectuals and Merchants Before They Were Hanged and Axed.” Also, Elmayan’s
copy shows signs of the same tear and markings of the scotch tape that Nakashian
had used.

So how would Nakashian have obtained the photograph? According to his daughter,
Nakashian was an avid collector of photographs. Born in Gesaria in 1895, he
spent his early years in Cairo where he worked as an accountant for a cigarette
company and then for Eastman Kodak, where he gained a lifelong love for
photographs. Returning to Turkey in 1919, he worked for several years as a
translator for the Allies and while there began collecting photographs,
especially those that related to the genocide.

“He was forever copying photographs that he believed had historical importance
to the genocide and sending them to Armenian writers, publications, and
organizations,” Alice Nakashian said, “to anyone who might be interested.” For
example, Nakashian provided several historical photographs that appear in
Abraham Hartunian’s memoir, Neither To Laugh Nor To Weep,and is so credited.24

But one piece of the puzzle I am more certain of is who took the photograph: an
Armenian man named Gulbenk Cicekyan. A native of Gesaria, Cicekyan operated a
photography studio with his father-in-law, who had taught him the craft because
he feared Cicekyan’s prior job as a bill collector was too dangerous. One
Armenian memoir described Cicekyan being instructed by Turkish police to close
down his shop and follow them to the prison in the center of Gesaria, where the
gallows for hanging the first Armenians sentenced by military tribunal had been
erected.25

Cicekyan survived the massacres and made his way to Beirut, where he raised his
family and opened a photographic studio under the name of Gulbenk Trading Co. He
changed his name to Gulbenk Gulbenk and became well known as the chief
photographer for a Lebanese prime minister. Before he died in the early 1970’s,
Gulbenk told his grandson, Arthur, how he had been summoned by Turkish
authorities to take photographs of the hangings in Gesaria’s center in 1915.

“He told me he wasn’t even able to lock the door of his shop, that the gendarme
told him not to worry, that he would not be coming back there, and I don’t think
he ever did,” Arthur Gulbenk said, recalling his grandfather’s account.

But why would Salih Zeki or any other Ottoman leader have asked that such a
photograph be taken if there was the likelihood that those shown would soon be
executed? Tessa Hofmann (Savidis), a German historian and an authority on
Genocide photographs,said that while she is unaware of the purpose of the
Gesaria photograph, she believes it may have been part of the initiative by
Ottoman authorities to stir Muslim sentiment against the Armenians.

“Whether it was possession of weapons or plotting against the government, it was
necessary for the public to believe that the Armenians were conspiring against
them, and that it was the leadership, and not just the average worker,” Hofmann
said.26

The only photograph like it that she has seen was taken at about the same
time—in late March 1915—and shows a group of Armenian freedom fighters who had
been taken captive by the Turkish military in the mountainous village of
Zeitoun. Others have speculated that the photograph was ordered by Zeki after
taking over as regional executive to show his Ottoman superiors that he had the
leaders of the Armenian community under control.

As for why the Gesaria photograph had remained hidden for so long, Hofmann cited
the historic refusal of the Turkish government to open its archives to
historians or researchers. While the Turkish government has relented in recent
years, opening portions of its Ottoman-era archives in Istanbul (with hundreds
of thousands of documents reflecting the decision-making of the Ottoman rulers),
historian Taner Akcam fears that the files have already been well scrubbed, and
many damning records removed. There has been no independent corroboration of the
essential records, nothing to compare with the Nuremberg Trials in which the
U.S. and its allies conducted an in-depth investigation of Nazi atrocities
during World War II.

Some Ottoman records were uncovered by the post-war tribunals that the Turks
empaneled in several cities immediately after the war to investigate how the
massacres of the Armenians had taken place and who was responsible. But the
American government and the other allies provided no support for the tribunals,
and chose not to protest when they were disbanded in the early 1920’s with
modern Turkey’s rise towards national independence.

***

The Armenian Genocide shredded the tenuous tissue that bonds one person to
another, families together. With so many villages destroyed and people killed,
who your neighbor was or who may have been related to you by blood or marriage
has been lost for most Armenians alive today. Certainly lost is the feeling of
attachment to the land. Because of Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge the genocide
or apologize for what took place, many of the 10 million Armenians in the
worldwide diaspora are reluctant to go back and visit the villages of their
ancestors.

Only recently did Janet Achoukian Andreopoulos, a 44-year old amateur
genealogist whose ancestral roots are in Evereg, take it upon herself to stitch
together a family tree for those whose roots are in that village. Andreopoulos
uses genealogy websites as well as available birth, death, and marriage
certificates, U.S. immigration and census records, old newspaper articles, and
even ship manifests to make her family links.

But there are few documents of Armenian life remaining in Turkey that
Andreopoulos or other genealogists can use. (A recent exception are baptismal
records uncovered from St. Gregory the Illuminator Church in Gesaria for several
years before the genocide. Discovered and translated by historian George
Aghjayan, the records have begun to be published in the Armenian Weekly.)
Whatever was recorded of the births, deaths, marriages, or residences of the
Armenian people in the central and eastern portions of Turkey has long been
lost, despite the fact that the Armenians, heirs to one of the world’s oldest
civilizations, lived in this region, approximately the size of New England, for
millenia.

Lacking those traditional genealogical documents, three men have begun to track,
through DNA research, family connections among Armenians. Referring to the
genocide, Peter Hrechdakian, one of the project’s three administrators, said,
“What tragically often gets forgotten is that this single event, which took
place in such a brief period of time, for the most part eradicated a people and
their culture from the land” they had long occupied.”27

Viewed in those terms, the loss seems breathtaking in scope, and is part of what
maintained my interest in researching the origins of the photograph during much
of the last decade. The more time I spent, my interest shifted from how the
horror of the genocide had unfolded in Gesaria to the men shown in the
photograph. What had life been like for them and other Armenians there who went
through those trying times, and what sustained them in their efforts to survive?

The more people I spoke with the more important my task became of trying to
connect those poor souls shown in the photograph with the kin who had somehow
survived them, to give both the victims as well as their descendants proof that
their families, their people, had not ended with these horrific deaths.

Dr. Garabed Aivazian, a 94-year old psychiatrist from Memphis, Tenn., was among
the more than two dozen possible kin of those shown in the photograph. Having
never seen the photograph before, he was uncertain if the “Hagop Avsharian”
shown in the second row was, in fact, his father. Although the names were
similar and there appeared to be a resemblance, he had never seen his father
wearing a fez, as all the men shown in the photograph were.

But his father’s story was similar to the others shown in the photograph. Hagop
had been working as a medical assistant for the American missionary in nearby
Talas when he was kidnapped by the Turkish military and taken away. “It would be
good to know that he was considered important enough to be shown with these
others, the leaders of the Armenian community,” Aivazian said. “For me it would
be good to know that he did not die alone, that there were others, friends even,
who were with him.”28 Aivazian’s thoughts on whether the man shown in the
photograph is his father exemplified the condition that the Genocide has left so
many Armenians in nearly a century later—robbed of specific family ties, but
hopeful that there was some relief, some meaning to the suffering.
Afterword

For much of the past decade, I have focused my skills as an investigative
reporter primarily on two projects—investigating the art theft from Boston’s
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a still-unsolved crime that is said to be the
biggest art heist in world history; and authenticating the grainy photograph
that accompanies this article. I cannot tell you which of the projects has been
more difficult or important for me, but I do know which has been more rewarding.

Both projects involved images that touched me personally. I was born and raised
in Boston, and my high school was located across the street from the Gardner
Museum. Two of my cousins, both concert pianists, played often at the museum’s
classical performances during the 1940’s and 1950’s. My father was himself an
artist, and he spoke in awe of the Old Masters. Yes, he told me before he died
in 2004, you have had a great career and won exceptional awards as a journalist,
but to assist in gaining the return of those Rembrandts and the Vermeer to the
museum would be a crowning public achievement.

Yet, my father was also a survivor of the Armenian Genocide, and while he rarely
spoke about it or its effects on him, I know his entire life was defined by the
loss of his father at the age of three. So, even though I was not introduced to
the photograph until several months after his death, his presence was with me
during the entire time that I spent on the project.

At the outset my hope was that my research would underscore the horror of the
Armenian Genocide, its sheer illegality and depravity. Although that was
certainly found, my focus began to shift as I spoke to more and more relatives
of those shown in the photograph. Many had no idea that their grandfathers or
great-grandfathers were in the photograph until my phone call or e-mail
inquiring about their family history. And through those conversations, I came to
realize that the ultimate achievement of research into the Armenian Genocide was
not just to gain recognition from the world community, but also to fill in the
gaps of our personal histories and try to sew back the fabric of the Armenian
communities that the Ottoman authorities sought to shred nearly 100 years ago.

Beyond the strangers, there were dozens who assisted me in my research into, as
well as my understanding of, the genocide, most notably: Marc Mamigonian,
director of academic affairs at the National Association for Armenian Studies
and Research; Vahakn Dadrian, director of genocide research at the Zoryan
Institute; Taner Akcam, Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and
Marian Mugar Professorship in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University;
Khatchig Mouradian, editor of the Armenian Weekly; Dr. Ara Sanjian, director of
the Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan at Dearborn; Dr.
Abraham D. Krikorian, Professor Emeritus, SUNY, Stony Brook; Very Rev. Fr.
Raphael Andonian, Holy Cross Armenian Catholic Church in Belmont, Mass.; Ruth
Thomasian, director, Project SAVE, Armenian Photograph Archives, Inc.; Aram
Arkun, scholar and translator; and Arpie Davis, whose Armenian translation
skills are matched only by her wit and loveliness.

Sources

1 Interview with Sandra Kurkian (cq) Selverian, granddaughter of Vahan Kurkjian

2 Interview with Harry Jurjurian, grandson of Karnig Jurjurian

3 Aras Publications, Istanbul

4 The Armenian Massacre by James Nazer. T&T Publishing, 1970

5 “Roots of Sorrow,” the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, April 1993

6 Although historians have hotly contested what Hitler stated to his generals,
there is no doubt that both he and his Nazi regime were aware of the Armenian
Genocide and its relatively innocuous effect on Turkey after World War I.
Stanford University historian Norman Naimark.

7 Samantha Power interview

8 Kayseri newspaper, June 15, 1915. Translation by Aram Arkun.

9 The Agency of ‘Triggering Mechanisms’ as a Factor in the Organization of the
Genocide Against the Armenians of Kayseri District. By Vahakn N. Dadrian of the
Zoryan Institute

10 Kayseri newspaper

11 Vahan Elmayan, series of articles published in Yeridasart Hayastan, an
Armenian newspaper published in Chicago, 1920 and 1921; Haig Ghazarian, series
of articles published in Lipanan, Armenian newspaper, 1931. Translations by
Arpie Davis. “Massacre Fugitive,” by Daniel (Tata) Tombakian, 69 pages.
Unpublished manuscript.

12 “As Armenian bandits appearing in Bitlis, the assaults which take place in
Aleppo and Dörtyol again by Armenians against soldiers, and copious bombs which
appear in Kayseri together with Greek, French, and Armenian ciphered
correspondence documents indicate that our enemies are preparing an attempt at
revolution in our country, to be ready for any possibility, through procedure
that will be applied in all the zones where such an event is occurring, special
and general communications of the Office of the Supreme Commander of the
Imperial Army to the armies about Armenian individuals under arms have been
conducted. It is strongly advised to take extraordinary care in the full
application of the necessary steps through discussion with the military
authorities without losing time on issues connected with the civil
administration.”
On 15 February [1]330 [1915]
Minister [Talat]
Signature

13 “The decree about twenty five people from the Armenian revolutionaries who
were condemned by the Kayseri Court Martial to the penalties of eternal and
temporary [for a fixed period of time] confinement in a fortress and penal
servitude receiving exalted [i.e., imperial] confirmation, the sending of the
twenty five people being seen as suitable has been communicated to the Interior
Ministry. On their arrival the performing and communication of what is
necessary.”
1915 June 9/22
Cipher Office of the Interior Ministry 54/97 Document No. 1
Turkish Transcription: 19,00

14 Arshag A. Alboyajian, Badmoutiun Hai Gesario [History of Kayseri’s
Armenians], vol. 2 (Cairo: Papazian Printing House, 1937), 1442-43, translated
by Arpie Davis.

15 Elaine Patapanian family papers

16 Vahan Elmayan, Yeridasart Hayastan, Sept. 16, 1920

17 Vahan Elmayan, Yeridisart Hayastan, Sept. 12, 1920

18 Talat Pasha’s Black Book documents his campaign of race extermination,
1915-17, by Ara Sarafian, Armenian Reporter, March 2013.

19 Interview with Raymond Kevorkian

20 The Agency of ‘Triggering Mechanisms’ as a Factor in the Organization of the
Genocide Against the Armenians of Kayseri District, Vahakn N. Dadrian, Zoryan
Institute, 2006.

21 Black Days: The Massacres of Gesaria, Pages from My Diary, Haig Ghazerian.
Lipanan newspaper. May, June 1931.

22 The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History, Raymond Kevorkian. I.B. Tauris.

23 Houshamadian Medz Yegernee 1915–1965 [Compendium on the Great Calamity], ed.
Kersam Aharonian (Beirut: Zartonk Publications, 1965), p. 352

24 Neither to Laugh nor to Weep: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide, Abraham H.
Hartunian. Beacon Press, Boston. 1968.

25 Years of Dreams and Torments, Housaper Printers, Cairo, 1961, p. 188

26 Tessa Hofmann interview

27 Peter Hrechdakian, Armenian DNA Project interview

28 Dr. Garabed Aivazian interview

The post Kiss My Children’s Eyes: A Search for Answers to the Genocide Through
One Remarkable Photograph appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

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ARMENIA AS A TECHNOLOGY HUB?

April 22, 2014, 9:27 am
Next Obama Once again Fails to Recognize Genocide
Previous Kiss My Children’s Eyes: A Search for Answers to the Genocide Through
One Remarkable Photograph
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0

Armenia—with its highly educated population, an entrepreneurial spirit, a legacy
of research and development during Soviet times, and high growth digital
sector—can become a technology hub or “Silicon Mountain” in the region.

According to the Enterprise Incubator Foundation, in 2012, Armenia exported $120
million worth of IT software and services, mostly to the U.S., Canada, and the
European Union. There were about 360 IT companies in Armenia, with an average
annual growth of 23 percent. Revenues accounted for 3.3 percent of its national
GDP, with the industry contributing 8 percent of total exports. About 1 in 10 of
the companies had a turnover of more than $1 million.

Armenia used to be a hub for the Soviet Union’s scientific and research and
development (R&D) activities, including industrial computing, electronics, and
semiconductors. Since independence, the country’s focus has been towards
software development, outsourcing, and IT services.

Although Armenia has around 90 percent coverage of 3G network nationally, only
around 40 percent access the network.

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Students experiment in robotics during a workshop at Tumo.

That is why places like the Tumo Center are so important. Tumo is a new kind of
after-school learning environment where thousands of teenage students are put in
charge of their own learning, in a place where there is access to the internet
and technology. The Center teaches skills necessary to succeed in the digital
industry, for example in animation, video game design, web development, and
digital video and audio.

Another organization helping prepare Armenia for digital future is Armtech,
which promotes Armenia’s high technology economy and encourages investment;
allows for the networking among high tech professional worldwide; and organizes
a leading Armenia tech conference every year.

Then there have been the technology investments. In 2011, Microsoft Corporation
established an Innovation Center in Yerevan, and in the same year India set up a
joint Center for Excellence in Information Communication Technologies at Yerevan
State University. In response, the Armenian government opened an information and
high-tech office at the Plug and Play Center in Silicon Valley in December 2012.

The latest accomplishment came in December 2013, when Technology and Science
Dynamics Inc./Armtab Technologies Company, an American-Armenian joint-venture,
announced the first tablet and smartphone made in Armenia.

A country that has made the most of its small land mass while leveraging the
intellectual capacity of its population has been Israel. The percentage of
Israelis engaged in scientific and technological inquiry, and the amount spent
on research and development in relation to gross domestic product, is the
highest in the world.

A number of factors have contributed to this, including investing within the
country to patent technologies and attracting foreign investment to build
research and development centers. The Armenian government should consider these
and other models to further enhance some its natural resources—its people.

Perhaps it could appoint an Advisory Board (including diasporans) to work
alongside these existing organizations to set and implement Armenia’s digital
plan, to not only develop the sector but identify new opportunities to leverage.

Armenians are no strangers to the digital sector, with Avie Tevanian, a former
senior vice president and former chief software technology officer at Apple;
Alexis Ohanian, co-founder the social news website Reddit; Vahé Torossian,
corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Worldwide Small and Mid-market Solutions
and Partners (SMS&P) organization; Katherine Safarian from Pixar, and an Oscar
recipient; Zareh Nalbandian co‐founder and CEO of Animal Logic, one of the
world’s leaders in digital animation; and many others.

The opportunities that are available are huge. For example, WhatsApp Messenger,
a cross-platform mobile messaging app, was recently acquired by Facebook for $19
billion.

Armenia’s most valuable commodity is before us, we just need to open our eyes.

The post Armenia as a Technology Hub? appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

OBAMA ONCE AGAIN FAILS TO RECOGNIZE GENOCIDE

April 24, 2014, 5:38 am
Next ANCA Statement on Obama’s Failure to Recognize Armenian Genocide
Previous Armenia as a Technology Hub?
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0

Below is President Barack Obama’s April 24 statement, which the Armenian Weekly
received from the White House Press Office. Reacting to the statement, ANCA
Executive Director Aram Hamparian said, “It’s a sad spectacle to see our
President, who came into office having promised to recognize the Armenian
Genocide, reduced to enforcing a foreign government’s gag-rule on what our
country can say about a genocide so very thoroughly documented in our own
nation’s archives.”

***

Statement by the President on Armenian Remembrance Day

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President Obama

Today we commemorate the Meds Yeghern and honor those who perished in one of the
worst atrocities of the 20th century. We recall the horror of what happened
ninety-nine years ago, when 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to
their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, and we grieve for the
lives lost and the suffering endured by those men, women, and children. We are
joined in solemn commemoration by millions in the United States and across the
world. In so doing, we remind ourselves of our shared commitment to ensure
that such dark chapters of human history are never again repeated.
I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view has
not changed. A full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts is in all of
our interests. Peoples and nations grow stronger, and build a foundation for a
more just and tolerant future, by acknowledging and reckoning with painful
elements of the past. We continue to learn this lesson in the United States, as
we strive to reconcile some of the darkest moments in our own history. We
recognize and commend the growing number of courageous Armenians and Turks who
have already taken this path, and encourage more to do so, with the backing of
their governments, and mine. And we recall with pride the humanitarian efforts
undertaken by the American Committee for Syrian and Armenian Relief, funded by
donations from Americans, which saved the lives of countless Armenians and
others from vulnerable communities displaced in 1915.

As we honor through remembrance those Armenian lives that were unjustly taken in
1915, we are inspired by the extraordinary courage and great resiliency of the
Armenian people in the face of such tremendous adversity and suffering. I
applaud the countless contributions that Armenian-Americans have made to
American society, culture, and communities. We share a common commitment to
supporting the Armenian people as they work to build a democratic, peaceful, and
prosperous nation.

Today, our thoughts and prayers are with Armenians everywhere, as we recall the
horror of the Meds Yeghern, honor the memory of those lost, and reaffirm our
enduring commitment to the people of Armenia and to the principle that such
atrocities must always be remembered if we are to prevent them from occurring
ever again.

The post Obama Once again Fails to Recognize Genocide appeared first on Armenian
Weekly.

ANCA STATEMENT ON OBAMA’S FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

April 24, 2014, 6:47 am
Next Easter in Syria
Previous Obama Once again Fails to Recognize Genocide
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0

WASHINGTON, DC—Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director
Aram Hamparian issued the following statement regarding President Barack Obama’s
April 24th “Armenian Remembrance Day” message, which once against stops short of
properly characterizing the crime as “genocide.”

“President Obama continues to outsource his policy on the Armenian Genocide,
effectively granting Turkey a veto over America’s response to this crime against
humanity.”

“It’s a sad spectacle to see our President, who came into office having promised
to recognize the Armenian Genocide, reduced to enforcing a foreign government’s
gag-rule on what our country can say about a genocide so very thoroughly
documented in our own nation’s archives.”

“The fact remains that any durable improvement in Armenian-Turkish relations
will require that Ankara end its denials, accept its moral and material
responsibilities, and agree to a truthful and just international resolution of
this still unpunished crime against all humanity.”

“While we do note that the President chose to join in today’s national
remembrance, we remain profoundly disappointed that he has, once again,
retreated from his own promises and fallen short of the principled stand taken
by previous presidents. For our part, we remain committed to aligning U.S.
policy on the Armenian Genocide—and all genocides—with the core values and
humanitarian spirit of the American people.”

Read President Barack Obama’s full statement here.

The post ANCA Statement on Obama’s Failure to Recognize Armenian Genocide
appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

EASTER IN SYRIA

April 24, 2014, 8:33 am
Next WHS Students Remember Genocide, Help Rural Armenia
Previous ANCA Statement on Obama’s Failure to Recognize Armenian Genocide
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0

“Easter is supposed to be tomorrow, but it doesn’t feel like Easter. Before even
thinking what shoes to wear, they lost their feet. They lost their little hands
that used to color the Easter eggs every year before the bloody mortars came
knocking at their school gate. Why? Just because they decided to go to school
that day,” said Ghattas Eid from Maaloula, about the bombing of the Armenian
Catholic School on April 15 in Damascus. “They could’ve been my children or
anyone else’s children. It is just a matter of being in the wrong place at the
wrong time. Happy Easter? I don’t think so.”

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Easter in Aleppo

In the most difficult of circumstances, Armenians celebrated Easter across the
different cities of Syria. After three years of hell in Syria, they continue to
embrace their cultural identity and retain their faith.

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Thousands gather for Easter Sunday Mass at St. Asdvadzadzin in Aleppo.

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Syrian Armenians at the St. Astvadzadzin Church Hall in Aleppo.

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Sunday School children of the Armenian Evangelical Martyrs’ Church (Nahadagatz)
in Aleppo

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Who will win the egg tapping?

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We are all winners when we are united!

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At Easter Sunday Mass, Rev. Haroutioun Selimian honors the consul general of the
Republic of Armenia, Garen Krikorian with a Silver Plate at the Armenian
Evangelical Bethel Church of Aleppo. (See
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI48LbBI2bE&feature=share)

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Easter Sunday Mass at St. Hagop Church in Qamishli

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Hundreds gather at St. Hagop Church in Qamishli to celebrate Easter.

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Easter Sunday Mass in Latakia. The president of Haigazian University, Rev. Paul
Haidotsian, visits the displaced of Kessab in Latakia.

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Hundreds gather to hear Rev. Paul Haidotsian’s sermon during Easter Sunday Mass.

The post Easter in Syria appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

WHS STUDENTS REMEMBER GENOCIDE, HELP RURAL ARMENIA

April 24, 2014, 11:26 am
Next Memorial Forest Planted in Armenia
Previous Easter in Syria
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0

By Siran Tamakian

WATERTOWN, Mass.—Watertown High School (WHS) is the only public school in the
United States that offers Armenian as a foreign language. Aside from learning
how to read, write, and speak (in four progressive levels, Armenian I, II, III,
and IV), and about Armenian culture and history, the students also strive to
educate the entire student body and staff about issues important to Armenians.
Each year, for example, the Armenian class prepares posters and bulletin boards
to commemorate the Armenian Genocide, which remain on display in the main
entrance of the school for the entire month of April.

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The “Armenian Wall of Fame” (Photo by Nanore Barsoumian)

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At the center of the “Armenian Wall of Fame,” these words. (Photo by Nanore
Barsoumian)

This year, WHS students have designed one wall that displays the countries that
have acknowledged the genocide, and asks why the U.S. still has not. Other
posters call for recognition and justice. Still another display, called the
“Armenian Wall of Fame,” honors the contributions of Armenians in the fields of
science, education, arts, medicine, and technology. At the center of the display
is a statement asking viewers to imagine how many more inventions and
contributions Armenians could have made had the genocide not been planned.

The majority of the Armenian-language class students are also members of the
high school’s Armenian Club. In February, the club raised enough money to buy
medical supplies and pay for doctors to go to two remote villages in Armenia
this summer. Last year, the club was successful in supplying medical care to one
village. The funds will allow these doctors to examine each and every villager
with both physical and mental examinations, to supply medication as needed, to
use portable X-ray machines, and to conduct lab tests.

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WHS students have designed one wall that displays the countries that have
acknowledged the genocide, and asks why the U.S. still has not. (Photo by Nanore
Barsoumian)

In March, the Armenian Club participated in the annual diversity week activities
held in the cafeteria. Students were able to look at Armenian art, listen to
Armenian music, participate in an “Armenia Knowledge” quiz, and sign their names
to a poster calling for international recognition of the genocide. The club
plans on continuing its fundraising efforts and promoting awareness about
Armenian culture and identity.

Siran Tamakian is the school’s Armenian-language teacher and Armenian Club
advisor. Seta Sullivan has also played an important role in securing the medical
supplies and arranging for the health check-ups of villagers in Armenia.

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A poster, signed by dozens of students, urges “all nations” to recognize the
Armenian Genocide. (Photo by Nanore Barsoumian)

The post WHS Students Remember Genocide, Help Rural Armenia appeared first on
Armenian Weekly.

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