Armenian Diasporas and Armenia

ARMENIAN GENERAL BENEVOLENT UNION APRIL 2015

Remembering the Past, Redefi ning the Future 1915-2015 Armenian General Benevolent Union ESTABLISHED IN 1906 Հայկական Բարեգործական Ընդհանու ր Միու թիւն Central Board of Directors President Berge Setrakian Mission Vice Presidents To preserve and promote the Armenian heritage through worldwide educational, cultural Sam Simonian and humanitarian programs. Sinan Sinanian Annual International Budget Treasurer Thirty-six million dollars. Yervant Demirjian Secretary Education Berge Papazian 25 primary, secondary, preparatory and Saturday schools; scholarships; American Univer- sity of Armenia; Armenian Virtual College (AVC). Honorary Member His Holiness Karekin II, Cultural, Humanitarian and Religious Catholicos of all Armenians AGBU News Magazine; the AGBU Humanitarian Emergency Relief Fund for Syrian Armenians; athletics; camps; concerts; dance; fi lms; lectures; mentorship; publications; Members radio; scouts; summer internships; theater. Armenia: Holy Etchmiadzin; Arapkir, UNITED STATES Malatya and Nork Children’s Centers and Senior Dining Centers; Sevan Theological Noubar Afeyan Seminary; Ultrasound Center. Nagorno-Karabakh: Chamber Orchestra; AUA Exten- M. Michael Ansour sion—AGBU NKR Program. Carol Bagdasarian Aslanian Joseph L. Basralian Centers, Offi ces, Schools, Chapters and Young Professionals Nazareth Festekjian Argentina: Buenos Aires, Córdoba; Armenia: Yerevan; Australia: Sydney, Melbourne; Arda Haratunian Austria: Vienna; Belgium: Brussels; Brazil: São Paulo; Bulgaria: Sofi a, Plovdiv, Varna; Sarkis Jebejian Canada: Montréal, Toronto; Cyprus: Larnaca, Nicosia; Egypt: Alexandria, Cairo, Levon Nazarian Heliopolis; Ethiopia: Addis Abada; France: Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris, St. Chamond- Dickran Tevrizian St. Étienne, Valence, Vienne; Germany: Hamburg; Greece: Athens, Thessaloniki; Iran: Yervant Zorian Tehran; Iraq: Baghdad; Italy: Milan; Lebanon: Beirut, Zahlé; Netherlands: Almelo; ARGENTINA South Africa: Johannesburg; Switzerland: Geneva; Syria: Aleppo, Damascus, Kamishli, Ruben Kechichian Kessab, Latakia, Yacoubieh; Uruguay: Montevideo; UAE: Dubai, Sharjah; United FRANCE Kingdom: London; United States: Boston, Canoga Park, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Aris Atamian Fresno, Glendale, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Pasadena, Philadelphia, Providence, San Diego, San Fernando Valley, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Washington, DC. SWITZERLAND Vahe Gabrache SYRIA AND ARMENIA The forget-me-not fl ower is the offi cial Vasken Yacoubian emblem of the worldwide observance of UNITED KINGDOM the centenary of the Armenian Genocide. Joseph Oughourlian The fl ower expresses the theme of eternal remembrance and is also meant to sym- Council of Trustees bolize the past, present and future of the Sarkis Demirdjian Armenian people. Richard Manoogian For information on the Armenian State Nazar Nazarian Commission for the Commemoration Louise Manoogian Simone of the Genocide Centennial, please visit: Karnig Yacoubian armeniangenocide100.org In Memoriam For a global directory of events, please Boghos Nubar, Founder visit: year100.org. An initiative by Univer- Alex Manoogian, Honorary Life President sity of Southern California (USC) Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies (IAS).

2 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org Editorial

ne hundred years ago, be- In this special issue of the AGBU News fore the eyes of the world, Magazine, we remember the victims of the the first modern campaign Armenian Genocide, draw inspiration from the of genocide—systemati- strength of survivors and challenge ourselves cally planned and unprec- to use their lessons to inform our lives today. edented in scale—unfold- We express our deep gratitude to the for- Oed in the Ottoman Empire. By the time it eign governments, officials, relief organiza- had subsided, one and a half million voices tions and missionaries who valiantly contrib- were forever silenced. With uted to our nation’s survival their disappearance, and the and commit to redoubling forced exile of hundreds of our efforts to promote edu- thousands of survivors, the cation and support research world’s first Christian na- about the genocide in aca- tion—an ancient people demic and cultural institu- who had inhabited the Ar- tions. We must also remain menian highlands for three vigilant in upholding the ap- thousand years—lost its his- palling truth of the genocide toric homeland. against all those who deny it. Today, the families of sur- The Armenian ethos of vivors have settled across the perseverance, humility and globe and formed a vibrant moral leadership has allowed and prosperous Armenian our people to grow into a diaspora, united by their thriving global diaspora of shared past and rich cultural heritage. Al- ten million over the past century. It is this spir- though we did not experience the genocide it of resilience that will guide us again as we firsthand, we identify with our ancestors and confront the future challenge of preserving a continue to feel the cross-generational trauma three-thousand-year-old heritage from fading that has been transmitted orally. Together, we from memory and strengthening the bonds of pledge to keep their memory alive as we strive communication between the diaspora and the to build a brighter future from the shadows of Armenian nation as we chart a new course to- a dark past. ward greater prosperity in the next century.

Berge Setrakian President

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 3 Armenian General benevolent Union April 2015 Volume 25/Number 1 www.agbu.org

Editorial 03 By Berge Setrakian

Features 05 The Origins and Evolution of the Armenian Genocide From the Massacres of 1894-96 to the trials of the Young Turks By Raymond H. Kévorkian 16 In Service to Humanity AGBU relief efforts in the aftermath of World War I By Boris Adjemian 18 AGBU Nubarian Library At the crossroads of contemporary Armenian history By Boris Adjemian 20 Healing the wounds of genocide Nurse Mary Ellen Gerard and the Near East Relief in pictures By Dan Halton 24 Keeping the Memory Alive How photography shaped my family’s history By Armen Marsoobian 30 Armenian Diasporas and Armenia: Issues of Identity and Mobilization An Interview with Khachig Tölölyan 38 Reconstructing a Forgotten History An Interview with Vahé Tachjian 41 Truth, Memory and Justice, Not Hatred Acknowledging Turkey’s empowered society By K.M. Greg Sarkissian 43 Memory, Recognition and the Legacy of the Armenian Genocide A conversation with Peter Balakian 46 Remembrance Through a New Lens AGBU Young Professionals from Armenia, Europe, North and South America reflect on the centenary of the Armenian Genocide

In Pictures 48 A Portrait of Survival The diaspora project: Armenian communities around the world a century after genocide By Scout Tufankjian

AGBU News Magazine is published by the Central Board of the Armenian General Benevolent Union: 55 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022-1112. Tel:212 319-6383 Fax: 212 319-6507/08. E-Mail: [email protected]. POSTMASTERS: Send address changes to above. Printed in U.S.A.

4 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org St. George Armenian Apostolic Church—Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

AGBU News Magazine

Communications advisor Lara Messerlian

Contributing Editor Daniel Halton

Editorial Staff Anita Anserian, Alex Basmagian, Ani Manoukian, Jennifer Manoukian

Art Director Levi Nicholson

This publication of the Armenian General Benevolent Union is mailed free of charge to members and donors of the organization. If you are not a regular contributor and wish to continue receiving the AGBU News Magazine, please send a minimum contribution of $25.00 in the envelope enclosed in this issue. The AGBU News Magazine Page is circulated in twenty-eight countries around the world. 48 www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 5 The Origins and Evolution of the Armenian Genocide From the massacres of 1894-1896 to the trials of the Young Turks, historian Raymond H. Kévorkian traces the ideological progression of the world’s first modern genocide.

By Raymond H. Kévorkian Translated from French by Jennifer Manoukian

Brigands of the Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa in Diyarbekir.

6 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org The Origins and Evolution of the Armenian Genocide

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 7 he last decades of the Ot- The Massacres of 1894-1896 on May 11, 1895, the plan was abandoned toman Empire were In 1891, the sultan likely sought to preempt after the resignation of the British cabinet. In marked by a series of at- calls for national emancipation by carrying an attempt to relaunch the process, the Social tempts at political reform, out a campaign of persecution against the Democratic Hunchakian Party organized a modernization of society Armenians. He first created a Kurdish mili- peaceful protest with 4,000 participants in and loss of territory, pri- tia, the hamidiye [see The Role of the Kurds], front of the seat of the government [see Take- Tmarily in the European part of the em- and simultaneously suspended the institu- over of the Ottoman Bank]. The police fired pire. Modernization meant breaking tions governing internal affairs in the Ar- shots into the crowd, causing approximately with the old imperial model that created menian millet, in particular the Armenian 1,000 deaths. A hunt for Armenians ensued a hierarchy distinguishing Muslims from National Assembly in Constantinople over in all neighborhoods of Constantinople, non-Muslims and establishing equality which the Armenian Patriarch had presided leading to thousands of additional casualties. among subjects. The Ottoman elite had since 1863. Over the course of three weeks, a large ma- long vacillated between the two models, The formation of the hamidiye caused jority of the 160,000 Armenians in the capi- but the sultans who set out down the political and social upheaval in the eastern tal took refuge in churches and waited for a path of reform were often eliminated be- provinces of the empire. Directly linked to political resolution. fore achieving their goal. It is in this con- the sultan, the leaders of these militias (65 “It was the first time since the Turkish text that Sultan Abdülhamit II assumed commanders overseeing 60,000 men) be- conquest of Constantinople [in 1453] that power in 1876 and opted for a policy of came the new regional masters, eliminating we saw Ottoman Christians resist Turkish reduction by organizing campaigns of the influence of Kurdish feudal families who troops,” wrote French ambassador Paul systematic repression against his subjects were less connected to the central govern- Cambon. “The softats [religious students] under the gaze of the European powers ment. The militia leaders served to gain and mullahs [clerics] came together in groups that were still involved in Ottoman af- control over the Armenians and ensure the and hunted down Armenians together with fairs. Unlike the other Christian millets sultan’s stronghold over the eastern prov- the police. They committed abominations— [national communities] in the Balkans, inces. The repression initially took the form innocent people were knocked unconscious, the Armenians were largely confined to of a campaign of dispossession, stripping prisoners were massacred in the courtyard of Asia Minor, where they still lived in ac- the Armenians of their means of subsistence the police headquarters, houses were pillaged, cordance with the rhythms of the seasons and forcing them to migrate to cities or etc. The Armenians found refuge in church- along with semi-nomadic or newly set- abroad. During the same period, early revo- es, which the police had surrounded…” tled Kurdish populations, characterized lutionary activity on the part of Armenian British and French diplomats ultimately by a turbulent tribal structure. political parties started to develop in defense intervened to break the stalemate and rescue of the villagers who had fallen victim to pil- the Armenians from their churches. On laging, abductions and killings and against October 6, 1895, the ambassadors of six Eu- Takeover of the Ottoman Bank the hamidiye who were reaping the benefits ropean powers demanded the Ottoman The takeover of the Ottoman Bank—a fi- of absolute impunity. government implement reforms. Two days nancial institution run jointly by the French, Reports by consuls in the major cities of later, a massacre took place in Trabzon. On British and Ottoman governments—by the eastern provinces indicate a considerable October 17, Sultan Abdülhamit II signed a militants from the Armenian Revolutionary number of cases of pillaging and murder be- decree to put an end to the violence, but the Federation (ARF) on August 26, 1896, con- tween 1879 and 1882 in 250 villages in the attacks continued to extend across all of stitutes an episode of particular impor- province of Moush and 7,000 cases of dis- Asia Minor. From October to December, tance in Armenian history due to its un- possession between 1890 and 1910. The Armenians in the regions of Trabzon, Er- precedented nature. The operation massacres began with an unremarkable story zurum, Kighi, Hadjin, Erzindjan, Marash, involved modern tactics designed to at- of tax collection in the province of Sassoun. Gumushhane, Bitlis, Van, Papert, Shabin tract media attention, creating an even The villagers in Sassoun were required to pay Karahissar, Ourfa, Malatya, Arapgir, Diyar- greater international stir than the Arme- taxes both to the state and to the Kurdish bekir, Mardin, Agn, Kharpert, Sivas, Gu- nian massacres that had taken place in the tribal chiefs. In August 1894, their refusal to run, Marsovan, Moush, Tokat, Amasya, fall of 1895 and the winter of 1896. The pay prompted an intervention by regular Siirt, Kayseri, Samsun, Angora and Bired- attention was undoubtedly the result of the troops as well as hamidiye regiments com- jik, among others, were murdered. In each threat that the takeover posed to European manded by Zeki Pasha [see The Role of the town, the massacres were carried out in the financial interests. Unlike coverage of the Kurds]. The campaign ravaged nearly 100 same way: meetings were organized to gath- peaceful protests in October 1895, the villages and killed 7,000 Armenians. In Con- er local elites, teachers and clerics who were nce a r

French press reacted to news of the take- stantinople, the military intervention was executed or imprisoned; Armenian busi- F

over with virulence, portraying the Arme- justified by framing the massacres in terms of nesses were pillaged and burned followed by irs, a Archives

nians as terrorists. The Social Democratic an uprising in need of suppression. An inter- neighborhoods in the towns and fields in ry a Hunchakian Party, which had been working national investigation revealed, nevertheless, the villages; men were the first to be tar- Libr n n oreign Aff oreign F over the course of the year in Paris to raise “a grave negligence on the part of the central geted while women and girls were later sub- a ri awareness about the Armenian massacres government,” and the involvement of the jected to rape throughout the massacres. a ub N among the French public, considered the sultan in the violence, which prompted the Survivors converted to Islam, which became d: a

takeover of the Ottoman bank as a setback, diplomatic intervention of European powers the norm in the dozens of villages in the re p and expressed their disagreement with the that demanded the sultan put in place a plan province of Diyarbekir. ARF's strategy. for reform in the six provinces with large Ar- This campaign, considered by the govern-

menian populations. Submitted to the sultan ment to be just punishment, caused 200,000 s Previous of Ministry of Archives

8 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org The Role of the Kurds The idea of cohabitation between the Kurds and formed a new local political class with far-reach- and knew how to exact revenge on the tribal the Armenians long relied on the more euphe- ing power. Zeki Pasha—one of the sultan’s chiefs who committed abuses against the Ar- mistic concept of symbiosis, premised on the henchmen—commanded these tribal militias, menians, but who continued to prey on them notion that the Armenians farmed the lands which fell under the control of the Ottoman nonetheless. and, in exchange, the Kurdish tribal chiefs guar- state. It was under their leadership that the dis- After the establishment of the Committee anteed their safety. This phenomenon endured possession of Armenian agricultural lands took of Union and Progress in 1908 and the re- for centuries until the Ottoman government cre- place by encouraging the settlement of previ- moval of Sultan Abdülhamit II from power in ated a centralized state and reduced the auton- ously nomadic Kurdish tribes. In many cases, the 1909, the Armenian militants did not man- omy of the local Kurdish tribal chiefs in the cohabitation between Armenian and the newly age to secure the dissolution of the hamidiye middle of the 19th century. settled Kurdish peasants fostered the transfer- regiments. The new regime kept the regi- This change disrupted the local equilibri- ence of agricultural knowledge from the former ments intact and renamed them the As¸iret um and resulted in hostility towards the cen- to the latter. This phenomenon is one of the key Hafif Süvari Alayları [Light Tribal Cavalry]. tral government. As a consequence, the Ar- stages in the progressive replacement of one During World War I, these tribal militias menians were subjected to permanent homogenous group with another and represents were used in the extermination of the Arme- insecurity. The strategy of Sultan Abdülhamit a form of transference, notably through violence, nians under the guise of defending national II consisted of pitting the Kurds and Arme- of Armenian skills and material heritage to the borders. nians—the two dominant groups in the east- Kurds, according to the Khaldoumian law that In the aftermath of the war, after a brief ern provinces—against each other. Accord- states that young groups on the path to settle- period of cooperation with the Turkish na- ingly, he fostered the emergence of a new ment often seize power and territory of older tionalist forces, the Kurds also fell victim to generation of local Kurdish leaders, replacing nations and make use of limited resources to the politics of the Turkification of Anatolia the hereditary feudal system already in place, defend themselves. In this regard, the Kurdish and suffered massacres in 1921, 1925 and by creating hamidiye regiments. The 65 com- populations demonstrated great respect for the 1934, as the government deemed them inca- manders of these regiments—appointed, fedayis, armed Armenian militants who went un- pable of being assimilated into the larger armed and financed by the government— derground to resist the oppression of the sultan Turkish nationalist plan.

deaths, orphaned 50,000 children and left a considerable number of Armenians homeless and subject to famine and disease in the years to follow. The socio-economic effects of the massacres were felt in the region for a decade after the violence had subsided. Furthermore, the demographic consequences were irre- versible and the massacres greatly contributed to the process of disintegration of the Armenian rural presence in Anatolia. The atrocities illustrated a central element of Sultan Abdülhamit’s regime: the legitimization of violence carried out by the dominant group and the extent of the negative perception of the Armenians. This perception would continue in 1915 despite the change in regime.

Phases of the Armenian Genocide Among the countless acts of violence that occurred during World War I, the exter- e mination of the Armenians and Syriacs nc a r

F constitute the bloodiest episode involving s, s,

ir civilians on the eastern front. More than a

ry Archives ry 1.5 million people, victims of the Young a Turk regime, lost their lives in 1915 and eign Aff eign n Libr n or

F 1916. The guise of war—Turkey entered a ri the conflict on the side of Germany and a ub N Austria-Hungary—created optimal cir- d: d: cumstances for an eruption of violence and a re p allowed for the legitimization of measures that would have been inconceivable in a

Previous s Previous of Ministry of Archives time of peace. But the war cannot be the After the massacres in Erzurum, victims are buried in the Armenian cemetary on November 2, 1895.

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 9 Andrinople B l a c k Kura

Kastamoni S e a R u s s i a Rodosto Constantinople Samsun

Marmara Unieh Ismid Marsovan Adabazar Trebizond kh Sea Kiresun ru k Jo ma l Ir Amasia T R E B I Z O N D Kizi Brousse Shabin-Karahisar Bayburt rax Sa Tokat A karya

Eskichehir Angora Erzerum Yozgat Sivas Erzindjan E R Z E R U M Kemakh Terjan es P uphrat S I V A S n E ster We e

es r KANGAL Z I Z phrat A Eu L stern s Salt Lake U a E T i

E Mush Lake Van a R Kharpout Cesaree U B I T L I S Van O Bitlis

M MALATIA V A N A Hadjin es at M r Seghert KONIA Zeitun h p u E DIYARBEKIR Adiaman Tigris Eregli BOZANTI Marash an n h D I Y A R B E K I R a ey h Sis J y Mardin e S MAMURA G URFA r ea Toward SULEIMANIYE INTILI Birejik t Z Adana ISLAHIYE ab Jerablous Mersine KATMA AZAZ RAS AL-AYN RADJO AKHTERIM K Hasiche MUNBUJ hab Alexandretta BAB ur KARLIK TEFRIJE MOSUL ALEPPO LALE Sheddadiye SEBIL RAKKA JEBEL SINJAR SEBKA e t MESKENE

r DIPSI SUVAR KIRKUK O HAMAM ABUHARAR DEIR EL-ZOR MARAT HAMA C y p r u s E u p h ra HOMS tes

TRIPOLI M e d i t e r r a n e a n BAALBEK NEBEK BEIRUT ZAHLE Mediterranean DOUMA S e a Sea DAMASCUS KAHDEM KOUNEÏTRA Lake Tiberias IZRA HAIFA DERAA

JERICHO JEBEL JAFFA SALT DRUZE AMMAN Border of Eastern Provinces JERUSALEM Railway Lines Dead Major Roads Used by Convoy of Deportees Sea KARAK Concentration Camps E g y p t 0 100 200 km Deportation Sites (British Protectorate in 1882) Major Transit Centers

MAAN sole explanation for the implementation of was considered an abstraction, similar to na- other long-standing identities—whether such a plan. Genocidal violence generally tional mottos that extolled liberty, equality Arab, Greek, Syriac or Armenian—and emerges out of a totalitarian ideology in a and fraternity— archaic metaphysical fanta- therefore could only offer a tenuous basis for state led by a single party. These precondi- sies that served no other purpose than to cultural identity. In fact, as Dr. Nâzim tions characterize the Committee of “gain the confidence of minorities and make bluntly states, CUP ideology was more a Union and Progress (CUP), which put an them believe in Ottomanism.” The forma- rejection of difference than a desire to inte- end to four centuries of multicultural and tion of a strong, authoritarian state that could grate non-Turks into its melting pot: “The multiethnic imperial Ottoman tradition to implement and serve the goals of the CUP protests and national aspirations are infuri- e, Bonn e,

form a Turkish nation-state, which at its instead took the utmost precedence. Nothing ating us. On our soil, there should only be ic f core involved a project to exclude groups— could prevent the realization of that destiny, one nation and one language.” The concept Of namely Armenians, Syriacs and Greeks— especially not opposition, as illustrated by the of Ottomanism was merely rhetoric, like the that could not figure into its socio-political January 1913 attack on the seat of the Otto- discourse on equality.

vision. From this perspective, the mass man government and the assassination of the If this was the conception of modernity Foreign man er violence perpetrated by the Young Turk Minister of War. If unanticipated political that the CUP strived to embody through G useum, Vienna useum, he he M regime, an offshoot of the CUP, during circumstances at home and abroad had not the creation of the Turkish nation, it pro- t f World War I can be considered as the occurred, the Young Turk dictatorship, estab- duced with it a policy of rejection towards o es v

product of modernity, committed in pur- lished in January 1914, would have acted minorities who could not figure into its way hi rc suit of the construction of a nation-state. much earlier. of thinking. It was no longer a question of A In other words, the perpetrators acted The rejection of the Ottoman model and dominating the other as it had been in Ot- aturhistorischen aturhistorischen with impunity because their actions were its characteristics of linguistic and cultural toman times, but of assimilating the other. N

understood as serving a larger goal. plurality, which the CUP sought to replace How was it then possible to design a politi- Political ad: re

with “Ottomanism,” comprised another key cal space or a space for dialogue? Both only p The Ideology of Genocide element in the Young Turks’ plan. Their existed in theory, and, as many have argued, Within the circle of thirty men who con- proposal, premised on the idea of a singular the few changes in political power observed

trolled the CUP, the notion of human rights belonging to Turkism, opposed however, during the Young Turk period came as a re- s Following Pietschmann, Viktor

10 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org sult of violent coups d’état. Under these assets.” It is on the basis of this administra- Convoy of refugess near Susehri, near Zara, on conditions, there was no chance of accord- tive measure that the process of disposses- the road toward Sivas. ing real equality to non-Turks, much less to sion was carried out until the fall of 1915. It non-Muslims. can therefore be understood that the law course of several secret meetings of the cen- World War I offered the CUP the op- granting administrative approval for the pil- tral committee of the CUP, without the portunity to carry out its plans for unifica- lage of Armenian assets was adopted after knowledge of many of the ministers. The tion. According to Arif Cemil, leader of the the fact. It is important to specify that the plan first targeted the Greeks of Anatolia on Special Organization: “[The CUP] took the Temporary Law of Expropriation and Con- the Aegean coast starting in the spring of first opportunity it had to realize the project fiscation issued on September 26, 1915 was 1914, putting in place: 1) “general measures”

ice, Bonn ice, Off of incorporating the Turks of Russia into prepared by the Directorate of Tribal and enforced by the governor, Mustafa Rahmi; Turkey. This idea was so ingrained in them Immigrant Settlement [Iskân-ı Aşâyirîn ve 2) “special measures” of which the army was that they only had to draw up concrete plans Muhâcirîn Müdîriyeti], which was affiliated put in charge during the ethnic cleansing of for its realization.” with the Ministry of the Interior that the region; 3) “measures” taken by the CUP. erman Foreign Foreign erman eum, Vienna eum, G The economic dimension of the CUP’s planned the deportations. In his memoir, Halil [Mente e] noted that

us ş M the the plans to eliminate the Ottoman Armenian These ideological and economic motiva- the goal was for the government and ad- f community cannot be ignored, although the tions were realized by implementing a plan ministration to avoid appearing to be in- es o es v topic is not often well understood. It is even to eliminate non-Turks, specifically the volved in the violence, which took the form rchi

A more rarely viewed as one of the major ma- Christians of Asia Minor. According to of massacres, deportations, exile and pillag-

urhistorischen urhistorischen terial and ideological objectives of the cen- Ku çuba ızâde E ref [Sencer], head of the ing of approximately 180,000 Greeks.

at ş ş ş N tral committee of the CUP or as one of the Special Organization along the Aegean The recent discovery of the archives of catalysts of the genocidal act. coast, a “homogenization plan” for Anatolia, the Second Bureau of the Ottoman Minis- read: Political Political read: p Shortly after the implementation of the a cleansing of non-Muslim “tumors” and try of the Interior, housed in the Ottoman Temporary Law of Deportation, an order the elimination of “concentrations of non- Archives of the Office of the Prime Minis- issued on June 10, 1915 tasked local com- Turks” had been discussed since January ter in Istanbul, revealed that immediately

Following s Following Pietschmann, Viktor missions with the “protection of abandoned 1914 with the minister of war over the before and during World War I, the Direc-

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 11 torate of Tribal and Immigrant Settlement drafted ethnographic maps and conducted censuses, which were used to change the demographic composition of certain regions and eradicate particular groups in order to replace them with others. In this context, a massive displacement of populations took place, including among Muslims like Cir- cassians, Kurds and migrants from the Bal- kans who had been settled in regions that had been emptied of their Armenian and Syriac populations. While the plan anticipated the deportation of the Greeks from western Anatolia, followed by the relocation of the Armenians towards Syria and Mesopotamia, the context of war put a temporary halt to the deportation of the Greeks on the Aegean coast and the initial “relocation” of Armenians transformed into systematic extermination a few months later. Genocidal will was nurtured by the central committee of the Young Turk regime, but the extermination itself was entrusted to the Special Organization [Teşkilât-ı Mah- susa], a paramilitary group led by four of the ten members of the central committee: Dr. Ahmed Nâzım, Dr. Bahaeddin Şakir, Atıf bey and Yusuf Rıza bey.

The Modus Operandi The operations were carried out in several phases and were characterized by an almost identical modus operandi. On February 25, 1915, Minister of War Enver Pasha ordered that the tens of thousands of Armenian conscripts serving in the Third Ottoman Army be disarmed and assigned to labor battalions or executed. Some soldiers from western Anatolia serving in the Fourth Army based in Palestine fought until 1918. The authorities began arresting Armenian elites in Constantinople and the provinces beginning at the end of April 1915. In May, they detained men ages 16 to 60 in several waves and chose, in the most densely popu- lated Armenian regions, to conscript men ages 16 to 19 and 45 to 60, who had previ- ously been spared. In the six eastern provinces, men were executed in small groups by units of the Special Organization. The deportations beginning in May 1915 comprised the next phase of the extermination plan. By this time, few if any Armenian or Syriac men remained in the eastern provinces. Studying the process of deportation and elimination region by region illustrates that the populations of the six eastern prov-

Armenian refugees in the street in Aleppo in the fall of 1915.

12 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 13 inces, considered the historic land of the sites.” On the other hand, Armenians in centration camps in Syria and Mesopota- Armenians, were specifically targeted as western Anatolia and Thrace were often mia that had been operational as of part of the broader plan to eradicate the Ar- sent to Syria by train and arrived without October 1915—have long been a terra in- menian population. The operations target- incurring substantial losses as a result of de- cognita for researchers. Orchestrated by a ing Armenians in western Anatolia which portation. sub-division of the Directorate for the began two months later, can be considered The most significant execution sites used Settlement of Tribes and Immigrants un- the conclusion of the program of eradica- by the Special Organization were located der the Ministry of the Interior, approxi- tion. In the east, the plan called for the im- near gorges. At the gorge in Kemah, south- mately 800,000 refugees were forced mediate extermination of men, both con- west of Erzindjan along the Euphrates through the camps. Moved from one camp scripts and civilians, and the use of their River, tens of thousands of men were exter- to another, many often succumbed to the labor, while in the western regions men were minated in May and June of 1915 under the consequences of deprivation and disease. A deported with their families. With regard to direct supervision of Dr. Bahaeddin Şakir of secret network, facilitated by missionaries women, children and the elderly, a differ- the Special Organization. At the gorge in based in Aleppo and supported by the ence in treatment can also be observed. The Kahta, in the highlands south of Malatya, American and German consuls and the caravans in the eastern provinces were sys- 500,000 deportees were executed. Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, tematically attacked along their route. Only The final phase of the process of de- nevertheless provided aid to prevent com- a small minority arrived at the “relocation struction, “the second phase of the geno- plete eradication. The support provided by cide,” specifically targeted refugees from this network prompted the Young Turk Concentration camp in Meskene, along the Anatolia and Cilicia. The sites of this un- regime’s ultimate decision to eliminate the banks of the Euphrates river. precedented form of violence—the 25 con- remainder of the deportees toward the end

14 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org of February and the beginning of March 1916. This campaign targeted approximately 500,000 surviving deportees who had arrived six months earlier and more in Syria and Mesopotamia, often having already adapted to their new environment. From April to December 1916, Ras al-Ayn in the north and Der Zor in the south were the sites of systematic massacre where hundreds of thousands perished. The surviving refugees can be divided into two main categories: several thousand women and children abducted by Bedouin tribes and rescued after the armistice in October 1918, and more than 100,000 deportees, especially those from Cilicia, who were sent along the Aleppo-Homs-Hama-Damascus- Maan-Sinai axis and employed in businesses working for the Ottoman army. The British army discovered these deportees in inde-

scribable conditions during its conquest of Convoy of Armenian men taken from Mezre/ Palestine and Syria in 1917 and 1918. Kharpert under escort, May 1915.

The Trial of the War Criminals investigation files, which it gradually sent Once the Armenian Patriarchate of Con- to court-martial. stantinople had been reestablished after the The reactions in the press in Constanti- Armistice of Moudros, an Information Bu- nople during the trials of the Young Turks reau [Deghegadou Tivan] was created to illustrate that the vast majority of the popu- gather materials in preparation for a trial. lation did not consider these acts to be pun- The Mazhar Commission, an investi- ishable crimes. The courts-martial were gatory commission under the auspices of careful to assign blame for the crimes to a the Ottoman Bureau of Public Safety, was small group of men in order to absolve the established by imperial decree on Novem- Ottoman state of its obligations and protect ber 21, 1918. The Mazhar Commission the image of the nascent republic, which set out to collect facts and accounts, fo- was preparing to sign a peace treaty with the cusing its investigation particularly on Allied Powers. civil servants involved in the crimes com- The preparations on the part of the mitted against the Armenian population. French and British governments to bring The commission’s capacity for action was the Young Turks to justice before an Inter- wide-reaching, having the power to insti- national High Court are largely unknown tute legal proceedings, seize documents in Western historiography. The judicial and arrest and imprison suspects with the classifications devised by the Commission help of the judiciary police as well as oth- of Responsibilities and its sub-commis- er state services. Hasan Mazhar immedi- sions in the context of the preliminary ately issued an official memorandum to peace conference in Paris in February 1919 the prefects and sub-prefects of the prov- were not, in fact, implemented to try the inces to recover the original or certified Young Turks, although they directly in- copies of orders received by local authori- spired the Convention on the Prevention and ties concerning the deportation and mas- Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ad- sacre of the Armenians. The commission opted by the United Nations in 1948 as also questioned witnesses under oath. In well as one of its principle authors, Ra- less than three months, it compiled 130 phael Lemkin.

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 15 In Service to

Humanity ; n tio ec ll o C AGBU relief efforts in the aftermath of World War I e ic n e By Boris Adjemian V hitarists of of hitarists

he first phase of the Ar- AGBU’s involvement in the Ottoman the first in what would become a network of ek M menian General Benevo- Empire. orphanages established in all the major cities , hy lent Union’s (AGBU) In the fall of 1915, AGBU took over the of the Near East, Egypt and Greece, as well p humanitarian relief ef- management of an Armenian refugee camp as in Cilicia. togra n ho

forts took place during for natives of Musa Dagh founded by the During the same period, AGBU launched p

tio er

the Adana massacres in British in Port Said, Egypt and opened the a campaign to recover the thousands of Ar- n ec ll eg

1909, most notably through assistance Sissouan School for the thousands of children menian deportees scattered in the mountains o W T C n e e i

provided to Cilician Armenian refugees in the camp. From 1917 to 1918, the organi- of Jabal al-Druze and in the region surround- ic rchives n rm A e A in Dörtyol in the province of Alexan- zation came to the aid of Armenian refugees ing Damascus. Among them were many V dretta. These initiatives, as well as the discovered by the British military in Palestine women and children who had been abducted ad: re p Library Library schools and local committees the organi- and Jordan and founded the Araradian Or- or sold and had been living in Bedouin tribes n

zation founded in the years immediately phanage in Jerusalem in the Monastery of in Palestine and Jordan. The organization of hitarists ek Previous s Previous Nubaria before the war, marked the beginning of Saint James. The Araradian Orphanage was financed the operation of a small group of 60 M

16 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org men—former soldiers and deserters of the refugees—with, for example, the creation (Clockwise) Women and children recovered Ottoman Army—formed by Hovhannes of shelters in Aleppo and Damascus for from Dera’a and Hawran and placed in Keledjian and led by Levon Yotneghperian. women and children who had been held AGBU’s Damascus home for refugees in 1919; As a result of the cooperation of Emir Faisal, captive—and the organization of a repa- Armenian refugees from Musa Dagh in Port son of the Grand Sharif of Mecca and leader triation campaign to return deportees to Said, Egypt, 1915; Armenian orphan girls of the Arab revolt against the Ottomans dur- their native regions represented a major with spinning wheels, Damascus, Syria; ing the British offensive, Yotneghperian’s challenge for AGBU and the various Ar- Armenian orphans in the temporary orphan- group managed to collect 2,000 deportees menian humanitarian organizations creat- age in Jerusalem. from Jabal al-Druze in the summer and fall ed at the end of the war. Tens of thousands

of 1918 and send them to British-controlled of Christian refugees—Syriac, Chaldean, refugee camps of Aleppo and Beirut back to ; n zones, in particular to Dera’a and then to Da- Assyrian and Armenian—also remained in their homes in Cilicia. Concerned with has- mascus. Iraq after the war: approximately 10,000 tening the return of the refugees in order to ectio ll o

C The group continued its efforts throughout Armenians in Mosul, 15,000 in the camp prevent any hostility their arrival might evoke ice ice

n 1919, focusing on liberating Armenian slaves of Bakouba near Baghdad and, after its and to spare Emir Faisal’s newly established e V held captive by Bedouin tribes. During the closing by the British, 14,000 refugees in regime in Syria, the British recklessly acceler- same period, a similar group led by Roupen the camp of Nahr el-Omar near Basra in ated the repatriation campaign. Emptying Herian was rescuing hundreds of women and 1921 where AGBU and the Near East Re- the region of Aleppo, they sent the Armenian

ekhitarists of of ekhitarists children in the regions of Aleppo and Der Zor. lief were put in charge of the orphans as refugees to Cilicia and then to the regions of M After the signing of the Armistice of Moudros they awaited transfer out of Iraq. AGBU Marash, Ourfa and Aintab, without prepar- hy, hy, p on October 31, 1918 and the subsequent Al- also managed orphanages and refugee ing for the material conditions the refugees lied occupation of Syria and Cilicia, AGBU camps in Aintoura in Lebanon and Haifa would face upon their return. For the Allies, n hotogra

p estimated that 40,000 deportees were living in and Jerusalem in Palestine. it was a matter of urgency to send all Arme- er er

n regions around Aleppo and between 20,000 At the beginning of 1919, the Allied Pow- nian refugees out of Syria and Palestine for ectio ll

o and 30,000 around Damascus. The number of ers decided to move the Armenian deportees political as well as financial reasons, despite Weg C hives

ice ice survivors was much lower than that which the from camps in Syria and Palestine to their the reticence of the French military adminis- rc n n rmi A e A

V organization’s leaders in Cairo had hoped, towns and villages of origin in Asia Minor. tration in Cilicia that was faced with a rapid since the deportees who had not been massa- read: read: The French forces established a central ser- influx of refugees it was not prepared to re- ibrary ibrary p L

n cred had often died as a result of famine, dis- vice for Armenian repatriation in Aleppo, ceive. 100,000 refugees are estimated to have ease and exposure to the elements. which was tasked with sending the tens of been repatriated to Cilicia and the neighbor- ekhitarists of of ekhitarists Previous s Previous Nubaria M Support for the tens of thousands of thousands of Armenians still living in the ing regions in 1919. With the help of other

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 17 Armenian and Western humanitarian organizations, such as the Near East Relief, AGBU worked to reintegrate these popula- AGBU Nubarian Library tions, along with the French administration, At the crossroads of contemporary Armenian history by founding schools and orphanages, most notably in Mersine, Dörtyol and Hadjın, By Boris Adjemian where AGBU had transferred its dispensary and hospital from Damascus. AGBU also restarted a number of local AGBU commit- he destruction of the Ottoman both a center for Armenian and Middle tees in Antioch, Zeitoun, Adana, Sis, Hadjın, Armenian community brought Eastern studies and as a site for Armenian Aintab, Marash, Ourfa and Biredjik, among about a modern diaspora charac- intellectuals to exchange ideas, the library others. In Dörtyol, two orphanages—the T terized by tremendous geo- also sought, from the very beginning, to Kelekian and Sissouan Orphanages—col- graphic and cultural diversity. The Nubar- contribute to resolving the era’s most press- lected Armenian orphans in the regions ian Library reflects the new diasporic ing national concerns with the goal of around Homs and Hama in Syria as well as reality shaped by the genocide and the new achieving Armenian post-war political de- children whose parents had been victims of obligations that it created for Armenian mands and bringing about a cultural renais- the violence that the Kemalist troops had institutions concerned with saving nation- sance. It is in this context—at a time in the inflicted in the regions bordering Cilicia. al history from the consequences of disper- 1920s and 1930s when the political focus With the enthusiasm generated by the sion and oblivion. Boghos Nubar Pasha, was on preserving the elements of a nation movement of mass return to Cilicia, the one of the founding members of the Ar- in exile—that the efforts made to amass a AGBU Central Board in Cairo chose in menian General Benevolent Union diverse archive on Armenian affairs should 1919 to evacuate the refugee camp and Sis- (AGBU), established the library in 1928 in be understood. souan Orphanage in Port Said and move Paris where he and the AGBU Central Over the course of its nearly 90 years, the the refugees to Mersine. The majority of the Board had been based since World War I. Nubarian Library—along with the Calo- Armenians who had returned to Cilicia Until 1951, the Nubarian Library was uste Gulbenkian Library of the Armenian were in need of material aid. The local under the directorship of Aram Andonian, Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the libraries of AGBU chapters distributed clothing made the driving force in the development of its the Mekhitarist Congregations in Venice in the organization’s workshops in Cairo first archival collections. Andonian was and Vienna—has become one of the main and Aleppo, granted loans to families and ideally suited for the position. A former research centers in the Armenian diaspora participated in aid programs for farmers in journalist for the Armenian press of Con- for the study of Ottoman Armenian and Zeitoun and Marash. stantinople, he was already well known diaspora Armenian history. The archives at However, the Kemalist offensive in before the war for several of his publica- the Nubarian Library primarily concern Marash, Ourfa, Aintab and the main cities tions, including a five-volume history of 19th and 20th century history. Its impor- of Cilicia in 1920 occasionally subjected the the Balkan War. Andonian was also well tance in preserving Armenian heritage and Armenians to new rounds of massacres. In acquainted with members of the former the diversity of the research projects it has Hadjın, for instance, thousands of Arme- Ottoman Armenian intellectual elite in enriched explain the singular place it occu- nians, including children at the AGBU or- Constantinople. Victim of the arrests and pies today in the commemoration of the phanage were killed, putting a brutal end to imprisonment of Armenian community centenary of the Armenian Genocide. the idea of fashioning Cilicia into a nation- leaders and intellectuals on April 24, 1915, The library houses more than 43,000 al center for the Armenians. The gradual Andonian was one of the few survivors. printed works, many of which were pub- evacuation of French forces and the signing After the war, he worked as the secretary lished in Venice and Constantinople in the of the Ankara Agreement in 1921, through for the Armenian National Delegation in 18th and 19th centuries. The Nubarian Li- which France ceded Cilicia to Turkey, Paris and undertook a project to publish a brary also distinguishes itself in the breadth pushed the barely resettled Armenians back series of documents and accounts in Arme- of its periodical collection of more than one into exile once again. In the spring of 1920, nian, French and English of the extermi- thousand titles, the majority of which date Zabel Yessayan, the head of an inspection nation of the Armenians in the Syrian and from the middle of the 19th century to the mission of the orphanages in Cilicia, envi- Mesopotamian deserts. In 1921, Boghos foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. sioned transferring the Armenian orphans Nubar Pasha sent him to Berlin to attend The journals, brimming with information in Cilicia to Beirut and Cyprus. By Novem- the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian, a geno- about the political situation in Constanti- ber and December of 1921, most of the Ar- cide survivor being tried by a German nople during the Armistice period, are also menians and other Christians of Cilicia had court for killing Talaat Pasha, the Minister valuable resources for scholars interested in left the region for Syria and Lebanon. of the Interior under the Committee of Armenian Genocide studies. The collection After 1921, AGBU relief efforts would Union and Progress that ruled the Otto- becomes even more indispensable when it is focus primarily on the two main Near East- man Empire in its final years. Andonian noted that certain periodicals in the collec- ern centers, as well as Cyprus and Jerusalem, assisted Tehlirian’s lawyers in providing tion are no longer available in Istanbul to- abandoning the dream of resettling Arme- them with information on the massacres day, bringing many researchers from Turkey rchives nians in their towns and villages of origin in and deportations. to Paris. A Turkey. Several years later, AGBU would The Nubarian Library quickly grew In addition to the library’s books and Library Library begin to direct its efforts towards Soviet Ar- thanks to the many political figures and journals, the Nubarian Library is home to a n menia, seeing its potential as a site for na- men of letters in the diaspora who be- large collection of unpublished materials

tional resurgence. queathed their collections. Conceived as and gathers historical documents of great Nubaria

18 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org AGBU archives that report on the humanitarian initiatives the organization undertook in support of orphans and refugees, particularly in the Middle East and Soviet Arme- nia, in the 1920s and 1930s. Included in the collection are also over 10,000 photographs from the beginning of the 20th century that document the AGBU schools and orphanages in the Middle East and in the rest of the diaspora. The richness of the Nubarian Library’s collection has given the center an immea- surable role in the preservation of Arme- nian cultural heritage and has placed it at the crossroads of research in several academic disciplines, the corpus of which has only grown in the past 30 years in the fields of history, literature, art history and musi- cology, among others. This intellectual activity is also illustrated by the Nubarian Library’s diverse publications and its regular collaboration on research projects that link institutions in Armenia with those in the diaspora. Recent publications include the Revue d’histoire arménienne contemporaine, publishing 7 volumes between 1995 and 2009; the Revue arménienne des questions contemporaines, publishing 15 volumes between 2004 and 2012; and Un siècle d’histoire de l’Union générale arménienne de bienfai- sance, a two-volume illustrated survey of the history of the AGBU written by Raymond Kévorkian and Vahé Tachjian for the organization’s centennial. Since September 2013, the Nubarian Library has published Études arméniennes contemporaines, an academic, multidisciplinary journal in French and English that unites humanities and social sciences. In January 2015, the journal launched its website, becoming the first Armenian studies journal published both in print and electronically. Beyond the scholarly community, the library remains a resource for individuals, journalists, documentarians, filmmakers and editors interested in contemporary Ar- Aram Andonian, director of the Nubarian arrival of the Turkish nationalist forces in menian history. Library in Paris from 1928 until 1951. 1922. These archives, in their original This year, the library has also contributed form or on microfilm, contain numerous to the February 2015 issue of the magazine value in understanding contemporary Ar- letters between the Patriarchs and the L’Histoire, a reference text for the wider menian history, including letters from the provinces of the Ottoman Empire in the French public and the educational commu- Armenian National Delegation, led by 19th century, copies of official reports of nity, and participated in organizing an exhi- Boghos Nubar Pasha from 1913 to 1921, as the courts charged with trying members bition at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris in April well as news digests compiled by Andonian of the Committee of Union and Progress 2015 in commemoration of the centenary of on the fate of Armenia during the negotia- after the war as well as censuses conduct- the genocide. hives tions at the Peace Conference of Paris at the ed by the Patriarchate detailing the Ar- Through its publications, expositions, rc A end of World War I. menian population and their properties seminars and conferences, the Nubarian Li- The library has also become the repos- on the eve of the genocide. brary has heeded the call of its mission to ibrary ibrary L n itory of an important part of the archives The Nubarian Library also houses an ex- conserve and develop Armenian cultural of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constan- ceptional collection of accounts of genocide heritage, contributing to the dissemination

Nubaria tinople, removed from the city before the survivors compiled by Andonian as well as of knowledge.

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 19 Healing the Wounds of Genocide Nurse Ellen Mary Gerard and the Near East Relief in Pictures

By Dan Halton

ore than a century (ACASR), later renamed the Near East Re- sale individually at a military antique shop ago, the plight of Ar- lief (NER), missionary physicians opened in Glendale, California. Not having seen the menians in the Otto- hospitals throughout the Ottoman Empire photographs themselves, yet recognizing man Empire captured and recruited nurses from the United States, how rare photography was in the Ottoman the imagination of Canada and Europe. Among these many Empire during the period, the AGBU the American nation brave ‘sisters of mercy’ who cared for and Young Professionals of Greater New York Mthousands of miles away. Reports of atroci- helped save the lives of tens of thousands of group took a leap of faith, pooled their mon- ties and accounts of the suffering of the orphans, widows and refugees was a nurse ey and purchased the entire collection. Only world’s first Christian nation prompted named Ellen Mary Norton Gerard. Born in when the set of images arrived did they real- Americans to act, undertaking a massive hu- Lake City, Minnesota in 1883, she volun- ize the nature of the historic treasure they manitarian relief mission to send food and teered for the Near East Relief in 1919 and had uncovered. There were nearly two hun- medicine for Armenian refugees in the Mid- served for three years in Greater Syria, car- dred black and white photographs taken by rchives dle East. Largely forgotten today, American ing for more than one thousand Armenian Gerard in the Middle East, depicting the A

mobilization for the Armenians is an episode orphans surrounded by destruction and aftermath of the Armenian Genocide. BU AG in history that reflects a spirit of interna- starvation. In the haunting expressions on the faces tional activism that laid the foundation for Gerard’s story might have been lost for- of survivors making their home in a cave or the modern human rights movement em- ever were it not for a chance phone call to the wild eyes of the boy found wandering bodied by organizations such as Amnesty the Armenian General Benevolent Union’s alone in the desert, Gerard captured the International and Doctors without Borders. (AGBU) Central Office in New York more psychological wounds and trauma wrought Under the leadership of the American than a decade ago. The concerned caller no- from the depths of horror and heartbreak.

Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief ticed a set of genocide-era photographs for The hand-written captions on the back of spread: this and Following

20 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org (Clockwise) Boy found in the desert; Ellen Mary Gerard outside the Armenian orphanage, Aleppo; A ward in the Altounyan Hospital, Aleppo, 1920.

many photographs provide voices to the Armenians to survive and start over. The menian Nurses, 1900-1930, Western-educat- faces of those orphans and refugees who photographs furthermore reveal the extent of ed healthcare professionals like Gerard were would otherwise have been silenced. In the the emotional attachment Gerard felt to- “more than symbols of change. [They] were case of the desert boy, for instance, we learn wards the orphans she cared for. On the back also agents of change,” by providing Arme- from Gerard’s scribbled note: of one photograph she writes: nian women with access to modern nursing and enabling them to pursue education and This child was found in the desert—He Some of my little orphans a part of the care for the sick and wounded, ultimately had lived on roots + herbs + grass for 1600 homeless children. I love them all. helping assure the survival of their nation. nearly two years. Was like a little wild That is why I am signing for another 6 With their courage, kindness and devotion, animal when found. He was treated by mo's. Aleppo, Syria. nurses like Ellen Mary Gerard played a pio- M.[Mr?]E.R. + survived. neering role in the development of modern hives During her three years with the Near East nursing in the Ottoman Empire and neigh- rc A The majority of Gerard’s photographs, Relief, Gerard also served as an empowering boring countries. Her remarkable collection BU

AG however, tell another story. The images of the role model for the young Armenian women of photographs offers a precious glimpse into ill recovering in hospital wards; life in the or- she trained to become nurses. The NER and the incredible stories of survival, but also phanage represented by the relieved faces of the American Women’s Hospitals estab- serves as a reminder of the selfless dedication children having a bath; and the woman bak- lished nurse-training schools to meet the and courage of all nurses who helped save the ing bread on heated stones on the ground, are educational needs of Armenian nurses who lives of thousands of orphans and refugees of just a few of the examples through which would care for the sick and devastated survi- the Armenian Genocide.

Gerard manages to convey the inner strength, vors. As noted by Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill To view the complete photo archive, please see: www.flickr.com/

Following and this spread: spread: this and Following perseverance and resilient spirit that enabled in her book Sisters of Mercy and Survival: Ar- photos/agbu/collections/72157604593191306

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 21 22 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org (Above) Some of the 1600 orphans Gerard looked after in Aleppo; (Inset above right) Armenian refugees making their home in a cave, Syria; (Inset above right) Ellen Mary Gerard and Armenian doctor in contagious ward of orphanage hospital, Aleppo 1921.

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 23 Keeping the Memory Alive How photography shaped a family’s destiny

By Armen mArsoobian

he Dildilian family traces its by the state. Yet such service did little to pro- roots back centuries to the tect the family. In August 1915, they were former city of Sepastia, now forced to convert to Islam and adopt Turkish part of modern-day Sivas, on identities. Facing deportation and certain the soil of historic Armenia. death, they chose to hide their true Christian My grandfather Tsolag identity in order to save their family members TDildilian took up the profession of photog- in Marsovan. This was a decision that not raphy in 1888 and over the next 34 years, only served their own family, but allowed expanded the business across the province of them to help save thirty others, as all along Sivas and beyond, including the towns and the Dildilian brothers secretly worked to res- cities of Amasya, Marsovan, Samsun, Konya cue and hide young Armenian men and and Adana. While Dildilian studios were women in their households during the war. opened in each location, their photographic Tragically, they were not able to protect any work was not limited to the region. As trav- of their family members living outside of eling photographers, they took photos as far Marsovan. With the exception of two young east as Trebizond and as far west as Con- nieces from Trebizond, who they rescued stantinople. Tsolag’s younger brother Aram, from Turkish families at the war’s end, the who trained at one of America’s leading rest of the family perished. photography schools, the Illinois College of Despite having lost more than sixty family Photography, and his artistically gifted cous- members, countless neighbors and friends in Sumpad, joined the business during the after the armistice of October 1918, the first decade of the 20th century. The fame of Dildilians hoped to remain on their native the Dildilian Brothers Art Photographers soon land. They sought to revive the family pho- grew. Tsolag became the official photogra- tography business in Marsovan and Samsun. pher of Anatolia College, which had been Yet unlike the pre-war subject matter of class founded by American missionaries in Mar- graduations and portraits of Armenian, sovan in 1886. The family made Marsovan Greek and Turkish elites, they instead docu- their home. Beginning with portrait pho- mented the remaining fragments of their tography, they quickly expanded their picto- destroyed community– the thousands of or- rial subject matter to include ancient monu- phans who had survived the genocide. Many ments, city panoramas, country landscapes of their photographs were used by Near East and the everyday activities of their commu- Relief to raise funds for the recovery effort. nities. Employed by the Ottoman government, they also photographed historic sites The Dildilian siblings. Tsolag Dildilian (1872- throughout Anatolia. Many of these images 1935), my grandfather and founder of the photog- would be reproduced as postcards. raphy studio. Aram Dildilian (1883-1963), The family and their business suffered set- Tsolag’s brother who joined the studio after backs as a result of the Hamidian massacres studying photography in America. Haïganouch of 1894-96. They confronted their greatest (née Dildilian) Der Haroutiounian, sister of challenge, however, during the years of the Tsolag and Aram, emigrated to France in 1922. genocide. Tsolag was conscripted as a mili- (Inset) Mikael G. Natourian (L) and Tsolag tary photographer, his skills having been K. Dildilian (R), partners in the Natourian deemed essential for the war effort. His & Dildilian Photography Studio first estab- brother Aram later was called to similar duty lished in Sepastia in 1889.

24 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 25 The main building of Anatolia College with extension on the back and dormitory connected by bridge on the right, circa 1901.

26 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 27 Both Tsolag and Aram helped organize orphanages in Marsovan and Samsun. The brothers also provided photographic evidence of the massacres to both the British and American authorities after the war. With the false hope generated by promises the vic- torious Allies would fail to keep, they slowly rebuilt their lives on the soil of their ancestors. The rise of Mustafa Kemal’s nationalist forces brought a second wave of massacres that swept the countryside and killed countless numbers of survivors of the earlier genocide. The Dildilian family once again faced perse- (Above) Houses on the College Street cution. Topal Osman and his militia ravaged adjacent to the Anatolia College their hometown of Marsovan in the summer campus. Homes (left to right) of Prof. of 1921, killing hundreds of Armenians and A. G. Sivaslian, Prof. J. J. Manis- Greeks. Although the family was hoping to sadjian, the Djizmedjian family, rebuild their lives and business in Samsun, Prof. V. H. Hagopian (in rear) and they were forced to abandon their home. the Dildilian home and studio (far When confronted with the choice to either right), circa 1906. (Left) Tsorig give up their Armenian identities once again, Dildilian (1911-1915). Daughter of or leave their homeland, they chose exile in Sumpad and Prapion Dildilian. Greece. The hardships of refugee life in Deported from Samsun and perished. Greece compelled some family members to (Below) Orphans on the deck of the emigrate to France and the United States. S.S. Belgravia. My grandmother Tsolag re-established his photography studio Mariam Dildilian on the ladder in in Greece, while Aram pursued his love of the distance pointing to the life pre- photography in the United States. My uncle server, November 1922. (Opposite Humayag and mother Alice, the son and Page) Nevart Dildilian, sister of my daughter of Tsolag, took up the family tradi- grandfather Tsolag, in traditional tion of photography, operating the studio in Armenian costume, circa 1912. Athens until the early 1950s. They both would eventually settle in the United States, with my uncle continuing to pursue photography in Hartford, Connecticut. The family was never able to return to their beloved homeland. Near the end of his life, Humayag desig- nated me the guardian of the family’s photography archive, entrusting to me thousands of photographs spanning almost a century. Using extensive family memoirs, letters, au- dio and video testimony, I have sought to recreate what their lives were like in historic Armenia by writing a book that chronicles the Dildilian story, the richly illustrated Frag- ments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Ar- menia (I. B. Tauris, 2015). With the help of a progressive-minded Turkish NGO and the artistic skills of my Turkish-Armenian

friends, I was also able to present major pho- archives y il

tography exhibitions in Istanbul and Diyar- m bekir that told my family’s story in all its joy and pain. Future exhibitions will take place in Yerevan, Ankara, Thessaloniki, London, and if the necessary funds can be raised, in the ad: Marsoobian Fa Marsoobian ad:

United States. My greatest sense of accom- re p plishment was achieved when I presented the photographs in Marsovan. My family— those alive today and those no longer with us—were finally able to return home to the

land they so dearly loved. s this and Previous

28 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org ily archives ily m read: Marsoobian Fa Marsoobian read: p Previous and this s this and Previous

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 29 Armenian Diasporas and Armenia: Issues of Identity and Mobilization An Interview with Khachig Tölölyan On the divergent representations of the nation in Armenia and the diaspora

Q & A

IN THIS INTERVIEW, Khachig Tölölyan actions, let alone unify them. Simply to enu- tackles the issue of divergent representations merate them is complicated. For instance, of the nation in Armenia and the diaspora. there is the intrastate diasporic community of Khachig Tölölyan founded Diaspora: a Istanbul, the majority of whose members Journal of Transnational Studies in 1991. deny that they are a diaspora; the highly ter- The fi rst academic journal to focus on the ritorialized diaspora of Georgia; the post- issue of diaspora, it brings together theo- deportation diaspora formed in 1604 in Iran; retical and comparative perspectives on the the post-genocide (1923-on) and post-inde- subject. Tölölyan is also a leading scholar on pendence (1991-on) diasporas, and the Soviet Armenian diaspora communities. He cur- diaspora of the returnees of 1946-1948, rently is professor of English and Com- many of whom left the homeland again in parative Literature in the College of Letters the 1974-1989 period and reside primarily in “Increasingly well-educated at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. the US. The list could be extended by naming young Armenians in most of the the secondary diasporas created by the dis- West and even in parts of the Q: Khachig, one can see two strong trends persion of the Iranian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Middle East now refuse to ad- in the Armenian nation in the past 20 or so Iraqi and now Syrian diasporas. here to a single identity. This is years: on the one hand, the Armenian com- Each has unique features. There are some munities have grown ever more dispersed, connections among them, but not enough to true at the level of personal ident- but also more connected to each other. On coordinate them effectively. Furthermore, they ity, where they have learned to the other hand, the Republic of Armenia differ along many registers: in terms of social think of themselves as having has come to occupy some sort of place in behavior, language, and culture; in demogra- sexual, racial, class and ethnic this picture, especially since its indepen- phy and economic prosperity; internal institu- dence. How would you characterize these tionalization and ideology; and by the level of identities that cannot be summed two dynamics and where are they leading available leadership. Some people hope that up in a single, capital I identity. the Armenians? Towards dilution or more this heterogeneity may some day become a But it is also how they think of consistency, since in a way, these trends positive resource, but currently it is the reason their social, cultural and politi- echo global transnational dynamics as well? why Armenia-diaspora relations are hard to And what could Armenians do to make the discuss: the diaspora is theoretically or concep- cal identities. We have moved best of it? tually real, but in daily practice it consists of decisively towards a society of A: As you say, there are dynamics of trans- deeply fragmented and diverse communities affi liation, not fi liation.” nationalism and globalization that have led linked only by a few elites—of the churches, to accelerated migration, the formation of the political parties and the Armenian Gen- an increased number of transnational com- eral Benevolent Union (AGBU). munities and the creation of some new The struggle for Nagorno-Karabakh and diasporas, along with the increase in size the existence of post-independence Armenia and heterogeneity of older diasporas like have of course had a very large impact on the the Armenian diaspora. Armenian diaspora, but there are no reliable, The variety of communities in the Arme- conclusive studies that show just how. We do nian diaspora today is one of the many rea- not have any pre-independence studies that sons why it is difficult to coordinate their reliably document most features of various

30 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org diaspora communities in a disciplined man- effectively for a while as a lobbying advocate Church of St. James, Armenian Quarter, Jerusalem. ner, and so even if we had the financial and of the Republic of Armenia just after the staff resources to conduct new studies now, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But, for com- society because it has not been sufficiently we would not be able to compare the new plicated reasons, that has changed. Or look committed to action or even to criticism, for results to previous work. This means that all at the Tashnagtsutyun: after being part of the example in the aftermath of the March 1 of us, whether scholars, researchers, intellec- opposition to President Ter Petrossian killings. At the same time, Armenia has dis- tuals, leaders of churches and political parties, (1991-1998) it then functioned as an ally of appointed the diaspora by developing an or just thoughtful Armenians are each free to the Robert Kocharian government (1998- anti-democratic elite that does not inspire speculate, to state what we see as significant 2008), and it is now neither an effective trust or direct investment but does contrib- post-independence changes and what the ally nor an effective opponent of the Serzh ute to emigration. future may bring. I have attended several Sargsyan government (since 2008). Mean- As a result of all this, organized links be- homeland-diaspora conferences and have while, it has not been able to capitalize on its tween the homeland and the diaspora are met with scholars and leaders in Armenia political role in Armenia as a way of increas- multiple and fragmented—we can men- and the diaspora. There is consensus about a ing its prestige in the diaspora, as it had tion the examples of the Armenia Fund, few items and a difference of opinion and hoped. Disappointment is prevalent in Ar- the promising successes of Birthright Ar- judgment about most issues. menia-diaspora relations. The diaspora has menia; and numerous individual or small- What complicates the situation is con- disappointed Armenia’s political leadership group collectives that have developed fairly stant change. Already, a great deal has altered by not coming together as a united force that successful links between donors and local since independence. For example, the Arme- willingly subordinates itself to the oligarchic aid recipients or have created cooperative nian American community, in particular the state. Furthermore, the diaspora has disap- ventures on a small scale, say between edu- Armenian Assembly, was able to function pointed some activists in Armenian’s civil cators and researchers. Many significant

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 31 links are almost unknown or ignored: for young, whether they are of Armenian, Jew- three generations of them. They are best example, I see no studies of just how many ish or other diasporic origin. They want to categorized as transnationals, not yet dia- Iranian Armenians have invested how choose the nature and extent of their affili- sporic Armenians. In time, they will either much money in real estate in Armenia and ations: so they can, for example, declare that assimilate or become a new category of the Nagorno-Karabakh, and what has been the they will not learn the language of their an- Armenian diaspora. By transnational mi- impact of such investment on Armenia’s cestors or follow their religious rituals, but grants, American scholars mean something economy, the Iranian Armenian commu- nevertheless will join groups that do social that differs from the French term circulation nity, and the diaspora. and cultural or even ecological work in the migratoire, though there is some overlap be- The most important emerging issue right homeland. Above all, young diasporic Ar- tween the two. Transnationals are emigrants now is how Yerevan will deal with Syrian menians, even more than their elders, want who live in what some scholars call a “third Armenian refugees. Will it be able to function as a homeland for them? If the answer is positive, then that will have a large and “In order for more diaspora Armenians to be more positive impact on the increase and im- actively and intensely engaged, both the diaspora provement of homeland-diaspora relations. If, however, Armenia cannot adequately leadership but especially Armenia must do more” receive and integrate these refugees, whether because it cannot provide jobs for them or to choose the area of their committed efforts space” between the country of origin and because it finds the refugees politically un- and need to feel that by becoming involved the country of settlement. Because global- manageable, then they will try to leave for they can be active agents in the develop- ization has made communication and trav- the West, and homeland-diaspora relations ment of their homeland and people; they el so easy, they do not sever their relation- will have to work under yet another burden recoil from the trivialization of their initia- ship to those who continue to live in the of mutual skepticism. tives that they too often encounter. homeland. Because of the density of settle- This means that the new, not-quite as- ment in some areas (Los Angeles is the Q: A classic fear of diasporas is assimila- similated youth are not easily mobilized by most famous example), they are also in easy tion. There is the reality of assimilation older diasporic or homeland institutions: contact with each other. The “third space” which is that over time a part of any com- the young will join diasporic community ef- in which they live is geosocial or geocul- munity loses its original identity and there forts when it suits them, or avoid them. A tural and very different from the space in is the fantasy which is a pathological anxi- new set of fluid identities dominates the 18- which traditional immigrants lived. The ety of disappearing. According to you, 30 generation. If there is marriage, if there new transnationals receive cultural products what are the prospects for the long-term are children, then perhaps this generation from the homeland—they watch satellite existence and evolution of diaspora com- will start making choices and commitments TV, have their own TV broadcasts, internet munities? What role, if any, can the home- that can bring them towards the diasporic contact, cheap phone calls; whereas an im- land or substitute of a homeland play in community. Within Armenian communi- migrant of 1914 waited for a letter that (s) this? ties in the West, the older organizations and he might get once a month. These people A: Assimilation will continue. In each gen- institutions simply do not have enough in- live in a space where daily contact with the eration, intermarriage, loss of language and novation and creativity to develop new ways country of origin is possible. Many travel other factors will lead to it. But it is not the of attracting affiliated, not filiated individu- back annually. When they think of who to only tendency at work. Two other develop- als, so that they can attach themselves to at marry or where to invest money, they think ments are significant: one is how diasporic least some diasporic practices. It is difficult in terms of this transnational, cross-border identity is understood, experienced, and to theorize this. Researchers have to study space across which the Armenian society performed by the young in their daily lives. the nature and intensity of specific affilia- that matters to them is distributed. The way The other is the emergence of transnational tions: to electoral politics, say, or congres- in which they will assimilate or settle into social spaces. sional lobbying in the US; to reforestation or diasporicity is as yet uncertain. In other As to the first, increasingly well-educated archeological projects in Armenia; artistic, cases, for example with Latin Americans in young Armenians in most of the West and creative activity, from traditional dance and the US, we can start to see whether transna- even in parts of the Middle East now refuse music to new media creation online; to edu- tional communities will become assimilated to adhere to a single identity. This is true at cation and development efforts in the or evolve into diasporic social and cultural the level of personal identity, where they homeland, whether focused on a town, a formations by the third generation. have learned to think of themselves as hav- village, or a neighborhood of Yerevan, etc. If In the US, where the best-studied trans- ing sexual, racial, class and ethnic identities there is a diversity of specific projects, the nationals are Haitians and Dominicans, it that cannot be summed up in a single, capi- chances of attracting and holding on to af- is clear that they sustain their bonds with tal I identity. But it is also how they think of filiated diasporic Armenians and develop- the homeland. But can we use them as their social, cultural and political identities. ing their attachments increases. Of course, models? Armenia is much further away We have moved decisively towards a society such tasks become easier if the homeland from France or the US than Haiti is—per- of affiliation, not filiation. In filiation, iden- government either knows how to co-oper- haps the Algerians and Moroccans of tity is socially inherited from the family and ate with, or at least gets out of the way of, France offer an example for comparison, the choices are that one either adheres to the innovative diasporic organizations. but I doubt it. Haitians are black people; familial and communal norms or moves As to the second, this has to do above all Dominicans are quite dark; Algerians are away from them, towards assimilation. with the Armenians who have left Armenia Muslims: this makes their relationships These options or choices are rejected by the since the 1970s—there are now almost with the American or French white ma-

32 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org jorities quite different from the Armenian when they do not entirely bypass them, they my identity, which makes me inclined to transnational migrants’ relationships with may connect with and utilize certain dia- help them: they just want me to function as the majority in the US and France. In Rus- sporic institutions (e.g. Maison des Étudiants a guide to global resources. Again, this is sia, where Armenians and other people arméniens) or with non-“traditional” struc- not peculiar only to Armenians. The same from the Caucasus are considered “dark,” tures (e.g. Collectif VAN), without actually phenomena are noticeable in Ghanaians or and where the distance from Armenia is joining them fully. In addition, it is often the Singapore Chinese who reach out to their smaller, it may be that the transnational case that younger scholars from the dias- diasporas—the migrants don’t want to be category is more relevant. pora and Armenia meet each other entirely African Americans or Chinese Americans: outside channels controlled by the state- they want to succeed in the West with dia- Q: Armenians in diaspora communities directed academy and universities. Similarly, sporic assistance but without an interest in (whether in the empires that ruled their many enterprising younger professionals diasporic identity or communities. They homeland, or very far) have had an essen- meet and engage their counterparts the have identity and communities already. tial role in the modernization of Armenian same way that people who are neither Ar- identity, in nationalism and in the found- menian nor diasporic meet fellow profes- Q: The Republic of Armenia has had an ing of the Republic of Armenia. Could you sionals: lawyers, architects, doctors, real es- uneasy relationship with its diaspora in the elaborate on this history? tate investors have started to initiate contacts 1990s: under the first president, Le- A: A number of scholars have studied and to create new transnational Armenian von Ter Petrossian, misunderstandings and the way in which diaspora Armenians networks outside the orbit of the state and indelicate moves from several parts on functioned as conduits of enlightenment, traditional diasporic organizations. both sides strained the relationship. Rhe- modernization, nation-building, and devel- These factors are joined by another that torically, things have undergone drastic opment in the homeland. Richard Hovan- is harder to describe: diaspora Armenian changes since the end of the 1990s, but are nisian’s co-edited Enlightenment and Dias- organizations are bearers of a nationalist the differences merely superficial, or truly pora, Marc Nichanian’s various analyses of ideology which differs from the ideologies substantial? the Mekhitarists and of the Constantinople of the young in Armenia. These differ- A: I would say that the specifically political and Tiflis elites, and recently Sebouh Asla- nian’s innovative explorations of the links between the New Julfa trade diaspora and the Mekhitarists, all demonstrate this. But while these works improve our grasp of the past, I am not sure they provide good guidance for the present and near future about the diaspora’s role as a conduit. There are several reasons for this. We must remember that when the Armenian homeland or heartland was in the grip of the Ottoman, Russian and Iranian empires, it really was backward and undeveloped. The Armenians of Armenia are not. They have skills—sometimes valued on the global market, as in IT—and, if those skills could be liberated from the domination of the current power elite, they would do well. In fact, there are also two other factors that make the model of the diaspora helping to modernize today’s Armenia less plausible. These are, first, the digital links that make it possible for skilled Armenians in the Re- Church of the Holy Nazareth, Calcutta, India. relationship between Armenia and the di- public to explore what is available globally, aspora has steadily declined. Between 1988 entirely bypassing many traditional struc- ences have not been well-described by and 1991, each of the three diasporic po- tures in the diaspora or the homeland. Sec- scholars, but my own interaction with edu- litical parties made a decision to develop ond, there are numerous Western initiatives cated young people in Armenia repeatedly some kind of branch or presence in Arme- designed to bypass the old elite “gatekeep- demonstrates elements of the misconnec- nia. I do not know what happened to ers” who used to control access to Western tion between us: many don’t want me to Hunchakian efforts—they have been re- ideas and innovations. The American Uni- speak to them in Western Armenian, but duced to near zero. The Ramgavar Party versity of Armenia is one. The organizations in English; they don’t want me to be an had some visibility in the early days, but funded by George Soros are another. So are Armenian intellectual from the diaspora, then its alliance with the AGBU became certain universities in Europe (especially in but rather to function as an American pro- problematic in the diaspora and above all Budapest, Prague and a few in Germany), fessor who can guide them to opportuni- the conflicts within the party in the dias- where enterprising young Armenians are ties for scholarships in American universi- pora also led to a near collapse in Armenia. receiving an education that entirely bypasses ties. My diasporic Armenianness makes The few energetic Ramgavars I know now diasporic Armenian organizations. Or, me care for them; but they do not care for are engaged in a continuing internal strug-

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 33 gle. This leaves two diasporic presences in of francophone Sephardic Jews to Mon- when it’s opposed by the West (Nagorno- Armenia: the Tashnagtsutyun and the indi- tréal, whose Jewish community was Ashke- Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, viduals who once supported the Armenian nazic and Anglophone, shows that it takes Transdniestria; the current developments Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia about fifty years, or two generations, before in the Crimea may complicate these issues (ASALA). Both remain active on the scene, a synthesis becomes significant. Israeli Jews further). I do not for one moment believe but neither is very effective, although since emigrating to Toronto’s Ashkenazic com- that a self-determination and secession 2012 the new nakhakhorhrtaran or pre-Par- munity have started to integrate after one movement like Nagorno-Karabakh’s can liament, in which some former supporters generation. There is always a delay. succeed simply on the basis of interna- of the ASALA are active, offers some in- tional law—but that law and its history novative approaches to address the stasis of Q: The official rhetoric makes the combina- must be mastered by Armenian specialists, politics in Yerevan. tion of Armenia—plus Nagorno-Kara- and the pragmatic military and diplomat- Certainly it can be said that the creation bakh—and diaspora(s) a mutually strength- ic moves that need to accompany it must of the Republic of Armenia transformed ening chain. What do you think of this? In be put into practice. the Tashnagtsutyun in the diaspora more concrete terms, what kind of issues should Instead of identifying these, we have a than its presence in Armenia transformed this chain actually address to have a positive smug governmental attitude in Armenia the political scene there. There are few impact on the long-term existence of both which assumes that time is on our side, general truths about these phenomena diasporas and the Republic of Armenia? even though development in the Nago- that I can offer in the confined space of an A: What is the evidence that this mutually rno-Karabakh-controlled territories has interview. Again, change is key: if we strengthening chain exists? There is some: been trivial because the government is un- compare the impact of the Tashnagtsu- the contributions to the Armenia Fund and decided about it (there are some reasons for tyun’s presence during the Ter Petrossian its role in the building of strategic roads have hesitation), and of course, because it is in- administration and today, the differences been significant; the early Assembly lobby- efficient. In the end, I sadly doubt that the are so large that we would need at least an ing in the American Congress that tempo- diaspora and the homeland will do what is article to discuss them properly. The rarily placed limits on US cooperation with necessary in order to act together: what Tashnagtsutyun acted like many returning Azerbaijan was important; and what was collective Armenian will there is, and it’s exiles, who think they can step back into a also very important was the work of indi- not much, is focused on the centenary of homeland they have idealized, not realiz- vidual diasporic Armenians from Greece, the Genocide. As Taline Papazian argues, ing that in fact it has been entirely trans- Lebanon, France and the US who supplied the main responsibility for diasporic inac- formed (between 1921 and 1988). Re- funds to purchase weapons and to provide tion in this area lies with the Armenian turning exiles often do not realize the medical services and pharmaceutical prod- government, which is not clear about what extent to which they are perceived as ide- ucts. But perhaps the single most important it dares to want for Nagorno-Karabakh, alized ghosts of the past, as outsiders who contribution in human terms came from the partly because it not surprisingly worries cannot become serious players in the local Soviet Armenian diaspora, when officers of about Russia’s desires, and partly, as I have game without first transforming them- the former Soviet Army joined the forces of argued, because large-scale settlement in selves. Today, they are players of some mi- Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. I have Nagorno-Karabakh, like large-scale Is- nor significance in that game, but no lon- discussed this in my 2007 article titled “The raeli settlement in the West Bank, develops ger effective conduits for diasporic and Armenian Diaspora and the Karabakh a momentum that would make the inevi- Western ideas and behaviors. Conflict from 1988 to the Future.” table compromise with Azerbaijan more The question of how the existence of the A major contribution the diaspora difficult to achieve. At any rate, once again, Republic has transformed the diaspora is could have made has not happened be- as in 1918-1921, the western and eastern even more difficult: are we speaking, for cause there is no guidance from Armenia Armenians are not able to coordinate well. example, of the impact of Armenia’s em- and no imaginative leadership from the After World War I, we sometimes showed bassies in DC or Ottawa or Paris or Beirut? diaspora. It concerns Nagorno-Karabakh. up at international conferences with two I do not see ample evidence of their impor- Can the Armenian people retain, in the delegations (Boghos Nubar Pasha and tance. On the other hand, if we pay atten- long run, any part of the territories now Avetis Aharonian, to simplify) and two tion to the demographic, linguistic and under Armenian control? Can there be an agendas. Worse, during the war against the cultural transformation of, say, the Russian economically viable Armenia of some- Ottoman Empire in February to Octo- or Romanian or Spanish or Polish Arme- what expanded, defensible frontiers that ber 1918, Armenian officers from the Tsar- nian communities, let alone of the Los An- can coexist in peace with Azerbaijan and ist Army and fighters under Antranig also geles community or even the Istanbul com- has open borders with Turkey? The an- could not agree on a single strategy. As far munity, by new emigrants from Armenia, swers to these questions are deeply com- as coordination and a synchronization of then we conclude that the impact is sig- plicated, in part because what is at issue is homeland-diaspora agendas and priori- nificant, but once again we do not have the validity of secession: when can the ter- ties—deciding what is important—we general and therefore easily theorized im- ritorial integrity of existing states with have not progressed very far. pacts. Unfortunately, the only generality we internationally recognized borders be in- can affirm about the interaction between validated by other principles? The West’s Q: The creation of a diaspora ministry in the old diasporic Armenians and the new attitude is one of total hypocrisy: secession 2008, that abundantly resorts to conven- transnational migrants is that it has not had is permitted and assisted when it suits the tional national rhetoric as an easy tool to many positive results so far in terms of in- West (Kosovo), sometimes also when the tame diaspora communities and/or direct vigorating the diaspora. Evidence from west is only partially interested (Eritrea, their actions in a suitable direction, re- elsewhere—for example of the migration South Sudan), and it can’t be permitted minds us of the good old Soviet days. The

34 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org bottom-line remains that the leaders of important node of the global Armenian have not been ironed out, at least Israel Armenia do seem very reluctant to engage network in which different diasporic com- has been cautious in not antagonizing the diaspora communities in a political or civil munities are also more or less important communities abroad, always looking to be society type of role at home. On the other nodes. Yerevan is already the place where an attractive place for Jews all around the hand, a lot of people would argue that di- many diasporans meet each other and it world. Immigration (aliya) has also been aspora communities do not wish for such a can benefit greatly from becoming a more one of the strategic core choices of Israel role or are not really aware of the political skillful host and co-ordinator of this traffic to support its legitimacy and security. Ar- challenges of the Republic of Armenia. of people, minds and ideas, of pan-Arme- menia does not seem to be acting on such The blame of indifference to the political nian communication. If Yerevan learns to premises: although the rhetoric is there, situation is one you can hear in Armenia function through this model, the Ministry the reality does not support this. There is from civic activists. What is your opinion of Diaspora has a genuine role. Of course, the bad memory linked to the Soviet pe- on all this? this role is limited as long as other minis- riod nerkaght of course, which took de- A: There are a few things the Ministry of tries and the government have different cades to be digested. Still, when looking Diaspora can do, things that were already agendas or none, and mistake co-ordina- at emigration rates from Armenia, at the initiated when Vartan Oskanian was for- tion for domination. national security challenge posed by the eign minister: it can create and maintain an But, once again, this cannot be one- demographic situation and at the number unmatched list, a register of who is who in sided. We must ask what the diaspora is of Armenians abroad, one can wonder the diaspora and what they can do for Ar- ready for, how it imagines cooperating with why Armenia does not make attraction menia, regardless of affiliation in the dia- the Ministry of Diaspora and with the (financial and business) and immigration sporic community, or whether they are homeland as a whole. Some observers will a priority and a proactive policy? Do un- recognized currently as leaders; I am say in private that distrust of the govern- democratic governments fear the diaspo- speaking of a registry of talent and com- ments of the three presidents, combined ra, who, for its majority, has been living in mitment. With skill, it may be able one day with donor fatigue, means that there is no more open societies (Middle East except- to use that list to bring together in an Ar- more collective energy in the diaspora, es- ed)? What else? If that’s not the problem, menian Davos Armenian-American en- pecially while it is focusing on the cente- how to explain the mediocre policies put into place since 2012 to help Syrian Armenians out and afterwards to retain “"The variety of communities in the Armenian diaspora them in Armenia? today is one of the many reasons why it is difficult to A: This is a tempting and difficult question. Any response must begin with the assertion coordinate their actions, let alone unify them.” that Israel was the creation of diaspora Jews. Before 1880, there was a tiny popula- trepreneurs and scientists, Turkish Arme- nary of the genocide. Another point of tion of mostly religious Jews in Palestine. nian doctors, Argentinian Armenian view is that almost everyone who could be The migration to this land between 1880 millionaires, Iranian Armenian construc- engaged by Armenia as it is now has al- and 1948 was organized by Zionist groups tion developers, French Armenian socialist ready been engaged, has visited, donated and others, working from all the major activists, Emirate businessmen, Lebanese money and energy, etc. In order for more communities of the Jewish diaspora. The bankers and even, perhaps, diasporic schol- diaspora Armenians to be more actively diasporic financiers and intellectuals who ars and intellectuals—all of these, whether and intensely engaged, both the diaspora (more than religious figures) led this effort they currently work with diasporic organi- leadership but especially Armenia must do included world class minds. By contrast, zations or as independent activists, have more. The classic text here is Bed- post-1988 Armenia is not the creation of money or energy and skills that can some- ros Pierre Terzian’s speech (delivered at a the diaspora, even though individual people times be put to work, but that requires homeland-diaspora conference in Yerevan born in the diaspora (Levon Ter Petrossian) knowledge and savoir-faire that many on 20 September 2006 and published in or born and prepared there ( Jirair Libarid- homeland government employees do not Haratch on 5 October 2006). He said, inter ian, Vartan Oskanian, Jivan Tabibian, etc.) yet possess. After all, successful people rely alia: “Despite all the efforts of the [French] played important roles. Furthermore, be- on their own judgment, not on govern- Armenian Fund and other organizations, fore Israeli independence, the territory was ment employees—so only a combination only 12-20% of French Armenians have governed first by the fading Ottoman Em- of vision and practical wisdom can be per- contributed so far, whereas 70% of French pire and then by a British Empire which, suasive. Jews have contributed to Israel. If we want like much of western Europe, slowly com- I do think it is very important for the more, then you, the leaders of Armenia, mitted suicide by fighting two world wars ministry—for all government functionar- must give us an Armenia of which we can between 1914 and 1945; this means that ies—to understand that modern diasporas, be proud. This is your country [yergir], but the immigrant Jews had a certain freedom like all other societies and social forma- it’s our homeland [hayrenik].” of operation: they were monitored by the tions today, are increasingly network soci- police, but fundamentally they had a free- eties rather than center-periphery societ- Q: Since this interview is taking place in dom of action that no pre-1988 Armenian ies; they reject hierarchy but respond well a comparative issue with Israel, let’s com- groups could have in the USSR. Also, Is- to good leadership. Yerevan doesn’t yet pare. Israel and the Jewish diasporas have rael had the sea. fully understand that it is not the center, had their differences too, and on such cru- All this means that the creation of the the getron, for marginal, peripheral dias- cial questions as peace and war, especially two homelands is not easily compared, pora communities; instead, it is the most starting from the 1967 war. If differences even though there is also an important par-

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 35 allel: Armenia became independent after the genocide during World War I, and Is- rael after the genocide in World War II. So there are points of both comparison and difference. My own view is that the single most powerful differentiating factor is that the Jewish diaspora has a kind of pride in its identity that Armenians lack. Jews are deeply anxious about their future in diasporic communities, worrying about assimilation, and in the homeland they also worry (nowadays with some exaggeration) about their dangerous neighbors. Arme- nians also have both worries. The difference is that Jews understand that their culture has been central to the West— monotheism and Christianity are Jewish inventions; economic and intellectual life in the West, since 1804 or so, have been hugely shaped by diasporic Jewish contributions. In the world of communication, Jews have been both major owners and performers, whether in films and TV or in news analysis in print media. There can be no doubt that the Jewish diaspora has been both the victimized other of the Christian West and one of the agents of the creation of the modern world. This creates a sense of precariousness and victimization, but also of pride. All are justified by the facts. The degree of pride and commitment that is present among diasporic Jews is also due to the great tradition of Rabbinical Jewry, of literacy, of their being a people of the book, Torah and Talmud both. All this is not entirely but largely lacking among Armenians, who have been more peripheral to the West, which until practi- cally yesterday was the dominant form of global civilization. It’s not a question of “Armenians are too materialistic,” nyuta- bashd, as some claim. Those in the Arme- nian diaspora who contribute their time, energy and money, are often exceptionally devoted and unselfish, but have no continuing tradition of “thinking big,” of having a global vision and the pride, commitment, and confidence that enables a group to act on that scale. Last but not least, Israel and western Jews, despite many disagreements, are in continuous contact. The Jewish diaspora is institutionally saturated and the elites who staff these institutions are in continual contact with Israel’s elites who, I repeat, were almost entirely diasporic in origin until the 1980s. They knew how to talk to their diasporic colleagues. Famously, when Golda

View of the Sotoportego dei Armeni, Venice, Italy.

36 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org Meir came to America to raise money for a concept they can accept, so far. Until they tic assessment I have heard is that they the Haganah, the underground Jewish de- and diaspora leaders do so, efforts will lag. know everything is going to collapse, and fense force that was soon to become the Of course these shortcomings are aggra- they are squeezing the last drop of blood, Israeli Army, she did not come as a strang- vated by the fact that most diasporic and taking out their money to Moscow or er: she was born in the US and had emi- homeland leaders try to tap the energies of Switzerland, or London or Cyprus. I do grated to what was then still Palestine: she others they already recognize as leaders, not know why an elite that is so smart at knew the language and she knew the hearts without developing the discourse and prac- squeezing out every dram from the people of the people from whom she raised excep- tices that can energize and recruit able indi- can be so foolish about the future. tional amounts of money. Perhaps Presi- viduals who are not already engaged by ex- I have heard many others say that the dent Ter Petrossian, born in the diaspora, isting institutions—that means at least 75% only diaspora that Armenia’s dominant retained enough knowledge of the diaspora of all Armenians. This is one situation elites want is an obedient one. They want to be able to speak to it, under different cir- where a well-developed and well-cultivated to work only with diaspora Armenian cumstances, but given the conflict he and list of talent can be helpful. I can imagine leaders who share their understanding of a the Tashnagtsutyun engaged in from 1988 developing a register and cultivating those singular, traditional, sentimentalized Ar- on, this became irrelevant. on it. menian identity focused on the homeland, I am thinking that now is an age for Ar- and who are willing to be subordinated to Q: Linked to the previous question, an- menians: small in number, dispersed, with plans and programs initiated in Armenia other puzzle for me is why the Armenian a land-locked country poor in natural re- and managed by them. Many of us have government does not make better or prop- sources, the current age, with IT, shortened sometimes accepted such positions of co- er use of the resources available in the dias- distances and brains based sustainable de- operative subordination because we pora? There is so much potential, in so velopment should be a favorable one for thought we were working on projects that, many areas, from business to culture to Armenia. But on this front too, we could if fulfilled, would benefit the people of Ar- politics. Shouldn’t they hire the services of do a lot better. Again, what are the obsta- menia or all of the Armenian people talented people in a vast number of do- cles? Is it the potential political price to pay worldwide. We were usually disappointed. mains that would help the country devel- from governments in place that prevent I think this kind of cooperation is becom- op? Of course, they have a lot of potential them from being more efficient in this? ing more difficult in the political sphere, at home too and they do not use it prop- The chief but not only obstacle is the but is still possible in the financial and erly either. But, using the diaspora may dominant power elite in Armenia. There is educational spheres as long as the pro- have a positive marketing impact for Ar- a sense in which some actions of the cur- grams are not conceived just by homeland menia in the eyes of its partners on the rent hegemons of Armenia are incompre- officials. Can the future welfare of Arme- international stage? If not for good reasons hensible to me, to many of us in the dias- nia be imagined only by homeland offi- then, it should be done for smart reasons. pora, as well as to some I have spoken to in cials? Their answer is almost always a “Yes, A: I think I have already answered a part of the homeland. Let me briefly explain. Sup- it must be so.” Can the future welfare of all this question, but do want to distance myself pose you are a member of that dominant Armenians be imagined only by homeland from one phrase you use, “the resources group, which numbers between 500 and officials? No, but the welfare of all Arme- available in diaspora.” Of course, potentially, 2,000 people, with about 20 plutocrats and nians is not something with which most there are still many untapped financial and political figures at the top of the pyramid. homeland elites are concerned (neither are human resources in diaspora. But potential The wealth of most of these people comes many local diasporic elites). is not actual or available. To make the po- from legalized monopolies, unfair taxation, If these observations are true, then I tential actual takes leadership, both from the and coercion. The evidence is that these would repeat that we have reached the lim- homeland and from diaspora leaders. Most practices are destroying the country— its of the current forms of homeland-dias- diaspora leaders have an archaic vocabulary those who can leave, leave. Those who can- pora cooperation. To appropriate Pierre Ter- of azkabahbanoum [literally, “nation-preser- not leave often live in misery. The new zian’s words, we need above all a changed vation”], with some of whose aims I have middle class, upon which so many of us homeland elite and, right alongside that, a considerable sympathy, but which can no placed our hopes, cannot grow because of new diaspora elite, to go further and do bet- longer succeed in the terms to which they emigration and constraints placed on their ter. I wish I could add that we need a new continue to cling. The transnational Arme- prosperity. mass organization, but I cannot realistically nian peoplehood that actually exists already The result is to use an American phrase, hope for its viability. The third alternative or and will become even more transnational that the masters of the country are “killing third path is the multiplication of innovative and global cannot be what they want it to the goose that lays the golden egg.” If in- initiatives by networks of small new groups be, and if they keep asking for money and stead of killing it, they just continued to mobilized by the resources of an Armenian behavior dedicated to the older ideal of the control it, let it function a little better each people that understands its new transna- azk [“nation”], they will be—indeed already year, Armenia’s society could become the tional condition and reality and acts on that are—disappointed. We are a mosaic, frag- goose that lays a golden egg each year, and basis. The old narratives cannot encompass mented, and each group in the mosaic must the dominators could continue to exploit the realities of the new, transnational Arme- hear a different kind of appeal in order to and appropriate. Of course this is immoral, nian people. We need to invent a new meta- deliver, to turn its potential resources into but feasible for them. They do not seem to national narrative, with a plot in which actual, engaged resources. The collective understand or care—it is difficult even for there are active roles to be grasped by all identities of Armenians are plural, not sin- thoughtful citizens of Armenia to say why who want to participate. gular. In my experience with scholars and they are killing the goose, the source of This interview was first published in Études arméniennes government officials in Armenia, this is not their prosperity. Why? The most pessimis- contemporaines, No. 3, Summer 2014.

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 37 Reconstructing a Forgotten History An Interview with Vahé Tachjian on recreating Armenian life in the Ottoman Empire in the digital age

Q & A

BORN IN LEBANON, Vahé Tachjian earned signifi cance of Armenian Genocide stud- his Ph.D. in History and Civilization at ies. However, at the same time, it is essen- the École des Hautes Études en Sciences tial to note that once the survivors of the Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. He is now the genocide realized that they would never go chief editor of the Houshamadyan web- back to their native lands, immortalizing site (based in Berlin), a scientifi c project, the lives of their forbearers in the Ottoman whose aim is to reconstruct Ottoman Ar- Empire and bequeathing this memory to menians’ local history and the memory of the future generations became one of their their lives. main purposes. As a result, memory books, or houshamadyan in Armenian, were writ- Q: What is the mission of the Houshama- ten starting in the 1920s, in which the au- dyan project? thors described the multifaceted aspects of “Family objects are of great A: Four years ago, we started with a project life and the history of the native towns and importance. These are objects to research and better understand the his- villages. These books are the core sources that were salvaged by the tory, social environment and daily life of the and references of the scholarly articles we survivors in one way or another Ottoman Armenians. Our purpose was to have made available. These memory books and are currently in the posses- examine the lives of the Ottoman Arme- make it possible to reconstruct the Otto- nians before the genocide, especially focus- man Armenian heritage and the important sion of the survivors’ descen- ing on local histories. For example, how was aspects of their daily lives. In one regard, dants. A coffee cup from Sis, a life with its multifaceted aspects in the re- getting to know and examining the Otto- wedding dress from Harput, a gions of Harput/Kharpert, Marash, Yozgat man Armenians serves as a basis for recon- spoon from Stanoz, a garlic and Van, etc.? How did the Armenians of structing a relatively unknown heritage. the cities, towns and villages of this vast em- On the other hand, it also serves as a means mortar and pestle from Ourfa, pire live together with their neighbors, with to create a whole environment. This latter etc. At fi rst glance, these items other religious and ethnic groups? These are is extremely important, because it helps us may seem to be of little impor- topics around which serious research is rare. to examine the Ottoman context. What tance and their material value We wanted to contribute to this fi eld of re- was this environment like? What place did search and present the material in English the Armenians have in this environment? as objects may seem insignificant. as well as Armenian to make it available to What were the differences in lifestyle be- But for us, their real value is in a wider audience. tween Armenians of one region and an- the memory they bear.” other? How did Armenians relate to their Q: The fi eld of Armenian studies is pre- neighbors? Understanding this environ- dominantly devoted to the genocide, leav- ment ultimately serves as a basis for under- ing unexplored largely forgotten pre-geno- standing the local histories of the genocide cide history, traditions and culture. By in each city and village. reconstructing the Ottoman Armenian past, what do you hope to achieve? Q: You mention the importance and reso- A: The genocide is part of the Armenian nance of local stories, or as you describe collective memory. This is an undeniable them “micro-histories,” that can be re-

heritage and it is not possible to reduce the vealed from an object. Can you elaborate? HOUSHAMADYAN.ORG

38 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org A: Yes, family objects are of great importance. These are objects that were salvaged by the survivors in one way or another and are currently in the possession of the survivors’ descendants. A coffee cup from Sis, a wedding dress from Harput, a spoon from Stanoz, a garlic mortar and pestle from Ourfa, etc. At fi rst glance, these items may seem to be of little importance and their material value as objects may seem insig- nifi cant. But for us, their real value is in the memory they bear. For us, these are objects that carry memory, and as such, they are invaluable. We can fi nd many such objects in the possession of Armenians all over the world; each object carries a family micro- history. Their initial owners are no longer living, but the item itself is still there, visi- ble and tangible. By tracking the history of the object, we can extract a family’s trajec- tory as well as place it into context within the Ottoman period.

Q: During your travels and research for the project, what have you learned that most These items belonged to Serpouhie Balabian of belonged to Armenians have been de- stands out in your mind? Stanoz. After the adult males of Stanoz were stroyed, the Armenian elements continue A: For me, the most impressive phenome- killed in the genocide, Balabian’s daughter and to live in the oral histories of Turkish fam- non was, and still is, the yearning that grandchild left for Marseille in , bringing ilies. Many families have started to openly people have for the material we are pre- the objects with them. discuss that there was an Armenian grand- senting. This is especially evident in the mother or grandfather in their family, who diaspora where the new generations are no Q: Tell us about how Houshamadyan has was Islamized during the genocide. This longer Armenian-speaking and can no been received? all contributes to the growing interest in longer read sources written in Armenian A: After the launch of our project, it was an the lives of the Ottoman Armenians and in about the history of their ancestors. Our unexpected surprise to be received well in the history of the Armenians more gener- project is the best way for them to recon- Turkey. The interest in local histories and ally. Moreover, now our project is also nect with history and to feel connected to material describing the lives of Ottoman available in Turkish. People in Harput, Van their family heritage. It is no surprise then Armenians is also very evident in Turkey, or Adana can access all this information, that the majority of our readers come from especially for the micro-histories of the cit- the United States. We serve as a bridge and ies and villages where a large number of Sahag Halladjian was a master carpet-maker in link between the English-speaking Arme- Armenians lived. The traces of the Arme- Kayseri/Gesaria. Today the sample belongs to nian community and the Armenian-lan- nians are still present in these locations. Sahag’s granddaughter Simoneh Khachadourian guage texts that the survivors produced. While the houses and structures that once in Lebanon. HOUSHAMADYAN.ORG

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 39 Crafted by Melkon Nazarian in Agn in , to gather many of these scattered materi- our finances were entirely based on indi- the bowl traveled with the family to Harput, als. And thanks to this technology, we have vidual donations, which still continue to this and later Aleppo as they fl ed the genocide. It is the opportunity to explain to Armenians day. We are grateful to the Armenian Gen- now in the possession of Melkon’s grand- worldwide the value of the materials that eral Benevolent Union (AGBU) and the daughter Sevan, in Paris. their ancestors brought with them from Gulbenkian Foundation for providing fi- the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, the fam- nancial support for our project. In fact, we which, until now, was unknown to many. ily home is the place where one may still are always open to collaborating with other Q: Houshamadyan targets a broader audi- find outstanding materials (photos, ob- organizations in the future. ence by making Armenian studies appeal- jects, unpublished memoirs) about Otto- ing and accessible to new generations, and man Armenian history. Q: What message do you hope readers will also encourages participation from the take away from your work? public. What are the benefi ts of this inter- Q: What has been the biggest challenge A: Our purpose is to show the multilayered active and multimedia approach? the project has faced? and vibrant life that the Ottoman Arme- A: I believe that a major source about A: Until today, we have a limited budget, nians led and to ultimately give new value Armenians in the Ottoman Empire is but we have a great deal of work to do. to micro-histories of the Armenians. I the family archive. Since the start of the There are thousands of pages of fi rst-hand think that by focusing on the life and local Houshamadyan project in Berlin in 2010, resources about the Ottoman Armenians, histories and showing the multifaceted many people around the world began which require additional research. Some of character of life before the genocide to contact us and wanted to share their these pages are in printed books, but there through writings and images, it will be own family collections, consisting mostly are many other kinds of sources in the ar- possible to show the striking human and of photographs, but also of recorded ac- chives of different organizations. In reality, cultural loss. Our work is an implicit way counts, songs, fi lms, maps, diplomas, books the work needs to take a collaborative ap- of speaking about tragedy, but at the same and other materials. Despite the passage of proach. It would be better suited as part of a time about the absurdity of the genocide. I time, we can still fi nd in family homes tan- whole university program. It has been four use the term absurd, because we want to gible traces of a past life in the Ottoman years since we began the project and we are show that when a state perpetrates geno- Empire. In this regard, information tech- proud of the work we have been able to ac- cide and eliminates a dynamic element,

nology is considerably helping our efforts complish in our small team. Until last year, this state also causes itself harm. HOUSHAMADYAN.ORG

40 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org Truth, Memory and Justice, Not Hatred Acknowledging Turkey’s empowered society

By K.M. GREG SARKISSIAN

n April 24, 2015 we will Some twenty years ago, in April of and inﬂ uential books and articles, pub- commemorate the cen- 1995, I shared the story of Haji Khalil lished in several languages, about the tenary of the Armenian from the podium at an international con- Armenian Genocide and the violence Genocide and pay trib- ference entitled, “Problems of Genocide” perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks. His ute to the memory of in Yerevan, which the Zoryan Institute works demonstrate how the Ottoman some 1.5 million victims had cosponsored with the Armenian government, led by the Committee of Oof the Young Turk regime of the Ottoman government. I concluded my speech by Union and Progress, inspired by the ide- Empire. We will also pay tribute to the saying, ology of pan-Turkism and dreams of im- memory of those few Turks, Kurds, Arabs perial expansion, carried out the planned and others who risked their own lives to I want to extend my hand to the people destruction of its own fellow subjects, the help Armenians escape certain death. of Turkey, to ask them to remember that entire Armenian population in its ances- There are several reasons why we should though at one time their state was led by tral homeland. remember those courageous Turks who, mass murderers, they also had their Haji During the next ten years, from 1995 to first and foremost, objected to the mass Khalils, and that it would honor the 2005, numerous tentative contacts were deportation and murder of their Armenian memory of the latter to acknowledge the made between Turks and Armenians. neighbors by their own government and overwhelming truth of the genocide, to Some on an individual basis, some in aca- countrymen. Second, they did not become express regrets, so that the healing pro- demic forums, where research and scholar- by-standers. Instead, swayed by religious cess may begin between our two peoples. ship was shared and exchanged between piety and their respect for human life and Turkish and Armenian scholars. Some, dignity, they saved some of the Armenians As a result of my speech, one of the such as the Workshop on Armenian-Turk- with compassion and care. Third, it gives a scholars participating in the conference, ish Studies or WATS, used virtual com- more positive basis for Turks and Arme- Taner Akçam, approached me with tears in munication to facilitate dialogue between nians to look together at 1915 as part of his eyes, hugged me and started telling me Armenians and Turks. Some Turkish their shared history. things in Turkish that I could not under- scholars visited various research centers, No one knows how many individual stand. But, I could feel his warmth and his such as the Zoryan Institute and the Ar- acts of courage and humanity occurred sincerity in trying to tell me that he ac- menian Studies Chairs, to learn about the during that period of horror and death. knowledged and shared the trauma and the research conducted and/or to view oral his- One such person, Haji Khalil, a devoted pain that I was experiencing at that mo- tory testimonies of the survivors of the Muslim and a righteous Turk, was my ment. The next day we attended a memo- genocide. Some 15 Turkish students have grandfather’s business partner. He had rial service at the Mother See of Holy attended the comparative genocide course promised my grandfather he would care Etchmiadzin, the seat of the Armenian run by the Zoryan Institute with the Uni- for his family in case of misfortune. When Apostolic Church. There, I took him by the versity of Toronto some continued their the disaster greater than anything either hand and asked him to join me in lighting studies to become recognized specialists of of them could have imagined struck, my two candles, one in memory of my grand- the Armenian Genocide. grandfather, Krikor, was hung just for be- father lit by him, and another, which I lit in Some businessmen organized official ing an Armenian. But Haji Khalil kept his memory of Haji Khalil. Then we embraced forums, such as the Turkish Armenian promise. He hid my grandmother, her and promised each other that we would do Business Development Council, to pro- sister and their seven children in the attic everything possible to bring our peoples mote trade between the two countries, of his house in Urfa for almost a year. He together by preserving the legacy and the hoping that trade would be the best way to fed and cared for them and saw them to memory of that righteous human being, bring these two peoples together. Attempts safety to Aleppo. He did this knowing Haji Khalil, and through him, undermine were made even by the Armenian govern- well that whoever saved Armenians could denial and promote truth and justice. ment a few years ago, through the so called have shared their fate of death and de- Since that encounter in 1995, Dr. “football diplomacy” for rapprochement

HOUSHAMADYAN.ORG struction. Akçam has written many well respected with the Turkish government. This was

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 41 followed by the signing of the yet unrati- stacle to democracy in Turkey. Hrant members of Armenian society to cooper- fied protocols. Dink’s murder by a Turkish ultranational- ate with them, have not helped Turkey in All of these efforts were attempts to ist impacted not only the Armenian com- controlling Armenian society. On the bring about a change in the attitudes of munity in Turkey, but also the Kurdish, contrary, they have only strengthened the these two peoples, who continued to see Yezidi, Alevi and other minorities, who resolve of Armenians worldwide to mobi- each other through the prism of the events saw the assassination as a major blow to lize for acknowledgement and restorative of 1915 as unchanging and monolithic en- freedom of thought and speech and to justice because Armenians collectively are emies. Unfortunately, more work is needed their aspiration for cultural and religious fully aware of their history and the pro- by both Turkish and Armenian civil societ- freedom. foundly devastating effects of genocide on ies to raise awareness about the events of Those who fear that Turkey will succeed their nation. 1915, to encourage the Turkish state to “to neutralize the effect of the Armenian To speak well of the Turks that saved change its narrative. side’s preparations for the centenary of the Armenians actually helps contextualize There were strong voices that wanted to Armenian Genocide,” do not sufficiently and bring home for Turks what the Arme- reclaim history as a legacy that needed nian Genocide was all about. One to be recognized, and thus pressed cannot talk about Turks who saved their government to abolish all ob- Armenians without explaining what stacles to this process. For example, it is they saved the Armenians from. the series of events since 1995, de- This can only help promote shared scribed above, led to the first public knowledge of history and a past that conference on Armenian issues which both societies can talk about to each was organized by Turkish academics other on a common basis of under- and intellectuals and took place in Is- standing and without any fear of per- tanbul on May 25, 2005, entitled “Ot- secution. Hopefully this can lead to toman Armenians during the Decline dialogue and eventually reconcilia- of the Empire: Issues of Scientific tion. We must have hope that human Reasonability and Democracy.” Some values, fortified with the knowledge of the participants at this conference of historical truth, will eventually were scholars and intellectuals who empower Turkish civil society to de- were in continuous contact with their mand its government more effec- Armenian counterparts. The confer- tively embrace the facts of history. ence was condemned and criticized Without that, there will be no true by the Turkish authorities. Just one democracy and therefore no security day before the conference, then Turk- for any individual or collective in that ish Justice Çiçek accused those who country. organized and participated in the Such empowerment is already evi- conference of treason, calling them dent by the fact that currently two traitors to their country, condemning Turkish human rights organizations the initiative as a blow to the govern- are partnering with the International ment’s attempts to counter a mount- Institute for Genocide and Human ing Armenian campaign to have the Rights Studies (a division of the killings recognized internationally as Zoryan Institute) to jointly submit a genocide. He went as far as stating, brief to the European Court of Hu- “This is a stab in the back to Turkish man Rights in the Perinçek case—a nation…” As a result, some of these matter of genocide denial—docu- Turkish scholars, intellectuals and menting discriminatory and racist media representatives were charged, Greg Sarkissian lights candles together with Turkish scholar Taner activities and statements against Ar- persecuted and even jailed by Turkish Akçam at the memorial service in Etchmiadzin, April 1995. menians in Turkey and Switzerland. authorities. Such instances of cooperation strength- Since 2005, the Turkish government believe in the power of historical truth. No en contacts between the two societies and has continued its unrelenting policy of matter what Turkey does through its policy serve as evidence of the power of shared denialism in spite of civil society wanting of denial, it cannot avoid the facts of history. universal human values. to know more about their own history. Fear of Turkish penetration of Armenian We cannot be oblivious to the changes The policies of denial on the part of the society, in the diaspora and/or in Armenia, happening in Turkey. Armenians have a deep state, continued by the current Turk- concern about causing domestic disagree- role in helping Turkish society learn and ish government, have led to hatred, dis- ments to take control of society reduces Ar- understand the indisputable facts of the crimination and incitement of violence menians and Armenia to hapless victims Armenian Genocide through education, towards the remaining Armenians in Tur- rather than aware, independent individuals dialogue and contacts on all levels of key. This policy culminated in the killing who are able to articulate and defend their Turkish society. This is a critical process of Hrant Dink, the editor of AGOS national interest. in order to emancipate both societies newspaper, who had openly challenged All denial attempts, whether they be by from this history of enmity, prejudice the narrative of the government as an ob- distorting history or cajoling certain and hatred.

42 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org Memory, Recognition, and the Legacy of the Armenian Genocide A conversation with Peter Balakian

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 43 ritically-acclaimed poet and mands no moral accountability. It also em- produced internationally by scholars from non-fiction writer Peter Bala- boldens future genocidaires to pursue paths Australia, Europe, South America, North kian is the Donald M. and of mass violence. I often think of Elie Wie- America and the Middle East, and especially Constance H. Rebar Professor sel’s statement that denial is a “double killing” by Turkish scholars, writers and journalists has in Humanities and professor because it strives to kill the memory of the had an impact on the mindset inside of Turkey. of English at Colgate Univer- event. In the collective memory of the event People like Ragip Zarakolu, the great publisher Csity. He is the author of seven books of poems ethical dimensions reside, and it’s also been who published many of our books and many and four prose works, including The Burning pointed out that denialism seeks to create other books about the Greek and Kurdish past, Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s what Robert Jay Lifton has called a morally have made such a big difference. Scholars like Response, a New York Times best seller and counterfeit universe for the legacy commu- Taner Akçam, Fatma Müge Goçek, and Uğur winner of the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize; nity. I think denialism is also damaging for Ümit Üngör, journalists, and the Turkish Hu- and Black Dog of Fate, a memoir, winner of the the perpetrator culture and its legacy because man Rights Organization as well as the Hrant PEN/Albrand Prize. Vise and Shadow: Essays those who are following the call of their gov- Dink Foundation are making a difference. on the Lyric Imagination, Poetry, Art, and ernment to deny this for the sake of national Hrant’s assassination has become a martyrdom Culture will be published by The University honor—those people are being misled and of enormous significance. So I think one just of Chicago Press. being led into a kind of anger and confusion has to stay hopeful and also note that you can’t they don’t really understand. Such behavior predict how nation states and governments are Memory undermines the development of compassion, going to configure their own ideologies as time Q: You were raised in New Jersey in a family empathy and an awareness of the other. passes. Martin Luther King Jr. tried to answer where the Armenian Genocide was never I certainly feel the unethical nature of the that in a way in the 1950s and 1960s when he openly discussed. Yet the genocide, and issues aggressive and misguided anger from the famously said the arc of history bends towards surrounding memory and historical trauma Turkish nationalists. I see them as victims of justice. I think it’s hopeful to recall that. are central themes in much of your work. their government’s misguided and confused Why are they so important to you? policy. And I like to recall what President Q: Some have argued had the international A: Every family who comes out of a survivor Obama said to the Turkish government inside community recognized the Armenian Geno- experience will have their own personal Turkey’s parliament in 2009: “an unresolved cide and punished its perpetrators, the Jewish chemistry about the historical event they sur- history is too big a burden to carry, take it from Holocaust and subsequent genocides may vived so there are many Armenian families me as an American, you must deal with the have been averted. One hundred years later, for whom open conversation about that past facts of 1915 honestly.” He’s right. Turkey what can the international community and happens early on. But in other families there would help itself in many ways to stop playing particularly the United States, do to help re- was a kind of shutdown and psychic numb- this game of combating the Armenian Geno- dress their historic failure and ultimately help ing, which is often a pattern among survivors, cide. It’s also disturbing to go to Turkey and see Armenians heal the wounds of the past? because the trauma of the event is so great the erasure of the rich, historically deep Arme- A: I’m not sure the Holocaust would have that people find it is a survival technique. nian past of Anatolia. When you go to Ani been averted. But formal international justice As a writer, the richness and depth of this and see this great remnant of Armenia’s most after the Armenian Massacres might have cre- human and historical story engaged me deep- important medieval city and see that the Turk- ated a different human rights climate. I think ly. Most of my books of poems from Father ish Ministry of Tourism will not even allow the US has to take on a little more moral lead- Fisheye (1979) on—have varying degrees of the word Armenia/Ermeni on any of the sig- ership here and first acknowledge with some engagement with Armenian cultural and his- nage at this major tourist site. This is another pride its own past in the American relief and torical memory. My memoir Black Dog of Fate manifestation of denialism that contributes to rescue movements for the Armenians in the deals with the transmission of trauma across the moral counterfeiting and protracted vio- 1890s through the 1920s. In fact Americans generations in a family that refused to speak lence against the eradicated culture. broke ground in their relief efforts for the Ar- about the Armenian past. As for the social menian victims and survivors of the Hamidian Recognition justice issues, these are important ethical issues massacres of the 1890s by sending the first Q: that haunt the aftermath of the Turkish erad- To what extent has the growth of research Red Cross mission ever out of the country in ication of Armenian culture and remain con- and increase in public awareness, as well as 1896-97 led by Clara Barton. And US foreign temporary and significant. The Armenian the marked change in general attitudes and office reports on the massacres of the Arme- community worldwide is clearly interested in efforts of brave scholars within Turkey nians constitute the first American eyewitness pursuing some form of social justice. brought Armenians closer to achieving so- accounts of genocide in our foreign diplomat- cial justice and restitution? ic history. It’s a noble record. But today, the US Q: A: What have been the costs of denial of the I’m sure it has brought us closer to some State Department is afraid to acknowledge its genocide, of that existence and memory over forms of social justice and restitution. What is own history for fear of Turkish anger and re- the past century? happening in Turkey today was hard to imagine prisal. It’s an embarrassing game for the Unit- A: Nobody can really assess the costs, except a decade ago. There are now conferences and ed States. The US looks foolish in the eyes of to say that denialism is harmful, psychologi- lectures that deal with the Armenian past and the world. Other nations have had no problem cally, emotionally and morally to the survivor with the genocide. A half dozen commemora- dealing with the Armenian past. If you go to legacy communities. And our scholars of tions will happen inside Turkey this year. France as I did on a book tour with other Ar- ad: Tanya Kechichian Tanya ad: re

genocide remind us that denial is the final Discussions about the Armenian genocide menian writers in 2011, you can’t believe how p stage of genocide because it seeks to demon- took place on Turkish television. A sign in warmly you are greeted by the French govern- ize victims and rehabilitate the perpetrators, Diyarbakir reads: “Welcome to Diyarbakir” ment and they honor you for your work. In the and it sends a message that genocide de- in Armenian. The knowledge that has been US that would never happen because there is s Previous

44 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org people about the Armenian past—and I keep hearing their stories and their issues in relation to the Armenian and other post- genocide narratives. Armenians have a great opportunity to take moral leadership to either a local or global arena because of their knowledge of the harsh Armenian past. Another legacy of the Armenian genocide has been the powerful impact the event has had on the Armenian imagination over the past, say, eighty years. Here I think one of the lega- cies of a history of great trauma is that powerful and rich literature and art has come out of it. Something affirmative comes out of the atroc- ity that offers meaning, insight, complexity and Flowers adorn the flame at the Armenian Genocide memorial, on the hill of Dzidzernagapert in Yerevan. value. And that literature and art comes in various idioms and forms and with its many so much fear and paranoia about Turkey and icans of course!) have opened up new arenas symbolic structures. Here, I think Marianne there is something immature here about the of study and discourse. I say this noting that Hirsch’s notion of post-memory (the impact of State Department’s inability to move forward I don’t think every Armenian needs to be in- a historical event on those who come after) is on this issue. The US has many issues on its volved with this issue or study this issue. Nor essential for understanding the dynamics of plate but this one seems quite doable—it’s not do I think this issue is somehow essential to much of Armenian American literary and vi- going to cost the US a lot. Maybe there will be being an Armenian. I’ve said many times to sual culture of the past 80 years. I start with some momentary anger from Ankara but the many audiences over the years that Arme- some of Saroyan’s short stories of the 1930s like US is the empire in this conversation. I think nian culture is a rich sedimentary rock with “Seventy Thousand Assyrians,” and “General it’s a failure of a democracy if our government dozens of places of intersection. If you want Antranik,” and go on to the post war genera- can’t stand up for its own history because of to study the engineering feats of the Arme- tion; and a wide range of writers and artists I pressure from a foreign government. The case nian architect Trdat in the late 10th century, admire including Peter Sourian, David Kherd- of the famous orphan rug makes this clear. The you’ll be wrapped up in Armenian culture in ian, Michael Arlen, Jr., Gregory Djankikian, White House was unable to write an accurate a rich way; and there are dozens of such en- Diana Der Hovanessian, Nancy Kricorian, narrative about the Armenian orphan rug tries into the Armenian culture. Micheline Marcom, Viken Berberian, Chris- when it was put on display because of its fear But I do think that the knowledge about topher Bohjalian, Aris Janigian, Richard of Turkey. Does this makes sense? In a country histories of mass killing and about genocide Kalinoski, Leslie Ayvazian, Alex Delynaris, that espouses a free and open democracy. is important knowledge for citizens of the Eric Bogosian; visual artists Arshile Gorky, planet to have and the Armenian case pro- Robert Barsamian; composers, Alan Hovha- Legacy vides much to study. And the thing I stress ness, Michell Ekezian; filmmakers Atom Q: What will be the legacy of the Armenian with my students is that each case whether it Egoyan, Suzanne Khardalian; among others. genocide for future generations? be focused on the Armenians, the Jews, the My new book of essays Vise and Shadow offers A: I think in many ways knowledge about Roma, the Cambodians, the Bosnian Mus- some forays into both post memory and survi- the Armenian genocide is valuable, rich, lims, or the Tutsi, affords us understanding vor generation literature and art. I would also complex and important. I disagree with about the consequences of social and cultural recommend Walter Kalaidjian’s book The Meline Toumani’s unexamined and simplis- infrastructures of intolerance, bigotry, and the Edge of Modernism and Maria Koundoura’s tic assertion in her recent book that the failure of egalitarian and democratic social Transnational Culture, Transnational Identity. Armenian Genocide issue is “destroying” and political structures. And each case affords Armenian Americans have contributed a sig- Armenians. (Though there is much to admire us an analysis of the complexity of historical nificant body of literature to American litera- in Toumani’s book). It may be true that some contexts for each different event. ture and to a wider transnational literature. people in the community have had negative Studying the Armenian Genocide has psychological effects from being angry or universal value. Not only is the knowledge Q: Looking back at the collective Armenian traumatized, and I think that the misguided such study imparts intellectually important, “arc of history” over the last one hundred ASALA killings of the 1980s were horrible. but the ethical issues it engages students in years, what stands out in your mind? This shows you what can happen when are many and pertain to trying to solve hu- A: Armenian culture worldwide generally human rights crimes are carried out with man rights problems across the globe today. speaking seems to be thriving, prosperous, impunity and then followed by the perpetra- Over the years I keep reiterating to Arme- and high-energy. If we look back at the sig- tor legacy’s regimes that engage in an aggres- nian audiences that to be connected to the nificance of 100 years, it is perhaps astonish- sive campaign to blame and demonize the legacy of the Armenian genocide is a call for ing that Armenian civilization which was victims and rehabilitate themselves. one to work for others—and to be connected nearly extinguished in 1915, has emerged as Nevertheless, I think the study of the to contemporary human rights issues both it has today—as a vital, prosperous and cre- read: Tanya Kechichian Tanya read: p Armenian Genocide—from what I’ve seen here in the US and abroad. In my own work ative culture—perhaps more so than ever in as a teacher and writer over decades now— with my former student Maggie Dunne’s modern Armenian history. I say this cogni- has been a positive and creative force. First, a Lakota Children’s Enrichment Fund, I find zant of all the problems it faces and all the Previous s Previous whole generation of Armenians (and Amer- myself talking with the Sioux and Lakota complex issues that lie ahead to be solved.

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 45 Remembrance Through a New Lens AGBU Young Professionals (YP) from Armenia, Europe, North and South America reflect on the centenary of the Armenian Genocide

How the genocide defines my identity as The lessons learned from my ancestors a member of the Armenian diaspora: “It’s that I strive to apply in my life: “Try to a pivotal point in our history. Our history have half the resilience and strength that is a big part of our culture. Our culture is they had.” our identity and the bond that strengthens our unity as Armenians no matter where we are. However, the causes of the genocide continue to have an impact on the current generation.”

The lasting impact of the genocide for me is that: “We are still suffering from the aftermath. I have family members all over the world that I didn’t know existed and Hakob Stepanyan have never seen. My grandmother is still Age: 29 searching for anyone that bears a family City: Arlington, Virginia name resembling her own. Our search for our loved ones is made even more difficult My first memory of hearing about the by the forced changing of names.” genocide: “The unfortunate truth is that I hear more about the genocide today What the survivor generation would want Justine Drabicki than I did as a child. Growing up in Yere- us to remember: “I think the best way to Age: 30 van, I remember my parents taking me to remember the genocide is to continue to City: Newton, Massachusetts co no i the Dzidzernagapert Memorial and it was press for full awareness, acceptance and t s s i an incredibly solemn occasion. The sto- reparations. I believe that a lot of progress As we approach the centenary, I feel it’s ries about the genocide were told only on can be made if we, as Armenians, make our important for all Armenians to remem- lu by s on very few occasions. I imagine it is difficult mark through our achievements and contri- ber: “Where they came from and what i for them to revisit all the details of this butions, whether it be in academics, arts, their families endured. It will be a time of

period in history.” business or sciences.” reflection and pride knowing that we still Illustrat

46 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org stand together as a successful people that tell stories about how he, his brothers and The survivor generation would want us was not destroyed, not even by a genocide.” his mother managed to survive when his to: “Never forget what happened. Never father disappeared during the Adana mas- forget.” The struggles of my ancestors have taught sacres of 1909. My family was forced to me that: “Perseverance and a strong family leave their hometown and find refuge in One hundred years from now I hope: bond can get you through even the toughest Greece. They lost their house, stables, “Our future generations will not think of times.” livestock and fields. The only items passed about it as often as our generation does. I on to me are my late grandfather’s birth hope Turkey will recognize the Armenian I think survivors of the genocide would certificate in Ottoman and an old prayer Genocide and this will make all of us more want us to remember: “Their family’s book in Armenian filled with hand-drawn human.” story and struggle. It is a part of us and it is pictures.” because of their family’s sacrifices, agoniz- ing journey and bravery that we have been The struggles of my ancestors taught me: given the gift of life.” “Endurance in any hardship, adaptability in different conditions, perseverance in ac- As I learned more and more about the complishing goals and standing up for genocide: “I wondered why it wasn’t ideas and beliefs.” taught in schools. Growing up in Water- town, I didn’t understand why we never I think survivors of the genocide would learned about it in our history classes. It want us to remember: “The sacrifices that was never even discussed. Teaching about they had to make in order to keep their the Holocaust in schools is so common, identity, religion and traditions and have but why don’t we teach about the Arme- us live our lives by upholding all the ide- nian Genocide? als they hold dear in order to honor their memory.” One hundred years from now I hope: “The United States will finally recognize Juan Pablo Artinian the Armenian Genocide. As a descendant Age: 35 of a survivor, I continue to educate others City: Buenos Aires and share the stories with my children, so they know where they came from and My first memory hearing about the the bravery and courage of their ances- genocide: “Came from my grandmother tors. Education and communication are on my mother’s side. She lost her father key to spreading knowledge about the and mother. They lived in a small town genocide to others. I hope teaching it in near Smyrna called Afyon Karahisar. I history classes will be commonplace and remember hearing that she lost not only everyone will be aware of this tragic event her parents, but also a brother. She was a in history.” survivor of the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922 and was rescued by the Greeks. I remember feeling a sense of anger and injustice.” Kristine Sargsyan Age: 36 The struggles of my ancestors have taught City: Yerevan me: “The importance of persistence and humility, the idea of what gives meaning to life My first memory of hearing about the is a struggle. Even if you don’t always win, genocide: “The story about how my grand- you have to try to always better yourself to mother was found in a big woven basket tied pursue knowledge and pursue any goal you to an ox, which was discovered near the have in life.” Arax River by Russian soldiers. She later ap- peared in an orphanage in Gyumri where When I have children I would want them she was adopted. She married a boy who to know: “Armenian Genocide survivors was a genocide survivor and grew up with were not passive, but had the will and the her in the same orphanage. He was killed in capacity to act in a very tough, very com- Setrak Abassian World War II and she worked to provide for plex situation. Common people were able noco Age: 34 her four children.” to become heroes because sometimes re- s t i s i City: Athens sistance does not only mean fighting back, As I learned more about the genocide: “Its but being able to survive, preserve your ons by lu by ons i My first memories hearing about the denial by the Turkish government struck language, faith and culture, and despite genocide are from: “My childhood spend- me. I think it causes psychological trauma everything, to maintain a sense of hope

Illustrat ing time with my grandfather. He would on younger generations in Turkey.” and happiness after great trauma.”

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 47 In Pictures

Catedral Apostólica Armênia São Jorge—São Paulo, Brazil

48 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org A Portrait of Survival The diaspora project: Armenian communities around the world a century after genocide

ByT Scout ufankjian

he story of the Armenians has always been one of 2015, I realized that I was documenting a particularly important upheaval. For the past 3000 years, waves of migrants and fragile moment in Armenian history. Older communities have left their homes, following ancient trade and pil- in India and Ethiopia have been reduced to just a few families. Tgrimage routes and fleeing countless revolutions, civil At the same time, the people who welcomed me into their wars and massacres. Despite the centuries of displacement, to- homes in Kessab have been driven from them by the civil war day's Armenian diaspora is strong and vibrant with eight mil- in Syria, and thousands of refugees, many of whom I photo- lion Armenians living in over 85 countries. graphed in pre-war Syria, have fled to Armenia, Lebanon and Growing up over an hour from the main Armenian center of Nagorno-Karabakh. Even more secure communities in Brazil Watertown in Boston, I was fascinated by my fellow Arme- and the United States are worried that their physical survival nians. But the only books and films I could find were about and their success in their new countries will come at the cost of 1915, as if the genocide had successfully ended the Armenian their ancestral heritage. story. Instead, I would pour through my grandparents' books And everywhere I traveled, no matter how different the and magazines trying to find myself and my people through place, there was a clear, undefinable thread that tied us all to- these glimpses of school kids in Kolkata or jewelers in Lebanon; gether. A woman in Argentina described it as membership in soccer players in Argentina or musicians in France. This is the a secret club, invisible to non-members, but instantly recogniz- story I was looking for. The story of what happened to us after able to other Armenians. William Saroyan described it as “the the genocide. How we had been affected by 100 years of exile Armenian gestures, meaning so much. The slapping of the and who we are now. knee and roaring with laughter. The cursing. The subtle mock- In 2009, tired of searching, I finally set out to create The ery of the world and its big ideas. The word in Armenian, the Armenian Diaspora Project to tell the story of a people largely glance, the gesture, the smile.” known only as victims in one of the first genocides of the 20th My book, There is Only the Earth: Images from the Armenian century. This project is not, however, about victimhood. It is a Diaspora Project, tells this story—not of their deaths, but of our portrait of survival, showing living, breathing Armenian com- survival and of that thread that ties us all together. While the munities a century after the genocide and in over twenty differ- genocide is the defining trauma that colors our lives and our ent countries from India and China to Egypt and France to histories, the Armenian story did not begin in 1915, nor did it Australia and Russia. end there. We are so much more than just the genocide. We are As I struggled to complete this work before the centenary in extraordinary.

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 49 kjian an f u T t u co S ad: ad: re p

Wedding, Cathédrale arménienne Saint Jean-Baptiste—Paris, France Previous, Following and This s This and Following Previous,

50 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org (Above) Little Armenia parking lot—Hollywood, USA; (Below) Monsoon Season, Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy—Kolkata, India ankjian f Tu t cou S read: read: p Previous, Following and This s This and Following Previous,

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 51 Musa Ler Festival, Sarkis Zeitlian Center—Anjar, Lebanon

52 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 53 (Above) Eglise apostolique arménienne Saint-Paul-et-Saint-Pierre—Alfortville, France; (Below) The US Capitol—Washington DC, USA iana der Hovanessian and Marzbed Margossian Marzbed and Hovanessian der iana D ed by by ed t Transla

54 AGBU 2015 | www.agbu.org Do not let the hearts of the child And the aged be strangers To tenderness and hope. Let the struggle of our time be short. Let it be settled with justice. Let the fortress of egos, That huge barricade, Crumble. And let every treasure Go to every man. Let every garden Gate be open. But let no flower be crushed. No single branch fall. —Vahan Tekeyan na der Hovanessian and Marzbed Margossian Marzbed and Hovanessian der na ia D by by ed t Transla

www.agbu.org | 2015 AGBU 55 Non-profit organization U.S. Postage Paid East Greenville, Pennsylvania 55 East 59th Street, Permit Nº444 New York, NY 10022-1112

Orphans and refugees at Camp Bakouba in Iraq in the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide. Nubarian Libaray Archives