Armenian Affairs: a Journal on Armenian Studies

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ARMEN AFFAIRS ARMENIAN AFFAIRS A JOURNAL ON ARMENIAN STUDIES Editor Charles A. Vertanes

Board of. Editorial Advisers Harootiun Asdourian Bishop Sion Manoogian History Current History Cordoba, Argentina Bishop Tiran Nersoyan Henry A. Atkinson Church History Current Affairs Abraham A. Neuman A. A. Bedikian Near East History History and Literature Dropsie College for Hebrew and Zabelle G. Boyajian Cognate Learning Art and Literature Reinhold Niebuhr London, England Religion and International Affairs Lawson p. Chambers Union Theological Seminary Philosophy Washington University Peniamin Noorigian H. M. Dadourian Literature Science and Current Affairs Ernest Partridge Trinity College Education and Missions KoREN Der Harootian A. Safrastian Sculpture Archeology and History Sirarpie Der Nersessian London, England Archeology Art and Joseph B. Schechtman Harvard University Current History and the Near East Frederick L. Fagley Robert Searle Current Affairs W. Arsen Goergizian Social and Political Affairs Church History and Current Affairs Moushegh Seropian Vahan Hagopian History, Literature and Current Affairs Architecture Nicosia, Cyprus Vahe Haig K. Sitae Literature Poetry Archbishop Karekin Mihrtad Tiryakian Literature and E^cclesiastical History Philology, Literature and History Buenos Aires, Argentina Carl Hermann Voss Emil Lengyel Religion and International Affairs Turkey and the Near East Jane S. Wingate New York University Folk Literature

Editorial Associates Armine Dikijian Harry Haroutunian

Correspondents Ed^vard V. Gulbenkian Noubar Maxoudian Great Britain Cyprus Caro a. Martin Vartan Melkonian India, Pakistan, and the Far East Iraq Hrant S. Rshduni Hungary

Armenian Affairs, a quarterly, published by the Armenian National Council of America, 144 E. 24th Street, New York 10, N. Y. Subscription, $5.00 per year; single issues, $1.50 per copy. Authors are responsible for opinions expressed in their articles. Members of the editorial advisory board assume responsibility only for opinions expressed in articles signed by them, •^^^zoo Copyright 1950. — —

ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

Spring, 1950 Vol. I, No. 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Appeal of Georg VI [130]

Frontispiece Georg VIj Catholicos and Patriarch of All the Armenians [1311 Cyril II, late Patriarch of Jerusalem [1321 Alice Stone Blackwell, Friend of the Armenian People [1331 Banquet in Honor of Alice Stone Blackwell, 1903 [1341 Alice Stone Blackwell—A Symposium Charles A. Vertanes 135 A Biographical Sketch Maud Wood Park Relations with Armenians M. C. Gismegian Interest in Armenia's Political Destiny A Tribute Samuel A. Eliot

A Sonnet William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. Armenians As I Have Known Them Alice Stone Blackwell The Lake of Van (Poem) Raffi Notes on the Evolution of Armenia's Architecture Vahan Hagopian 151

Literary Pilgrimages to Armenia From America to Armenia K. Sital 159 From Moscow to Yerevan A. Arsharuni 166 A Brief Sketch of Armenian History Vazkene Aykouni 176

Briefs The Comedy of Life — "Uucle Geer" G. Eksoozian 185 Tribute to Armenians Thomas A. Sparks^ S.T.D. 188 Theodore Roosevelt and Armenia Ashag Mahdesian 190 Reports The Internationalization of Jerusalem and the Armenian Patriarchate 193 Letter Regarding the New Jerusalem Plan 197 Biographical Sketches

His Beatitude Cyril II, Arshag Mahdesian, Artak Darbinian, and Leon Guerdan A. Meliksetian 199 Book Reviews Lengyel 206 Country Without Economic Backbone ...i : Emil The Armenian Question in Paris in 1919 C. P. IVES Letters to the Editor 210 Documents

Testimony of the Armenian National Council on Genocide : 215

.-. Bibliography : 223 Books Received 227

Illustrated Supplement [229] The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem Serovpe Vardapet Manoukian CALL TO PEACE Of the Supreme Patriarch-Catholicos of All the Armenians

To the long-suffering Armenian people, who have lived through endless series of tortures and terrors in the past, there has been no greater desire than long-lasting peace. The Armenian Holy Apostolic Church, one of the oldest churches in the world, has always prayed for human welfare and the peace of the world. In the present complex political situation when humanity faces the nightmare of a world war which will demand the sacrifice of new millions, the Armenian Church, faithful to her traditional principles, raises her voice in the name of peace and joins whole- heartedly in the resolutions passed at the Stockholm session of the World Congress of the Friends of Peace.

Supreme Patriarch-Catholicos of all the Armenians Georg VI Supreme Spiritual Council of Echmiadzin

It was reported by Reuters from London on August 5 that the leaders of the Churches in the Soviet Union—Patriarch Alexei of Moscow and all Russia, Patriarch Catholicos Kalistrat of all Georgia and Patriarch Catholicos Georg of all Armenia—had conferred in Tbilisi, Georgia, when they issued a "peace appeal" to Christians throughout the world.

The appeal to peace of these Soviet church dignitaries is simply one manifestation of a world-wide movement for peace on the part of Christian churches and church leaders. The World Council of Churches which met at Geneva in February of this year condemned the H-bomb as a "sin against God" and urged the Council's member churches to press their national governments for the international control of all weapons of mass destruction. In response to this appeal the Fedel^ation of Protestant. Churches of Switzerland voted to present to the Swiss Government the text of the World Council's statement on the hydrogen bomb, urging it "to use its moral authority" as a neutral power "to remove the menace of random mechanized armaments."

The Council of Kerk en Vrede in Holland, an interconfessional organization, in a recent appeal directed^ to the Dutch Nation, urged Christians in the Netherlands to "break free from the anti-Christian faith in brute force," and oppose the militarization of their country." Similarly the National Synod of the Reformed Church of France at its meeting at Nimes, June 2-5, demanded that immediate action be taken urging "the renunciation of the whole principle of intangible national sovereignties . . . and complete disarmament" by the various Governments and the United Nations, "beginning with bacteriological and atomic weapons."

The Ecumenical Committee of the Hungarian Protestant Churches in Budapest asked that the World Council of Churches call upon the UN and all national governments to "prohibit atomic arid bacterial warfare at once" and to "start negotiations to solve all international controversies as well as to achieve general disarmament." Memorial services were held to the same end in churches in the United States and in other countries throughout the world on the fifth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

A group of Roman Catholic personalities and clergymen in France, including Abbe Jean Boulier, also issued a statement in which they expressed approval "of all efforts made in every country to develop a will for peace throughout the world and in particular . . . of the Stockholm Appeal." The Pope, in an encyclical on July 19, addressed himself to the heads of Governments to make every effort for the attainment of a "true peace," for war brmgs ' nothmg other than ruins, death and every kind of misery. With the passage of time such murderous and inhuman weapons have been introduced and developed that not only armies and navies, not only cities, hamlets and villages, not only treasures of religion, or art and of culture can be exterminated but even innocent children with their mothers, 'the sick and the undefended old people. Everything beautiful, good and holy that the genius of man has produced, everything or nearly everything can be annihilated."

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(D CD CD bD "^ S^ CS CS d pq3i cu CU Alice Stone Blackwell (1857-1950) A Symposium By Charles A. Vertanes

There was nothing vague or obscure in her thinking. . . . She dwelt

in no neutral zone. . . . She was well assured that what is morally wrong can never be politically right. Courage and confidence were the good angels that dwelt with her and through her breathed a benediction on us all. —Samuel A. Eliot

Introduction

AT a gathering of distinguished men and women on Thursday, May 11, the late Alice Stone Blackwell was honored when her portrait^ was presented to the Boston University Women's Council and hung in the Louise Holman Fisk House. Tributes were paid this famous woman graduate of Boston University by Mrs. Everett O. Fisk, founder and first president of the Council; Mrs. Maud Wood Park, first president of the National League of Women Voters and co- worker with Miss Blackwell in the long years of suffrage campaigns ; and Bishop Lewis O. Hartman, editor of the ^ion's Herald in the early years when Miss Blackwell was a contributor. Presentation of the portrait to the Council President, Mrs. Lewis O. Hart- man, was made by Mrs. Guy W. Stantial (Edna Lamprey Stantial), long-time friend and confidante of Miss Blackwell. Mrs. Fisk told of their college days, when as a freshman she met the quiet, unassuming junior in the College of Liberal Arts. They had belonged to the same literary society and throughout the years of their intimate friendship had been associated in the women's groups of their alma mater. She told of the interest of Miss Blackwell in the oppressed of all nations, of her help through translation into the English of the poems of the Armenians, the Russians, the

Jews and, last of all, the Latin-American countries. Bishop Hartman designated Miss Blackwell as "the greatest reformer of all contemporary women." He recalled her life as a journalist and contributor to the ^ion's Herald, her work for the Gandhi movement, her devotion to the Armenians and other peoples, and to the cause of civil liberties. At the presentation of the portrait Mrs. Stantial observed that all those present knew "with what great love and reverence the Armenians of America watched over our dear Miss Blackwell. On every occasion—Easter, birthdays, Christmas—they sent gifts of cards, flowers and fruit, to remind her of their

ISee frontispiece page [133], for photographic reproduction. Miss Blackwell was born in East Orange, N. J., Sept. 14, 1857, and died in Cambridge, Mass., March 15, 1950.

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gratitude for her devotion to their people."^ She related how on May 30, 1904 two hundred of Miss Blackwell's Armenian friends met in Faneuil Hall, and presented the portrait to her. On the platform were such notables as Julia Ward Howe, Mary A. Livermore, William Lloyd Garrison, Mrs. Susan Fessenden and Bishop Sarajian.^ Mrs. Stantial then referred to a letter she had recently received from Mr. C. Levon Ekserjian, son of the portrait painter, in which he had said: "You may be interested in knowing that Julia Ward Howe not infrequently came to my father's studio with Miss Blackwell, along with many other of their friends whose names are now a memory. While my father was at work these fine people were making plans for their campaigns, always planning for mankind."

When the artist was introduced at the Faneuil Hall meeting, he said : "The value of this picture is to be attributed to the subject. I put my heart in the work, enrapt by the sublimeness of the subject. I did my duty and when the work was finished Miss Blackwell's heart reflected through the depth of her eyes." And Miss Blackwell's reply, as she received the gift, was typical: "This gift gives me a great deal of joy.. But the gift that will please me most is that every Armenian be a noble Armenian, be the best kind of a citizen and bring honor to his people." In a letter to the editor Mrs. Stantial added that Miss Blackwell "was fond of this portrait because it kept before her always the devotion of her wonderful Armenian friends. ... I have come to realize, all through my experiences in raising money for her security and now in the efforts to keep her name and her family's name alive in the hearts of the people everywhere, how very much she did mean to all of you and how much you all meant to her. Never in my life have I seen a record of such devotion, mutual devotion!"

A Biographical Sketch By Maud Wood Park*

ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, more than any other person, symbolized the whole range of the struggle of women through two generations to win un- trammeled human status. One of her aunts was the first to be ordained a minister; another was the first woman doctor. Her mother, Lucy Stone, was the

first Massachusetts woman to go to college; became a lecturer against Negro

2See in this connection the article by Dr. H. S. Jelalian, "The Significance of Miss Blackwell's Birthday for Us." The Armenian Mirror, September 1932, p. 1. 3See photograph of this affair on page 134 of frontispiece.

IMrs. Park first met Miss Blackwell at Radcliffe College where Miss Blackwell converted her to the suffrage cause. Out of this meeting grew the organization of the National College Suf- frage League. Ed.

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ALICE STONE BLAGKWELL slavery and for women's rights when mere pubhc speaking by women was considered an indecency; and throughout her Hfe was one of the half-dozen great national figures in the women's movement. Her father, Henry B. Blackwell, gave a lifetime of service to the cause of woman's suffrage. His devotion in the suffrage and anti-slavery movements made it possible for his family to carry on their work for the rights of women and for oppressed minorities. The life of the daughter was inextricably interwoven from babyhood in the widely varied activities of her parents, which Miss Blackwell recorded in her book, LuCy Stone, Pioneer of Woman's Rights.^ For thirty-four years Miss Black- well was assistant editor or editor-in-chief of the Woma7i's Journal,^ founded in 1870 by her famous mother. For twenty-three years she was secretary of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, a merger of the American and National Suffrage Associations brought about by her when the two groups were having difficulty in agreeing on policy and procedure. It was the new organization which in 1918 secured the passage of the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution. Miss Blackwell also served as president of the New England and Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Associations. As Miss Blackwell's chief weapon was the pen, often anonymous, she was not personally in the public eye as much as the platform campaigners. But her work of editing the Woman's Journal and writing for that paper, as well as innumerable leaflets, articles, newspaper letters, and campaign pamphlets supplied the literature of the movement. Among journalists she was regarded as an editor of outstanding ability. In the council chamber she applied her rich wis- dom, vast information, fertile mind and dauntless spirit to mapping out the strategy which through the years carried the suffrage cause step by step to final victory. The instant the ballot was won she took up the task of educating and organizing the new voters for public-spirited citizenship. She was Honorary Chairman and an active member of the Massachusetts League of Women

Voters since it organization in 1920. In line with her family's pioneering interest in the field of women's education, she served Boston University, her alma mater, as trustee from 1908 on.'* Throughout these long years her sensitive humanity has made her responsive to countless other struggles against oppression. In 1919 she received the Ford

2First edition. Boston, Little Brown and Co., 1930, viii, 313p. Present edition published by the Alice Stone Blackwell Fund Committee, 21 Ashmont Street, Melrose, Mass. Esther Willard Bates in a biographical sketch of Miss Blackwell, Providence Bulletin, Providence, R. I., March 29, states that the sioffragists called her mother their "Morning Star." Ed. ^Assisted her father and mother on the Woman's Journal, Boston, 1881-1893, and was editor- in-chief until 1917, when the Woman Voter and the Headquarters Newsletter were con- solidated into the Woman Citizen, after which it was published by the National American Woman Suffrage Association. *Miss Blackwell was graduated from Boston University in 1881 with the A.B. degree, and was made a Doctor of Humanities by the same institution in June 1945. She was also a member of the American Association of University Women, and president of its Boston chapter.

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Hall Forum Gold Medal for honored service to humanity.^ Roused by the Armenian massacres of the '90's, she became a life-long champion of that people. Among her tireless and varied efforts to win them public understanding and support she rendered into English verse her well-known volume, Armenian Poems, which underwent two editions—one in 1896, and the other in 1916.® Her devotion to Armenia was recognized by the bestowal of the Order of Melusine.^* The atrocious oppression of the Tzar's government led her to active work with the American Friends of Russian Freedom. Her warm cooperation and friendship with Madam Breshkovsky extended over many years and included the editing of her autobiography and letters.'^ The struggles of labor equally enlisted her quick sympathies on countless occasions. Repeatedly she raised her voice against exploitation and the suppres- sion of free speech, advocating the right to organize, and working for other civil liberties. Devoted to world peace, she sought during many years to turn her talents to

its service by promoting cultural appreciation. She rendered into English verse Songs of Grief, and Gladness^ (from the Yiddish), Songs of Russia,^ the Hungar-

ian poems of Petofi ; and Some Spanish American Poets^^—the latter a monumental volume of over two hundred poems, opening to North Americans a new continent of literature. A noteworthy tribute to the importance of the Woman's Journal was made by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, whose wise leadership brought about the adoption of the Woman Suffrage Amendment. She said, "No words can express the gratitude I feel for the service Miss Blackwell and her dear father and mother gave to the woman suffrage movement through the Woman's Journal. Without

it we would still be unenfranchised." Miss Blackwell was the speaker who had the responsibility of replying to the arguments of the Anti-suffragists at the annual Woman Suffrage hearings before

5She had also been a presidential elector for La FoUette in 1924; and honorary vice-chairman of the Boston Evening Clinic and Hospital. ^Boston, Roberts Brothers, 1896, xi, 14-142p. "New and enlarged edition," Boston, Atlantic Printing Co., xii, 295p. Bibliography, pp. 290-291. SaMelusine, according to an old medieval romance, was the mother of Guy de Lusignan, king history. Ac- of Jerusalem (1185-1192), and of Cyprus (1192) ; as such related to Armenian cording to the romance one of her ten sons (only four of whom are known to history) was king of Armenia. See Sir Algernon T. Tudor-Craig, The Romance of Melusine and de Lusig- nan, London, The Century House, 1932, pp, v and I. Any information about the "Order" of Melusine is welcome for publication in later issues of this journal. Ed. "^The Little Grandmother of the Russian Revolution, Reminiscensces and Letters of Catherine Breshkovsky, Boston, Little, Brown and Co., 1917. 348 p. 8 St. Louis, Press of the Modern View, cop. 1907, 76 p. Second ed. revised and enlarged. Bos- ton, The Williams Co., 1917, xvi, 163 p. sChicago, The Author, 1906. K^New York and London, Appleton and Co., 1929, xii, 559 p. She was also co-compiler of The Yellow Ribbon Speaker, 1911. Present edition, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1937. London, Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press. There is a long bibliography under her name on the question of Woman's Suffrage.

138 ALICE STONE BLACKWELL

the judiciary committee of the Massachusetts legislature. What she could do in the twenty minutes allotted to her for rebuttal was almost miraculous. Her knowledge of facts and her ability to state them briefly and clearly, her logic, her vast common sense and her unfailing good humor made of each terse sentence a lightning flash to illumine the black and misleading depths of "anti" eloquence. A distinguished lawyer once said that he attended the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage hearings whenever he could because he considered Miss BlackweU's rebuttal speeches the ablest presentation of controversial matter he had ever heard. In spite of the ignominious defeats that she had to face for many years, she went on, tireless in spite of frail health, undaunted, always cheerful.

Once when I told her she was the most heroic person I had ever known, she laughed and replied, "But I never did anything except what was in the day's work." That characteristic remark indicates the way she has always taken herself. If the cause had required that she should be shot at sunrise she would have gone out into the cold gray dawn as simply and naturally as she had done everything else. Death, too, would have been in the day's work. Her courage was not the mere buoyancy of the physically strong to whom nerves are unknown, but the reasoned, sustained courage of a person forcing herself to be brave because bravery was needed to accomphsh the work in hand. Beneath her gifts as a writer and speaker lay rare devotion, not only to the woman's movement, but to all causes that strive for justice for human beings of every race, color and creed. Indeed her sympathy for the suffering was so keen that it led her to give much time and effort to the prevention of cruelty to animals. In the death of Alice Stone Blackwell the world has lost a distinguished citizen and humanity one of its best friends.

Relations with Armenians^

By M. C. GiSMEGIAN

MlISS BLACKWELL devoted her mind and soul to the culture and cause of the Armenian people from that day when the patriotic and talented Russian Armenian student, Hovhannes Khachumian arrived in the United States from

Germany with Mrs. I. Barrows, the editor of the Christian Register (Unitarian weekly published in Boston), whom she had come to know at the University of Leipzig. Mrs. Barrows had brought KJiachumian to the United States with the approval of Catholicos Khrimian, to represent the Armenian Church at the lAn Armenian version of this article appeared in Baikar, Armenian daily published in Boston, April 1 and 2, 1950.

139 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

World Congress of Religions to be held in Chicago in 1893. The other member to represent the Armenian Church was Minas Tcheraz, the well-known Armenian patriot and editor of UArmenie, published in London. Mrs. Barrows was already acquainted with the situation in Armenia—the exploitation to which the Armenians had been subjected and the oppression of the vile and vicious Turkish government—through Garabed H. Papazian, when he had visited the editorial office for the first time and suggested that an editorial be written about the plight of the Armenian people. Mrs. Barrows introduced Khachumian to Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, then editor of the Woman's Journal which had a wide circulation among women intellectuals. Miss Blackwell was inspired by Khachumian's sincere and devoted personality and his patriotic utterances, and became deeply interested in the life and cause of the Armenian people. She became acquainted with Armenian intellectuals and students, and in the midst of her busy life this talented lady started transcribing into English verse Armenian poetry from the verbatim English prose of Khachumian and others. Khachumian, who had studied a year at Harvard University, despite his busy life, established relations with Armenian students and intellectuals who had come to the United States, and organized an Armenian students forum. With his presence, patriotism, enthusiasm and candor he inspired the body of student emigres. They met once a month, and one of them presented a paper on a national, historical or political theme, which was followed by a discussion. He hoped to establish relations between them and the Armenian student body in Leipzig, Germany, as well as with the body of Russian intellectuals. To this end Arsen Diran started to correspond with Gregory Ardzrouni's Mshag under the pen name of "Armen."

Gradually the Armenian students in the United States, whose revolutionary, patriotic ideals of freedom and independence had been reinforced in this country, gave themselves to the task of introducing Armenia to the Americans. The answer to their dream they found in Miss Blackwell, who had by this time made the support of the Armenian question her aim, and had decided to place her gifts at its service. The translation of Armenian poetry into English, an excellent medium of orienting America with the political aspirations and cultural achievements of the Armenian people, was close to their hearts. It was also found to be very dear to Miss Blackwell.

The first poem translated was probably R. Patkanian's '''The Banks of the Araxes River." Mr. Henry B. Blackwell, Miss Blackwell's father, pronounced Mihran Damadian's "Talvorik" the most beautiful poem in the collection. It was also intensely revolutionary in spirit. That was the tone of the entire collection. Under the cruel Turkish policy of oppression, Armenian youth newly awakened were imbued with the revolutionary spirit, and all the poets and literary masters sang of their people's sufferings, love of freedom, and determination to rid themselves of the oppressor. They could not have thought or felt

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otherwise. In that atmosphere the translations were made ; and the selections were, therefore, mainly from patriotic and revolutionary poetry. Miss Blackwell first published these poems in important American newspapers and periodicals. Later, in 1897, she pubhshed them as a separate volume. It was republished in 1917, Influential newspapers, individuals and reviewers were in high praise of Miss Blackwell's translations, acquainting them with Armenian literature and the Armenian's love of freedom. To the approximately one hundred and thirty-five translations the following

made literal translations for Miss Blackwell : Hovhannes Khachumian, Garabed H. Papazian, Minas Tcheraz, Kevork Tourian, Arshag Tchobanian, Harutiun Asian, Avedis B. Selian, Dr, Varzhabedian, Arsen Diran, Sahag Ghetjian, Aram Torosian, Karekin Manougian, O. H. Ateshian, Arshag Mahdesian, Bedros A, Goeljik. Later Vahe Haig and others also contributed. The poems came from eastern (Russian) and western (Turkish) Armenian authors, and a number from older writers—Bedros Tourian, Archbishop Khoren Nar-Bey, R, Patkanian (Kamar Katiba), Adom Yarjanian (Siamanto), Hov- hannes Hovhannissian, Gatholicos Megrdich Khrimian, Mihran Damadian, Nahapet Kouchak, Shoushanik Kourghinian, Avetis Aharonian, Nerses Shnor- hali, Sayat Nova, T. Terzian, S. A. Dodokhian, Arshag Tchobanian, Megrdich Beshigtashlian, Father Gh.- Alishan, Taniel Varuzhan, Hovhannes Tumanian, Mrs. Z. Assadoor (Sibil), M. Portoukalian, Arshag Mahdesian, Hacob Melik Hacobian (Raffi), Avetik Isahakian, Bishop Garegin Servantztiantz, Dikran Yergat, Ashough Djivani, Grigor Narekatsi, Koucharian and Michael Nalpan- tian. In their effort to introduce Armenia to freedom-loving Americans, the patriotic and revolutionary young Armenian intellectuals did not regard the translation of Armenian poetry into English sufficient. Through personal appeals and persistent effort they acquainted influential intellectuals with the persecutions to which the Armenians were subjected, the brutalities of the Turks, and the aspirations and right of the Armenians to live as a free people.

The massacre of Sassoun of 1894 shocked Americans as it did the entire world. As a result of the efforts of Khachumian, Papazian and Movses Gulezian the "Friends of Armenia" society was organized under the presidency of the well-known author, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe^ and a campaign for funds was launched for the victims. It was sponsored by and received the active support of outstanding intellectuals, governors, senators and publicists who were frequently present at meetings of public protest and fund raising. Here are a few of the names of these great Americans: Edward Everett Hale, the famous preacher ; Edward Clement, the editor of the Boston Transcript ; William Lloyd

Garrison ; Francis Walker, the president of the school of technology ; Bishop

^Note discrepancy as to who was the first president of the "Friends of Armenia" society, which Miss Blackwell says was Mrs. Isabelle C. Barrows. See p. 150 of this issue of the journal. Ed.

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Phillips Brooks,^ the great Episcopal ecclesiastic ; Henry B. Blackwell, the father of Miss Blackwell ; ; Mr. and Mrs. Samuel J. Barrows Dr. Francis Edward Clark, the organizer and first president of the Christian Endeavor Society. The nerve and soul and tireless worker in this organization, however, was Miss Blackwell. All was not clear sailing for the Armenian cause, however. Arsen Diran wrote in the August 10, 1904 issue of Tsain Hairenyaitz (The Voice of the

Fatherland) : "During that period in America also, attacks against the Ar- menians and unfavorable opinions concerning their struggle for freedom were not absent. Papers and individuals purchased by the Turks gave themselves to the work of that propaganda, against which Miss Blackwell fought with her impressive and concise answers, and she bridled their irresponsible tongues." After the great carnage of 1895, when the number of the needy Armenians swelled by the thousands of orphans and widows. Miss Blackwell put her whole effort into the task of helping them. Wherever a public meeting or campaign for funds was on, there she was, with her moral supjx)rt and her material contribution.

After the massacre, when Armenian emigres were arriving in the United States, the Immigration Department required $40,000.00 in bonds. For a while this requirement distracted the Friends of Armenia, but the great-hearted Dr. Blackwell voluntarily took upon himself to put up the bond.

Mrs. Barrows and Miss Blackwell left for Germany so that they might see Hovhannes Khachumian before his death, concerning whose serious illness they had heard ; but while they were yet on board the ship the news of Khachu- mian's death arrived. After reaching Germany, Mrs. Barrows attempted to secure the books and papers of Khachumian. She succeeded only through the aid of the American embassy, as the Russian ambassador had already taken an interest in his belongings, Khachumian being a Russian subject. The two American ladies then returned to England, where they met James Bryce and other distinguished Englishmen friendly to the Armenians. They visited also Mihran Damadian and other Armenian revolutionary leaders who had succeeded in escaping from the Turkish hell by the skin of their teeth. After collecting much information and books and official documents relating to the Armenian question, Miss Blackwell returned to the United States and redoubled her efforts in the interest of the Armenian cause. On May 30, 1904, the Armenians in the United States organized an honorary dinner on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Miss Blackwell's activities on behalf of their cause, under the presidency of Bishop Hovsep Sarajian, on which occasion she was presented with the portrait of herself painted by Mr. K. Ekserjian. The Catholicos, Khrimian Hairig, in appreciation of her great service to the Armenian people, had sent from Echmiadzin, the seat of the Armenian Church,

^Bishop Brooks' interest in the Armenian cause must precede the massacre of Sassoun of 1894, as he had died the previous year. Ed.

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an encyclical of grace together with a necklace of amber,'* which Miss Blackwell wore on special occasions and at public functions. In 1917 when the Armenian question and a United States mandate over

Armenia became important issues of the day, it is difficult to imagine the enthusiasm of Miss BlackweU for the new day which seemed to be on the verge of dawning for her beloved Armenians. At the great International Bazaar in Boston for the benefit of the needy, in the success of which Mrs. Bertha Papazian and Alice Stone Blackwell played an important part, Miss Blackwell brought forth the second edition of her translated poetry. In 1938 when I went to Boston I visited Miss Blackwell to pay my respects. She was then living in Cambridge, Mass. She had grown old. Her eyes were weakened ; but she kept in her mind the brightness and vitality of her youthful days. She revealed with grief that the necklace of amber had been stolen, and then added, "Although they have stolen it, the blessing of Khrimian Hairig still rests upon me." Armenians are infinitely grateful to the noble lady who gave so freely of her vigor, heart, mind and purse for ameliorating the sufferings and promoting the interests of the Armenian people.

III.

Interest in Armenians Political Destiny

U NLIKE some other friends whose interest in the plight of the Armenian people was confined solely to relief measures, Miss Blackwell took "passionate interest"^ in the political aspects of the Armenian cause. The editor of this journal was informed some years ago by Mr. Charles V. Vickery, for many years the executive secretary of the Near East Relief, that he and Mr. Arshag Mahdesian, the editor of The New Armenia, disagreed at this jx)int. Mah- desian was bitter over the fact that Vickery and others associated with him were solely interested in extending relief to the Armenians, and would not help them in their struggle for political independence which, once achieved would have made relief unnecessary.

It is significant in this connection that the office of The New Armenia became all but the headquarters of Miss Blackwell.^ The following details are

^The story of how the Catholicos selected this necklace and how it was received by Miss Blackwell is given by Sahag Chetjian, with whom it was sent to America, in Baikar, March 29, 30, and 31, 1950. Mr. Chetjian also tells the very interesting story of how Mrs. Barrows first met Hovhannes Khachumian in Leipzig in 1890-1891, how he was led to come to the United States, how he became instrumental in interesting Miss Blackwell in the Armenian cause, and other particulars about his life and death in Germany—all as told to him by Miss Blackwell herself. Ed. ^So characterized in an editorial in The Nation, March 25, 1950. 2 A. Nourhan, "Alice Stone Blackwell," Eritassard Hayastan, March 29, 1950, p. 1.

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taken from remeniscences of Sahag Chetjian,^ who came to know Miss Black- well closely during the first decade of this century

In addition to her interests in the general field of literature and poetry, Miss Blackwell followed with interest the aims and activities of Armenian and Rus- sian political parties. She wished to secure objective information on the Rus- sian socialist revolutionaries and social democrats. She had a great regard for Mrs. Catherine Breshovsky. When the latter arrived in the United States, Miss Blackwell established close relations with her and entertained her in her home. She was always grieved when some calamity beclouded the poHtical future of the Armenian people. When she learned about the terroristic activities of mis- guided Armenians in London and Boston, she said with great emotion : "I am very sorry, they will spoil your reputation abroad." In 1904 a meeting was organized in Boston by Armenian patriots under the leadership of Mrs. Barrows and Miss Blackwell, James Bryce was the speaker. It was in the days of the uprising in Sassoun. Bryce, who spoke on the Armenian question, had said: You Armenians should never place any hopes in European diplomacy. Europe will not come to your aid. Be circumspect in demonstra- tions, otherwise through massacres and other measures you will be decimated in your own country, and then the Armenian question will cease to exist—there will not be enough of you to count. Be circumpect and wait for political developments to become favorable to your cause.

Representatives of the various Armenian political parties were present. At the conclusion of the meeting, Vramian approached Bryce and protested vehemently against the point of view expressed in his speech. He then left the meeting hall. Outside, an argument arose between Vramian, the Armenakans, and the Reorganized Hunchakians. Among those who spoke were G. Papazian, Karekin Manougian, and Askanaz Melkonian, They attacked Vramian in- dignantly, and condemned the uprising of Sassoun. When the rumor of what was happening outside reached Miss Blackwell inside, she slipped out for fear the argument might develop into a fight. Fifteen years later Vramian himself was advising the Armenians in Van to be circumspect

In 1906 when the Armenakans brought Portoukalian to the United States to reorganize their party, they introduced him to Miss Black\7ell. She was much pleased when she learned that he was also a poet. Miss Blackwell usually took part in meetings of a cultural character. Know- ing quite closely the Vaspurakan (Van) Armenians—Karekin Manougian, Askanaz Melkonian, Dr. Nalchajian, Hovhannes Hagopian—she joined the Vaspurakan Educational Association. In addition to the usual membership fee she contributed an annual sum as a gift. She presided at the meetings as honorary chairman. She opened the meeting by praising Khrimian Hairig, pointed to the necklace of amber which Hairig had given her, and in the midst of the

^Baikar, March 31, 1950, pp. 2-3. The next seven paragraphs are taken from this article.

144 ALICE STONE BLACKWELL

applause, sat and occupied herself with her knitting.'* In 1910 when Askanaz Melkonian announced to her that at Varag an agricultural school would be opened in honor of Hairig and that in that connection a campaign for funds had started among the Armenians in the United States, Miss Blackwell expressed great joy concerning the project and promised her material share in it when the final arrangements were made. Unfortunately the disaster of 1915-1920 wrecked every dream of the Armenians, and put an end to the project of the agricultural school at Varag. When in 1923-1924 Chetjian saw Miss Blackwell for the last time, she was then living in an apartment. She had willed her home to the city of Dorchester and had withdrawn with her secretary to the apartment." "We spoke," he says, "about the old days. She was interested in the friends of the past. She was very optimistic about the future of Armenia ; and suggested that Armenia never sever her relations with Russia. 'Yes,' she said, 'democratic liberties are desirable, but " Armenians should not be hopeless. They will be realized in due time.' Armenians will never forget the friendship of Miss Blackwell and will always cherish her memory with a deep sense of gratitude for all that she did for them. She was, indeed, the guardian angel of the Armenian people.^ When tomorrow the history of the Armenian-American community is written, a special chapter in it will be devoted to this great lady.

IV.

A Tribute By Samuel A. Eliot^

Y^ E are gathered here, my friends, to bring our tribute of reverence and gratitude for the life that has been so long and so valiantly lived here among us. If indeed it were possible for each and every one of us to express in some single sentence the feeling that bound us to the life we here commemorate, then from our separate experiences and our different points of view and of contact there would be added to the silent tribute of your presence the fitting words of

4Mrs. Guy Lamprey Stantial who kindly read the entire manuscript of this symposium and made several valuable corrections and additions, commented thus at this point : "No one here ever saw Miss Blackwell knitting. We thought she never knew how to use her hands in that capacity. In all instances where I ever saw her applauded she always folded her hands in her lap and sat with bowed head, modestly accepting the plaudits of the audience. Maybe some of her friends sav/ her knitting, but*" those of her family with whom I have talked today say they never did." f'Mrs. Stantial's correction and comment is as follows: Miss Blackwell turned her home over to the Morgan Memorial when she went into the Dorchester apartment but she did not deed it to them until her money was taken from her in 1935. Then it was agreed to furnish her with an annuity for the rest of her life in return for the use of the house. Title to the house went to the Morgan Memorial on her death. ^So characterized by Dr. M. S. Kaprielian, according to Dikran Megunt Spear, Baikar, April 7, 1950. ITribute at the memorial service held at the Arlington Street Church, Boston, March 18, 1950.

145 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

appreciation and affection. I'm sure that we all feel that so radiant a life cannot be permitted to pass into the silence without loving praise, while at the same time one who tries to express our common feeling must respect the reserves that are the rights of a gentlewoman.

What a rich and abundant life it was! We don't have to force words or phrases when we speak of Alice Stone Blackwell. You know the lives of many good, kind people seem to lack emphasis. They are sort of negatively good. They do the right things but not so much on their own initiative as because others do them or it is the custom of their set to do them. How refreshing and invigorating to come into contact with a distinctive personality ready to exercise an independent judgment, able to see clearly and imagine vividly and will nobly. Here was a positive and affirmative nature—one that said "yes" more often than "no." She never waited for an idea or a movement to become popular. If she believed in it she just set to work to make it popiilar—and the slowness of the progressive reforms she advocated so perseveringly, the apathy and indifference of people toward the causes that to her were so imperative, never seemed to fret her, at least in public. She may have shown some natural impatience to those nearest her and if so I'm sure that she could express her indignation in sufficiently forcible and appropriate terms—but to us who were her allies and admirers without being her intimates every defeat seemed only to stiffen her backbone and her eagerness to get into the battle again. Alice Blackwell came, as you know, from a sturdy, bold, exceptionally long- lived stock. With her first breath she must have drawn in something of her parents' devotion to the anti-slavery movement and the cause of equal rights for women. She inherited the intellectual and moral equipment that prepared her for the service she was to render to humanity, and she inherited too a certain scorn of consequences when she knew she was on the right road. Like her gifted mother—whose biography she wrote—she could speak with fine freedom, force and fluency. She answered every summons of conscience—oh, not with the sort of stoi6 resignation which is about all that some of us can muster—^but with a resolute, contagious enthusiasm. How her penetrating intelfigence went right

to the heart of any problem or emergency ! I don't think she ever knew or recog-

nized a terminum : life to her was a thoroughfare. One cause won just meant

a chance to tackle another enterprise—and at it she went without waiting to wonder if anybody would follow her. The reward of today's success was just the vista of tomorrow's tasks and the recompense of duty done was more duty to do—and more joy in doing it. The good of today presaged the better of tomorrow.

What a faculty she had of putting herself in the place of abused and op-

pressed and underprivileged people ! That took keen imagination as well as sympathy and compassion. She valued men and women, did she not, not by con- ventional standards but by their intrinsic worth. Her own candor and vigorous common-sense scattered all the trivial artificialities of our social intercourse.

146 :

ALICE STONE BLACKWELL

Her talk was entertaining, instructive but not pedantic, and sometimes a bit pro- vocative. She lived on a high plane of thought and action but did not fail to see the humorous side of things and could sometimes laugh at herself and at, or with, some of her strong-minded associates. There was nothing vague or obscure in her thinking. Right was right and wrong was wrong. She dwelt in no neutral zone and she had no use for com- promises when moral issues were at stake. She was well assured that what is morally wrong can never be politically right. Courage and confidence were the good angels that dwelt with her and through her breathed a benediction on us all. How wide and prodigal too were her sympathies. They overflowed all boundaries. They were as broad as humanity—^including white and black, Greek and Armenian, bond and free. She could say with Lowell: Wherever wrong is done, To the humblest and the weakest 'neath the all beholding sun. That wrong is also done to us: and they are slaves most base. Whose love of right is for themselves and not for all their race.

I don't remember that I ever talked with her about rehgion. Somehow the pre-eminence of the spiritual values seemed to be just taken for granted. I am sure that for her the great commandments were not those that begin "Thou shaft not" but those that begin "Thou shalt." For her religion was not a static formula but a dynamic process—not renunciation but the multiplication of freedom and power. To accept the rich privileges of life with an alert body, an eager mind, a lively imagination, a steadfast purpose—that was to her the Father's business in which she had a responsible partnership. So she lived her 92 years, vivid, resilient—in communion with all sorts and conditions of men, in constant pursuit of the things that are just and lovely

and of good report, in the faith that this mysterious and majestic universe is well ordered—and then, with no wasting malady or long decay, the end was peace. In the biography of her mother, Lucy Stone, Miss Blackwell printed some verses which her mother had clipped from a newspaper and had beside her as she lay quietly dying. They seem as appropriate for the daughter as for the mother Up and away like the dew of the morning. That soars from the earth to its home in the sun. So let me steal away gently and lovingly, Only remembered by what I have done.

Needs there the praise of the love-written record, «. The name and the epitaph graved on the stone? The things we have lived for, let them be our story, We ourselves but remembered by what we have done.

Not myself, but the truth that in life I have spoken. Not myself, but the seed that in life I have sown. Shall pass on to ages, all about me forgotten. Save the truth I have spoken, the things I have done.

147 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

A Sonnet

By William Lloyd Garrison, Jr.^

J^HE sweeps the wide horizon with her glass Watching the human drama there unroll,

And, tracing the events upon her scroll, Divines the meaning of what comes to pass. Across the years her clear coherent speech

Has flashed like sunlight through a rifted cloud To lend illumination when the crowd With cruel hands the weak has sought to reach. The Psalmists' days have passed her with a smile. Her heresies enjoy the guise of law, And now, with Delphic word at her command. Beside her tripod at the cavern's maw. With flame-tipped thoughts does she the world beguile

And, as of old, drive darkness from the land.

In Memoriam

A FORTNIGHT before her death on March fifteenth, Miss Blackwell expressed two longings—characteristically not for herself but to keep the cause of woman's freedom alive in the minds and hearts of coming generations. She wanted the biography of Lucy Stone put into the libraries of all the women's colleges of the nation, and she wanted the private papers of Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell put in order and indexed so that these priceless records of the anti-slavery and woman's movements might be available for the future.

It should be a privilege for every Armenian to help make the last wishes of Alice Stone Blackvv^ell come true.

Memorial contributions may be sent to the Alice Stone Blackwell Fund, 21 Ashmont Street, Melrose 76, Massachusetts.

^Written in 1936. Read at Miss Blackwell's Memorial Service by the minister of Arlington Street Church, Rev. Dana McLean Greeley.

148 Armenians as I Have Known Them By Alice Stone Blackwell^

J\ YOUNG man was afraid that his sweetheart was going to jih him. He asked an older friend what his opinion of woman was. The older man answered, "What do you mean by asking me my opinion of one-half the human race? There are all kinds of women. There are some who cannot be trusted out of your sight. There are others who can be trusted through thick and thin," This story was called to my remembrance when I was asked to write a short article on "Armenians as I have Known Them." Among the Armenians, as among all other races and nationalities, there are all kinds of people, good, bad and indifferent. I have met Armenians of all these kinds.

Many years ago a famous writer said that one can tell with almost laughable certainty what a man's wife is like, by finding out what is his opinion of women.

An American who knows one bad Armenian is apt to jump to the conclusion that all other Armenians are like him. Of course this is wholly unreasonable and unjust ; but it is well for our Armenians to remember that if one of them proves himself untrustworthy, he not only destroys his own reputation but helps to destroy the reputation of all his compatriots among thoughtless Americans; and the world is full of thoughtless persons. Among my Armenian friends there have been some of the noblest characters that I have known — men and women thoroughly worthy of their heroic ancestors whose history has been an inspiration to me for more than forty years. It is well within my power to make the comparison, for it has been my good fortune to know many extraordinary men and women of different nationalities. I have found these fine characters among both the Armenian-speaking and Turkish-speaking Armenians, among both the Protestants and the Gre- gorians.

My first Armenian friend was Ohannes Khachumian,^ a brilliant young Russian Armenian, a theological student. Mrs. Isabelle C. Barrows, who had met him in Europe, persuaded him to come to the United States to represent the Armenian National Church at the World's Congress of Religions which was held at Chicago in 1893. I met him the same year in her summer camp where he opened to me a whole new world in Armenian history and literature.

^Letter written some years ago at the request of Arthur Derounian, copied from one of her scrapbooks for Armenian Affairs by Mrs. Edna Lamprey Stantial. We assume, on the basis of internal evidence, that this letter was written in 1933, on the occasion of the assassination of Archbishop Levon Tourian. The death of Archbishop Tourian must have crushed the heart of Miss Blackwell, for in the letter to the editor in which Mrs. Stantial refers to this article, she adds : "Somewhere [in the scrapbooks] I saw another reference to the Armenian people, but I cannot find it. But this was the sentence that impressed me : 'When I hear of an Armen- " ian who has done something wrong, I feel like a grandmother whose grandchild has hurt her.' —Ed. 2See supra pp. 139 ff for details of the life of Khachumian and his relations with Miss Blackwell.

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ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

The first Society of Friends of Armenia was organized that summer with Mrs. Barrows as president, and myself as secretary. Ohannes KJiachumian studied for some time at an Episcopal theological school in this country. He then returned to Europe and died a year or two later but the influence of his short life still survives.

It is a thousand pities that so many of our young Armenians of today remain in ignorance of their nation's wonderful history. It is as if they were entitled to a great treasure buried by their ancestors but never took the trouble to dig it up. It is uplifting to know that one had ancestors whom one should always try to live up towards, even if one can never fully live up to them.

THE LAKE OF VAN^ By Raffi (Melik Hagopian)

j^ PEAK, O lake ! why are thy waters silent Wilt thou not lament with luckless me? Move, ye zephyrs, move the rippling wavelets!

With this lake my tears shall mingled be.

Tell me, lake—for thou hast been a witness Of our history from the earliest day Shall Armenia, that was once a garden, Always be a thorny desert gray?

Shall our hapless fatherland forever By a foreign master be down-trod? Are the Armenians and their sons unworthy, Judged before the righteous throne of God?

Is a glad day coming, when a banner

Shall on Ararat its folds expand. And from every side Armenian pilgrims Hasten to their beauteous fatherland? iFrom Armenian Poems, rendered into English verse by Alice Stone Blackwell, [published by Robert Chambers], Boston, 1917, p. 124.

150 —

Notes on the Evolution of Armenians Architecture

and Its Influence Abroad

By Vahan Hagopian^

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

IN the New York Public Library is a book entitled Recueil de Cent Estampes, Representant Differeiites Nations du Levant by M. Le Hay, under the orders of M. de Ferriol, ambassador of the King to the Sublime Porte, printed in Paris in 1714, showing the colorful and picturesquely varied costumes worn at the time by dignitaries, functionaries, officers, and members of trades and crafts in Constantinople. A full page illustration of a standing personage holding the attribute of his craft is captioned "Un Architecte Armenien" which bears out the fact, little known even to Armenians, that they had almost a monopoly as master builders in the Turkish empire, the tradition of which went back to Byzantium when an Armenian architect named Tiridates was summoned in A.D. 989 from his country to repair serious damage done to St. Sophia by an earthquake. Armenians are seldom aware that probably the most outstanding manifestation of their past culture is their contribution to architecture, as has been emphasized by leading authorities on archeology and the history of architecture, among whom may be mentioned Professors Grimm, Strzygowski, Benoit and Choisy. The architecture of Armenia, although influenced by Byzantium and Persia, has flourished in a most original manner, with its own marked characteristics, and in turn has influenced not only adjoining countries but has had its repercussions in distant lands. The architecture of the inhabitants, Armenians and Georgians, of the iVahan Hagopian, Architect A. I. A., born in Cairo, was educated in the French Christian schools there. As a result of their influence he continued with his higher education in Paris, where he completed his professional studies with honors and attained the highest degree in architecture awarded by the French government. From the beginning of his career he was attracted to ecclesiastical architecture. The study of Christian dogmas and liturgies and their continual influence on architecture fascinated him. Realizing the important role which Armenian architecture plays in this chain of evolution, he went into its study deeply while at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts. The subject of his final thesis there was an Armenian church and community center. Here he emphasized the philosophy of Armenian design, although the group of buildings conformed to modern life and economy. Through the years that followed Mr. Hagopian has continued his study and research in Armenian architecture, although much of his ecclesiastical design work has been for other nationality groups. Ed.

151 ;

ARMENIAN AFFAIRS mountain lands between the Black Sea, Anatolia, Upper Mesopotamia, the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus mountains may be studied by the remains of religious buildings erected after their conversion to Christianity in the last quarter of the third century by St. Gregory the Illuminator. Some ruins at Garni, near Yerevan, are the earliest known and remind us of an important building by King Tiridates, dating from the beginning of the fourth century. However, from the beginning of the fifth century, the Christians of Armenia were subject to persecutions by the Persians, which slowed up construction. From this time dates the plan, if not the upper structures, of the Mother Church, situated in the center of the Monastery of Echmiadzin in the Holy See of the Armenians at Echmiadzin, which was also known as Vagharshapat. The seventh century was a busy era in construction, especially under the pontificate of Catholicos Komitas (after A.D. 618) and Nerses III, also called the Builder (A.D. 640-661). The former rebuilt on the same foundations the Cathedral of Echmiadzin and the nearby churches of Saint Hripsime (A.D. 618) and Saint Gaiane (A.D. 628-640). The most noteworthy edifice of Nerses is the Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator, a shrine to the Armenian apostle and also a capital document for the history of Armenian architecture. This period was also marked by the unhappy addition of porticos to many ancient churches. From A.D. 718 to 728 the Church of Usunlar was built, which is undoubtedly contemporaneous to that of Tikor. Armenian geographic position between Persia and the Greek empire made her, until the tenth century and the protection of the Califs of Baghdad gave her kings, a perpetual battlefield. Her development was under handicaps, and by the time she had the quiet and security necessary to the creation of great art,

Byzantian architecture had crystallized itself. Armenia borrowed from it its general principles. The plan of the Armenian church of the tenth century is a variation of the Byzantine plan.

Armenia, under the dynasty of the Bagratides (A.D. 859-1080) had a period of prosperity, particularly in the last half of the tenth century and the beginning of the eleventh, during the reigns of King Ashod III, Sempad II, and

Gagik I, who encouraged building. From the beginning of the tenth century dates the monastery of Akhtamar on an island in Lake Van, with its church which is more a jewel than a building the Church of Pitzounda on the Black Sea ; the Church of Mokwi and that of the Holy Cross at Akhpat (A.D. 977-991 ) . The first half of the eleventh century produced the Church of Koutais (A.D. 1003), ruined by the Turks in 1691; the buildings at Ani, ruined by Arp Asian (1064); the Cathedral (1010),

Chapel of St. Gregory, Chapel of the Redemptor ( 1041 ) , Convent of Marmashen

at the north of Alexandropol (Leninakan) ; the churches of Sandjerl (1033-

1044) ; Nikortzminda under the king Bagrat of Georgia (1027-1072). The end ©f the eleventh century saw the Church of Samthavis and the Church of the Convent of Ghelat. In the twelfth century there was a decrease in building

152 EVOLUTION OF ARMENIA'S ARCHITECTURE

activity. Nevertheless, a mausoleum was added to the Church of the Holy Cross at Akhpat in 1183, the monastery of Kosha Vank was built near Ani, and the Church of St. Gregory was built at Ani in 1215. In 1222 came the MongoUan invasion, and since then the architecture of Armenia has been on the decline. Upper Georgia, however, was less affected and the Monastery of Safar at Akhalsykh, along with the Church of Saint Sava were built (1306-1334). The high mountain country, swept by rainy winds from the Black Sea, a variable and damp climate, and an insufficient all around civilization were a handicap to the art of construction. Yet the country offered facilities in the procurement of wood, excellent and abundant building stone, and an intelligent and active population which did the most with the materials at hand. As lime- stone for m.ortar was scarce, the perfectly cut stone in buildings was laid with neat dry joints in level courses. This practice lasted until the Middle Ages. Alternate courses of brick and stone and brick quoins around corners as in Koutais are the exceptions.

As a consequence of Armenia's religious dependence on Asia Minor and northern Syria, of its being open to penetrations from Anatolia and Persia, and of a strategic situation which made her the object of constant disputes between the Sassanian and Byzantine empires, Armenian architecture naturally felt the competing influences of Asia Minor, Syria and Byzantium on the one hand, and of the Mesopotamian, Persian, and Moslem on the other hand. Up to the tenth century the first were dominant. After this period the latter influence was the most felt. Therefore, Armenian architecture may be classified as of the pre- tenth and post-tenth centuries. The study of her construction and design characteristics may be best done in comparison to that of Byzantium from where most of her pre-tenth century influence is received. The factor that was common to both Syria and Armenia is that they were stone building countries and have received influences from the same sources, which they have nevertheless expressed in different ways.

11. FORM

Design Expression and Plan. The Byzantines express on the exterior of their buildings the inner divisions and organic structure frankly, while the Ar- menians conceal them under an artificial symmetry. This concern for symmetry is carried to the point where the dome is placed in the exact center of the overall length of the church and the apse is concealed under the main roof. The side apses are likewise concealed under the extension of the roof of the side aisles. V-shaped niches between the apse and side apses are the only outward expression of their relation in plan. These V-shaped niches which are characteristic

153 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

to the style are also found on the other elevations of the church, mainly in the buttresses terminating the dome carrying arches.

The conception of the architectural effect is an original and a happy one.

The concern about appearance is evident and this sense of the esthetic is entirely different from that of the East. This architecture is also noteworthy for its complete unconcern of material sizes. Another characteristic is the sense of the picturesque in the taste for the monumental.

The plan of the Armenian church is generally rectangular with a nave and a transept of equal widths but varying lengths. At the intersection of the nave and transept is a polygonal or circular tower which lights the edifice.

The nave which is terminated on its eastern end by a semi-circular apse where the services are held is flanked by aisles of lesser dimensions. Generally chapels or small apses, as is customary in the oriental churches, terminate the aisles.

In the earlier churches such as the Cathedral of Echmiadzin and the Church of Tikor the ap>se projects beyond the rectangle of the building and its exterior face is polygonal. In later churches, when the exterior of the apse became flush with the rectangle of the building, as in Ani Cathedral and St. Hripsime, its position was marked on the outside with V-shaped niches on each of the sides and rising to the full height of the building. These niches are sometimes repeated on the other sides of the building and express the separation of the transept from the aisles as well as the nave from the aisles.

In the Cathedral of Echmiadzin and the Church of St. Hripsime, the apses appear on the four sides of the edifice while in the Church of Koutais, in addition to the other apse at the east of the nave, is one on each end of the transept.

Sometimes, as in the churches of Tikor and Usunlar, the Syrian influence of projections on the rear end of the church give to the plan the shape of a T in the arms of which are exterior small apses, and as in Usunlar, an exterior peristyle on the entrance and sides of the building. The atrium and generally the narthex are absent.

The funeral chapels and memorial churches, such as St. Gregory the Illuminator, near Echmiadzin, present a circular plan or a square plan with absence of nave and transept, and where the apses project directly from the arches which support the dome, as in St. Hripsime's Church in Echmiadzin.

The equilibrium of the construction of the Armenian churches is perfectly

maintained and expressed. The dome is almost thrustless and carried by arches and braced by the vaults of the side apses, side aisles, and are at their critical points buttressed by reinforced piers. The proportions of the Armenian church are slender. In the eleventh century these were further emphasized with the pointed arch, ribbed piers, and on the plain interior walls with decorative ar- cades of thin engaged columns supporting raised-on-horse-shoe arches. This

154 EVOLUTION OF ARMENIA'S ARCHITECTURE

latter is an Armenian peculiarity totally alien to Byzantium and has been trans- mitted to Russian and Balkan churches. Along the edges of the buildings and openings as well as acting as friezes and decorative bands are concentrated heavy bands of trimming, the weight of which is quite in contrast with the small dimensions of the building. These braids or ribbons often take the form of leaf ornament of a Sassanian type.

In the interiors of all these churches we see pointed barrel vaults at the ends of which are projecting doubled arches. Where these piers fall, each is received and carried to the floor by an individual pilaster or engaged column, this giving the appearance of a pier with broken surfaces. This is a forerunner of such piers in western Romanesque architecture, which it antedates.

Construction of Vaults. The Byzantines resorted to brick, which alone could allow the spanning of voids with masonry without the help of trusses, forms and bracing. A thin slice of masonry was built at a time and supported by the adjacent work through the adhesion of the mortar, until the latter hard- ened. The work was then continued until the span was covered. This method of construction became so established that the Byzantines used it even where building stone was abundant.

In Armenia, however, stone was the logical material to use. But, as voussoirs of large stone could not be held in place even temporarily through adhesion of mortar, wooden forms for temporary support were inevitable. Therefore, construction was designed to lessen the temporary timber work.

The Pointed Arch. The pointed arch never appears in the Byzantine school, where necessity did not compel its use. Up to the tenth century Armenian architecture also used the semicircular arch (Tikor, Usunlar, Koutais). About the time of the Cathedral of Ani, the pointed arch had come into being. The Persians had long ago found that by use of an "oval" arch for their 'great spans they could reduce the side thrust on the walls which bore the vaults and thus economize on materials. The countries where the pointed arch developed were those primarily exposed to the influence of Persia, but where also stone had to replace brick. To execute the Persian design in stone would have meant excessive thrust at the upper portion of the arch and a complication in stone cutting. In such a case the advantages of economy of materials would

have been offset by a greater difficulty in execution. If, however, the side arches were struck with a single radius larger than one half the span from two different centers until the arches met, the thrust of the flat portion at the apex of the oval would be eliminated. Thus the pointed arch was created. This maintained the advantages of the Persian design and, because the curve of the arch is now constant, all the voussoirs could be cut on a single pattern.

The Dome. The Armenian dome presents the appearance of a hollow cone resting on pendentifs through a cylindrical drum. The pendentifs are of the

155 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

spherical triangular or conical type. The former denote their Byzantine origin, and the latter, their Persian influence. The characteristic form of this dome is justified like that of the pointed arch because of the requirements of stone construction. The spherical dome which is easy to build in brick necessitates complicated stone cutting. Its upper portions,

being almost flat, cause an excessive thrust. The hollow conical design simpUfies the cutting of the stone and, what is more, allows its easier setting without forms. Provided the slope of the cone is sufficient, the friction of each on its bed is

enough to keep it in place, as a corbel, until the ring is completed. Such a

construction is hardly more difficult than that of a wall. This ingenious profile has been used in all the domes built in Armenia from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. From Armenia it crossed over and was adopted by the Seljuk Turks. As one of those mistakes that often happens in second-hand art, the Turks translated this design in brick and carried it from Iconium to Nicea, and wherever they extended their domination. Another form of Armenian vault is that typified by the one in the Chapel of Akhpat, which dates from the twelfth century. Four cross arches or large ribbings span the room, two in each direction. This leaves in the center a square

space which is Ukewise spanned to carry a "lantern" dome. The space between the ribbings and the walls is filled with slabs on small arches. This vault expresses the same conception of design as that of Mihrab of Cordova in Spain, and

its theory has a strange resemblance to that which gave Gothic construction its fundamental character.

The Arcade and Arch. While the Byzantine arcade on columns is mostly

structural, its Armenian counterpart, which is described below, is decorative and

quite alien to it, the columns projecting only slightly from the wall instead of

standing free. It appears after the tenth century. As to the arch itself, the Byzantine being built in brick, presented a flat section, whereas the Armenian, being built of stone, was molded mostly in the form of parallel cylinders.

The Column and Supports for Arches. While the Byzantine architects endeavored to conceal the springs of arches, the Armenians emphasized them. When a pillar was to receive a series of arches or ribbings, the pillar was broken

up in appearance so that each ribbing fell on an individual column or pilaster. These, however, were generally engaged in a group forming the prototype of the pillars of the arches of the Gothic churches. Used decoratively, the engaged column (part of the wall) was surmounted by a bulbous capital which perpetuated itself in an exaggerated form in Slavonic architecture.

Decoration. A definite distinction in decoration may be noticed between the schools that built in brick and those that built in stone. In the former, to

which belongs the Byzantine, the decoration is purely architectural in that its

sculpture is possible out of the masonry surfaces.

156 EVOLUTION OF ARMENIA'S ARCHITECTURE

Sculpture and Ornamentation. Byzantine sculpture has never been anything than a raised drawing. It has its originaHty, but it never got its inspiration from nature. As a matter of fact, with the advent of Christianity, sculpture in Greek art ceased to exist.

Armenian sculpture borrows all of its motifs from interlaced embroidery- trimmings. Braids, frame panels and openings run on edges of buildings and cornices as bands.

This decoration is always out of scale as contrasted with the surfaces on which it is carved, and is concentrated. Its contrast with plain surfaces gives it its pecuhar character and vigorous effect. The influence of this style of ornamentation is found in all of Russia, particularly in southern Russian architecture, as well as in the lower Danubian countries, especially in Serbia. It has also had its influence in Scandinavia, England, Ireland, and Normandy.

Color. While the brick surfaces of Byzantine construction lend themselves admirably to marble veneers, inlays, glass, mosaics and fresco paintings, the schools that build in stone have their own mode of decoration. With them sculpture takes its importance and steps to the foreground, while color becomes unnecessary. If painting, mosaics, and marble inlays are not eliminated, they play a secondary part in Armenian architecture. In the Ani Cathedral, color is reduced to a play of tones arrived at by the alternating of the white and grey courses of stonework.

III.

RADIATION

The various component elements of Armenian architecture have been so thoroughly assimilated and developed by the ingenuity of Armenian craftsmen that the resultant is a distinct art with its own strong characteristics. Through these characteristics we may follow the influence of Armenian architecture, which radiated in several directions and influenced far distant countries. Armenian architecture was favored by the prestige of its monasteries and by the migration of a part of the population of Ani, after its fall to the Seljuks (A.D. 1066), to the north of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, Galicia, Moldavia, Serbia and Poland where Armenian settlements have perpetuated themselves to the present day. Armenian architecture has undoubtedly furnished Seljuk Anatolia with building formulae ; Russia, with programs and masters ; Serbia and Moldavia-

Walachia, with models of decoration. There is a marked resemblance between the plan of Saint Sophia at Kiev with the Georgian church of Molui ; the structure of some of the cupolas and especially the inspiration of the ornamentation of many an ancient Russian church shows that Armenian influence was

157 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS strongly competing with that of Byzantium. This may be explained by the Trans- caucasian influence, by the relation of Russian princes with Armenia and Georgia, and by the settlement on the Russian border of refugees from the city of Ani.

Armenian influence in the Danubian countries was due in the first place to monastic relations between both countries. Saint Sava (A.D. 1169-1236), archbishop primate of Serbia, great artisan of the civilization of his country and of its ecclesiastic organization visited the Armenian monasteries. Secondly, the Armenian settlements in southern Russia, Poland, and Moldavia had also their influence. The general conception of the Russian churches of Pokrov, Kiev, Vladimir, and more particularly of the Roumanian churches and those of Serbia is Ar- menian more than Byzantine. If in these churches the Armenian pointed arch was not adopted, as we see especially in Serbia, Roumania and Moldavia, the

Armenian character of decoration is all the more marked, such as in the churches of Ravinica, Krusevac, Studenitza where Armenian ornament is applied on a Byzantine bulk. The churches of Kuritsa, Argich, Tergovitch, Dragomima have no ornament that is not definitely Armenian. From the point of view of decorative architecture, the Danubian valley seems to be an Armenian colony. The only element omitted seems to be the pointed arch.

Armenian architecture has also had its influence on the evolution of the Byzantine school, as a consequence of Armenia's supplying Byzantium with administrators, generals, emperors, and also architects.

Thus, the coast of the Black Sea from Armenia to Constantinople is related to Armenian art. From Byzantium Armenian influence followed the course of commerce over the great rivers, the Danube, the Don, the Dniester and the Volga to Novgorod, the Vistula, and the borders of Scandinavia. The presence of Armenian art is felt as far as Norway and Sweden. This influence does not stop in Scandinavia, but is carried by the Norsemen. It follows their wake and manifests itself in the romanesque ornamentation of Normandy, England and Ireland. In Ireland, the details of usual decoration present such resemblance with Armenian decoration that they have long been noticed and seem to con- firm this distant radiation from Asia.

Without being absolutely able to prove it, we may, with considerable jus- tification assume on the basis of a comparison of the general trend and the different peculiarities of Armenian churches and the more recent Carohngian Romanesque churches of northwestern Europe, that the former must have had its influence on the latter. We may also see in the plan of Ani Cathedral the piers of many assembled columns and the pointed arch in section which begins to occur in Europe a century later.

158 Literary Pilgrimages to Armenia

Editorial Note

The two articles below, though written independently, without consultation on the part of the authors, are presented here together under a single heading as they deal with the same subject. Each writer in his own characteristic way bears witness to the fact that for the past thirty years Soviet Armenian writers have been creating a new literature, very much Armenian in spirit and form, using the rich folklore and treasury of art of their country as its foundation. A third article, by A. Adamian and V. I5eznuni, in the "Books and Reviews" section of the next issue of Armenian Affairs, will bring the subject up to date, particularly from the standpoint of the number and variety of books pubHished in the Armenian Soviet Republic since 1946.

From America to Armenia

By K. SiTAL

CONVENTION OF SOVIET ARMENIAN WRITERS

ARMENIA is the proud possessor of a very old and glorious culture. This culture is second to none both in its achievements and in the great influence it has exerted upon the civilization and progress of mankind. This fact has been recognized by many outstanding European scholars and intellectuals. Now this great cultural inheritance of Armenia has become the pride and the priceless treasure of all the peoples of the Soviet Union. After long centuries of untold suffering and of heroic struggle, once more, the Armenian people became the proud masters of their own destiny. This was thirty odd years ago. A new era of creative achievements had dawned upon the worthy people of Armenia. Since then, in an atmosphere of reconstruction and enthusiasm, the fortunate writers of free Armenia have been creating a wholesome and new literature—very much Armenian in style and spirit and yet universal in content and appeal. The unique treasury of the national art and culture and the rich and colorful folklore were widely utilized in the making of this new and vigorous literature.

It was a convention of these Armenian wTiters that I had the rare fortune of attending in Yerevan, Soviet Armenia. It started on September 25 and ended on October 1, 1946.

159 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

The purpose was to evaluate the new hterature, to discover its shortcomings and the ways and means of making it effective as an instrument of service to the people. There were present two hundred forty members of Soviet Ar- menia's Writers' Union. A number of non-members were also present. Ten had come as guests from abroad. There were also Armenian representatives from republics of Azerbaijan and Georgia. A notable group had come from Russia and Estonia. Two leading Georgian writers were also present. Armenian literature, both old and new, can be better appreciated with reference to the geography and history of the land which gave it birth ; and the new may not be understood without reference to the old. Any description of the Convention and discussion of the problems raised there may become more mean- ingful to the reader if the relation of the old to the new and the relation of both to the geography and history of the land are indicated.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

The physical environment of a country, its climate and geographical characteristics leave their impression upon the culture and art of the people. This is especially true of Armenia, with its lofty mountains and fertile valleys ; its sap- phire-blue lakes and swift foaming rivers ; its long, severe winters, slowly unfolding springs, hot dry summers in the valleys and plains, and the cool, flower-bedecked fields in the mountains, and its brief, mellow, but fruitful autumns. Armenia is also a land of flowers and birds: with its more than two thousand distinct varieties of flowers, and its great number and variety of birds, it is no wonder that legend places the old Garden of Eden in Armenia,

This rugged and beautiful setting has left its deep, everlasting impression upon every phase of Armenian art and literature, as upon the other aspects of the life of the people.

Many peoples have mingled their blood with that of this ancient people. Eleven hundred years before our era we find Armenia a well-civilized country with a flourishing culture and a vast system of irrigation.

Its geographical position has made the Armenian plateau both a source of misfortune to its people and a bridge over which the cultural heritage of the East and West have trafficked back and forth—an endless battleground and the crossroads of many civilizations. Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, Seljuks and Ottoman Turks have overrun it and drenched the soil with blood. And yet, despite the repeated visitation of death and the destruction of the great works of art—valuable books and manuscripts, beautiful shrines and magnificent edifices—the creative genius of the Armenian p-eople has continued to reassert itself each time in the field of art, architecture, literature, music and the handicrafts.

Long before the Christian era the Armenians recognized the value of Hel- lenism and became its protagonists in the Near East.

160 LITERARY PILGRIMAGES TO ARMENIA

Armenia was also the first nation to adopt Christianity— at least ten years before Constantine gave it official recognition. This was followed by the Golden Age of Armenian Hterature. There are quite a number of Armenian translations of the Greek masters, the originab of which have been lost. It is through these translations that the cultural world today is in possession of some of these works.

The Armenian renascence started about the middle of the tenth century by the great poet and mystic Gregory of Narek. It extended to the realm of architecture, painting and literature.

LAND OF POETRY AND SONG

In the field of lyric poetry, which had such an abundant harvest among the Armenians, two great bards stand out—Kouchak in the sixteenth century and Sayat-Nova in the eighteenth century. Anatole France and Valery Brusov have claimed Kouchak to be the greatest poet in the expression of the simple and burn- ing emotion of love. Sayat-Nova was the court poet and singer of Tamara, the glamorous queen of Georgia. He wrote and sang in three languages with equal ease—Armenian, Georgian, and Azerbaijan. He is highly appreciated by all three peoples and his fame is widespread throughout the Soviet Union, his poetry having been translated into nearly every language of the constituent republics of the Union. The last great pre-Soviet Armenian writers were Shirvanzade and Tuman- ian. Both of them saw the liberation of their land, the fulfillment of the dream of their people. They died contentedly, loved and honored by all—^the people of their land and of the other republics of the Soviet Union, to whom their works have been made accessible. To the same generation of great writers belongs Avetik Isahakian, the poet-laureate of Armenia, greatly admired in all parts of the Soviet Union, whom Alexander Blok in 1916 characterized as "a first class poet," adding that perhaps there was "no other inspired and original poet like him in all Europe."

The folklore of the Armenian people is rich, beautiful, diversified and revolutionary. The national epic of Armenia, Daredevils of, Sassoun or David of Sassoun, was unknown outside of Armenia until very recently. In 1939 the many of its variants which had been passed on from generation to generation for scores of centuries^ were collected, compiled and published in two great

IThe one thousandth anniversary of the epic of David of Sassoun was celebrated in Armenia in 1939. A considerable part of this great and old epic goes back to the days when the Armenians were pagans. That is the part of "Sanasar" and "Baghdasar." The present interpretation is that this great epic has been started in the far antiquity and gradually has grown to its present form. As there is a section which goes way back to our pagan period there is also a section of epic that belongs to this time, which is very recent, when the craftsmen became an important section of our people. Little Meher is a creation of this group and he represents the aspirations of a people who have passed through every stage of social orders up to the present one. .161 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

volumes. Special committees were formed in various parts of the Soviet Union for the purpose of having it translated into the many languages of the peoples of the constituent republics. It was received with great enthusiasm everywhere, its heroes inspiring courage and hope during the critical days of the second World War.

David of Sassoun is an original folk-creation, devoid of hatred, permeated with the spirit of freedom and brotherhood. The story has no end—it is projected into a happy and bright future of humanity. According to it, its last hero, Little

Meher, is still alive. With his fiery horse and sword of lightning he is waiting for action on the day when the oppressed peoples will rise and destroy the unhappy old world of suffering and sorrow and establish in its place a new order of life, when grains of wheat will be as large as walnuts, barley will grow the size of berries, and com will be of gold.

Kashti Kadcher (The Braves of Kasht) is another great epic which bubbles with refreshing humor, bravery and tenderness. It is a tale of partisan warfare of the freedom loving Armenians and their neighbors, the Kurds, led by the invincible warriors of Kasht, who rise against the hordes of Tamur Khan.

Tamur Khan fails to conquer these people. He is out-maneuvered and out- generalled by them. His armies are crushed and he is captured and put to death. The survivors of Tamur's once great army were advised to return to their homeland and live their own lives there. In this epic Tamur Khan is not a real, historic person but a symbol of tyranny.

Nearly all Armenian folk stories end with hope for a better world. One of the most charming of these stories is that of Hazaran Bulbiil (The Immortal Nightingale). The hero of the tale is the youngest of the three sons of a poor gardener who after untold sufferings and incredible exploits succeeds in securing this magic bird. Under its enchanting strains the garden blooms and spreads down into the valleys and all over the countryside. Under its magic strains the old become young, strong, wise, noble and immortal, and happiness becomes their perennial, all-embracing lot.

These epics and folk stories present a symbolic picture of Armenia, past and present.

THE DAWN OF A NEW DAT

Since 1920 Armenia has been experiencing a new renascence. With the peace and security which has come with the establishment of Soviet order a new day has dawned in this land of suffering and death, with unparalleled opportunities to its people to shape their life and destiny in accordance with their traditions and desires.

Armenia enjoys today a cultural growth unique in its long and glorious history. A major credit for this goes to the nationalities policy of Joseph Stalin, and his personal interest and intimate knowledge of Armenian culture.

162 LITERARY PILGRIMAGES TO ARMENIA

Some time prior to the second World War a delegation of intellectuals from Armenia who were \'isiting the great leader were astounded by his thorough knowledge of Armenian culture. Upon learning from the head of the group that the scientific textbooks of the University of Armenia were not in the Armenian language, because of certain technical difficulties, he called attention to the wealth and adaptability of their language and suggested that a serious attempt be made to correct this flaw in the scientific education of Armenian youth. As a result all textbooks used in Armenia, including those in the field of science, are in the Armenian language.

Illiteracy has been wiped out in Armenia, and a network of public schools, theaters, opera houses, libraries, museums and institutions of higher learning cover the land. The enormous manuscript wealth of Armenia is housed in the

Matenadaran, the national library of manuscripts in Yerevan which, with its more than fifteen thousand manuscripts and two hundred thousand other papers and documents, is the largest of its kind in the entire Soviet Union. Ten times as many have been destroyed by the invading hordes, have been carried away, and during the first World War have fallen into the destructive hands of the Turks. At present a five story building is under construction to house its ever increasing manuscript and rare book collection.

Not only is the rich heritage of Armenia now being preserved through literary collections, research and special studies, but much has been added to it through the creative effort of the new generation of poets, novelists and dram- atists. The new art overflows with confidence, the spirit of brotherhood and a sense of destiny.

The one-tenth of Armenia liberated and now a constituent republic of the

Soviet Union is a place of pilgrimage for Soviet scholars and intellectuals, who consider its priceless ancient heritage an integral part of the culture of the entire Soviet Union. Many of these intellectuals make annual visits to Armenia and spend considerable time studying its history, archeology, art and other cultural resources. They were represented at the second convention of Soviet Armenian writers.

THE CONVENTION IN THE NEW OPERA HOUSE

The impressive opening of the Convention took place at the State Opera

House ; Avetik Isahakian, the patriarch of Armenian poetry, presiding.

The Secretary of the Writers' Union, Gregorian, gave an interesting report of Soviet Armenian literature to date. He outlined the astonishing economic and industrial progress in Soviet Armenia, and indicated how this had been reflected in the new art and literature, characterized as these are by a healthy social realism. Gregorian illustrated his theme by showing how the early revolutionary temper of the masses had found expression in the fiery poems of the great poet

163 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

Charentz and many other writers. He enumerated some of the leading works given to themes of the reconstruction and the social and industrial progress under the new order—among them Zarian's Rushani Karap (The Dyke of Rushan), Zorian's Espitak Kaghak (The White City), Demirjian's Fosjorayeen Tsolker (Phosphorous Rays), and the works of Abov, Sarian, Sarmen, Tarontzy, Shiraz, and Borian. He pointed out that during the recent great war both the old and the new generations of Armenian writers had done much through prose and poetry on patriotic themes to inspire the people to victory. Outstanding among the historical novels of this period are the Vardanantz of Demirjian and Pap Tagavor (King Pap) of Zorian.

Gregorian also discussed the shortcomings of some writers, criticizing such unhealthy manifestations in their works as defeatism, pessimism and unsocial ideas, and their inability to understand the new Soviet generation of men and women. He urged Armenian writers to utilize the great cultural heritage of their people and to create new themes and new heroes out of the events and experiences of the war. They should, he added, be able also to sing of the exploits of the heroes of labor on the production front, the work of reconstruction of the present day, and the great destiny of the fatherland.

The writers attending the Convention were then treated with a most impressive recital of music, song and dance. A vioHn orchestra of some fifty-five children, of eight and nine years of age, from a music school, created a sensation with their playing.

In my youth I had seen this section of Armenia. It was a backward, miser- ably, neglected province of Tsarist Russia. I could not help but marvel, therefore, at the miracle that had taken place within the short period of twenty-five years. The once poverty-stricken, starving people of Armenia had generated a new world for themselves. They had obliterated the nightmare of the past forever and were looking forward to a glorious future with unbounded courage and assurance.

This portion of Armenia was no longer a backward, rural area, but a highly industrialized modem country. In place of the miserable, malaria-in- fested, muddy old Yerevan, a magnificent metropolis with a population of three hundred and twenty-five thousand had risen. Wide, tree-laned boulevards, beautiful parks, graceful and imposing public buildings, and attractive new apartment houses were characteristic features of the new capital. This magic transformation was evident everywhere in this once poor, tortured and backward land of Ararat. The recital itself was being given in the new opera house, a jewel of Armenian architecture, which could be the pride of any great city of our day.

Many of the younger writers had grown up within the present period of struggle, creation and construction, within the new economy and culture which has undergirt with security and opportunity their homeland, and their own lives and careers.

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THE CONVENTION AT THE PHILHARMONIC HALL

The Convention continued for five days in the beautiful and spacious Phil- harmonic Hall. All seats were filled at all sessions ; and admission was by ticket No doubt many times the number of those attending would have been present if the space had permitted.

The ministers of the government, the members of the Armenian Academy, leading artists, educators, and students followed the addresses and reports with keen interest. Papers were presented by leading writers about the new prose, drama and poetry; about the press; about the problems of the Armenian language; and about Armenian literature abroad.

Writers criticized by the Secretary and by other speakers were given ample time to present their points of view. Some of them answered back with a bar- rage of counter-criticism against those who criticized them. Here was an amazing spectacle of freedom of expression, and open criticism even by lesser writers of the literary works of the distinguished masters. It was a most moving experience to witness famous writers rise and with humility and courage indulge in a bout of self-criticism, with the audience disagreeing with a burst of applause in appreciation of their work and service.

The convention as a whole was a picture of intellectual honesty, character and strength, magnanimity, self-confidence, and harmony of purpose.

The Russian and Georgian delegations seemed to be well acquainted with various phases of Armenian literature, the work of individual writers, and the problems confronting them.

Nikolai Tikhonov, the famous warrior-poet and defender of Leningrad, in a moving address paid high tribute to Armenian Hterature which, he said, "possessed a poetry of the highest order and an equally famous prose, a literature permeated with the spirit of patriotism and the impulse of public service. That much was made very clear when the Armenian people fought for their independence. It is as clear today." Tikhonov then reminded the convention that during the war one-third of all Armenian writers were at the front, many of whom laid down their lives so that others could live in peace and freedom. Now, he continued, writers were on a new front where every good book was a battle won, where each victory meant greater prosperity and happiness for the people.

The year before, the Armenian government had decided to repatriate the Armenians abroad, those victims of the First World War who had been driven from their homes by the Turkish massacres and depredations. There have been over one million of those unfortunates in the countries of the Near East, the Balkans, France, and elsewhere. There was an important colony of Armenian immigrants in the interior of Iran, who had been taken there in 1605 by Shah

Abbas I. At the time of the convention over sixty thousand repatriates had

165 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

arrived and were being established in new homes and jobs. This was the occasion of greajt enthusiasm and rejoicing.

The physical reunion of the Armenian nation was being forged, and it was considered imperative that there should also be a union on the cultural front. The convention dwelt on this subject a great deal.

Throughout the conference prevailed a deep sense of the responsibility and the necessity of relating literature to the current needs and future goals of the social order and the nation. It ended on a note of the importance of social realism in literature in general, and the necessity of creating new types of peacetime heroes who would embody in particular the aims and ideas of the new society.

From Moscow to Yerevan

By Professor A. Arsharuni

IJrGENT business had kept me in Moscow, and I keenly regretted that I left the capital too late to attend the Second Congress of Soviet Armenian writers.

When I arrived at the airdrome in the morning to board a plane for Yerevan I was told that the timetable had been changed for the winter. This meant that our plane would not arrive in Yerevan on the same day but on the morrow.

It was almost midday when we left Rostov-on-Don where we had spent the night. The Rostov winds and later a thick fog had delayed us. But as soon as we found ourselves over the Black Sea coast the warm southern sun, clear sky and sparkling expanse of sea made us forget the cold and fog which we had

left behind in the north.

At five o'clock, local time, we landed at the airdrome of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. Here every house, every tree was familiar. In the days of the heroic defense of the Caucasus we had landed at this airdrome more than once and then boarded a plane for Moscow. Then everything was grim—the men in uniform, the general situation, even nature itself. Now, the very sunshine seemed different, and so did the spirits of the people.

From this point our plane took off for its last lap on its flight to Yerevan.

It is only an hour's flight, but I shall never forget that hour in the air, over

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LITERARY PILGRIMAGES TO ARMENIA

Soviet Armenia. I have travelled by air frequently under extremely difficult conditions, often have I had moments of joy and delight, but the thrills of that hour were something I had never experienced before.

The golden autumn lay over the land and harvesting was in progress in the fields. The sun was sinking between the hills, lengthening and deepening their shadows. Momentarily the earth and the hiUs changed in color, taking on new and radiant shades. Below us lay Lori, the birth-place of Tumanian. There were the Alaverdi Copper Works spread out beneath us. We knew our geography without the aid of maps, and could pick out the different objects at the sight of small and insignificant signs. Each one of us, glued to his window, gazed hungrily at the inimitable panorama of Armenia. Slowly, very slowly, the pictures passed out of sight to be replaced by others. Suddenly, almost simul- taneously, all the passengers uttered the one word sacred to all Armenians "Ararat." That majestic, time-honored mountain of our homeland—the literary genius is not yet bom who may do justice to it in that sunset hour. In love with it ever since my childhood I have read everything written about it, from the ancient historians down to the young writers of our day. I hope I may be for- given when I say that Mount Ararat still awaits its Petrarch. Wrapped in a silvery cloak, the lower edges of which were turning into gold, the eternal snow sparkling with a thousand lights, Ararat appeared like a magic lantern beckon- ing all to come nearer.

On the right we could distinglish the outlines of the rock of Alagoz,^ whose enchanting lines make it difficult to decide whether it was the poet or the mountain which immortalized the other. One thing is indisputably clear: Isahakian instilled a tender, lyrical love of Alagoz in our generation, not the heroic Ararat lauded by Raphael Patkanian, or the Ararat of Raffi or even Alishan, but the lyrical Alagoz of Isahakian.

On the left Lake Sevan lay hidden among the hills, peacefully wrapped in the rays of the setting sun.

There is no doubt that Ararat was beautiful centuries ago. Our ancestors were aware of the loveliness of Lake Sevan and the tender glory of Alagoz. And Zangezur, the historical Siunik of which we gained a bird's-eye-view, was duly lauded by our historians. But there was something new in our situation. Having learned to fly, we were now able to take in the whole of Armenia at one glance. Although in itself this was remarkable, the heart of this question lay in something else. Every object that we saw, every name that came to our minds as the plane winged its way to Yerevan carried with it more than an historical or geographical connotation ; it stood for our struggle and progress.

lA volcanic mountain in Soviet Armenia, also known as Mt. Aragadz, 13,435 ft. high ; not to be confused with Mt. Ararat, the higher of whose two peaks is 16,696 ft. high, about 22 miles beyond Yerevan, within the political bounds of modern Turkey. Ed.

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Lake Sevan to the left sheltered by the great range of hills, for example, did not only mean poetry and lyricism but the radical reconstruction of the national economy. Seven powerful hydro-electric stations would be erected, to work by the cheap water-power supplied by Lake Sevan. The Giumush hydro- electric station would be put into operation in the course of the five-year plan. The waters of Sevan would provide the cheapest electric energy to Armenia's industry and agriculture, and would also serve for irrigation purposes. That all this would come to pass was evinced by the fact that the Armenian people were hard at work, developing and transforming the national economy in accordance with the new five-year plan.

Through the settling dusk we could see the lights of Zangezur. It was, not then yet known as an industrial center but was soon to become famous far beyond the bounds of the Soviet Union. Work was already progressing here on the construction of a molybdenum-copper trust,^ which was to be one of the largest construction projects of the five-year plan. In mineral supplies and prospects for future development, the Kadjeran works were to take a leading place among the industrial enterprises of its type in the world.

From the air we could see the construction sites which would be completed within the next few years.

And now beneath us lay Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, wrapped in the settling twilight, with the sun lost behind the hills. Soon we were down and in the bus, on our way to the warm and quiet city at eventide. YEREVAN BY NIGHT

When we arrived in Lenin Square in the center of the city, I learned that only three of the passengers were residents of Yerevan. The three of us, two men and one woman, resolved to go to a hotel. The woman was Lithuanian by nationality, born in Sukhumi, and now worked in Moscow as a synthetic rubber expert and was coming to Yerevan to help the local synthetic rubber plant solve a number of production problems. The man was an old friend, a lawyer by profession, brother of the prominent Armenian public figure and writer, Alexander Miasnikian-Martuni. The Intourist Hotel was nearby and our luggage was taken there.

We walked down Abovian Boulevard, the street chosen by the youth for

promenading, as is done in most southern towns. Abovian is really a beautiful thoroughfare, beginning with the fine buildings of the University, the Public Library, the Matenadaran and other research institutes, and further down the bright lights of picture theaters, the House of Musical Comedy, the Philharmonic, concert and lecture halls, and athletic and sports establishments.

2In Armenian this word, spelled trest, does not suggest what it does in the United States, namely, a private monopoly, but merely the combination of several enterprises which are related in production, or the exploitation of raw materials. Ed.

168 LITERARY PILGRIMAGES TO ARMENIA

The working day was over and merry groups were gathering in front of the cinemas, theaters and concert halls.

In Yerevan there are altogether seven theaters for adults and young people. They present plays in the Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijan languages. Seven professional theaters working in three languages ! That is an achievement for a country the size of our repubhc ; but already the need was felt for more theaters and the construction of new, modern and comfortable premises for the existing ones. This was already accompHshed in the case of the Spendiarov Opera House.

Yerevan at night is a city of light. It is thoroughly electrified. It was to be even more so by the end of the five-year plan in 1950, when the whole series of power stations on the Sevan cascade would be in operation.

Further down Abovian Boulevard we came to the monumental Government Palace, the last work of architect Academician Tamanian. In front of this beautiful edifice spreads a square, flanked by monuments to Lenin and Shahum-

ian,^ where the air is filled with the scent of flowers and the soft murmur of fountains and youthful laughter.

If you want to see Ararat by moonlight you must turn to the left from the Shahumian monument to Mikoyan Prospect or walk up Stalin Prospect, and the silvery hood of the mountain will loom in sight. In Yerevan itself the moonlight is drowned by the bright electric lights. In the square, loud-speakers were broadcasting a concert, followed by the news. We stood and waited to hear the Kremlin clock strike midnight, thrilled that at that hour the entire country listened to the chimes from Moscow. Quietly, without much speaking, we continued our walk in the midnight hours through the streets of Yerevan.

Each one of us had been here during the war : and although this was already the second post-war year, we were eager for first impressions of the city in peacetime.

SStepan Shahumian, the famous Armenian "professional" revolutionary leader, friend of Lenin and Stalin, was born on October 1 (13), 1878 in Tiflis. After graduating from the "realschule" of Tiflis in 1898 he went to Riga for his higher education, where he enrolled in the department of chemistry of the politechnic institute. In 1900 he entered the ranks of the revolutionary movement, for which reason he was expelled from the institute, March 1, 1902. Later the same year he was accepted in the faculty of philosophy of the University of Berlin. In 1903 Shahumian met Lenin in Switzerland, and soon after rose to a position of leadership in the Russian revolutionary movement. Back in Tiflis in 1905 and elsewhere later he worked with Stalin and others on many projects, translating, writing, editing papers, organizing, working with labor unions. He was imprisoned and exiled several times. In 1917 and 1918, having returned from his last exile, he became very active in the revolutionary movement in the Transcaucasus, which ended when he and twenty- five other commissars were killed (Sep- tember 20, 1918) at Krasnovodsk, on the Caspian Sea, by the British and other counter- revolutionary forces in that area. In 1906 Shahumian published as a separate volume his The National Question and Social Democracy, which previously had appeared in the newspaper Kaidz- Several of his collected works have appeared since his death. The latest work in Armenian is St. Shahumian, Enteer Terker, 1902-1918 (Stepan Shahumian, Selected Works, 1902-1918), Yerevan, Hai-pet-hrat, 1948, 72 Ip. A more complete collected work has been in preparation for some time.—^rf.

169 :

ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

We were struck by the affability, the cordiality of the people of Yerevan. Any question directed at any stranger on the street would bring readily an accurate, polite, warm reply. Sometimes almost sharp tones of conversation would lead one to think that the Yerevanites were abrupt and aggressive; but intimate knowledge of them would soon correct the impression. Their speech is full of endearing terms. "Enker-Dchan" (dear [soul] friend) is heard at every turn of the conversation : and it is not uttered lightly, but with the warmest sincerity. On our way back to the hotel we passed by the statue of the great Armenian writer, Khachatur Abovian, who died a little over a hundred years ago. He lives in the hearts of Soviet Armenians. The sculptor depicted him in a thought- ful mood, in a slightly stooping pose. Life had been harsh to him and there was much to ponder over. And now the musing spectator would want to say to him

"It is time to straighten your back, to raise your head ! Look around and see your youthful, energetic successors, who are fulfilling your dreams and realizing your unfinished work."

When we arrived at the hotel it was still thronged with people, in spite of the late hour. Tomorrow would be a busy day filled with new and interesting meetings.

AT THE WRITERS' UNION

The Congress of Soviet Armenian writers had closed before we arrived at Yerevan. A number of the delegates, chiefly those from the constituent republics, had left the city. Guests from abroad were also preparing to leave.

It was an October morning. I stepped out of the hotel into a sun-flooded street, and made my way to the Writers' Club. There, in one of the spacious rooms on the second floor, I was soon lost in conversation with a group of Armenian writers, many of whom were old friends. Some of them I had not seen or heard of since the beginning of the war ; others I had not seen only since the end of the war ; and still others I had met comparatively recently in Moscow. The only one missing was Avetik Isahakian who was detained at home by illness. I met him later.

Derenik Demirjian had somewhat aged physically, but his creative genius burned as brightly as ever. People's Artist Vagarsh Vagarshian told us of the witty dialogue in one of Demirjian's unfinished plays. Soon the two parts of his historical novel, Vardanank, appeared in a single volume. They were completed during the war. Demirjian had worked on it for thirty years, starting on it in the days when he wrote his play, Vasak. The editor of the book told us that Demirjian had made a number of important corrections, not in the plot, but in the style of the first part. Movses Arazi, the prose writer, had hardly changed. Recently, he had published a volume of selected short stories. Towards the end of our conver-

170 :

LITERARY PILGRIMAGES TO ARMENIA

sation he called me to one side and asked : "I was told by the playwright Saga- telian that when he was in your home he had read a letter from Gorky in which the great Russian writer praised one of my short stories."

I confirmed that this was so. In a letter dated 1928 and addressed to the editorial offices of Soviet Land Gorky had praised one of Arazi's stories in a few, fervent words. Gorky had read the story in a Russian translation. The letter was in my file, and I promised Arazi to send a photostat copy of it to the Museum of Literature. It was pleasant to meet Sergei Payazat, talented writer and playwright, with whom my friendship started ten years ago. During the war I was informed that he had died at the front. A year ago, however, I was overjoyed to learn that Payazat was alive. I saw him now with my own eyes.

A spirit of outright frankness had prevailed at the proceedings of the Con- gress in evaluating the achievements of the past, appraising the current trends, and forecasting the path which lay ahead. The delegates were in a hopeful, joy- ous, enthusiastic mood, each eager to make his distinctive contribution to the creation of the new literature.

Christofer Tapaltsian, a talented novelist and master of style, had begun a lengthy novel about the Armenian intelligentsia before the war, which was ready for the printer when the war broke out. On his return from the Caucasus at the end of the war Tapaltsian revised his manuscript. Since then he has published the first comprehensive work on that subject in the Armenian language.

Bagrat Staffi, writer in prose, was publishing a lengthy novel on the life of

Stepan Shahumian, on which he had been working for many years. I had the good fortune to read it in manuscript form. Until then he had been known for his sketches and short stories. Three of our talented young poets, Hovhannes Shiraz, Ashot Grashi, and Georg Emin each had published a volume of poems. Although their work may be variously appraised, they have this one indisputable thing in common they all started their literary careers ten years ago, developed and matured together, and now hold an honorable place in Armenian literature. Their books are eagerly sought by the public. Mekrtich Koriun, the indefatigable writer for children, whose unbounded

energy and persistence is the wonder of the Armenian literary world, had published a volume of fables and fairy-tales, a little book of plays for children, and was then working on a story about the famous Kamo.

In the Writers' Club I was also introduced to the representatives of Ar-

menians from abroad who had attended the Congress. . Their recent books, published abroad, were on display with the rest of the literature of Armenian writers made available at the Congress. As a further evidence of the interchange of ideas, friendly contacts, and strengthening and deepening of intellectual ties, I saw how these delegates, on leaving Armenia to return to their respective

171 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

countries, loaded themselves with books written by their compatriots in Armenia. I myself, who routinely receive all the latest books published in the Armenian language, was to carry back with me to Moscow a heavy precious load of the works of my Armenian friends.

It is not possible within the brief compass of this article to relate my impressions and many contacts. This much, however, must be stressed, that Ar- menian writers, after their full participation in the bloodiest war in history, had gained a deeper insight into life than ever, and were writing with enthusiasm, fully aware of the importance of their role in the work of reconstruction which lay ahead. Many of those I met on that day in the Writers' Club had fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army—Siras, Kochar, Borian, Tapaltsian, Payazat. Those writers who had remained in the rear had helped the front with their work. Now, in the post-war period they were all working together to heal the wounds and develop further the young, but strong republic.

CONCERNING THE ARMENIAN THEATER

One rainy evening a group of us attended a special convention on the history of the Armenian theater at the Institute of the History of Literature. As a section of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, the Institute had drawn up a plan to publish the history of the Armenian theater. For a period of two years theater experts had been at work on this project. They were to make a preliminary report on their work at this convention. The convention which lasted for two days heard many other papers and reports.

That same year plans were being made to celebrate the two thousandth anniversary of the Armenian theater. What interested me most, however, was the modem Armenian theater.

Yerevan at that time had seven theaters—the Sundukian Dramatic Theater, the Spendiarov Opera House, the Russian Theater named after Stanislavsky, the Azerbaijan Theater named after Djafar Djabarly, the House of Musical Comedy, the Youth Theater and the Puppet Theater.

Twenty-six years prior to that date there was not a single permanent professional theater in Yerevan. Indeed, throughout the whole of the Tsarist period there were perhaps only two or three professional Armenian theater troupes. In 1946, however, there were thirty theaters as well as a theatrical institute with four faculties, a theatrical museum, a theatrical society and a theatrical section in the Institute of the History of Literature of the Armenian Academy of Sciences. To this should be added the Philharmonic Society, the concerts, and the variety shows.

The author of this article was privileged to lecture on the theater in the Writers' Union, the Theatrical Institute, the Theatrical Society and to theater casts.

172 LITERARY PILGRIMAGES TO ARMENIA

What were playwrights, producers, actors then working on? What do play

audiences want? The basic theme which holds the attention of all is the man of our time. Let me explain. The classic works of Armenian, Russian and West-European playwrights have won favor with the Armenian theater-goer. Continuing the honored traditions of the great Armenian actors of the past, the Armenian theater has bred in the public a love of classical plays. But in the more than twenty-five years that have passed the estabHshment of the Armenian state, a modern repertoire has been created. The heroes and fighters of the Revolution, the builders of the new state, constitute the themes of modern Armenian plays.

When we speak of the contemporaneous in modern Armenian drama, however, we have in mind more particularly the events and heroes of the war and the post-war period. The victory over fascism, the reconstruction as outhned in the new five-year plan, the people of the Soviet state and era—^these are not trite themes. They are

qualitatively new : and their distinguishing features set them apart from the

ordinary. To dramatize such an era on the stage, to portray its people and their heroic deeds, to rear the growing generation in the romanticism of great feats, to raise the self-esteem of the theater-goer—that is what the public wants from the theater.

The play, The Monastery Gorge, is a case in point. The events in it relate to the days when a mortal fight was in progress against the fascist invaders in

the Caucasus. The action is staged in an Armenian collective farm from which all the grown men have gone to defend the homeland—the future fate of the country, the people, the state itself being the issue not only at the front but also back home in the village.

In 1 946 the play had been running for two years on the stage of the leading Armenian theater. It had been translated into Russian and was soon to appear on the stages of the theaters of the fraternal republics.

Who constitute the main theater-going public ? This is difficult to answer, for in all the theaters of Yerevan I saw people from all vocations. The young people were in preponderance.

After performances it was pleasant to walk out of the theater leisurely and hsten to the ardent discussions among the audience about the play, the acting, and the stage.

Which theater is the most popular? The one which stages plays that have won the public, as for instance Chukhajian's opera Arshak II, the presentation of which made theater history. Theater-goers wait impatiently for the nights on which this opera is presented. The people respond to great ideas artistically presented. Several thousands attend the Yerevan theaters every night. As many go to the cinema. Scientists and artists have their own evenings nearly every day. Culture and entertainment of the highest order are a prerogative of night life in Yerevan.

173 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

MEN OF SCIENCE AND SCHOLARSHIP

One bright morning in late October a group of scientific workers made their way to the "city of science"—the section of Yerevan where the university, the institutes, the pubhc Ubrary, the Matenadaran and other scientific and cultural institutions are centered. Some were hurrying to attend lectures at the university, others were on their way to a meeting of the senate, still others to work in the pubUc Hbrary. Someone pointed to a tall, slightly stooped figure of an old man on the other side of the street—Garegin Levonian.

For fifty-four years this son of the famous bard Djivani has been engaged in research in art, the theater, the history of the press and folklore. He works intensively, with extraordinary enthusiasm and productivity. Levonian has won fame and recognition for himself by his many researches and scholarly publications. He is most remembered for his Gegharvest (Art). Excusing myself from my companions I hurried to the other side of the street to catch up with the elderly scientist. He recognized me at once and took my hand with joy. Walk- ing together slowly uphill he asked me whether I had seen his latest book.

"Yes," I said, "I have even bought a copy." We were talking about his new book, Hai Geerke Tev Tpagrakan Arve$te (Armenian Book Making and Printer's Art), a scholarly work then just published.

"And how is your health?" I inquired.

"Not so well. I cannot say that it is due to old age. Men who are older than I, for instance, Yervand Shah-Aziz, work harder, but I do not work at full strength."

Garegin Levonian is seventy-eight years old; Yervand Shah-Aziz, ninety- one ! Indeed Shah-Aziz works hard and with amazing productivity. How may one resist regarding this group of venerable scholars without envy? Other aged

academicians who still vv^rote and published much then were Stepannos Mal- khasian,^ Hacob Manandian and Hratchya Ajarian. Younger scholars worked in honest competition with these venerable masters. Let me describe here briefly how Armenian scholars work, plan and execute their projects.

The Institute of the History of Literature of the Armenian Academy of

Sciences is headed by Khoren Sarkissian. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into the role and significance of this research institute. This much, however, needs to be said, that there are many organizational problems in the institute, as is the case of all such bodies, to which the director devotes a good portion of

his time. Khoren Sarkissian's major achievements, however, lie in another direction. He is an active member of the Union of Writers, works much on problems of modern Armenian literature, lectures on the history of literature in higher educational institutions, has edited the literary legacy of Academician

^Now deceased.

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LITERARY PILGRIMAGES TO ARMENIA

Manouk Abeghian, and devotes time to his own scientific investigations. Here is how he described his work-day

"Until 1 :00 p.m. I work on my manuscripts either at home or in the In- stitute—writing, editing, and so forth. Lectures, meetings, visitors, interviews, in short, all other matters I attend to in the afternoon and evening." During my 1946 visit to Yerevan he had just published a volume of essays on Soviet writers and their work during the war.

I was present at a meeting of the senate of this Institute, held in connection with the two-thousandth anniversary of the Armenian theater. Khoren Sarkis- sian was in the chair, not only as director of the Institute but as leading authority on this subject, which indicates that the director himself takes an active part in the pursuit of the problems of scholarship alive at any time, working hard in the preparation of the sessions devoted to them.

Khoren Sarkissian belongs to the middle generation of scholars, having acquired his learning in the years of Soviet rule.

But there is a still younger generation, those who began their scientific career in the pre-war years, or even during the war. An outstanding representative of this group is Aramais Mnatskanian, whom I met in Yerevan, whose successes and energy aroused my profound admiration.

Before the war, he was the editor of the youth paper Avangard. The war years were spent at the front editing army newspapers in the Armenian language. He was with the army at Kerch and in the Caucasus. In 1946 he was engaged in scientific investigations in Yerevan. In the course of three or four meetings the young scholar outlined to me his research projects with great enthusiasm. While yet editing the newspapers for the war front, he had been busy planning for his future work. When the war ended he submitted a thesis for his master's degree in history. At the same time, he collected the data for a comprehensive work (of six-hundred pages) on The Armenian Front-line Press During the War.

The value of this work is self evident.

While in Tbilisi, Mnatskanian studied the archives of Alexander Myasni- kian-Martuni, prepared a plan for a monograph on him, and collected the necessary data.

In addition to all this Mnatskanian had gathered all the necessary material for his future doctoral dissertation on "The Defense of the Caucasus in the Great War."

Aramais Mnatskanian is not a unique case. He is merely an example of how scholars, old and young, are working eagerly and constructively in Soviet Armenia, striving to enhance the cause of the discovery of truth and of human happiness as they move from one achievement to another. In that kind of service they are finding the fullest joy and meaning of life for themselves and their fel- low men.

175 A Brief Sketch of Armenian History

Mainly from French Studies* By Vazkene Aykouni

III.

MOVEMENTS FOR LIBERATION

A fact of capital importance encouraged the Armenians to continue the fight for their independence. In the north, Russia planned to move towards the Caucasus and openly proclaimed herself "protector of the small Christian countries." Moreover, the Armenians had never despaired. They firmly believed in the resurrection of their country. "The moral energy of nations," said Berg- son, "like that of individuals, is sustained only by an ideal superior and stronger than themselves, and to which they cling solidly when they feel their courage is wavering." The Armenians managed to maintain and nourish that ideal with their blood. In the mountainous regions they even succeeded in retaining a measure of national autonomy such as at Karabagh and in Zeitoun, Many local princes succeeded in governing their lands uncontested.

The Armenian Church, on her part, encouraged movements of emancipation and exhorted the people to unite and drive out the hated enemy.

In 1678, Catholicos Hacob IV held a council in Echmiadzin, the See of the Armenian Church, which was attended by a number of Meliks, members of the Armenian nobility in that region. The council resolved to appeal, through the Pope, to the western powers, to recover the independence of Armenia. A delegation headed by the Catholicos set out for Rome. But the Catholicos died in Constantinople, and the delegation disbanded. The young patriot, Israel Ori, only nineteen years old, who had been a member of the group, decided to carry on alone. He succeeded in getting the support of John-William, Prince of the Palatinate.

Later, under Catholicos Nahapet I (1696-1705), successor of Hacob IV, a new mission was sent in the person of Israel Ori and Minass Vardapet, the head of the Monastery of St. James in Armenia, to Pope Innocent VII.

After having visited the Holy Father and solicited his mediation, Ori and Minass Vardapet went to the court of John-William, where they were given a warm welcome. John-William commended them to the good will of Emperor

Leopold I ; and the Emperor advised them to appeal also to Peter the Great. Peter promised his support (1699) for the liberation of Armenia. But with

*Translated by Edward Nadir.

176 A BRIEF SKETCH OF ARMENIAN HISTORY

Ori's death in 1711 the promises of Peter, who had had his hands full with his war with Charles XII of Sweden, came to a disappointing end.^

Later Russia declared war on Persia and sent an expeditionary force against her on October 1, 1722. Echmiadzin and a large part of Armenia had been under Persia for quite some time. At the signing of the peace treaty the following year, however, Armenia was left out.

Abandoned to a cruel fate by friend and foe, Armenians took matters into their own hands, under the leadership of David Bek, the great Ajiiienian military and partisan leader.^* The revolt spread throughout Caucasian Armenia. In Karabagh the Meliks rallied around the cause for independence, which took the form of guerilla warfare and lasted for many years.

The Turks, who had been on the watch, were not slow to jump in and fish in the troubled waters. They declared war on Persia and seized the provinces of Yerevan and Nakhichevan. These misfortunes, however, instead of muffling the spirit of the Armenians, reaffirmed in them the determination to resist oppression and regain their liberty. They did not waiver for a moment even in the most critical period of their adversity.

In 1768, during the Russo-Turkish war, Catherine the Great lavished on the Armenians promises for independence. False promises ! Armenia continued to bleed and suffer. In 1796 the entire population of Julfa was massacred by the Persians. The Russians intervened and forced the Persians beyond the Araxes River. The Treaty of Gulistan (1813) gave aU Transcaucasia to Russia.

In 1826, however, Abbas Mirza, the eldest son of the Shah, led in a plot ; an armed band invaded the provinces ceded by the Gulistan Treaty. The Russians took counter measures. The Armenians joined forces, with the blessings of Nerses Ashtaraketzi, then Prelate of the Armenians in Georgia, later Catholicos of all the Armenians. The result was the Turkmanchai treaty of February 10, 1828, which provided for the annexation of the provinces of Yerevan and

lA fairly detailed account of the amazing one-man mission of Israel Ori and its results, cut short only by his untimely death, is to be found in Michael Varandian's Haikakan Sharzh- man Nakhapatmutiune (History of the Antecedents of the Armenian Awakening), Geneva, 1912, Vol. I, chapter V. This two-volume Armenian work of Varandian is one of the best treatises on the history of the early struggles of the Armenians for freedom and independence.—Ed.

la- The life and exploits of this great Armenian hero were filmed in 1944 in Yerevan, both in the Armenian and Russian languages. A good biographical sketch is to be found in H. Ajarian's Hayots Andsnanouneri Bararan (Biographical Dictionary of Armenians), Yerevan, Publication of the University, 1944, vol. II, pp. 59-62. Professor Ajarian lists the following biography on David Bek: Entir Patmoutiun David Bekeen Tev Paterazmats Hayots Khapanu (Select History of David Bek and of the Wars of the Armenians of Khapan),

Vagharshapat, 1871 ; Rafii, Khamsayi Melikutiunnere (The Melikdoms [Principalities] of Khamsa), and his historical novel David Bek; Leo, Haik. tbagr., vol. II, pp. 351-383; M. Nersissian, "The Repercussions of David Bek's Movement in Vaspurakan and Neigh- boring Provinces," Teghek. Armfani, 1941, No. 5, pp. 73-75, concerning the meeting in 1722 on the island of Lim, called for the purpose of planning the Armenian revolt in Vaspurakan.—Ed.

177 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

Nakhichevan to Russia. That was an intimation of the kind of response Tsarist Russia was ready to give to the appeal of the Armenians for help in their struggle for independence. The project of an autonomous Armenia within Russia was unceremoniously buried by the Viceroy, Paskevich, who abolished all the privileges which had been previously granted the Armenians by Peter the Great and Catherine II. A new code, the Polozhenie (March 11-23, 1836), placed all their religious and national affairs under Russian control. The directing policy of Russia back of all this seemed to be the overall political and strategic interests of the empire. The Armenian plateau was necessary for the defense of the Caucasus, where the Armenians could be used to check the Georgians and the Turks. To the Armenians, nevertheless, the self-seeking domination of a far- flung Christian empire relatively new in the field was preferable to the unmitigated oppression of an ever-present Mohammedan neighbor, who also had been an ancient enemy. It was thus that when the Russians now marched against Turkey, and trans- formed another portion of Armenia to a theater of operations, the Armenians once more made common cause with them and extended them their unqualified support. Perhaps, they thought, not altogether unjustifiably, as has been amply demonstrated in the case of the Balkan nations, their long-hoped-for dream would be finally realized. They did not hope for long. The Treaty of Adrianople (1829), thanks to the intervention of the western powers and particularly England, covetous rival of Russia, saved the day for the Ottoman empire. The Turkish empire had been on the verge of collapse. General Diebitsch had captured Varna, Silistra, and Adrianople in Europe, and General Paskevich had taken Kars and Erzeroum in Turkish Armenia. Even Constantinople would have gone to the Russians, had they not been restrained from taking it by considerations of foreign intervention. The French minister of foreign affairs, De Polignac had proposed the partition of the Turkish empire and a complete revamping of the map of Europe. The Treaty of Adrianople put an end to all this. Russia restored almost all her conquests in Turkey. With that the future of the Armenians in Turkey was worsened, since they had compromised their position with the Turks by their active sympathy for the Russian cause. Thereafter England tried to extend her protection to the Christian minorities in Turkey to counteract the Russian influence, but her interventions instead of mitigating the suffering of the Armenians brought upon them the worst calamities in their long and tortuous history. During the nineteenth century a strong autonomist movement in the Armenian colony in Constantinople, led by a group of young Armenian intellectuals who had completed their studies in Paris and returned home, alarmed the Turkish authorities. The "autonomists" sought a liberal constitution which would grant their communities the right to administer their own affairs. In 1839 Sultan Abdul Mejid had proclaimed the Hatt-i-Sherif of Gulhane,

2See Aremenian Affairs^ Winter 1949-1950, Vol. I, no. 1, page 103.

178 . A BRIEF SKETCH OF ARMENIAN HISTORY

the famous reforms known as the Tanzimat. Back of this was the Greek massacres in Constantinople in 1821 and on the Island of Chios the following year, as a result of which Europe had demanded of the Turks the institution of reforms "without delay." Similarly, after the massacres of 1845 in Lebanon, and the subsequent pressure from Europe, the Sultan signed the Hatt-i-Humayun, a decree guaran- teeing freedom to all citizens without any distinction and affirming their equality before the law.^ The decree also gave to the non-Moslem communities in the empire the right to administer their affairs through representative bodies. To this end they were invited to submit to the government the reforms they deemed useful. The Armenians elaborated an organic constitution,^ comprising ninety-nine articles, which was ratified by the Sultan Abdul Aziz (March 17, 1863), and put into effect at once. The hades or royal decrees promulgated with great fanfare, however, were to remain a dead letter. The Armenian Constitution did not prevent the Turkish and Kurdish bandits from oppressing the Armenians residing in the provinces of the interior. The European embassies in Constantinople were too far removed from the scene to be able to restrain the outbursts of violence against those whose security they had undertaken to safeguard.

In 1867 the Sultan sent an army of 150,000 men to "appease" the town of Zeitoun, the Armenian "Montenegro," which had only 20,000 inhabitants, and which during the course of its late history had risen more than thirty times against the despotic rule of the Sultans.

The Armenian National Assembly in Constantinople, created under the Constitution, in response to the many heart-rending reports of the despairing conditions in the interior of the country, submitted a strong protest to the Turk- ish Government. The Armenian question thus started to take shape.

About the time Bosnia-Herzegovina rebelled against Turkey, Patriarch

Varzhabedian appealed (December 7, 1876) to the British Ambassador in Constantinople, Sir Elliott, and informed him that uprisings in the Eastern provinces could be imminent if His Excellency thought this might help to bring the Armenian question to the attention of Europe. But would not such a rebellion bring about the immediate intervention of Russia? The Patriarch, while awaiting an answer—which he never received—filed complaints with the Turkish Government for the ills done to his people. This also was ignored, the Government attempting to stifle the demands.

nbid., pp. 103-104,

*Which is still in force today.

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ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

In 1878, the year after the Russians had resumed hostilities against Turkey, when the parties had sat at San Stefano, a suburb of Constantinople, to draw a peace treaty, Patriarch Varzhabedian, in full accord with the Armenian Na- tional Assembly, made a supreme appeal on behalf of his people to Grand Duke Nicholas. The Grand Duke, impressed with the case of the Armenians, appealed in turn to his brother. Tsar Alexander II, and obtained the insertion of a special clause in their favor in the ensuing treaty. In effect. Article XVI of this instrument said

As the evacuation by the Russians of the territories they had occupied in Armenia, which are to be returned to Turkey, could be the cause of conflicts and complications detrimental to the good relations between the two coim- tries, Turkey pledges to realize without delay the reforms and ameliorations necessitated by^ the local needs in the provinces inhabited by the Armenians and to guarantee their security against the Kurds and the Circassians.

Great Britain, however, had won a great diplomatic victory shortly before the Treaty of San Stefano had been concluded. Through the Cyprus Conven- tion (June 4, 1878), concluded with the Government of the Sultan, the Island of Cyprus had been placed at her disposal, ostensibly to enable her to watch the execution of the Reforms, but in reality to guarantee the integrity of the Ottoman empire. The Convention stipulated

In case Batum, Ardahan and Kars or any of these places would be

retained by Russia and, if, at any time Russia did try to appropriate any portion of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan's territories in Asia defined by the final peace treaty, England pledges to unite with His Imperial Majesty for the defense of the said territories by force of arms. His Imperial Majesty the Sultan promises England to introduce the necessary reforms (to be later decided by the two countries)^ concerning the satisfactory administration and protection of the Christian subjects and others of the Ottoman empire, who live in the said territories; in order to enable Britain to insure the necessary means for the execution of her commitments. His Imperial Majesty the Sultan agrees to assign the Island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by England.

This Convention was signed secretly, without Russia's knowledge. On May 18-30, 1878, almost at the same time, another secret accord was concluded in London between Chouvaloff and Salisbury, acting respectively for Russia

." ^The Russian Plenipotentiaries had proposed : "the Administrative autonomy demanded by . . Italics ours.

^This provides the key to the Armenian problem. It underlines the reciprocal distrust which Russia and England kept alive. Article VII of the ChouvalofF-Salisbury agreement betrays the intentions of each of the two rivals to take, along with the Porte, the initiative of the Reforms and to eliminate the third power.

180 : :

A BRIEF SKETCH OF ARMENIAN HISTORY

and Great Britain. Article VII of this agreement stipulated that the promises made to Armenia by the preliminary treaty of San Stefano must not concern Russia exclusively, but also England; while under Article X Russia agreed to evacuate and return to the Turks Alachguerd and Bayazid. Finally under Article XI England took note of Russia's pledge not to extend her frontiers in the future in the direction of Turkey in Asia. The Armenian question w^as thus beginning to assume international dimensions. It was no longer a question of internal reforms, as Russia desired it, nor a bilateral accord as planned by England, Not long after, Armenians learned that the Treaty of San Stefano would be revised in Berlin (July 1-13, 1878) by the great powers, A deputation made up of Khrimian Hairik, Monsignor Khoren Nar-Bey, and Stepan Papazian, assisted by Minas Tcheraz, the latter as an interpreter-secretary, went to Berlin and pleaded for an administrative autonomy for Armenia, hke the one granted Mount Lebanon. Unfortunately, their mission did not succeed. Lord Salisbury resented the first part of the San Stefano clause (Article XVI). He insisted on the absolute necessity of Russian troops withdrawing even before the execution of the reforms. Article XVI of the Treaty of San Stefano was therefore "re- touched" by the master stylists of diplomacy at Berlin and became, by inversion.

Article LXI of the Treaty of Berlin. But it was distorted to such an extent that it was no longer recognizable. It read

Turkey pledges to fulfill, without further delay, the ameliorations and reforms necessitated by local needs, in the provinces inhabited by Armenians, to guarantee their security against the Circassians and Kurds. From time to time she will inform the powers of the measures taken to this effect. The powers will supervise the application of these reforms.

This was the end of the dream for autonomy. The Armenian delegation, disquieted by this inversion of justice, submitted (July 13, 1878) the following note of protest to all the plenipotentiaries, excepting the Turkish delegates

The Armenian deputation expresses its regrets that its legitimate and moderate demands have not been accepted by the Congress. We believed that a nation of a few millions like ours—which has not been up to the present the instrument of any foreign policy, which, though more oppressed than the other Christian populations of Turkey, has caused no trouble to the Turk- ish government, and which, although without ties of religion or origin with one or

another of the great powers, is Christian like all the other Christian races of Turkey —could hope to find in our century the same protection granted to others. We believed that such a nation, free of all political ambitions, should have acquired the right to live its own life and be governed on its own ancestral land by Armenian functionaries. The Armenians now realize that they have been mistaken, that their rights have not been recognized, because they have been peaceful, and that the mainten-

181 ! — ;

ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

ance of the independence of their ancient Church and nationality has not helped them in any way. The Armenian deputation will return home with this lesson in mind. It declares, however, that the Armenian people will not remain silent until Europe gives satisfaction to their just demands.''' In the dark days of disappointment and disillusion which followed Mon- ;"* signor Khrimian said : "You can't eat harissa with a paper spoon by which he meant, appeals and memorandums do not suffice in this kind of world ; one must resort to force to end social wrong and achieve political ends. The Turks were determined to make no concession, however small, except on paper. The Armenians were uncompromising in their demand for the application of the treaties; while Bekir Sami Pasha recruited the Hamidie troops, which later became notorious for their cruelty.

Finally the Ambassadors of the six great powers, tired of waiting for the fulfillment of the Sultan's pledge, presented a note to His Majesty (June 11, 1880) demanding the execution of the reforms. As the answer of the Ottoman government did not give satisfaction, they repeated their demand on September 7 of the same year. The Sultan, well informed about the dissensions among European powers, and an expert by this time at beating them to their game, continued to disregard their orders and pleas.

In the meantime the situation of the Armenians worsened. Political cen- sorship silenced the press. It was reported that many cases of books on chemistry were burnt in the custom house of Constantinople by officials who, because of excessive zeal or sheer stupidity suspected in the formula H^O an attack on the sacred person of the Sultan : H^ being interpreted as Hamid II, and O as zero in the minds of these "clever" officials the formula had meant : Hamid II equals zero. The poor Sultan

Against the mounting repressive measures of the Sultan at home, a revolutionary press arose abroad. Megrditch Portoukalian, a political refugee, established a printing press in Marseilles and published the newspaper Armenia. Other revolutionary publications abroad, such as Hunchak and Dashnag, organs of the political parties of the same name, re-aroused the people at home to shake ofT the yoke of the Tyrant. The Hunchakian party was founded in 1887 and the Dashnag party in 1890. Both were given to the creation of an autonomous Armenia governed along social democratic lines.

The British consul at Erzeroum, Colonel Chermside, cabled in 1 890 : "The secret groups organized lately at Erzeroum and in the prinvinces, the attempts to secure arms, and finally the recent events at Van and the surrounding region,

'From the French translation of Fr. Macler from the Armenian text of Mr. Saroukhan, in the newspaper Asiatique, XI th series, Vol. V, No. 1, 1915, pp. 167-8.

^Harissa is an Armenian dish, a thick soup made of wheat or barley and small pieces of meat, prepared during festive occasions. Ed.

182 .

A BRIEF SKETCH OF ARMENIAN HISTORY

all are indicative of a serous discontent. It would indeed be strange to expect anything but discontent."^

In 1894, a fight occasioned by the incursion of a band of Kurdish thieves, who had come to Sassoun to steal cattle from the Armenian peasants, turned into a massacre. The troops sent to reestablish order completed the work of pillage and destruction begun by the brigands. In 1895, the same thing occurred in Zeitoun. Blood flowed freely all over Armenia. By the end of 1896 300,000 Armenians had been massacred in cold blood. Europe was touched. Gladstone publicly castigated the "Infamous Assassin." Germany and Austria kept a criminal silence. England, France and Russia had elaborated (May 16, 1895) a new project of reforms. But Russia backed out. Prince Lobanov-Rostovski, then foreign minister of Russia, who had served as Russian Ambassador at Con- stantinople in 1878-1879, was for an Armenia without Armenians. France retained a passive attitude. The Sultan was pleased and quietly continued his work of destruction. Freedom of action in this respect within his domain this time was purchased with sympathy for Germany which dreamt of a Berlin-to- Baghdad railroad.

The Armenians, however, were not the only ones who suffered under the bloody despot. Other minorities, and even Turks were being ground under by the unspeakeable tyranny. It was thus that in 1907 (December 27-29), a Con- gress of revolutionary parties in the Ottoman empire met in Paris. A resolution, passed unanimously, demanded the deposition of the Red Sultan, Abdul Hamid, and the proclamation of a constitutional regime.

This was the beginning of the "Young Turk" revolution which flared in 1908. So far as the Armenians were concerned, however, the revolution ended in a sham. In April 1909, a counter-revolution fomented by the same Young Turks, who designated themselves with the attractive title of Committee of Union and Progress, and paraded themselves as liberals, slaughtered another 30,000 Armenians in Adana.

During the Balkan wars, 1912-1913, when Turkey lost her European cities, Russia again took the initiative for reforms in Armenia. A new delegation was appointed by CathoHcos Georg V of Echmiadzin, of which Boghos Nubar Pasha became chairman, with temporary headquarters in Paris. Sympathetic Frenchmen joined in the struggle by carrying on an intensive campaign on behalf of the Armenian cause. The periodical Pro-Armenia was revived under the leadership of Francis Dehaut de Pressense, a prominent figure in French politics, and Victor Berard, the French scholar and publicist.

The six big powers resumed their consultations. Andrei Mandelstamm introduced a new project of reforms, to which the Ambassadors representing the interested powers devoted seven meetings (July 3-23, 1913)

^Mik. Varandian, L'Armenie et la Question Armenienne, p. 58.

183 !

ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

But Russia, embittered by German reservations, decided to start private negotiations with Turkey, Besides, in a note dated June 25, 1913, Russia had declared herself against the partition of the Ottoman empire. What imperiaHst Russia wanted was to reserve for herself the privilege to institute the reforms at her own discretion, and was opposed to the interference of foreign powers in a dispute between neighbors.

Germany, of course, would not agree to this. "German interests require the protection of the provinces of Asia Minor and if Russia occupied them, Germany would find herself confronted with an economic crisis," wrote a German newspaper.^*^ "Our diplomacy must be on its guard against Russian threats to Armenia."-^^ This required Russia to come to an understanding with Germany. Sazonov the Russian foreign minister, convinced his German colleague Von Jagow that the Russian government had no territorial designs in Turkish Armenia and that its goal was limited to the introduction of reforms in the interest of Turkey and her Armenian subjects. Following these assurances, and on instructions received from his minister, the German ambassador at Constantinople asked Premier Said Halim Pasha to comply with the Russian demands, "reduced to a minimum thanks to German intervention." A Russo-Turkish agreement was signed in Constantinople on January 26, 1914. According to this document eastern Anatolia was divided into two zones. The western zone was composed of the vilayets of Erzeroum, Trebizond, and Sivas; while the eastern part included those of Van, Bitlis, Kharput and Diar- bekir. Each region was to be administered by a foreign inspector-general. Hardly had the two inspectors-general, Hoff (Norway) and Westenenk (Dutch), set foot in Turkey, preparing to assume their functions, when the

European War started. On August 6, 1914 a German-Turkish alliance was already concluded. In the first article of this pact Germany promised to Turkey the abolition of the capitulations; by article five it was provided "to rectify the eastern frontiers of the empire in such a manner that immediate contact between Turkey and the Moslem populations of Russia would be insured," The pan-Germanists and pan-Turanists were to walk hand in hand

By virtue of the same pact, Turkey entrusted to Germany the reorganiza- tion of her armies. The Liman Von Sanders military mission was established in Constantinople, Hoff and Westenenk were sent back home. Instead of reforms, Turkey was to organize the inhuman deportations and massacres of 1915.

^^Magdeburische Z^itung, July 1, 1913

184 Briefs ...

Uncle Geer

By G. Eksoozian

Editorial Note

This character sketch is taken from a volume in Armenian, by Mr. Eksoozian, given to short stores of first generation Americans of Armenian background. The period covered is the last decade of the nineteenth and the first few decades of the twentieth century. "Uncle Geer" and the other characters portrayed in the volume, Kyanki ^civeshte (The Comedy of Life), are real people whom the author came to know personally, as lawyer, compatriot, or friend.

Much of the credit of Kyanki ^aveshte as a contribution to American nationalities history and literature goes to Mr. Garabed Aramian of Yeprad Press, who has pioneered, at great effort and cost, in this type of publication. Such literature, he believes, will constitute an important source for the social history of American nationalities groups. The translator has succeeded in preserving the elegant sim- plicity of the original and in eliciting the same sense of appreciation that one gets from reading the Armenian text.

Jtl E was born in a little village in the province of Harput, Asia Minor, the son of a farmer. During infancy, he lived in an atmosphere of love and devotion

in the quiet of their little home. His childhood was spent mostly in the fields and vineyards. But when he reached young manhood, full of the vigor of life, for

some unknown reason, he left all behind, his home, family and farm, and went on to foreign lands, Roumania, the Caucasus, Egypt, and finally came to America, settling permanently in a far-off corner of a small Massachusetts town. Here he has lived with his wife for the past forty years. They have toiled and sweated and even now, after all those years, they are isolated, there being no public conveyance coming near their farm, only a narrow path.

He is now nearly eighty and his back is bent like a bow, but it is easy to see that he had been, in his younger days, tall of stature and broad of shoulders.

His white hair, deep voice, fine face is a picture of virile beauty that even the ravishes of age could not completely obliterate.

It was a summer day, I went to see him on a special matter. At the entrance to the farm I met Mrs. Loosig wearing an embroidered apron and busy feeding the chickens.

"Good morning, Mrs. Loosig, how are you? How is Uncle Geer, how is he feeling now?"

"Good morning. He is well, I am the sick one, but all who come inquire

185 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS about him." After this remark, Mrs. Loosig called to her husband with her resonant voice. "Giragos!" There was no answer.

"Giragos, where are you?"

Again no answer.

Mrs. Loosig then turned to me and continued, "That man has gone off somewhere again. The other day, I pulled him out of the ditch and if I had gotten there a little later, he would have been dead. I told him this morning to take it easy, but he claims he can't. He asked ?ne to hitdh the horse to the wagon so he could take a few bushels of vegetables to the market, sell them and with that money buy some meat, butter, salt. You know he can't even get on or off the wagon alone. He takes the stuff to sell but brings back only half the money he should. They all cheat him, right and left. I could do better myself. Ah yes, as I said, he is becoming helpless."

"Giragos, where, where are you, the lawyer is here."

Then suddenly I spied Uncle Geer coming out from the com field, walking slowly and bending low over a stick he held in his hand. He looked very much Uke a large turtle.

"This is our lot," spoke Uncle Geer as he came closer. "I just returned from the market, I'm all tired out, but what can I do, there's work on a farm and it must be done.. Those rowdies in the market-place, I have my hands full with them. They know I am no longer young and take advantage of me. They climb into my wagon pull out the vegetables, sell them and bring me only half the money they should. When I speak up, they promise to pay me the balance the next day. When the next day comes, I either forget or they completely deny owing me the money. Angrily I come home and here again I have no peace with this wife of mine."

"Uncle Geer, let us sit under this apple tree, I have found a cure for all your troubles, it is here in my portfolio. That is why I have come to see you, I wish to have a talk with you."

Uncle Geer's tortured face now took on a look of surprise. He seemed to sense a hidden danger and with obvious uneasiness shifted his body from one foot to another and finally came and sat on the grass near me.

"Listen to me carefully. Uncle Geer," I said. "For forty years you have toiled and sweated on this small strip of land you call your farm. But your luck is against you, even people and nature itsdf are working against you. You have done your share and now you are in need of rest. The hardships you undergo at your age for a mere existence is simply against all human understanding, believe me. So I have come to tell your wife and yourself how you can live comfortably

186 UNCLE GEER

for the rest of your lives. I am referring to the buildings on the main highway going into town, not far from the river, on the slope of the hiU—the State Home for the Aged." !" "State Home for the Aged? Are you crazy, man? Woe be to your Home burst out Uncle Geer and made an effort at rising and running away from the distasteful suggestion, but his knees gave way under him and he tell sideways on the green lawn. With some difficulty I sat him up again near me.

"Uncle Geer, there is no reason for resentment or anger," I said. "You know that in this country even old and unprotected horses are taken care of. That Home for the Aged is for those who have worked faithfully through the years and are in need of rest and solace, especially when they have no one to take care of them. If we can get a tenant for this place of stone and dirt, all the better."

Suddenly, like one making a last effort to save his life, Uncle Geer by a miracle stood upon his feet. Trembling and pointing his stick to the far corners of his farm, he spoke with a husky choking voice.

"Listen, you, I don't want any part of your so-called justice, you pagans.

If all this is just stone and dirt for you, it isn't for me. For me they have a soul, they are paradise. Forty years ago this land was as fiat as a handkerchief. With my bare hands I have cleared and tilled the soil, planted every growing thing, carried upon my shoulders each and every stone to build this house, I dug the ditch—my very youth has gone into the core of this land. That is why this farm is part of me, me—Giragos, and here it is, upon this land that I will die, do you understand? Go tell your leaders that Giragos is an Armenian, an old- type of Armenian who does not live on charity. I want no part of their Home nor their cemetaries."

All this he said, then doubling over on his stick again walked towards the cornfields from whence he had come.

Mrs. Loosig who thus far had been listening quietly to our conversation, came closer to me as she wiped a tear with the end of her embroidered apron and said, "Mr. Lawyer, please do not get angry at what Giragos just said. He

is the son of a well-known and well-to-do family. Do not blame him, we are used to this."

Once again she raised her apron to her eyes, wiped a tear and followed

her husband. I was then convinced that neither the turtle could leave its shell nor Giragos his home.

I walked away from that farm with a feeling of indescribable pride. I was like an Armenian peasant who for the first time comes face to face with Mt. Ararat.

187 ! :

Tribute to Armenians During World War 11'

By Thomas A, Sparks, S.T.D.

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to be able to speak to you at this time. First, I bring you greetings and best wishes from the Right Rev. William T. Manning, Bishop of New York, and from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which many of you have visited, and I trust will continue to visit, there to find quiet, and confidence, and strength in this time of world-wide-war and tumult.

For we shall need confidence, need it supremely, if the forces of right are to triumph over the forces of wrong.

I am happy to speak to the members of the Armenian community here in New York, not only because of the occasion of this meeting, which is assembled here to express your patriotic feelings and your loyalty to the United States government and people, but because of what you yourselves represent so eloquently in your long historic tradition stretching back to the most remote antiquity. No nation, no race, no people, could have sustained for so long a period of time, so continuous, and so noble a tradition unless its spiritual forces were deeply rooted and tenaciously maintained under all conditions.

And it is the spiritual forces of all mankind that are now threatened. All the higher powers of our human nature, and our best and noblest instincts, our finest traditions, our most valued achievements, which are the flowers of long centuries of man's upward struggle toward the stars, are now challenged by brute forces in the name of what these ignoble forces term the "New Order." It is no new order in any sense It is an old, old order that forward-looking men had come to think had been left far behind in the course of human progress. The so-called "New Order" aims at the reduction of the majority of mankind to the condition of slaves, who are destined to work and produce goods for their masters, the self-proclaimed "Master Races." No people, no nation, no group, which has any sense of freedom will tamely submit to any such program of degradation. And certainly not the many nations and peoples, great or small, who have banded together in organized resistance against the common enemy.

It is a proud thing for any man to stand here and speak to you ! Among the very earliest records of mankind are found the traditions of Armenia and Armenians. Babylonia, Persia, Egypt, are venerable names in the treasure house

^Speech of the Rev. Thomas A. Sparks, S.T.D., before the Armenian Progressive League of America on March 1, 1942, in New York City.

188 TRIBUTE TO ARMENIANS DURING WORLD WAR 11

of history, but before them there was an Armenia, an Armenia which held its place proudly among those ancient cultures.

When Alexander the Great conquered all the known world, and sighed for more conquests, he had to reckon with Armenia.

Armenia throughout the first four centuries of the Roman empire, while

brought into vassalage, was never thoroughly Romanized, for it maintained its

own language and customs under its own sovereigns. We do not know exactly when Christianity began first to penetrate into Armenia, just as we do not know this about a great many other places, but in the third century St. Gregory, styled the Illuminator, did his great work of teaching and conversion. By him King Tiridates (238-314) was baptized. Armenia thus was the first country to have a Christian ruler. This antedates the Christian profession of the Emperor Con- stantine the Great, who is often mistakenly set forth as the first Christian ruler.

The honor belongs to Armenia, which became the first Christian nation of the world, and so the oldest in our great tradition of the most advanced civilization of mankind. Illumination was sought for, illumination was found, and illumination prevailed.

And it has continued so. True it is that your nation has had great sorrows and tribulations. Warred upon, evil-treated, decimated, yet never destroyed, the Armenian people have always reformed their lives and have gone on with indom- itable courage, as they do today. Hence your great contribution to every nation that seeks the right. No nation, large or small, poor or rich, when unjustly attacked by predatory gangster nations, as they are now being attacked today, but can take to itself fresh inspiration and new courage from the glowing example of Armenia.

And so it is the most natural thing in the world for you Armenians here in

America to proclaim your loyal helpfulness to America when she is under attack. Loyalty and courage are your heritage and in your blood, and you would be untrue to your own selves were you to do otherwise. I am sure you, seeing the right, cannot do differently ! A tree is known by its fruit. You are doing the natural and rightful thing.

Here in America we have upheld the great freedoms dear to free men everywhere, and we are arming ourselves at an enormous and ever increasing rate to maintain those precious rights. Men of many racial origins, be they citizens, or guests among us, have rallied to the common cause for which we fight. It is the common concern of all.

Speed is essential to our great war effort. We need to produce arms and munitions with lightning rapidity. Nothing must stand in the way of this.

Better it is to forego some of our accustomed liberties and much of our accustomed luxuries, than it would be to lose the war. The only danger is that people will underestimate the gravity of the situation for us, and want to take things at their usual leisured pace, whereas we must rapidly achieve such a pre-

189 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

ponderance of weapons of all kinds that we can speedily wage aggressive "war to the utmost ! Only that can achieve victory for us and our associates. The criminal nations must be taught a lesson that will last a very long time, and that lesson is that we count nothing dear when our liberty is threatened. When that lesson is fully learned by Germany, Italy, Japan, and their friends, then maybe they too will come to value the kind of freedom and right for which we are willing to pay so great a price. The United Nations, that great company of freedom loving peoples, firmly united in a just war, will not sheath the sword until victory comes with the defeat of those who have set themselves against civilization, against righteousness, against the best that man has achieved. Armenians, I salute you as brethren in a common sacred cause! And may Almighty God bless our efforts for righteousness and justice for the sake of all mankind.

Theodore Roosevelt and Armenia

From the March 1919 issue of The New Armenia By Arshag Mahdesian^

X HE death of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt has deprived the Armenian nation of one of its most illustrious and sincere friends. As his book, The Strenuous Life, proves, Colonel Roosevelt long ago had interested himself in the Armenians. On September 28, 1904, he received most cordially, at the White House, an Armenian delegation, which, representing the Armenian Catholicos, had come to this country to enlist the sympathy and assistance of the United States in re- lieving the Armenians from Turkish persecution. During this reception, Mr. James Bronson Reynolds, in his introductory speech for the Armenian delegation, said: "Since 1895 more men, women and children have been massacred in Armenia by the Turkish soldiers and their auxiliaries than were killed on both sides in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870."

Then, President Roosevelt, amiably interrupting him, rejoined : "You are

quoting from my own book. The Strenuous Life. It was I who first made that statement."

In his message to Congress in 1904, President Roosevelt declared that it was inevitable that the United States "should desire eagerly to give expression to its horror on an occasion like that of the massacre of the Jews in Kishinef, or

when it witnesses such systematic and long extended cruelty and oppression as the cruelty and oppression of which the Armenians have been victims, and which has won for them the indignant pity of the civilized world."

On another occasion he declared : "Over and above all considerations of trade and politics we will continue to urge the cjaims of outraged humanity in the stricken land of Armenia."

IFor a biographical sketch of Mr. Mahdesian see pages 201-203.

190 :

THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND ARMENIA

In 1905, President Roosevelt received from His Holiness Mekrtich I. Klirimian, the late Catholicos of All the Armenians, a letter of congratulation upon his election. The communication, written in the ceremonial form used by Armenian rulers of the fifth century, read Mekrtich, Servant of Jesus Christ, and, by the inscrutable will of God, Chief Bishop and Catholicos of All the Armenians, Supreme Patriarch of the Mother See of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Armenia, to His Excellency, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, greeting and patriarchal benediction. Your Excellency: God, Who in His providence, bestows grace and all good gifts abundantly upon the worthy, has verily given Your Excellency a large measure of His blessing, and has raised you to the high office for which you have proved yourself so worthy in the past. I consider it a great privilege and pleasure to extend to Your Excellency the most sincere congratulations of myself and of the Church and the people I represent, on the happy occasion of your receiving, as the most worthy person to be their Chief Magistrate, the absolute confidence and approval of your great and enlightened people. It is a source of great satisfaction to me when I consider the comparatively happy lot of those of my people who, having escaped the unbearable yoke of Turkish tyranny and oppression, have taken refuge in your glorious country ,where while earning an honest livelihood, they are being, at the same time, elevated mentally and morally, sharing with all other citizens the full benefits of the freedom and civilization of the United States. Would to God that the remnant of my people could enjoy in their own country the same peace and quiet and the benefits of righteous laws, with due protection of life, honor and property. I pray Your Excellency to accept my profound respects and heartfelt thanks for the very kind reception accorded to my delegates, the two Archbishops, who were commissioned to plead the cause of the suffering Armenian people in Turkey. I cherish the hope that the powerful voice of Your Excellency's Government will eventually aid in bringing peace and justice to the people of unfortunate Armenia. . . . Because of the strong sense of justice and righteousness President Roose- velt was known to possess, many appeals were made to him in behalf of Ar- menia. On January 18, 1906, Mr. James Bronson Reynolds presented to him a f>etition in which prominent European statesmen, educators, publicists and citizens, as Bjornstjerne Bjomson and Fridtjof Nansen, of Norway ; General Booth, of the Salvation Army; Professor Wiindt, of Leipzig; M, Berthelot, Professor Ernest Lavisse, Jules Claretie, Leon Bourgeois, Ludovic Halevy, Ana- tole Leroy-Beaulieu, and Louis Blanc, of France ; and thirty-one senators and twenty-five deputies of France, two senators and eleven deputies of Italy, two senators and forty-seven deputies of Belgium, one deputy of Sweden, and eight deputies of Denmark, fourteen English bishops, fifty-one professors of the universities of Great Britain and the Continent, besides many eminent citizens of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Scotland, and Ireland, had joined to save from total annihilation "the Armenian people whose origin is the same as ours, and who have played an important part in the development of civilization since ancient times." At the same time, through the joint efforts of Armenia and The Friends

191 ! : :

ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

of Armenia, many distinguished clergymen, educators, philanthropists, governors and mayors in all parts of the United States, adopted or endorsed resolutions supporting the cause of Armenia. In response to all these appeals, the Honor- able Elihu Root, then Secretary of State, wrote The sympathy of the American people with the oppressed of every country has been repeatedly expressed by various branches of this Government, and in the case of the unfortunate Armenians, has been eloquently voiced by the American nation itself.

There is no room for doubt in any quarter as to the desire of the President that these Armenians should possess the security of life and property which it has been the concerted aim of the European powers to assure to them. The sufferings of the Armenian subjects of Turkey cry aloud for remedy and redress. They shock the

humanitarian sense of all mankind. . . . No right-minded man can witness §uch occurrences without craving the power to prevent them. I most sincerely wish that the United States had the power. The ?ion possumus attitude of the Roosevelt administration toward Armenia was diplomatically justified as the United States was not one of the signatory Powers which had guaranteed, in Article LXI of the Treaty of Berlin, "ameliora- tion and reforms" for the Armenian provinces then under the yoke of Turkey. Colonel Roosevelt was perhaps explaining his former official position as well as that of the United States when he said, in a letter dated July 10, 1918 We had neither the power nor the right ourselves to begin a world war by our going to war with Turkey in the past, but now the world war has come, and we are in it, now we can fight effectively beside our Allies. We have the only chance that has ever been offered to us to interfere by force of arms in entirely disinterested fashion for the oppressed nationalities that are ground under the Turkish rule. It is a dreadful thing that we should fail to take advantage of this opportunity, and it will be a lasting disgrace to our nation if we persist in the failure. Owing to innumerable stories of the Armenian persecutions. Colonel Roose- velt was led to fear that the new generation of the Armenians had lost its martial prowess. During an interview granted by him to Armenian students in 1912, he said : "I want Armenians to be able to bear arms just as they did in the days of King Tigranes, so that in the next generation no one can say that the Christian population of Turkey cannot fight." The devotion, gallantry and valor displayed by the Armenians during the war, their heroic sacrifices for the triumph of the Allies, were a cause of great satisfaction to Colonel Roosevelt ; and, whenever an opportunity presented itself, he did not fail to plead for the independence of Armenia. "I am doing everything I can, and shall continue to do everything I can for the Armenians," he wrote to a correspondent a few days before his lamented death ; and it is reported that one of his last acts was the signing of the petition which was circulated by The New Armenia to urge prompt action on Senator Lodge's Resolution in favor of a United and Independent Armenia. When the grateful citizens of the new Armenian republic come to honor the memory of their great friends, Theodore Roosevelt will be remembered among the first of those who nobly and effectively championed Armenia in her heroic struggle for national independence

;92 Reports

The Internationalization of Jerusalem And the Armenian Patriarchate

Editorial Note

The two papers presented here relate to the stand taken by the Armenian Patriarch- ate of Jerusalem before the UN Trusteeship Council on the question of the internationalization of the Holy City. One is a report on the mission of Bishop Tiran to Geneva and Jerusalem as the official representative of the Jerusalem Armenian Patri- archate. The other is the original, undeleted text of Bishop Tiraii's letter on the subject of the internationalization of the City, which appeared in the New York Herald-Tribune

of June 4, 1950. The Roman Catholic press responded favorably to Bishop Tiran's letter, the second of the two documents presented below. The Catholic News of New York, June 17, carried this headline to an extended report on it: "Armenian Bishop Denounces Latest Holy Places Plan. It Reveals 'Ignorance of Religious Conditions in Holy City,' Prelate Says." In the body of the report the article spoke of Bishop Tiran as having sharply criticized

. . . and attacked the proposal of the 285 leaders. A similar report appeared in the New World of Chicago, 111., June 16, 1950. It has been suggested by one of the members of the editorial advisory board, who has found these documents of particular interest, that an attempt be made to present In the pages of this journal other viewpoints and give readers "a full picture of this highly controversial issue." While public interest in it is alive, letters or articles on the subject will be given serious consideration for publication.

The Mission of Bishop Tiran to Geneva and Jerusalem

His Grace Bishop Tiran, Primate of the Armenian Church in North America, gave to the Diocesan Central Committee a report covering his activities during the three months' trip he undertook as the representative of the Armenian Patriarchate

of Jerusalem. A summaiy of this report is given below: In December 1947 the United Nations General Assembly resolved that in the event the British Government withdrew from Palestine, the latter be partitioned between Arabs and Jews, and Jerusalem be placed under the international authority of the United Nations. Accordingly the General Assembly instructed the Trusteeship Council to draft a Statute for the future international administration of Jerusalem

and to implement it by assuming sovereignty over the city. Pursuant to these instructions the Trusteeship Council drafted a Statute and

voted on it in April 1948. However, on May 14, 1948 the British Government withdrew its mandate from Palestine and the Trusteeship Council was unable to imple-

ment the Statute it had prepared. Meanwhile a war broke out between the Jews and the Arabs, and the two opposing forces met in Jerusalem. The Arab forces occupied the eastern sector of the city, and the Jewish forces occupied its western

193 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

sector. Finally, after a month, with the signing of a truce between the governments of Jordan and Israel, a static situation was created which still continues. However, in its session of December 9, 1949 the UN General Assembly by a vote of two-thirds majority renewed its decision to internationalize the city, and again instructed the Trusteeship Council to amend its earlier Statute in harmony with the exigencies of the new situation and to implement the said Statute by establishing United Nations sovereignty over it. At the same time the General Assembly invited the governments of Israel and Jordan to facilitate the implementation of this resolution by their good-will and cooperation. The United States, Great Britain, and certain other countries considered this resolution impracticable and voted against it, declaring, however, that they would not oppose the resolution adopted by the required majority. On the other hand, the governments of Israel and Jordan were opposed to internationalization. Nevertheless, conforming to the General Assembly resolution, the Trusteeship Council began the task of executing its function and convened in Geneva on Janu- ary 19, 1950 to deal, among other issues, with the question of internationalization, and placed first on its agenda the question of amending the Statute drafted for the Holy City. The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which is one of the important religious establishments in the Holy City, having been apprised of this course of events, appointed Bishop Tiran as its representative so that he might appear before the Trusteeship Council and present the views of the Armenian Patriarchate relative to the Statute to be formulated for the international administration of Jerusalem. Upon receiving this authority, His Grace presented a memorandum to the UN Trusteeship Council wherein he set forth the position and rights of the Armenians in Jerusalem, indicated the favorable attitude of the Armenian Patriarch- ate towards its internationalization, requested that the status quo be preserved, and recalled that together with other religious insitutions the Armenian Patriarchate should have a voice and its rightful place in the future administration of Jerusalem. Meanwhile, before the Jerusalem issue reached the above-described stage, the Very Rev. Yeghishe Vardapet, Locum Tenens of the Armenian Patriarchate, suggested—in a personal letter to Bishop Tiran—that His Grace pay a visit to Jerusalem during Easter to confer with him and with the members of the St. James Brother- hood on various matters pertaining to the Holy See, Accordingly, Bishop Tiran, with the counsel of the Diocesan Central Committee left New York on January 23, arriving in Geneva the following day. In the interim Bishop Tiran cabled to the Locum Tenens requesting that the Very Rev. Serovpe Manoukian, who was preparing to come to the United States to raise funds for the stricken Monastery and people of Jerusalem, make his journey by way of Geneva, and there inform him of conditions In the Holy City and in the Armenian Patriarchate. Upon arrival in Geneva Serovpe Vardapet conveyed to Bishop Tiran a detailed report concerning the situation, policy, and viewpoints of the Patriarchate. On Feb- ruary 16 Father Serovpe left Geneva for Paris and New York. The Trusteeship Council took up the Jerusalem issue on January 30 and continued to deal with it until the early part of April. The main task of the Council was the amendment of the Statute. But as the Council was about to take

194 THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF JERUSALEM

up this matter, M. Roger Garreau, the Council President, offered a new proposal whereby the international sector of Jerusalem was to be merely a narrow strip of the city extending from north to south and embracing the international shrines. The city's western sector was to be left to the Jews and the eastern sector to the Arabs. Fortunately this proposal received no support from the Council members

and it was set aside; whereupon the Council started the hearings of the representatives of the various organizations intimately concerned with the fate of Jerusalem. Only representatives of the twelve Council nations had the right to speak, make official proposals, and vote. Others could present their views by permission of the

meeting or its President. Opinions and suggestions on the Jerusalem issue were presented in person by the two representatives of the Greek and Armenian Patriarchates of Jerusalem, by the representative of the World Council of Churches, and by the Secretary of the American Christian Palestine Committee. In addition, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Arab organizations conveyed their views by wire and letter to the Council President. The views of the Greek and Armenian Patriarchates were at all times presented in comraon accord. Archbishop Germanos Thyateira, representing the Greek Patriarchate, was heard three times on the stand of his Patriarchate. Bishop Tiran, representing the Armenian Patriarchate, was heard on various occasions—eight times in all. His first two extensive statements, after describing the position of the Armenian Patriarchate, related to the articles of the Statute which contained provisions constituting the Legislative Council for Jerusalem and the manner in which

its members were to be elected; the program, policy, and economic status of public and communal schools in Jerusalem; the protection of the Holy Places; the status of religious communities, and their mutual relations; and the preservation of the status quo. Moreover, after the two initial reports he made six other statements, at different times, three of which were given at the direct instance of the Trusteeship Council and related to one or the other of the above-mentioned questions, amplifying and elucidating them further. The suggestions which Bishop Tiran offered to the Trusteeship Council for amendment of the April 1948 Statute, were as follows:

That the Legislative Council for Jerusalem include an equal number of Christians, Moslems and Jews, elected by popular suffrage; That delegates, equal in number to half of the elected legislators, be appointed by the officially recognized religious establishments, likewise in equal proportion; That the city's schools be based on the communal principle, and each community large enough to have a school of its own have the right to maintain such a school under Its own direction and in accordance with its own language and traditions, but to enjoy equal status with the public schools and be entitled to government subsidy: That in the event of dissatisfaction with regard to any ruling by the Governor, appeal be permitted to be made to the City's Supreme Court in disputes relating to the Holy Places; That the Statute contain clear and well-defined provisions for the preservation of the status quo, that the state have no jurisdiction to intervene in the internal matters concerning religious conununities; That aside from the accepted laws of the municipal bodies, the Governor shall not interfere in the construction, maintenance, and demolition of religious buildings, which are not international shrines.

195 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

Bishop Tiran made a point to have interviews with the Council members on the above and related subjects dealing with the future status and administration of Jerusalem. The important views expressed were considered by the Council members, and the delegates of some of the member nations took the suggestions offered and officially presented them in the form of proposals. The form and extent of these proposals may be seen by comparing the April 1948 Statute with the new Statute adopted in April 1950, and also by studying the considerations and suggestions of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem as given in Bishop Tiran's statements, particularly the second and subsequent ones. When the second reading of the Statute was concluded and the articles were voted upon, Bishop Tiran left Geneva (March 24) for the Near East to take part in the religious festivities of Holy Week in Jerusalem, and to confer with ecclesiastics and statesmen in various countries on matters relating to the Jerusalem Armeniar Patriarchate, the life of Armenian colonies and the internationalization of the Holy City. On his way to Beirut the Bishop stopped (March 25) for a two-hour visit at the Diocesan Offices in Cairo, where he took occasion to confer with Archbishop Mampre. At Antelias, Lebanon, he was a guest for three days of His Holiness Catholicos Garegin, and celebrated the liturgy in the Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator on the occasion of the annual pilgrimage to the Holy See of Cilicia. During that period he also conferred with the director of the Monastery and the Seminary, and addressed the students and seminarists. In Beirut he had special talks with the president of the American University and the ministers of the United States and the Kingdom of Jordan. At Amman, capital of the Kingdom of Jordan, he visited the local church and school. In Jerusalem, where he remained ten days (April 1-11), he took part in the Easter festivities and called upon the Greek Patriarch, the Latin Patriarch, the

Minister of Great Britain, the Governor-General of Palestine, who is the personal representative of His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan. With ail these personages Bishop Tiran conferred on matters pertaining to Jerusalem. He also visited the principal establishments of the Armenian Monastery, the Printing Press, the Gulbenkian Library, and the Seminary, where he addressed the seminarists and assembled guests. He found that despite conditions of distress the Brotherhood was faithfully carrying on its responsibilities in the Holy See. At Homs, on his way to Aleppo, the Bishop had a personal interview with His Beatitude Patriarch Efrem of the Syrian Orthodox Church, with whom he discussed the situation in the Holy City and matters concerning the Armenian, Syrian, and sister churches. In London, on his way back to the United States, Bishop Tiran saw the Archbishop of Canterbury as well as Archbishop Germanos, the Greek Exarch of Western Europe, discussing with both the issues pertaining to his mission. On May 6 he returned to New York, and shortly after reported to the Diocesan Central Committee. Secretary of the Diocese of the Armenian Church in North America New York May 18, 1950

196 THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF JERUSALEM

Letter Regarding the New Jerusalem Plan

To the Editor of the Herald Tribune:'^

Every true Christian, Moslem, and Jew must have read with concern the report of the request which eighty-five prominent Americans have made in a letter to President Truman on the question of the plan of internationalization of Jerusalem.

The question of Jerusalem must be viewed with full knowledge of the history of the Holy Places in Jerusalem, of the status quo now obtaining in Jerusalem, of the standing and interests of the various religious faiths and their institutions in the Holy City, and the practical possibilities for solving the Jerusalem question on a realistic and fair and equitable basis.

The letter mentioned above has been reported as referring to the "Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Greek Orthodox and Moslem Faiths" constituting the elements in Jerusalem which would form the proposed commission having wide powers over the Holy Places and being responsible to the Security Council.

The problem is too complex to lend itself to a discussion in the framework of a letter. However^ the following points could briefly be made for the sake of a fair presentation of the case.

The proposal made in the letter ignores at least one of the major religious communities in Jerusalem—the Armenian Patriarchate—which has a history of at least thirteen hundred years in Jerusalem, which is one of the three major partners in the international Christian Holy Places in the City, which for about a thousand years has been in possession of about one-sixth of the Old City, and which has the largest national minority in the City under its jurisdiction, and which occupies the most important Holy Place in Jerusalem outside the international Holy Places directly connected with the ministry of Jesus. It also ignores the bishoprics of the ^ancient churches of the East, in Jerusalem, i.e., the Syrian, the Coptic and the Abyssinian Churches.

The letter mentions the Protestants as if these were one coherent element capable of unified representation. It confuses the different categories of religious elements in the Holy City and classifies the various professions of the same faith on the same level with the three principal faiths having claims on Jerusalem.

To say the least, it is doubtful whether a commission composed of the representatives of religious faiths or institutions could wield political power in Jerusalem,

acting under the Security Council. It is at least doubtful whether the United Nations machinery could, within the terms of its reference, create an organ within

itself dealing with essentially religious matters and with relationships between religious bodies.

^The passages in italics were not included in the Tribune, which gave the letter a prominent place, and added the sub-title: "Proposal on Internationalization of the City Ignores Armenian Patriarchate, Bishop says."

197 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

All the principal Holy Places, Christian, Moslem, and Jewish, are situated in that part of the Holy City which is now occupied by the forces of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. There is no reason to believe that the Jordan government would not fully respect the sanctity of these Holy Places and^ would prevent free access to them. The letter says that the proposed commission "should authenticate the Holy Sites in Jerusalem." But history and the status quo have already authenti- cated these sites and a new authentication is quite superfluous, apart from being impossible. As to the fourth "function" of the proposed commission, there is no need for an international supervision over the restoration of the Holy Places damaged during the war in Jerusalem, first because the principal international Holy Placef have suffered no appreciable damage and, secondly, if any Holy Place has suffered damage, it can and certainly should be repaired by the owner or owners of such

Holy Place. Therefore, if the City is going to remain divided, there is no need for an inter-confessional commission.

It should be noted that the preoccupation behind the resolution of the UN Gteneral Assembly concerning Jerusalem presumably was (a) that the Holy City, being sacred to the three great religions of the world and the followers of these religions having interest in it, the City should be under international administration, and (b) that a divided Jerusalem would not be viable, and the inclusion of the City in one or other of the two adjoining states would not be possible, and that therefore Jerusalem should be made into an international Corpus Separatum.

The problem fundamentally is not the protection of the physical structure of the Holy Places, which would be secure, one could venture to say, under any administration. The problem is the preservation of the unity of the City in order to make it viable and to allow the religious life and activity of the many institutions in the City to develop and function freely and to the fullest extent. Bishop Tiran Representative of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem before the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations May 29, 1950

2"or" in Tribune.

198 Biographical Sketches

By A. Meliksetian

His Beatitude Cyril II, Patriarch of Jerusalem^

His Beatitude Cyril (Guregh) II, Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, died on October 28, 1949 in Beirut, Lebanon, where he had undergone an operation.

Patriarch Cyril was born in New Julfa, Iran, on January 6, 1894, the son of Rev. Mashdots Israelian, a priest of the Armenian Church. He was baptized as Tigran, and lived under that name until he took holy orders. After receiving his elementary education in the local schools, 1900-1907, he was sent to Madras, India, near his father, where he continued his studies in St. Joseph's French School. In 1908 he went to Calcutta for his secondary and higher education—in the Armenian Academy and the University of Calcutta, graduating from both in 1911 and 1912, respectively; and in 1914, from the divinity school of the University. The outbreak of the war in 1914 interrupted his plans to enter the priesthood of his church. In 1915 he was invited to teach in the Armenian Academy in Calcutta, of which he became acting principal the following year. In 1916 when Patriarch Torgom arrived in India as CathoHcal Delegate to the Armenians in that country, Tigran, whose good work as educator became known, was asked to accompany him as his personal secretary on the rest of his mission in India and Egypt.

Later, from 1918 to 1921 Tigran again went into teaching, this time at the Kalousdian High School in Cairo, Egypt, meanwhile serving as secretary of the local diocese of the Armenian Church.

In September 1921, however, he again accompanied the Patriarch, this time to Jerusalem in connection with the transfer there of Armenian orphans from Mesopotamia. In Jerusalem Tigran entered the Brotherhood of the Monastery, was ordained a deacon two months later, and started teaching in the Patriarchal seminary. Then followed a series of promotions, commissions and new duties and distinctions in quick succession: assistant secretary of the General Assembly of the Brotherhood (1922), ordained archimandrite as Cyril by His Beatitude Patriarch Tourian (July 10, 1923), custodian of the library of manuscripts and vardapet (1925), member of the Synod (1929), principal of the Seminary (1930), member of the Treasury Council (1933), grand sacristan (1939), delegate to Echmiadzin at the election of the Catholicos, and Bishop-elect (1941), acting Patriarch (July 1944), and Patriarch of Jerusalem on October 20, 1944. Patriarch Cyril II was a man of unusual abilities and a courageous leader. He gave full evidence of his qualities of responsible leadership particularly during the struggle in Palestine in the past few years, when with fatherly concern and dauntless courage he gathered under his refuge the stricken Armenians, reduced once more to the status of refugees, providing them with shelter, protection and sustenance.

^See p. [132] of Frontispiece for a photograph of His Beatitude.

199 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

sharing with them their sufferings and caUing on Armenians everywhere to aid him in the work of salvation. His premature death has been attributed to his heroic efforts to save both people and institutions under his care amidst the most trying circumstances created by both sides in the Arab-Jewish struggle. No other ecclesiastic of equal rank went through as much, worked with the same seemingly inexhaustible energy, and sacrificed himself as he did. According to the testimony of distinguished Americans on the scene, Patriarch Cyril stood out as the foremost ecclesiastic and leader among his colleagues of other nationalities in Jerusalem.^

Here is how Dr. Carl Hermann Voss described him, after an audience with the Patriarch in the summer of 1947: "When Mrs. Voss and I arrived we were ushered to a spacious hall, at one end of which stood an ecclesiastical throne. The building was beautiful and the hall was decorated with unusual oil paintings of former Patriarchs, porcelain and other art objects. The Patriarch entered in complete regalia. With his thick flowing beard, elaborate robes and beautiful jewel-studded cross hanging from a chain on his chest, His Beatitude was indeed as handsome a man as I have ever seen. He impressed us at first as being a venerable old man, but the more we talked, the younger he grew in our sight. He is full of zest and youthful spirit. He was exceedingly gracious to Mrs. Voss, with whom he made more of a hit than any other man we met on this trip—among them were Jan Christian Smuts in South Africa and Adolph Keller in Geneva.

"The Patriarch is well aware and deeply appreciative of the work and leaders of the Armenian National Council of America and the American Church Com- mittee for Armenia.

"He is in command of a beautiful, classical English. His sentences are precise. He has an excellent choice of words, a clear pronunciation. "He gave us a very interesting account of the Armenian Church, pointing out that it had made pilgrimages to the Holy City, Jerusalem, before any other church group in the world.

"He was very reserved in discussing international issues, but did point out that his people were getting along nicely and were receiving just treatment within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. He was anxious to learn about America, and when at the end of an hour's interview, we attempted to take our leave, he chided us with the remark, 'You Americans are always in a hurry!' "I was fortunate in being able to take a picture of His Beatitude on the back roof of the Patriarchate. He invited us to visit him again."^

At the funeral rites many leading laymen, ecclesiastics, and public officials bore witness to the great loss which the Armenians in the Diaspora had sustained by the untimely death of the young Patriarch. His body was interred in the Court of the Cathedral of St. James in Jerusalem on November 3 before high dignitaries of church and state. Catholicos Garegin Hovsepian of Cilicia, together with other noted Armenians accompanied the coffin from Beirut. The funeral procession started at

2S. H. T. "Patriarch Guregh II Israelian," Baikar, November 3, 1949, p. 2.

STaken from Press Release No. 9 of the American Church Committee for Armenia, New York, February 18, 1948.

200 HIS BEATITUDE CYRIL II and ARSHAG MAHDESIAN

Ammaiij proceeded by way of the Austrian Hospice and Via Dolorosa, passing the Seven Stations of the Cross, through the Christian quarter to the Jaffa Gate, then by the Citadel of David, and on to the Armenian Monastery. Most of the stores along the path of the procession were closed in honor of the deceased, and in the prevailing silence the chanting of the dirges and the tolling of the church bells of Jerusalem, including that of the Holy Sepulcher, filled the air with solemn strains of the auspicious farewell. Policemen, boy scouts, bearers of wreaths preceded the procession of choristers, deacons and priests. Catholicos Garegin followed the casket accompanied by representatives of various religious groups and heads of the Moslem Supreme Council. Other dignitaries marched next, followed by a company of about seven thousand mourners.

The body was in state in St. James Cathedral through the night. At the funeral services the following day, November 3, Archbishop Mampre Sirounian officiated,

and Catholicos Garegin gave the eulogy. Among the celebrities present were : Jamal Bey Tokan on behalf of His Majesty King Abdullah, Mr. Jose Quimper representing the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, the consular corps of Britain, France, Italy, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Spain, delegates of the Inter- national Red Cross of Geneva, and other government and civic leaders.

Arshag Mahdesian

Arshag Mahdesian, well-known Armenian leader and editor, died in Fresno, California, on April 4 at the age of seventy-seven. He was born in Palou, Armenia in 1873. Upon graduating from Euphrates College in 1896, he taught at that institution for four years, until 1900, when he came to the United States. Here he studied at Yale for a while, and married. Later with his wife, Christine, a cultured American who learned to speak and write in the Armenian language, he published The New Armenia, in English, and Ardziv and other periodicals in Armenian. Mr. Mahdesian was a man of vision, courage, and had a keen sense of justice.^ His life was one long urge "to get the Eng- lish-speaking public acquainted with the soul of the Armenian people—^its history, its literature, its cause, and its aspirations."^

The New Armenia first appeared as a monthly in Boston, Mass. in 1904, under the name of Armenia; and continued under that of The New Armenia during the first World War and after. Among its honorary editors were Julia Ward Howe, Alice Stone Blackwell, Rev. Charles Gordon Ames, Edward H. Clement, editor of the Boston Evening Transcript, Professor Albert C. Cook, William Lloyd Garrison, James Bronson Reynolds, Professor William G. Ward and several other distinguished personalities of the period. European honorary editors were Anatole France, Georges Clemenceau, and Victor Berard. The publication was suspended from September 1907 to April 1910, and from October 1913 to January 1914 inclusive. From 1915

^Cf. reference to his relations with Vickery and the question of relief versus independence for the Armenians, supra, p. 143.

2A. A. Bedikian, "Salesmen of A Precious Spirit," The Armenian Mirror-Spectator, July 15, 1950, vol. XIII, p. 1.

201 —

ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

to October 1917 it was published as a semi-monthly and became a monthly again in November 1917. The New Armenia ceased publication with the July- September 1929 issue.

A copy of the magazine went to every member of Congress and other distinguished leaders in the United States and abroad. It was a costly enterprise costly in money, human effort and resourcefulness, and heroic sacrifice. That is the story back of the checkered life of the publication. It could not have been supported by subscriptions. The Armenian-American community was too yoimg to have developed a sufficient number of English-speaking readers to underwrite it on a business basis. What made the publication possible was the grim, steadfast spirit of Mr. and Mrs. Mahdesian and a small band of faithful un-publicized sponsors, who gave unstintingly, repeatedly, patiently, so that Armenia's cavise would not be forgotten by default of Armenians themselves. Among this small group was Mr. Ashod Tiryakian,^ the brother of Mihrtad, distinguished member on the editorial advisory board of Armenian Affairs.

The Mahdesians, of course, gave most for they gave their all to it. They "lived in a single room," says Mr. Bedikian, who knew tlie couple well. "They spent no money on themselves for the barest necessities . . . starving half the time to keep the publication going." Mrs. Mahdesian "devoted herself to the pursuits of her husband, willingly and uncompromisingly suffering with him every imaginable depriva- tion until her death some fifteen years ago. All the years I had known her I never saw her with a new hat . . . year in and year out she wore the same hat until she seemed a bizarre phenomenon in the streets of New York. That was merely a visible indication of the deprivations both endured. But no one knew when they went without food or adequate meals. Some of us knew that secret of their lives, too."*

Christine Mahdesian "lavished more love upon the nation of her adoption than thousands of Armenian-born women have done, or would be willing to do. And she did give up all that there was in her noble soul without claiming credit for so generous a gift. . . . She wanted to remain behind the scenes. . . . When she was laid to rest, at her simple funeral there were only a dozen people."**

After her death, Mr. Mahdesian, broken-down and broken-hearted, moved to Fresno, California where he taught citizenship and English. In 1941 he was elected member to Eugene Field, prominent authors' society, in recognition of his book, Armenia, Her Culture and Aspirations.

Mr. Mahdesian was invited to serve on the board of editorial advisers of this journal, but due to change of address or some other error the letter was never received by him. He was an enthusiastic delegate to the World Armenian Congress in

1947; and there is little doubt what his answer to the invitation of the journal would have been had he lived.

As a memorial to the thankless but important work done by Mr. Arshag

SAshod, says Mr. Bedikian, was "a rare spirit who had a quick eye in recognizing merit. He was in a class by himself for understanding, generosity and patriotism." Ihid. *Ibid.

^Ibid.

202 ARSHAG MAHDESIAN AND ARTAK DARBINIAN

Mahdesian and his faithful wife Christine, an editorial article which appeared in the March 1919 issue of The New Armenia on "Theodore Roosevelt and Armenia" is reprinted on another page of this issue of Armenian Affairs. An English translation of his brief address to the World Armenian Congress on May 3, 1947, in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, will be published in the next issue.

Artak Darbinian

Artak Darbinian, editor and public figure among Armenians in Diaspora, died in Paris, France, on February 27 at the age of seventy-one. He was bom in Van, Armenia in 1879. After starting his education in his native city, he found his way to Persia, and thence entered the Georgian Seminary in Echmiadzin. He was thus away during the massacres of 1895-1896, when the province of Van, together with the other Armenian provinces in Turkey, lost 300,000 souls; and thousands of homes, churches and monasteries were levelled to the ground. The city of Van itself, however, escaped the carnage due to the magnificent organized self-defense under the leadership of the local political parties.

In the years that followed, Van with its outlying districts became an active intellectual center. With its large Armenian population, the need for leadership was great, and Artak was invited by the local diocese of the Armenian Church to come and teach in the Zharangavorats seminary of Varaga Vank. Though he had entertained dreams of further preparation in higher learning, he responded to the call to teach at Varaga Vank, of which school he later became the principal.^ He continued as teacher and principal until World War I. During that period he also edited the newspaper Van Tosp, which was later re-established in Tiflis. In 1918 he edited ^hoghouurdi Dsayn (The People's Voice), daily newspaper in Yerevan, and Apaga (Future), weekly in Paris. He contributed many articles to Armenian papers in the Diaspora: and in 1947 published in Paris his book, Hai Azatagrakan Sharzhman Oreren (Notes from the Days of the Armenian Emancipation Move- ment), 1890-1940, 392 p.

He was fully qualified to write such a book. He had been a member of the

Armenakan Party, which had its origin on the soil where Armenians had been sub- jugated to oppression by their Turkish overlords for centuries, and therefore a party fully cognizant of the local needs and opportunities for emancipation, in contrast to those political organizations which had their origin on foreign soil and were led by "foreign" political adventurers. Artak Darbinian had also been the dominant and weighty member at the second regional convention for Armenia of the Ramkavar (Democratic) Party, which convened in Yerevan in 1919, from December 21 to 27. This was to be expected, considering his experience in political life, his serious bent of mind, and his ability to grasp the significance of events. The convention was to discuss the stand of the party toward the regime then in power in Armenia, which under Dashnag leadership was leading the country to its doom through mismanage-

iFrom reprint of biographical sketch by H. B. of Abaka in Baikar, June 3, 1950, p. 1.

203 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

ment and high-handed methods, a fact which events later confirmed.^ The following year, in 1920, Darbinian was a delegate from Armenia to the third general convention of the Party, which met in Constantinople (Istanbul).

After World War II he served as chairman of the Armenian Repatriation Com- mittee of France. This was a natural assignment to him, even though in ill-health, as he firmly believed that the only logical place for Armenians dispersed throughout the world was the Armenian republic at the foot of Ararat. He did not regard the Armenian Soviet Republic as the "lesser of two evils," as some "patriots" wish to regard it, as a lever against the onslaught of the current anti-Soviet hysteria, or as a concession to ideological conviction. He was convinced that the present order in Armenia was the best guarantee for the full creative development of his people.

In a letter to a friend in the United States shortly before his death, he wrote:

"My heart is full of disquiet ... I can see before my eyes Turkish Armenia, in the full sense of the word a wasteland divested of all its native elements, and the surviving remnants doomed to disappearance, with coercion, in the countries which have offered them refuge. Whether we liked it or not, we had to accept the conditions imposed upon us by the United States, France and Britain. Whether we like it or not, in fifty years the Armenian name will disappear in these countries. ^ ... If there is a comforting thought, that is the Armenia of today."

LEONGUERDAN

Leon Guerdan (born Gumushguerdan) author, journalist, and lecturer in America and France, died in New York on December 15, 1949, at the age of sixty- three. Born in Constantinople (Istanbul), the son of a businessman, he received his higher education in Robert College, and then moved to Paris for further education. After that he entered business. From the start, however, he impressed those who came to know him more as an intellectual than as a businessman. Not long after, Guerdan left the business world and gave himself to cultural, political and social pursuits. Since 1929 he had published five books, all in the French language.

His volume dedicated to Dicran Yergat, Les Faux-Poids de la Balance, is regarded to be the best. The others are: The False Weights of the Scales; The Reveries of Bertran Berno; I Have Known Them All; and From the Bosporus to the Sky- scrapers, the last published in New York.

After his arrival in the United States in 1941 with his family, Mr. Guerdan was for a time editor of France-Amerique, the French weekly published in New York. He has also translated into French Mrs. Sara Roosevelt's book. My Son, Franklin.

At the time of his death Mr. Guerdan was vice-president of the Central Board of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, of which he had been treasurer for twenty years. When the Central Board moved from Cairo to Paris, France, Boghos

2Rev. A. A. Georgizian, "Artak Darbinian—'Worthy Son of Van.' Memoirs and Notes," VI, Baikar, April 2, 1950, p. 1. lAnushavan Der Megrdichian, "Artak Darbinian," Baikar, May 26, 1950, pp. 1 and 3.

SAram Krikorian, "Artak Darbinian—A Bouquet to His Memory," Baikar, April 9, 1950, p. 1.

204 LEON GUERDAN

Nubar Pasha, the founder of the AGBU, invited him to membership on the board. His principal interest in the work of the AGBU was cultural. He was especially interested in the Nubarian Library of Paris, of which he remained the head until his removal from Paris. According to a friend, he claimed to have given to Boghos Nubar the idea of the Armenian Home, a center of Armenian college and university students in Paris. In 1947 he was chairman of the AGBU one million dollar repatriation campaign. Mr. Guerdan was deeply interested in the political destiny of his people, and the welfare of his adopted country, France. His association with the France-Amerique as editor was in connection with the liberation of France from Nazi domination during the war years. Before the war he had been co-director of Les Conferences des Ambassadeurs. From 1919 to 1922 Mr. Guerdan served as counselor of the Armenian delegation at the Peace Conference. In this he was closely associated with Boghos Nubar, and dedicated himself to make the claims and the aspirations of the Armenians known among the intellectual and political circles of France. Later, when K. Noradungian became the chairman of the Armenian delegation, Mr. Guerdan remained his counselor, and, after the dissolution of the delegation, served as member on the central committee devoted to the interests of Armenian immigrants. In 1947 when the World Armenian Congress was held in New York City Mr. Guerdan participated with interest. In 1934, after visiting Echmiadzin, in Soviet Armenia, in order to take part in the election of the Catholicos, Mr. Guerdan "found the Armenian spirit renewed within him. And he did not hesitate to bear witness in the interest of the Armenian cause, whenever it became necessary, among us [the Armenians], as well as among others." Thus spoke Hovhannes Boghosian, a friend in Paris, who had been in close touch with him during the past few summers when Guerdan visited the French capital^ Mr. Boghosian stated, on the basis of these contacts, that Mr. Guerdan understood the circumstances of America's present policy, and was sure that Armenians and their friends should continue to work in the interest of the Armenian cause even in Washington; at least they should keep in close touch with the American press. If Armenians, added this friend, had realized the importance and possessed the means of making his voice heard in international circles, through the publication of a periodical in the French or English language, Leon Guerdan would undoubtedly have been its editor.^

IHovhannes Boghosian, "Leon Guerdan," Baikar, January 5, 1950, p. 1.

205 Books and Reviews

Country Without Economic Backbone

Reviewed by Emil Lengyel

TURKEY. AN ECONOMIC APPRAISAL. By Max Weston Thomburg, Grajiam Spry and George Soule. New York, The Twentieth Century Fund, 1949. 322 pages. $3.50.

This book gives a complete picture of Turkish economic life in our days. It tells us how the people of Turkey live and work on their farms, operate their mines, industries, transportation systems, banks and foreign trade.

The Armenians are mentioned in this book, since they were the most important minority engaged in economic pursuits under the old Ottoman rule. When the Kemalist revolution came, it brought forward leaders who had belonged to the ruling class of the Sultan's realm, an official, land-owning or military oligarchy, which had never engaged in business and trade. These people looked down on the Armenians and Greeks, the authors tell us, and considered them an unwelcome, alien element. The reader is left with the impression that if these minorities with the economic know-how had not been eliminated, the economic condition of the Turk- ish republic might be far more favorable today.

The authors describe the wealth of Turkey, a country of varied resources, natural and human, with rich mineral deposits and sources of mechanical power, with a good climate, lots of land and, above all, a population which can work, if there is an incentive.

It is still an undeveloped country, we are shown. It has industries, but hardly any industrialization. Its factories are run at a loss, ambitious in design in some cases, but inefficient, poorly managed. The country's transportation is backward, its farming of the pre-Stone Age, except for a few exp^imental stations; the system of taxation is archaic.

The raw material is there and the question is what to do with it. The authors recommend a policy of gradual growth. Roads must be built, because the country is stifled without them. Education and sanitation must be improved. The logical development of industrialization is to begin with small and light industries, such as foundries, machine shops, plants to produce simple farm tools, wagons and other indispensable means of transportation. The productiveness of the mines could be greatly improved. The heavy industries would follow logically in due time. Probably for reasons of prestige, modem Turkey started with heavy industries.

The authors hold to the view that Turkey does not need too much outside capital. There is money in the country, but much of it is in hiding. The govem-

206 COUNTRY WITHOUT ECONOMIC BACKBONE

ment could finance most, if not all, essential public activities. The greatest need the Turks themselves cannot fill at present is for competent managers, technicians,

advisers, with plenty of industrial and commercial background. "This is a need which Americans can supply, provided the opportunity is offered for them to exercise their talents. Gk)vemment and private undertakings could engage Americans

: with the required skill."

These opportunities, however, will exist only if Turkish policy-makers change

their attitude, so that the national economy is not operated, as at present, for the benefit of bureaucrats and politicians, but for the bulk of the producing and con- suming population. Harassing taxes must be abolished, capricious rulings must be eliminated, favoritism must be ended and the invasion of managerial responsibility by the government must be avoided by all means.

Two of the authors of the book had personal contacts with the Near and Middle East. Max Weston Thomburg, research director of this volume, is described as chairman for many years of the Board of Engineers of the Standard Oil Company of

California, and Vice-President in charge of its Middle and Far East subsidiaries. Mr. Graham Spry, the research associate, was personal assistant to Sir Stafford Cripps during the war and his companion in his historic mission to India. Because

of Mr. Thomburg's close association with the petroleum industry, it seems to be strange that he should have overlooked important recent oil developments in Turkey.

The Twentieth Century Fund is to be congratulated on this undertaking. Its Executive Director, Evans Clark, tells the reader in a Foreword that this study on Turkey and a similar one on Brazil have been designed as pilot projects for the production of the intellectual raw material out of which a more effective United States foreign policy may be fashioned. If that means that the Fund will undertake

to publish similar studies for several important foreign countries it will render a great public service.

The Armenian Question in Paris in 1919*

Reviewed by C. P. Ives

Stephen Bonsai, Suitors and Suppliants, The Little Nations at Versailles. With an Introduction by Arthur Krock. New York, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1946. 301 p.

IN Suitors and Suppliants Colonel Stephen Bonsai assigns the Biblical name of "Naboth's vineyard" to the Ukraine of 1919. Actually his book is the story of many Naboths, many covetous Ahabs, many Jezebels working wrongful conveyances. For this is the account of the victimized small nations at Paris in 1918 and 1919, and of their efforts there to secure that literal justice which the great American President had pledged in the most explicit terminology.

^With the courtesy of The Baltimore Evening Sun.

207 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

As readers of his earlier book, Unfinished Business, will recall, Colonel Bonsai was Colonel House's right hand man at Versailles. He kept the door to American headquarters and in that key place had the delicate and strenuous work of sifting all the suitors and their demands, of composing both pleas and pleaders for their several appearances before what Bonsai calls the Great Assizes, the court of the leaders of the great powers.

Like Wilson himself. Bonsai was devoted to the small peoples. This book, like the earlier one, consists of transcripts from the diary he kept during those days and the entries have the warmth and candor of informal writing. The good colonel felt the force of pleas rooted in logic and historic fitness; but time and again, and much more often than not, he saw, as well, how pitifully weak were the suitors and suppliants in the practical weapons of power politics.

Here, for instance, at Paris in 1919, were the Slovaks, desperately led by Father Hlinka, and fully as fearful of the Czechs as they were of the Germans, their late enemy. Masaryk and Benes were in Paris and talked much of the future of the new Czechoslovak Republic. Masaryk was worried about the German-Czechs in the Sudeten mountains, but proposed to forbid their removal to Germany proper. Benes thought it might be possible to secure their loyalty to the new state.

D'Annunzio was embarked on his crazy adventure into Fiume in those days, and the raid was so popular with the Italian people that the Italian Prime Minister, Orlando, was driven to extreme territorial demands at Paris. Clemenceau warned that the Italians were indiscreet in inviting the enmity of the new kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and saw an eventful explosion in that part of the world whose major city then as now was Trieste,

Bonsai gives vivid pictures of Emir Feisal, Arab commander under AUenby, making his demands for Arab emancipation at Paris and warning the western nations against favor to the Zionists in Palestine. Much farther east, the troubles of Korea were brought before the conference by a delegation which could not sup- press its chagrin that Japan, arch aggressor and tyrant over their race, should have a major and honored place at the peace table. Naturally the Chinese shared this consternation.

Lord Milner, of the British delegation in 1918, thought that Germany, though beaten, ought to be permitted to retain some armaments, just in case the Bol- sheviks should attempt any general penetration westward into the European continent. Other Englishmen were eager to give Silesia to Germany so that that industrial area would help balance the great industries in northern France.

As the diary proceeds. Bonsai's heat and his hopelessness rise by equal steps. He comes to some kind of a climax in both when he reaches the unhappy story of the Armenians. Their spokesman, at Paris in 1919, was Boghos Nubar Pasha. He insisted on starting the Armenian chronicle with the Hittites of ancient Palestine, from whom he insisted the Armenians derived. But the American colonel insisted on some kind of a statute of limitations in this tragic account and was content to begin with the year 1878. That was the date, he reminded the British Lord Bryce, of the Treaty of Berlin, underwritten by the British, the French, the Russians, etc., in which the Armenians were promised an end of their long servitude to the Turk.

208 THE ARMENIAN QUESTION IN PARIS IN 1919

It was in this year, of course, that the Russians seized the province of Kars as part of the booty of their recent victory over Turkey. In response to this move, the British entered into a deal with Turkey against Russia.

Two years later, in 1880, the powers protested to the Turkish Sultan that he was not abiding by the terms of the Berlin undertaking. Largely because of the Anglo- Turkish deal, nothing happened. In 1894-1896 came the terrible Turkish massacres of the Armenians. These events were cited twenty years later when, in 1916, Britain and France promised freedom for the Armenians.

Despite this Anglo-French pledge, however, it was the United States which the Supreme Council of Allies invited to assume a mandate over a liberated Armenia in 1920. This was after the Treaty of Versailles, in terms rather vaguer than those of 1878, had promoted the gist of the 1878 promise. In 1920 the Treaty of Sevres included a similar pledge by the puppet Sultan of Turkey. But he was soon over- turned and his pledges revoked by Mustafa Kemal and his Turkish revolution. It was Kemal who got back all Turkish territory held in 1914, plus the province of Kars, which Russia had seized in 1878. The Treaty of Lausanne (1923), says ." Colonel Bonsai, "consecrated the Turkish triumph. . . And now the unhappy Armenians and the province of Kars have once more come back in the news.

For this, of course, is what Colonel Bonsai is driving at—that our present troubles in many instances stem back to troubles which were considered at Versailles, but left unsettled. Again and again the author reports the easy gestures with which the great powers dismissed the plaints of the small peoples in 1919—that these minor issues and tag-ends of the old disputes could be adjusted later via the machinery to be built at Versailles. The colonel's point is that this just didn't happen, and that little pinpoints of unrest festered at length into great crises and dreadful war.

Colonel Bonsai can hardly be called a killjoy, since there was little joy in the world outlook even before his book appeared. But he does not make our present difficulties any easier to bear though he does make many of them easier to understand.

209 Letters to the Editor

Congratulatory Notes

Editor Armenian Affairs'.

Congratulations on the fine first issue of Armenian Affairs. It is an excellent piece of work and I shall be very glad to arrange an exchange with The Journal of Bible and Religion. —^Garl E. Purinton Editor The Journal of Bible and Religion Organ of the National Association of Biblical Instructors

Editor Armenian Affairs:

Judging by these examples [in the first issue of the journal] I feel confident that you are launching Armenian Affairs under very auspicious beginnings. These articles make excellent and valuable reading. —Abraham A. Neuman President Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning

Editor Armenian Affairs:

"Excellent." —^Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Union Theological Seminary

Editor Armenian Affairs:

Publications such as yours bring prestige to the Armenian name. —P. K. Thomajan

Author, Carlstadt, N. J.

Editor Aimeriian Affairs:

The magazine is made up in the grand manner, good paper, good type, good reproductions. All the articles I have read have a high standard. The beginning seems to be good and I hope the sequel will be no less satisfactory. —Emil Lenoyel Associate Professor of Education, New York University

Editor Armenian Affairs:

I note with satisfaction that the next number will contain considerable material on archeological work. I was particularly interested in the review of Mr. Tokarsky's book, The Architecture of Ancient Armenia, in the first issue. —Eric King Archeologist, London, England

210 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor Armenian Affairs : We enjoyed reading every article in tiie first issue and trust that you will continue this worthwhile publication and be able to maintain the high standard of its scholarly contents. —^Zareh Tatarian San Francisco, Calif.

Editor Armenian Affairs :

Read the first issue of Armenian Affairs with great interest and satisfaction.

There is a definite need for this type of publication at present. The Armenian

National Council is to be congratulated for its manifold and extremely valuable services to our cause which require so much heart and mind in these difficult times. —Ephraim K. JernaziaNj Pastor,

Armenian Euphrates Evangelical Church, Providence, R. I.

Million Armenian Martyrs Articulate

Editor Armenian Affairs:

Please enter nine subscriptions to Armenian Affairs on my account, one for myself, and eight as follows: two for two Senators, four for four Congressmen of the United States Congress; one for the University of Mississippi Library; and two for the editors of two leading newspapers of the capital city of my state. Words cannot express my delight in your publication. It is the finest and the best yet seen in the field of magazine publication in behalf of Armenia. It is worthy to be on the desk of every editor of any major newspaper in America, in the hands of every senator and congressman in the United States, and on the shelves of the libraries of all the great universities. It seems to me, more than a million Armenian martyrs have at last become articulate. This publication is their voice speaking to the conscience of humanity kept silent for a long time by power, diplomacy and duplicity. —^JOHN G. MOSKOFFIAN Formerly Instructor in the University of Maine

It May Move the Stony Hearts

Editor Armenian Affairs:

I read the first issue of your new periodical with a thrill. I am certain that Armenian Affairs will become an enduring monument for the defense of the Ar- menian cause. Who knows, it may move the stony hearts of those on whose sense of justice our cause depends. In addition to that, Armenian Affairs will become an effective instrument in conveying to our youth the spiritual values of our people for the conservation of which our fathers preferred martyrdom. —Garabed Kalfayan, Pastor, Armenian Church, Yettem, Calif.

211 — —

ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

Hopeful Days Ahead

Editor Armenian Affairs:

While praising your worthy attempt at creating such a publication, the real benefit of it is doubtful as past similar experiences testify. We had had similar publications during the last fifty years, both in the English and French languages, and yet look at our national condition which became worse and worse, not to say pitiable, due to the treachery of civilized (?) diplomacy. I subscribe to it in the hope that the next fifty years of the twentieth century may give us a little consolation.

Just a little advice: Please leave out the religious stuff. The average Deader is tired of reading that we were the first nation to adopt Christianity; that our Bible is the "queen of translations"; that we have been persecuted for our belief, and the like. Fifty years ago there was some excuse for such statements when they appeared at length in the Pro Armenia in France, in The New Armenia in America, and numerous other publications. The most we can expect in answer from the great diplomats of our day would be "so what?" Yes, so what? We are all Christians but the national interests of all governments today are above Christianity.^

—^DiKRAN Spear

Weehawken, N. J.

250,000 Armenians in Turkish Occupied Armenia?

Editor Armenian Affairs:

I would like to suggest that the Armenian National Council offer copies of its journal to British institutions and journals of high standing, such as the Royal Institute's International Affairs, for exchange with their publications.^

On page 263 of Pearse's Three Years in the Levant, reviewed in the last issue of your journal, the author states, "There are still 250,000 in Turkish Armenia, whose capital is Erzeroum." This is, of course, an impossible figure for the number

of Armenians in Turkish Occupied Armenia, but it might be useful to know where this figure was obtained. —^Edward V. Gulbenkian London, England

iQr shouldn't we say "sub-Christian" ? Ed.

2Mr. Gulbenkian has already placed Armenian Affairs in several of the most important libraries and educational institutions in Britain. Ed.

212 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

^^Armenia to the Armenians^^

Editor Armenian Ajfairs'.

Writing in The Nation of August 7, 1948 on "The Wallace Party," Howard K. Smith had this to say about some of the slogans on the walls at the Progressive Party's Convention: "Scanning the forest of posters in the hall, the eye jarred against exotic slogans like, 'Armenia to the Armenians' ; it was impossible not to wonder how many Middle-Western pulses would rise to correct this manifest injustice in November."

I have no idea how many Armenians or others in this country voted the Wallace ticket in order to secure justice for the Armenians. But an intelligent public should know something of the historic background of this "exotic" slogan.

Armenia is a small mountainous country in the Caucasus, on the slopes of Mt. Ararat. Overrun in the twelfth century by Turkish invaders from central Asia, the country has suffered misrule and persecution at the hand of its Turkish conquerors ever since; but like the Greeks, the Irish, the Jews, under similar circumstances, the Armenians have never relinquished their culture and their hope of freedom.

In 1878, one-fifth of the ancient Armenian homeland (excluding Cilicia, where an Armenian kingdom flourished for about two centuries at the time of the Cru- sades) was taken from the Turk by Russia; but the bulk of the country, as well as Cilicia, has remained under Turkish rule. And, notorious as was Tsarist mis- government, the lot of the Armenian in Russian Armenia was very much better than that of the Armenians in Turkey.

During World War I the Turks sought to settle the Armenian question by exterminating the Armenian population of their country. It is estimated that during and after 1915 nearly a million Armenians were done to death, while another million were exiled or fled to countries in the Near East, the Balkans, France, and the Americas. The lot of the Armenian refugees in these countries has, in various degrees, been miserable—"D.P.'s" for over thirty years, while the few who remain in Turkey lead a barely tolerable existence.

One of Wilson's "Fourteen Points" for the settlement of World War I was the independence of Armenia; and in 1919 the European Allies (the U. S. had not declared war against Turkey) asked Wilson to draw the boundaries of the free Armenia that was to be set up in the eastern provinces of Asia Minor, and the recognition of Armenia's independence was included in the Treaty of Sevres, which the delegates of the Ottoman Empire signed. But the nationalist movement under Mustafa Kemal deposed the Sultan, proclaimed a "republic," and repudiated the treaty. In 1923 a new treaty was signed at Lausanne in which the question of Armenia's independence was ignored. Once again the Armenians were betrayed by the Christian democracies of Europe and left to their fate by America, whose missionaries had taught them to admire and love what the America of Washing- ton and Lincoln stood for.

Between the two world wars the question of Armenia's liberation from the Turk remained quiescent. But with the close of World War II a group of Americans of Armenian ancestry, with the cooperation of a large number of other Americans,

213 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

raised the question of the implementation of the "Wilson Award." This is what

the slogan, "Armenia to the Armenians," means. Many still recall the massacres of Armenians in 1895-96, in 1908, and in 1915, which aroused the horror and sympathy of the western world, and especially of this country, since we had established missions in Turkey several generations earlier and were intimately acquainted with the deplorable conditions in that country from the testimony of American eye-witnesses. To these, and to the Americans of Armenian ancestry, the slogan, "Armenia to the Armenians," does not sound exotic. For the Armenian refugees dispersed through-

out the Near East as well as Armenians remaining In Turkey are still suffering poverty and the indignities heaped on minorities in those countries. And while most of the Armenians in America have probably no more intention of returning to Ar- menia, should it be liberated, than Irish-Americans had of returning to Ireland when that country secured its independence, or American Jews to Israel (for their land would not have room for all of their scattered brethren throughout the world), American-Armenians are nevertheless greatly interested in the fate of their less fortunate fellows in the Near East and are, therefore, once more raising the question of the implementation of the "Wilson Award."

Armenian Affairs should prove of great value in bringing before Americans, of whatever race or national origin, the history and significance of the Armenian Ques- tion, so that it may no longer seem "exotic" to any of us. The independence of

Armenia was not "exotic" to Wilson. Nor should it seem exotic to intelligent Amer- icans at least. —^Lawson p. Chambers Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.

214 Documents Concerning Genocide

In favor of the Ratification of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Presented to The Subcommittee on the Genocide Con- vention of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Submitted by The Reverend Charles A. Vertanes, Executive Director, March 8, 1950.* Editorial Note

This document was presented to the Sub-Committee on March 3, 1950. On June 14 a gentleman who claimed to be the architect of the Genocide Convention got in touch with the office of the Armenian National Council of America seeking support for the ratification of the Convention by Congress. A three hour interview ensued the following day with the Director of the Council. It was discouraging to learn that this gentleman was willing to accept support for his project from any source, preferably reactionary groups, including those who had worked with the Nazis during World War II. In the June issue of "Hairenik," official daily organ of the Armenian Revolu- tionary Federation (Dashnag), a brief letter, signed by one of the leaders of the

Federation, addressed to U. S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., urged him to support the ratification of the Convention in the Senate. It was mentioned in the paper that this was one of the appeals sent. The letter stated that the writer's family was one of the victims of genocide: "During the first World War I lost my father, my mother, four of my brothers, my grandmother, three of my uncles with their entire families, one aunt with her entire family: all the result of merciless mass murder. Aside from my sister and myself . . . out of our patriarchal family of more than fifty members, all were destroyed as a result of the massacres. If it had not been for this barbarous practice known as genocide, the greater part of my family except those who would have died a natural death, would have been alive today. What happened to me happened also to many thousands of other Armenian families."

In the entire letter of four solid paragraphs there is not one single reference as to who were the perpetrators of this violence to the Armenians. This is a new kind of fight for "decency" in the world. It is not enough to talk about Turkish atrocities for Armenian consumption, as "Hairenik" did editorially a few days earlier. The truth must be proclaimed in season and out of season, everywhere, unstintingly, courageously. The Armenian National Council of America, the American Church Committee for Armenia and other organizations, both Armenian and American, devoted to the pursuit of justice and peace, will be no party to such worthless campaigns.

If the Genocide Convention is to be ratified with tongue in cheek it will be a worthless scrap of paper. No sound world can be built on falsehood or suppressed truth.

•Published in The Genocide Convention—Hearings Before the Sub-Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate Eighty-first Congress, Second Session on Executive O. The International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Jan- uary 23, 24, 25 and February 9, 1950. Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C, 1950, pp. 548-555.

215 ——

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Honorable Gentlemen: The Armenian National Council of America urges the ratification of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Armenian National Council was organized in March, 1944 under the auspicious circumstances of the later stages of World War II. Among these the most hopeful were the reassuring declarations of leading Allied statesmen concerning the rights of oppressed peoples and the future of smaller nations. The Council consists of twenty-five organizations which are national in scope among Americans of Armenian origin. As such it represents—through direct representation in the case of these organizations, and tacit approval of its aims in the case of others the overwhelming majority of Americans of Armenian background. The Council seeks the interests of the Armenian people who have survived the Turkish massacres, deportations and other measures directed at their destruction as an ethnic, religious and cultural group. These people have been living as refugee? for thirty or more years in the Near East, the Balkans, western Europe, in India, the Far East, the Americas, and in the Soviet Union, The Council hopes to realize its objectives through the implementation of the ideals of justice, freedom, security, and the right of self determination of peoples. It pursues these ends through the action of national and international organs of peace. The Council is, therefore, interested in the creation, development, and strengthening of national and international organs projected for the settlement of social and political problems through legal and judicial means. Americans of Armenian background feel they have a special responsibility to speak on the ratification of the genocide convention. Armenians were the first victims of the practice of genocide in modern times. In addition, their losses within less than thirty years (1894 to 1922) totalled two million lives, billions in property, and the annihilation of a culture in the Armenian provinces in Turkey which went back to several thousand years. When one considers that out of an Armenian population of more than two and a half million in 1882 in Turkey and Turkish Armenia there are left today only eighty thousand; that out of a territory of 136,289 square miles constituting the Armenian homeland only 11,580 is included in the Armenian Soviet Republic, while the rest remains in Turkey, mostly depopulated and in a state of ruin; and that Armenian culture has been one of the most fruitful in history that has survived to our age: one real- izes the appalling magnitude and depth of the Armenian tragedy. There are many Armenians in the United States today as in other countries where they have found refuge, who have not a single surviving relative in the whole world no parents, no brothers or sisters, no uncles, or cousins, or nephews, or nieces—not even on the secondary or more distant levels. They are completely devoid of any family ties, save what relations they have been able to establish with in-laws through marriage. As such their experience represents only one of many aspects of the emptiness which has entered the life of Armenians who have survived the massacres of World War I. The Turkish massacres, deportations, and other types of persecution, such as the Imposition of the arbitrary tax on wealth, known as "Varlik Vergisi," which was de- vised during World War II in order to destroy not only the Armenian, but also the Greek and Jewish minorities in Turkey, constitute a clear cut case of genocide, a planned move to destroy religious and ethnic groups. The Turks tried to represent these deeds, though futilely, as action against enemies in war or rebels against the government. The elimination of the Armenians was resolved on as a step toward realizing a pan-Turanian empire across central Asia. The Turks, who represent themselves as a kind of Asiatic "Herrenvolk," set out deliberately to wipe out as a "lesser breed without the law" their non-Turkish subjects, who were incontestably their superiors morally, socially and culturally. The Turks are clearly guilty of four out of the five acts enumerated by the Con- vention, the commission of which is defined as constituting genocide. These acts are: first, killing members of the group; second, causing them serious bodily or mental harm; third, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction; fourth, taking measures to prevent births within the group; and fifth, forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. It was only the fourth of these acts which the Turks did not engage in, in the sense in which the Nazis did, but this was due to their lack of adequate scientific knowledge. They are, however, guilty even of this crime in a general way, since by impressing Armenian women into Turkish homes and harems they prevented them from bearing Armenian children. The 216 CONCERNING GENOCIDE

unqualified destruction of the men and the frequent sparing of young girls and women of child-bearing age under such circumstances cannot be interpreted otherwise. With such a background as this Americans of Armenian origin are impelled by blood and conscience, and all that America has taught them in regard to justice, democracy, decency and human rights to urge the ratification of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.

II The argument that the Convention is not an effective instrument for the prevention and punishment of genocide is not true. This question was raised even enuring the debate before the Sixth (Legal) Committee working for the Convention. The crime, it was there pointed out, is usually committed by a state and, therefore, it permitted no punishment short of war. This is not quite the case, however. While it may be true that a state cannot be punished except by war, actually it is individual rulers who are responsible for the crime. And men do not remain rulers forever. It is as individuals that they are guilty, and it is the Convention which would become their nemesis in the event of a change of government, or in the event that they left their country. The fact that charges could be preferred would act as a strong deterrent. An incontrovertible evidence of this is what Hitler did and said in 1939, just before the invasion of Poland, when he sent to the East his Death's Head units, with the order to "kill without pity or mercy, old men, women and children of the Polish race and language," because, he explained, "only in such a way will we win the vital space we need." He felt sure at the time he would not be called personally accountable for this heinous order, for, he argued, "who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?" When informed of the threat of the Allies concerning the personal responsibility of public criminals, he put the question cynically, "What Allies? The same that threatened against the Turks?" Hitler was right. The Turks who had plotted the Armenian genocide were not personally called to account for their monstrous deeds, a failure for which the world paid very dearly. On June 23, 1915, the Allies, in the most terrible days of the deportations and massacres in Turkey and Armenia, declared to the v/orld that they would hold personally responsible and punish as common criminals the authors of these atrocities. The covenant of the League of Nations later reaffirmed the principles of human rights, freedom and justice, on which such punishment was predicated. And so during the first days of the Armistice the Allies arrested the authors of this hitherto unparalleled crime of modern times. Eighty-two of the chief accomplices of the Ittihad party were exiled to the island of Malta. There was a lack of sincerity in the whole procedure from the very beginning evident to the keen observer, however. When therefore the United States turned down the proposal for a mandate over Armenia, the occasion was used as a ruse to hide the ambitions and intrigues of the Allies among themselves in their effort to be the chief beneficiaries of the spoils of the war, and the criminals were freed without trial and punishment so that they could go back and organize a new Turkey out of the ruins of the war. It is not surprising that the Turks themselves were astonished at this manifestation of a cynicism, more brazen than any of which they had been accused. They were quick, however, to exploit to the hilt this moral faux pas of the Allies. In fact they were very much helped in this by the Allies themselves, as each vied with the other to curry the favor of the prostrate foe. The unpunished criminals set at large and those who scurried out of hiding, as well as other less conspicuous offenders, did not lose time in getting together and re- viving the old spirit under new names. Many of the old institutions were streamlined to correspond to the political forms of the west. Under the "protective" guns of British battleships anchored in Constantinople they adopted the National Covenant by which they relmquished or acquiesced to the loss of Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia to the British and French, their "liberators," but vowed to regain and remain in possession by force of arms the remaining territories, which meant nothing else but the major portion of Armenia and all of Greek Anatolia and Kurdistan. Among the criminals who played _ an important part in the subsequent post-war betrayal of Armenia was Ismet Pasha, now known as Ismet Inonu, since 1938 the president of the "new" Turkey. Ismet Bey, as he was earlier called was a member of the ruling Ittihad party, and as captain of the ofiicial staff of the second division of the Turkish Army had taken part in the Congress of Edirne of 1914. which made the fateful decision concerning the extermination of the Armenian people. It was later as

217 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

Ismet Pasha that he scuttled the Armenian question at the Lausanne Conference in the early 'twenties; and still later as Ismet Inonu that he had the remains of Talaat Pasha, Turkish premier in World War I and one of the two men most responsible for the Armenian massacres, brought back to Turkey from Germany in state. Talaat, who had been officially recognized by a German Court at the end of World War I as a public criminal, at the trial of his assassin who was set free without prejudice, was form- ally declared a hero of the "new" Turkey by this president of the Turkish Republic. Others who took part in the Congress of Edirne were Teoof Bey and Fethi Bey, both of whom served as prime ministers under the new Kemalist regime; Yousuf Kemal Bev, Bekir Sami Bey, and Tushdi Aras Bey, all of whom served as ministers for foreign affairs under Kemal; and men like Saracoglu and Menemencioglu, whose terroristic activities against the Armenians have been characterized as surpassing anything to be found in the annals of Jengiz Khan and the invading Mongols. It was under these men led by Mustafa Kemal that, between the Armistice of Mudros, October 30, 1918, and the Treaty of Lausanne, July 23, 1923, another one hundred thousand Armenians were slain in the Caucasus, western Anatolia, Syria and Cilicia. These men also tried to dispose of the large minority of Greeks in Anatolia through massacre, deportation, and population exchange. Several years later the deadly wrath of these men was poured on the Kurds, their co-religionists, at which time, according to some authorities, as many as one million perished. This number may include the destruction of the Christian Ass3Tians and of other smaller minority groups in eastern Anatolia. Meanwhile the Turkish policy of genocide has continued to date in the form of what 'may be referred to as a white massacre, an enforced assimilation of all the remaining minorities in Turkey. The result is that Turkey today, according to a public declaration of one of its officials, has the smallest "minorities" population in all of Europe. Obviously the Turkish crime of genocide against the Armenians inflicted a serious blow to world civilization, economically, politically, culturally and spiritually, because of the unsteady conscience and irresolute will of men and nations during the years which followed the first World War, who vascillated endlessly between the desire to implement law and order in international relations, on the one hand, and the urge to pursue imperialist interests through power politics, on the other hand. history be allowed to repeat itself by a second less justifiable failure to punish•^iJ^i'Jl*^ the criminals of past genocides and to establish the necessary instruments that may prevent the commission of the same crime against other peoples in the future? ine ratification of the Convention by the United States will go far In strengthening me lorces which are attempting to deal with this problem effectively.

The holocaust of the second World War once more awakened the conscience of organized society and set the stage for the further development of an international legal and judicial morality. All who took part in the struggle against the Axis promised that war criminals who violated generally accepted international law and committed crimes against civilian populations would meet stern punishment. As early as 1943 the heads of the governments of the United States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain proclaimed in their declaration that those guilty of such crimes would be hunted to the ends of the earth and brought to justice. When the United Nations was first organized at San Francisco in 1945, it incor- porated in its Charter the provisions making respect for personality and protection of human rights, irrespective of race, language, religion or sex, a special province of tlie new organization, and provided for the creation of the Commission on Human Rights. On October 1, 1946, with the sentences handed down in Nuremberg the international community took action for the first time in history to punish men who had committed "crimes against humanity," thus recognizing that such crimes were of international concern. The United States also recognized the event as of epochal significance, when its official representative, Mr. Justice Jackson declared that the Nuremberg trials found this country and her allies "at one of those rare moments when the thought and institutions and habits of the world have been shaken by the impact of world war on the habits of countless millions. Such occasions rarely come and quickly pass. We are put under a heavy responsibility to see that our behavior during this unsettled period will direct the world's thought toward a firmer enforcement of the laws, of international

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conduct, so as to make war less attractive to those who have governments and the destinies of the peoples in their power." Shortly after the Nuremberg sentences the United Nations took a distinct official step with respect to genocide. On December 11, 1946, the General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring that the "denial of the right of existence of entire human groups shocks the conscience of mankind . . . and is contrary to moral law and the spirit and aims of the United Nations;" and that the "punishment of the crime of genocide is a matter of international concern." Genocide, it held, "is a crime under international law which the civilized world condemns, and for the commission of which principals and accomplices—whether private individuals, public officials, or statesmen, and whether the crime is committed on religious, racial, political or any other grounds—are punish- able." The resolution further recommended international cooperation to facilitate the prevention of genocide and punishments for its perpetrators, assigning to the Economic and Social Council the task of drawing up a draft agreement on the subject. The terms of this resolution were embodied in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide which, as Your Honors know, was passed by the General Assembly on December 9, 1948 by a vote of 55 to with no abstentions. As such the Genocide Convention represents the consensus of the international community. The Convention on Gencoide is one of the first efforts of the international community to develop principles set forth during the Nuremberg proceedings as a permanent part of the law of nations; with this difference that whereas the decisions made at the Nuremberg trials refer only to war-time acts, the convention extends genocide as a crime in peacetime, and thus places on a more universal foundation the international structures against mass murder against national, ethnic and religious groups. Such being the case, the ratification of the Convention would enhance the moral leadership of the United States in international relations. It has already been so argued before this sub-committee on January 23 of this year by Deputy Undersecretary of State Rusk, who argued on behalf of the State Department the ratification already endorsed by President Truman. "The Senate of the United States," he said, "by giving its advice and consent to the ratification of the Convention, will demonstrate to the rest of the world that the United States is determined to maintain its moral leadership in international affairs and to participate in the development of international law on the basis of human justice."

IV We have already discussed the question of the effectiveness of the Convention from the negative standpoint of the serious consequences in the absence of such an international instrument. Since one of the major attacks on the Convention has been the argument that it is not an effective instrument for the prevention and punishment of genocide, may we direct your attention to those specific measures in it which discredit that argument. The Convention as it stands today will be a deterrent to would-be criminals of genocide, since it attempts to provide for the punishment of those who would violate this most basic of human rights, namely, the right of peoples to live. The Convention makes it clear that persons committing any of the acts which go under the official definition of genocide will be punished "whether they are constitu- tionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals," and that they will be tried by some competent tribunal of the territory in which the act was committed, or alternatively by an international penal tribunal. By specifying that genocide is an extraditable offense, the convention guarantees that no criminal committing genocide will be able to obtain asylum in any country of the signatories. Henceforth it will not be possible for people guilty of the crime of genocide to be at large, without the apprehension that the organized will and judicial machinery of international society has condemned them as public criminals subject to punishment in due time. The Convention binds the contracting states to pass the necessary legislation to give effect to its provisions, especially to provide effective penalties. It obligates these states to try persons charged with offences in their competent national court. Furthermore the states agree that the acts listed shall not be considered political crimes, and pledge to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties. In addition to such national action, the Convention also envisages trial by an. International penal tribunal should one be set up and should the contracting parties

219 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

accept its jurisdiction. Furthermore it provides that any of the contracting parties may bring a charge of genocide, or of the other acts, before the competent organs of the United Nations and ask for appropriate action according to the Charter. If there is any dispute between one country and another on the interpretation, application, or fulfillment of the Convention the dispute must be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute. Many UN delegations have been ready and eager to implement those provisions of the Convention that relate to international jurisdiction at an early date. Wahid Fikry Raafat of Egypt, in his comments on the occasion of the passage of the Conven- tion, referred to this clearly when he said: "We continue to fesl with a number of other delegates that, in order that punishment of genocide may be effected, it is necessary for the most dangerous culprit to be convinced beforehand that, even if he could escape the judgment of a national court, he cannot escape the judgment of an international tribunal which will be impartial." While the Convention will be binding only upon those states which have accepted it, nevertheless by establishing an international standard and by recognizing the principle of international responsibility, its jurisdiction may ultimately extend beyond that of the nations which ratified it. The ratification of the Convention by all governments and the eventual development of an international judiciary to deal effectively with the practice of genocide will also remove the possibility of the political exploitation of this crime by individual states or a special grouping of states to serve their nationalistic or imperialistic interests, at the expense of the ultimate breakdown of international law and the peace of the world. Dr. Herbert V. Evatt, the president of the UN General Assembly at which the convention outlawing genocide was adopted, told the Assembly that while endeavors occasionally had been made in past centuries "to preserve human groups from destruction through so-called humanitarian interventions undertaken by one nation acting usually alone," these took the form of diplomatic action, which frequently opened the governments who undertook the interventions to charges "of pursuing other than humanitarian aims." "Today," he added, "we are establishing international collective safeguards for the very existence of such human groups. Whoever will act in the name of the United Nations will do it on behalf of universal conscience as embodied in this great organization. The intervention of the United Nations and other organs which will have to supervise application of the Genocide Convetion will be made according to international law and not according to unilateral political considerations. In this field, which relates to the sacred right of existence of human groups, we are proclaiming today the supremacy of international law once and, I hope, forever."

Another serious opposition to the ratification of the Convention by the United States has risen from lawyers who are fearful that the treaty would invade the rights of individual states of the United States and may open the way to international jursidic- tion over the United States. We maintain that contrary to this apprehension the interests of the United States both at home and abroad will not be jeopardized but actually enhanced. It seems hard to believe i that any document with such highly laudable purposes should encounter any opposition in a country like the United States, where there have never been any incidents of genocide (excepting perhaps in the cases of the American Indian and of some of the worst abuses of the slaves before the Civil War). The misgivings have come from no less a body than the American Bar Association. Oddly enough, members of the Bar Association seem in their objections to have very little confidence in the judicial and political system of which they are such important main- stays. They insist that the imperfection they find in the treaty can be dealt with only by revisions or Senatorial reservations (which would, in the eyes of the world, weaken the United States' position regarding genocide), and seem unable to recognize that the diflBculties they foresee can be resolved (if, indeed, they ever arise) equally well by the Congress and courts of the United States.

IThis and the following paragraphs in this section are taken from a study of Dr. Richard N. Swift, Instructor in Government and Assistant to the Director of the Graduate Program of Studies in the United Nations and World Affairs, at New York University. Dr. Swift is also Liaison Officer of New York University to the UN. The study appeared in The Standard, organ of the American Ethical Union, February 1950, pp. 208-215, and is entitled "The International Murder Case."

220 CONCERNING GENOCIDE

The Association, for instance, would, insist on a reservation making it specific that "killing members of a group" applied to the killing of thousands of people and not just a few. Here the Association would appear to be more guilty than the United Nations of the poor draftsmanship they imply exists, because obviously more important than the numbers involved in genocide is the "intent to destroy." It is perfectly possible that 997 persons might be victims of the crime, and it seems unduly cruel to bar them the protection of the law because three few were killed. The lawyers wish to assure themselves, of course, that the execution by due process of law of a few people would not be termed genocide just because they were incidentally all members of one group, but certainly this involves a question of fact which any court is qualified to determine. Similarly there was objection to the use of the phrase "mental harm" in Article II because it might open the way to unnecessary litigation based on evidence of psycho- logical injuries rather than mental harm arising from the use of narcotic drugs. Here again, it seems diflScult to understand why the courts are not competent to interpret this Article. It is, in fact, clear from the context of the debates on the phraseology, that it is to the use of narcotic drugs (as they were employed, for instance, by the Japanese in China) that these words pertain. In interpreting this Article, any court would seek out the intent of the United Nations, just as the Supreme Court, in interpreting American law, seeks out the intent of Congress. The Association felt that prohibitions against direct and public incitement to commit genocide would be without force in the United States. On the contrary, if the United States ratified the treaty, it would become the supreme law of the land according to our Constitution, and as such, these prohibitions would apply here. What is more, it seems clear that this clause would be interpreted like other limitations upon freedom of speech, for instance by the "clear and present danger" test set forth In Schenk v. United States. The Association also asked for a definition of "complicity" in genocide, a task which might equally well be left to future judicial determination. More serious than these legal quibbles was a request by the Association that the Senate specifically state that the operative Articles of the Covenant are not self- executing in the United States, because their entrance into force would depend upon action in the field of civil rights by the individual American states. If this were a thoroughly established constitutional principle in this country, it would seem unnecessary to state it in a reservation, but actually, the United States can make treaties in areas usually thought to be within the province of the states if the subject matter of the treaty has attained sufficiently an international aspect. The Bar Association's request would seem, therefore, to be directed at securing a political judgment in this case which would negate the effect of the Convention. Southern Senators might well insist on such a reservation on general principles, inasmuch as they are reluctant for obvious reasons to see further inroads made by the federal government in the civil rights domain. That like motivations are behind the Association's recommendation seems obvious from other "objections" to the Convention raised in the course of discussion—objections that the Convention would end by removing from the states all jurisdiction over civil rights; that each death in a race riot would become an international crime; and that the United States might find itself having to protect minorities everywhere if it ratified this Convention. Actually, all of these statements are either untrue or irrelevant. The relation between the states and the federal government in the field of civil rights has been constantly changing, and it will be up to the Supreme Court when specific cases arising under the Covenant are brought before it, to decide what effect the Convention will have. No death in a race riot would be an international crime (although perhaps it should be) unless it was part of a deliberate attempt to destroy the race. Furthermore, the United States will find its relations to foreign minorities uneffected by this treaty. If the treatment of minorities becomes a matter of concern to the General Assembly, it becomes automatically a matter of concern to the United States in any case, whether we have ratified the treaty or not, and in fact, we have already concerned ourselves with the treatment of minorities in certain Balkan countries. Because of the objections it raised, the Bar Association urges the U. S. not to ratify the Convention until the Constitutional questions involved have been resolved, No one except the Supreme Court can resolve these questions, however, and the Court cannot act until cases are brought before it under the Convention. No ratification, therefore no cases; so waiting to ratify until th constitutional questions are resolvved is equivalent to waiting an indeterminate length of time for an impossible event. Actually, it Is more sound to ratify and leave it to the courts and Congress to harmonize the meaning of the treaty with our domestic laws, if, as, and when any cases do arise.

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Beneath the surface of the objections raised against the Convention seem to be fears that the agencies of international organization might some day hand down a decision which certain portions of opinion in the United States would oppose. As a matter of fact, in the case of this Convention that is most unlikely. Many of the h37pothetical cases cited by the treaty's opponents are false issues or are based on misconceptions of the international law involved, and there is no likelihood that the United States will ever find itself embarrassed because of having ratified. The critics of the Convention, however, are either unaware of or indifferent towards an important ethical issue involved in their position. This is the question of the kind of morality involved in the implicit assumpton that in specific cases the international community must constantly agree with American conceptions of what is just. Nowhere is there an admission that the United States might ever be mistaken; nowhere any indication of a willingness to submit to any judicial procedures where we are not In complete command; nowhere, certainly, (and unfortunately), any glimmer of a realiza- tion that if we are ever to have world peace, we should without a dpubt be prepared to submit to international legal procedures established and agreed to in advance without knowing what the outcome in specific instances will be; and nowhere any idea that we should be willing to change our laws, if necessary, to harmonize with the will of the international community. To accept such a point of view may perhaps require more ethical growth in the United States, but this development is certainly not a prerequisite for ratification of the Convention on Genocide. It should be enough to realize that ratification would put the United States squarely on the side of those interested in increasing the stature of international law in the community of nations by making it apply to crimes that are truly international and to individuals and governments (who can be tried) and not merely to nation-states (which are impersonal legal fictions). As democratic leaders in the world, we have the greatest responsibility to ratify the Convention. It was the United States which at Nuremberg placed itself wholly in favor of the development of international law by these methods, and it behooves us now, both in our own interest, and in the interest of the community of nations, not to reverse ourselves. Reservations can only complicate the understanding of other nations with regard to our position on this issue and the international legal situation with regard to genocide. Since our normal constitutional procedures are adequate to deal with the questions raised by the opponents of the Convention, it seems sheer folly to equivocate about our firm opposition to organized mass murder.

The ratification of the Covenant by the United States and other countries would strengthen the forces which make for law and order in human relations, both on the intra-national and international levels. As Mr. M. K. V. K. Sundaram of India has pointed out: "A convention of this character would be an effective instrument only to the extent that there is real and wholehearted support from a large number of sovereign states. It would be an easy task to draw up an ideal convention on paper, completely acceptable from one point of view, but such a convention would be worthless if it did not commend itself to many states." The question of whether or not to ratify the Convention is not one of making just a decision on another treaty, but one of commitment on the more vital question whether man is willing and capable to develop international law by legislative tech- niques. A positive yes will strengthen the United States and the cause of international government in the years ahead, for methods used in developing international law in relation to genocide later undoubtedly will be applied to other fields. A negative answer win leave no alternative but further submission to the vicious cycle of destructive wars. It will add to those subversive forces in the world which would stifie the enlightened moral conscience of humanity. Armenians, one of the peoples hardest hit from the failure to fulfill the principles of human rights, justice and freedom enunciated by the Allied diplomats during the first World War, know what it will mean to the world if more drastic action is not taken in the present post-war era than was the case in the 'twenties and 'thirties to check the murderous inclinations of those who may launch genocide against other peoples in the future. It is the earnest desire of the Armenian National Council of America that the United States, wtih its traditional regard for law and human rights, should promptly ratify the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.

222 Bibliography

JjEGINNING with this issue of Armenian Affairs an attempt will be made to publish in these pages inclusive bibliographies on various subjects in the Armenian field. The bibliography which appeared in the last issue consisted mainly of annotated references to current books and articles. Only those references will be included in the new lists for which it has been possible to obtain adequate bibliographical information by the time of publication. The new lists will be taken from an extensive manuscript collection on which the editor of this journal has been working for years. That work was recently aug- mented by an additional collection of references (constituting about one-fifth of the entire collection) contributed by Miss Nouvart Tashjian, Chief of the Catalogue Department of Washington Square College, New York University, for which grateful acknowledgment is made here. The additional material consists mainly of references to older works.

The combined collection is undoubtedly the most extensive, accurate, and

"precisely" classified reference work of its kind outside of Soviet Armenia. It is so organized as to suggest possible areas for research and study to those who wish to explore and write in the Armenian field. The following outline of one of the main divisions of the bibliography constitutes the headings under which are filed the references pertaining to the respective subjects. That, together with the references which follow, indicates the extent to which thoroughness has been attained in the preparation of the new bibliography. The same subjects will be brought up to date from time to time, when older references—left out from the present list due to insufficient bibliographical data—will be included. The Armenian Question I. The Armenian Question—general discussion and histoiy II. The Armenian Question and the West up to World War I—general discussion and history III. The Armenian Question by Countries—to date 1. Armenia and the Armenians (mainly up to the first World War) 2. Britain (to be further subdivided) 3. Denmark 4. France 5. Germany and Austria-Hungary 6. Greece 7. Holland 8. India 9. Italy 10. Kurds and Kurdistan 11. Lebanon 12. Poland 13. Russia 14. The Soviet Union 15. Switzerland 10. Tvirkey—general discussion and history a. Prior to 1908 b. From 1908 to 1913 c. After 1918 d. Atrocities—general discussion and history (1) Before 1894 (2) From 1894 to 1908

223 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

(3) In CUicia in 1909 (4) From 1914 to 1918 (5) After 1918—under Kemalist Tiirkey (6) During World War II and After. 1939- e. Genocide and Histocide

f. Pan-Turanism 17. The united States (to be further subdivided) 18. Yugoslavia IV. The Armenian Question by Special Subjects—to date 1. The Church 2. Missions 3. Repatriation 4. The Territorial Issue V. The Armenian Question During World War I and After—general discussion and history

1. Armenia and the Armenians (mainly Turkish Armenia) 2. Transcaucasia and the Armenian Republic of 1918-1920 3. The West, 1914-1926 a. Brest-Litovsk b. The Peace Conference c. Sevres d. Kars—1920 and 1921 e. Lausanne

f. The League of Nations

4. Cilicia

5. After Lausanne, 1927-1939 VI. The Armenian Question During World War II and After (Chronologically arranged) The Armenian Question—General Discussion And History

Asian, Kevork. Armenia and the Armenians from the Earliest Times Until the Great War 1914). Translated from the French by Pierre Crabites ; with a preface on the Evolu- tion of the Armenian Question by the translator. New York, The Macmilllan Co., 1920. xxix, 138 p.. This is a translation of the author's £tudes Historigues sur le Peuple Armenien. Depuis la chute royaume jusqu'd Basmadijian, K. J. Histoire Moderne des Armeniens, du Traits de Sevres (1375-1920). Les guerres Russo-Turques, les guerres Russo-Persanes, les guerres Perso-Turques, les soulevements des Armeniens, la question Armenienne. Preface par J. de Morgan. Nouvelle edition revue et augmentee. Paris, J. Gamber, 1922. X, 240 p. The earlier edition brought the subject up to 1916 and was published in 1917, same place, same publisher, viii, 174 p. Bryce, James, viscount. Transcaucasia and Ararat. Being notes of a vacation tour in the autumn of 1876. Fourth edition revised, with a supplementary chapter on the re-

cent history of the Armenian question. London, Macmillan and Co., Ltd. ; New York, The Macmillan Co., 1896, xix, 526 p. The first edition was published in 1877. Cahuet, Alberic. La Question d'Orient dans I'Histoire Contemporaine, 1821-1905. Preface de M. Frederic Passy. Paris, 1905. iii, 537 pp. Curzon, Robert, Baron de la Zouche. Armenia: A Year at Erzeroom, and on the Frontiers of Russia, Turkey, and Persia. Third edition. London, 1854. A later edition appeared in London in 1911. Dillon, Emile Joseph. "The Condition of Armenia." Contemporary Review, London, 1895, LXVII, 153-189. Driault, Edouard. La Question d'Orient. Depuis ses origins jusqu'a nos jours. Preface de M. Gabriel Monod. 5. ed. rev. et cor. Ouvrage recompense par I'lnstitut. Paris, F. Alcan, 1912, xv, 407 p. Bibliotheque d'Histoire Contemporaine. 6. ed. mise au courant des demiers evenements. Paris, Alcan, 1914, xv, 411. 7 ed mise au courant des derniers ev6nements (1916). Paris, F. Alcan, 1917, xv, 432 p. 8. ed. entierement refondue. Paris, F. Alcan, 1921. xv, 470 p. 224 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Driaiilt, Edouard. La Reprise d'Orient, 1918-1937. La paix de la Mediterrande. Paris, F. Alcan, 1938. xvi, 538 p. lUus, maps. Bibliotheque d'Histoire Contemporaine. Driault, Edouard. La Reprise de Constantinople et VAlliance Franco-Russe. Paxis, F. Alcan, 1915. 48 p. "Cette etude a paru dans la Revue des Etudes Napoleoniennes, Mai-Juin 1915." Includes discussion on the Orient after the Turkish invasion, and the crisis from 1878-1913. Filian, George H. Armenia and Her People: or. The Story of Armenia by an Armenian. Hartford, Conn., American Publishing Co., 1896. xx, 21-376 p. lUus., map. Gabrielian, Mugurdich Ghojhauji. Armenia, a Martyr Nation. A historical sketch of the Armenian people from traditional times to the present tragic days. New York, Chicago [etc.] Fleming H. Revell [cl918]. 352 p. Map. GauUs, Georges. Les Questions d'Orient. Paris, Librarie de "Pages Libres," 1905. 126 p. Etudes sur la Politique Exterieure des Etats. No. 3. Bibliography, pp. 125-126. Gianini, Amedeo. L'Ultima Fase della Questione Orientale (1913-1932). Roma, Institute per rOriente, 1933. 7-416 p. Maps. Bibliography, pp. 9-10. Hepworth, George Hughes. Through Armenia on Horseback. New York, E. P. Dutton and Company, 1898. xii, 355 p. Map. The Land of Ararat: or. Up the Roof of the World. By a special correspondent. London, Eden, 1893. 348 p. Illus., map. L6art, Marcel. La Question Armenienne a la Lumiere des Documents. Paris, A. Challamel, 1913. 76 p. Map. MacCoU, Malcolm. Memoirs and Correspondence. Edited by George W. E. Russell. London, Smith, Elder and Co., 1914. 407 p. Chapter on Armenia, pp. 139-214. Macler, Frederic. "Comment a Vecu I'Armenie Depuis 1896." La Vie, January 1, 1920, p. 7. Macler, Frederic. La Nation Armdnienne. Son passe, ses malheurs. Avec une carte dessinee par Raphael Chichmanian. Paris, Fischbacher, 1924. 110 p. Moyne, Walter Edward Guinness. Impressions of Armenia. London, The Armenian Bureau, 1918. See also the National Review, l^ondon, 1914, LXLII, 789-801. Ramsay, Sir William Mitchell. Impressions of Turkey during Twelve Tears' Wanderings. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons; London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1897. xvi, 296 p. Rohrbach, Carl Albert Paul. "A Contribution to the Armenian Question." Forum, New York, 1909, XXIX, 481-492. Sarkissian, Arshag Ohan. History of the Armenian Question to 1885. Urbana, The University of Illinois Press, 1938. 151 p. Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, vol. XXII, nos. 3-4. University of lUinois Bulletin, vol. XXXV, no. 80. The first six chapters were submitted as thesis at the University of Illinois in 1934, of which there is a published abstract, Urbana, 111., 1934. 8 p. [Terhune, Mrs. Mary Virginia (Hawes).] Home of the Bible. A Woman's Vision of the Bible Land. ... By Marion Harland [pseud.] [With] The Thrilling Story of Armenia.

. . . by G. H. Sandison. Philadelphia, Historical Pub. Co., [c.l896]. 446 p. Illus. Thoumaian, G. Patmutiun Arevelian Khendro yev Aratchnord Haikakan Hartsi [History of the Eastern Problem and Guide to the Armenian Question]. London, 1905. 368 p. Tupper, Henry Allen. Armenia: Its Present Crisis and Past History. Baltimore, New York, J. Murphy and Company, 1896. 182 p. Varandian, Mikael. L'Arminie et la Question Armenienne. Avec une preface de Victor Berard. Laval, Impr. Moderne, G. Kavanagh et Cie., [pref. 1917]. 115 p. Published under the auspices of the Armenian Delegation at the Paris Conference, 1919. Vertanes, Charles Aznakian. Armenia Reborn [New York], Armenian National Council of America, [1947]. xxii, 216 p. Illus. map. Bibliography, pp. 180-195. Vogel, Charles and Coumryantz, A. Le Peuple qui Souffre. L'Armenie, ses origine, son passe, son avenir? Preface par Jean Jullien. Paris, Dorbon Aine, [1917]. xiii, 15-110 p. Williams, William Llewelyn. Armenia: Past and Present. A study and a forecast. With an introduction by T. P. O'Connor, M.P. London, P. S. King and Son, Ltd., 1916. xi, 211 p. Wintle, W. J. Armenia and its Sorrows. 2d ed., with an additional chapter, bringing the record down to September 1896. London, A. Melrose, [pref. 1896]. 120 p. lUus., map. The Armenian Question and the West—Up to World War I General Discussion and History (See also under "The Armenian Question by Countries.") Akunian, Use (Levien). [Use Frapan-Akunian, pseud.] Die Armenische Frage und das Europdiiche Gewissen. Genf, 1903. 32 p. 225 ;

ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

Apcar, Diana Agabeg. Betrayed Armenia. Yokohama, Japan Gazette Press, 1910. 77 p. Apcar, Diana Agabeg. In His Name. Yokohama, Japan Gazette Press, 1911. 5-52 p. Apcar, Diana Agabeg. The Peace of Europe. N. p., [1913]. 2-6 p. Apcar, Diana Agabeg. Peace and No Peace. Yokohama, Japan Gazette Press, 1912. 101 p. Apcar, Diana Agabeg. The Peace Problem. Yokohama, Japan Gazette Press, 1912. 131 p. Apcar, Seth A. MSmoire sur la Situation Actuelle des Armeniens et sur leur Avenir, etc London, 1876. 12 p. . . , Arakelian, H. La Question Armenienne au Point de Vue de la Paix Untverselle. Rapport au Congres sur I'etat actuel des Armeniens en Turquie. Geneve, 1901. 63 p. Argyll (Eighth Duke of), George Douglas Campbell. The Eastern Question from the Treaty War. of Paris 1856 to the Treaty of Berlin 1878, and to the Second Afghan London, Strahan and Co., [1879]. 2 vols. Bierstadt, Edward Hale. The Great Betrayal. A survey of the Near East problem. Foreword by Edward Capps. London, Hutchinson and Co., 1924. 345 p. Maps. Also published in New York, R. M. McBride, 1924. 345 p. Charmetant, Felix. L'ArmSnie Agonisante et I'Europe Chretienne. Appel aux chefs d'etat. Paris, Bureau des Ouvres d'Orient, 1897. 32 p. Gabriel, M. S. Christian Armenia and the Christian Powers. An address to American churches. New York, 1897. 32 p. Gregory, Daniel Seely. "The Armenian Crisis in the Eastern Question. The Armenian crisis and massacres." In his The Crime of Christendom: or. The Eastern Question. From its origin to the present time. New York, The Abbey Press, [cop. 1900]. vi, 330 p. Maps. Holland, Sir Thomas Erskine. The European Concert in the Eastern Question. A collection of treaties and other public acts, ed. with introduction and notes by Thomas Erskine Holland. Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1885. xii, 366 p. International Conference on the Situation in the Near East, London, 1904. Report of the International Conference on the Situation in the Near East, Held in London 29th June, 1904. [Lodon, Alexander and Shepherd, Ltd.], 1904. 64 p. Included, in addition to

the report, preface by James Bryce and F. S. Stevenson ; note on the English move-

ment, by H. W. Massingham ; note on the historical background, by H. N. Brailsford and a brief account on the then recent massacres, by G. R. Malloch. The conference was held under the auspices of the International Eastern Question Association. Laurent, J. "Les Origines Medievales de la Question Armenienne." Revue des Etudes Arini- niennes, Paris, 1920, I, 35-54. Lepsius, Johannes. Armenien und Europa. Eine anklageschrift wider die Christlischen gross- mSchte und ein aufruf an das Christlische Deutschland. Berlin. W. Faber, 1896. 245 p. Lepsius, Johannes. Armenia and Europe. An Indictment. Ed. by Rendel Harris. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1897. xxii, 331 p. Translated from the German. Lynch, Harry Finnis Blosse. "The Armenian Question: Europe or Russia?" Contemporary Review, London, 1896, LXIX, 270-276. MacColI, Malcolm. The Sultan and the Powers. London, Longmans, Greene and Company, 1896, xvi, 308 p. The first half of this book is comprised of revised articles contributed to the Daily Chronicle during September and October of 1896. There is also a French translation of the work: Le Sultan et les Grandes Puissances. Tr. de I'Anglais par Jean Longuet, preface d'Urbain Gohier. Paris, F. Alcan, 1899. xvi, 247 p. Manifestations Franco-Anglo-Italiennes. Pour VArminie et la Macedoine: MM. M. Berthelot, Charmetant, etc. Preface de Victor B6rard, introduction de Pierre Quillard, rapport de Francis Pressense. Paris, Societe Nouvelle de Librairie et d'fidition, 1904. vi-xxx, 319 p. Medlicott, William Newton. The Congress of Berlin and After. A diplomatic history of the Near Eastern settlement, 1878-1880. With three maps. London, Methuen and Company, Ltd. [1938]. xii, _ 442 p. Illus. Bibliography, pp. 420-427. Quillard, Pierre. Pour I'Armenie. Memoire et dossier, Paris, [1902]. 167 p. Cahiers de la Quinzaine, ser. 3, cahier 19. Includes "Docmnents Annexes" and extracts from Pro Armenia, pp. 101-162. Bibliography, pp. 4, 163-166. Rolin-Jacquemyns, Gustave Henri Ange Hippolyte. Armenia, the Armenians, and the Treaties. Tr. from the Revue de Droit International et de Legislation Comparie, Brussels, and revised by the author. London, J. Heywood, 1891. xvii, 104 p. Schopoff, A. Les RSformes et la Protection des Chretiens en Turquie, 1673-1904. Firmans, b6rats, protocoles , . . lois memorandums, etc. Paris, Plon-Nourrit et Cie.,' 1904. ii.' 645 p. Shupp, Paul Frederick. The European Powers and the Near Eastern Question, 1806-1807. New York, Columbia University Press; London, P. S. King and Son, Ltd., 1931. 576 p. Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, ed. by the facuUy of political science of Columbia University, no. 349. Issued also as a Ph.D. thesis of Columbia University. Bibliography, pp. 559-565. 226 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Publications Received Khachatur Abovian. Rany Armenii [Wounds of Armenia]. M. Abeghian Literary Institute of the Armenian Academy of Sciences. Yerevan-Moscow, Hai-pet-hrat, 1948. 7-321 p. (Russian). American Journal of Archeology, January 1950, vol, LIV, no. 1. 96, [17] p. Published by the Archeological Institute of America, Cambridge, Mass. Babken Arakelian. Haikakan Patkerakandaknere IV-VII Bareroum [Armenian Reliefs of the Fourth to the Seventh Centuries]. Yerevan, Publication of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1949. 119, [52] p. Institute of the History and Theory of Art of the Armenian Academy of Sciences. Armenian Guardian, New York. Monthly in English published by the Armenian Church Youth Organization of the Diocese of the Armenian Church in North America. Armenian Tribune, New York. English weekly for Armenian youth. Published by the Ar- menian Youth of America. Armenian Mirror-Spectator, New York. English weekly for Armenian youth. Published by the Baikar Association, Inc. Atanassian, A. Temoignages sur I'Origine des Armeniens. Preface par H. Turabian. Paris, Impr. Turabian, 1945. 61 p. Baikar [Struggle], Boston. Armenian daily, organ of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party. A. A. Bedikian. Jrag. [Lamp]. Book II. New York, 1948. 186 p. M. M. Chamalian Publica- tion Fund, Armenian Evangelical Church of New York. Eleventh to fifteenth combined volumes of the "Jrag" periodical leaflet. A. Bakikhanov. Sbornik Statei po Istorii Azerbaidzhana [A Collection of Articles on the History of Azerbaijan]. Part I. Baku, Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, 1949. 5-312 p. (Russian). [British Museum.] Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, etc., in the British Museum. Part II. (50 Plates.) Printed by order of the Trustees. London, Oxford University Press, 1896. Bulletin of the Near East Society, New York, January 1949 to June 1950, Vol. Ill, nos. 1 to 6. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, vol. XIII, part 2, 1950. iii, 265-550 p. Chahagir [Torch Bearer]. Monthly organ of the Armenian Evangelical Union of California. Gherepnin, L. V. Ruskie Feodalnye Arkhivi XIV-XV Vekov [Russian Feudal Archives of the XIV-XV Centuries]. USSR Academy of Sciences, Institute of History. Moscow- Leningrad, USSR Academy of Sciences, 1948. 472 p. (Russian.) Y. A. Cosminsky. Mitchin Dareri Patmoutiun [History of the Middle Ages]. Textbook for the sixth and seventh grades of intermediate schools. Authorized by the Ministry of Education of the Armenian SSR. Yerevan, Hai-pet-hrat, 1950. 396 p. lUus., maps. Institute of History of the Armenian Academy of Sciences. Vahram Dadrian. Hing Taterakhagher yev Tservadz Edcher [Five Plays and Scattered Pages]. Boston, Haig H. Toumayan Press, 1950. 350 p. $2.00. Drvagner Haikakan Teghernen yev Veradzenount [Chapters from the Armenian Tragedy and Rebirth]. Report on the 1915 massacres from European, American and Armenian sources. Paris, Imprimerie H. Turabian, 1947. 205 p. The Eastern Churches Quarterly, Ramsgate, England, Spring 1950, vol. VIII, no. 5. Eritassard Hayastan [Young Armenia]. New York. Bi-weekly organ of the S.D. Hunchakian Party. Forward Through the Ages. Annual report of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for the year 1949. Boston, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. 136 p. Boghos Gadarigian. Maradz Djragner {Havav Gugheen Yegherne) [Lights That Have Gone Out (The Tragedy of the Village of Havav)]. New York, Gotchnag Press, 1950. 136 p. The Genocide Convention. Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Eighty-first Congress, Second Session on Executive O. The International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, January 23, 24, 25 and February 9, 1950. Washington, D. C. United States Prmting Office, 1950, v. 555 p. Geroicheski Kavkaz [The Heroic Caucasus]. From Opinions of Historians and Annalists Heroism of the People of tn^o* o=^ the Caucasus. Institute of History. Baku, Az-Fan. iy4J. 35 p. Azerbaijan Affiliate, USSR Academy of Sciences. (Russian.) Gotchnag [Church Bell], New York. Independent Armenian weekly. Great Britain and the East. London, June and July 1950, vol. LXVI, nos. 1809 and 1810.

227 ARMENIAN AFFAIRS

V. A. Grekov. Krestyane Na Rusi [The Peasantry in Russia]. From ancient times to the XVII century. Moscow-Leningrad, USSR Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, 1946. 961 p. (Russian). M. Gorki. Terkeri Zhoghovadzou [Collected Works]. Ed, by Simak, Arazi and H. Mekrtichian. Vol. V. Yerevan, Hai-pet-hrat, 1950. 598 p. Grigor of Akanc. "History of the Nation of the Archers (The Mongols). Hitherto ascribed to Maghak'ia the Monk. The Armenian text, edited with an English translation and notes by Robert P. Blake and Richard N. Frye." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Yenching Institute, December 1949, vol .XII, nos. 3 and 4. pp. 269-399. Pages 400-443 consists of an article by Francis Woodman Cleaves, "The Mongolian Names and Terms in the History of the Nation of the Archers, by Grigor of Akanc'." Groong [Crane], Philadelphia. Independent Armenian and English weekly. Haikakan SSR Constitutsia [Armenian SSR Constitution]. Syllabus for the Intermediate School. Yerevan, Hai-pet-hrat, 1949. 112 p. H. Hairapetian and A. Bloozian. Maireni Lezoo. Entertsaran. (The Mother Ton^e. Reader). For the first grade. Authorized by the Ministry of Education of the Armenian SSR. Yerevan, Hai-pet-hrat, 1950. 122 p. Hayastanyaitz Tegeghetzy [The Armenian Church], New York. Official organ, monthly, of the Diocese of the Armenian Church in North America. Hoosharar [The Prompter], New York. Monthly organ of the Armenian General Benevolent Union. International Affairs, London. AprU and July 1950, vol. XXVI, nos. 2 and 3. Quarterly published by the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Interpretation. A Journal of Bible and Theology, Richmond, Va. April 1950, vol. IV, no. 2. 131-256 p. The Journal of Bible and Religion, April and July 1950, vol. XVIII, nos. 2 and 3. Published by the National Association of Biblical Instructors. Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, London, April 1950, vol. XXXVII, part II. 110-216 p. Khronika Muhameda Takhira Al-Karakhi [Chronicles of Mohammed Takhir Al-Karakhi]. Institute of Eastern Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow-Leningrad, Publication of the USSR Academy of Science, 1946. 21, 311 p. About the Dagestan wars in the period of Shamil. Levon Kazanjian. Veradzenount Van-Vaspurakani [Renaissance of Van-Vaspurakan]. Cul- tural Golden Age (1850-1950). Boston, Toumayan Brothers, 1950. 325 p. Lraper [Herald], New York. Armenian tri-weekly, organ of the Armenian Progressive League of America. Colonel Robert R. McCormick. Turkey. An address, March 25, 1950, broadcast over WGN, WGNB and the Mutual Broadcasting System. 5 p. Y. A. Manandian. Kratki Obzor Istorii Drevnei Armenii [A Short Survey of the History of Ancient Armenia]. Moscow-Leningrad, Publication of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1943. 55 p. (Russian). Bishop Sion Manoogian. Hat Terusaghem [Armenian Jerusalem]. Boston, Baikar Press, 1948. 175 p. lUus. Bishop Sion Manoogian, Khorhourt Vardanants [Meaning of Vardanants]. Boston, 1946. 62 p. Bishop Sion Manoogian. Loosashogh Demker yev Kyank yev Khorhourt [Radiant Personal- ities and Life and Mystery]. Boston, Haig H. Toumayan Press, 1949. 163 p. Dikran Megount (Dikran Spear). Hisnamyak Hai Yeritsakan Tekeghetsvo [Jubilee of the Armenian Presbyterian Church], 1898-1948. Weehauken, N. J. 1950. 64 p. Vartan Melkonian. Seventh Heaven. Reflections and Humour. Basra, [Iraq], The Times Press, 1947. 25 p. Vartan Melkonian. Tour Oriental Polyglossary. Beirut, Lebanon, The Press of Loussartsag, 1943. 79 p. Zareh Melkonian. Terdchankutiun. Kertvadzner, 1947-1950 [Happiness. Essays]. Beirut, Lebanon, Der Sahagian Press, 1950. 143 p. Publication of Ani monthly, no. 2. $1.00. Levon Mesrop. Kakhardogh Lire yev Nergaghtogh Dsin [The Bewitching Mountain and the Repartriating Horse]. Paris, B. Elekian Press, 1949. 396 p. 550 franks, or 20 shillings, or $2.50. N. N. Miklukho-Makla. Djanaparhordoutiunner [Journeys]. Translated by S. Soukiasian. Yerevan, Hai-pet-hrat, Division of Youth and Children's Literature, 1950. 399 p. Illustrations by V. Milashevski. (To be continued)

228 The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem A Photographic Study By the Very Reverend Serovpe Manoukian Dean of the Armenian Seminary in Jerusalem

PRECIOUS MITER AND VAKAS OF SHEGHTAYAKIR

(See note on page [242] of this pictorial supplement)

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem has a history of more than fifteen hundred years. Throughout this period it has enjoyed equal rights in the ownership of the Holy Places with the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. During these centuries the city of Jerusalem has seen the rule of the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Crusaders, the Ottoman Turks, the British, and at present of the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. As each successive rule has given way to the other, as a result of wars, invasions and revolu- tions, the Armenian and the other religious communities in the city have been subjected to uncertainty as to their rights and properties. The recent termination of the British mandate over Palestine and the conflict which followed between Arabs and Jews for its possession, have not been an excep- tion to this historic pattern. The resulting present unnatural situation of Jerusalem and the uncertainties concerning the future of its administration are responsible for the state of flux of the Armenian and the other patriarchates of the city, especially as regards their status and their economic interests.

*As a complement to this photographic study will appear in a later issue of Armenian Affairs a brief history of the Patriarchate by Serovpe Vardapet. The pictures in this section (Continued on last page) The Cathedral of St. James is built on the site of the house of St. James, the brother of Our Lord and the first bishop of Jerusalem. The throne to the left in the picture surmounted by an onion-shaped cupola represents St. James' Throne. The modest throne to the right, below, is the one ordinarily used by the Patriarch. St. James' Throne is an object of reverence. Once a year, on the occasion of the feast of St. James, His Beatitude the Patriarch ascends this apostolic chair, and remains there from the "Gloria in Excelsis" to the end of the service, at the conclusion of which he receives the obeisances of the Brotherhood with the ceremonial kissing of his hand. The only other time this ceremony is repeated is on the occasion of the enthronement of a new Patriarch. FRONT OF THE BEMA AND CHANCEL

In the 1640's Catholicos Philippus Agh- baketsi visited Jerusalem, when he had the entire chancel decorated with beautiful mosaics, while the front of the bema (the elevation at the end of the chancel) with frescoes of Persian style. Both are works of exceptional taste and delicate artistry, which have been skil- fully blended with the porcelain walls, old paintings and gilt altars of the sanctuary.

THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY ARCHANGELS

The residence of Annas, the highpriest of the time of Christ, where Jesus was taken and imprisoned for a while. The olive tree to which our Lord was bound and beaten with stripes still exists, for which reason the natives call it Der-el- Zeitoun [Monastery of the Olive-tree]. It is the parish church of the Armenians in Jerusalem; and within the walls of its grounds live more than fifteen Sisters of the Monastery. ''S~?^^k^^hr-* THE PRINCIPAL ALTAR

The principal altar of St. James Cathedral, exquisite in beauty and grandeur, decorated with carvings in hardwood, and gilded throughout, the work of the great Patriarch, Sheghtayakir, in 1750,

THE CHAPEL OF GELKHADIR

The Chapel is built within the south wall of the Cathedral. To the left is the entrance that leads to the Chapel of St. Minass, where the vestments and other treasures of the Monastery are kept. These two chapels are the oldest parts of the Monastery. The door of the Chapel of Gelkha- dir is lavishly decorated with mother of pearl, and is a rare example of the best Oriental art of its kind.

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION IN BETHLEHEM ^

Christmas is celebrated in Jerusalem on January 6, according to the old calendar, (Jan. 19 according to the nev\^ calendar.) The day before, at ten o'clock, the great bell of St. James Cathedral in Jerusalem peals, and the entire Brotherhood starts for Bethle- hem in an immense procession of car- riages, led by six armed gendarmes, in honor of the Patriarch, who is received at the public square in Bethle- hem by a large multitude and government ofhcials. The picture represents the procession in 1950, met by the Arab Legion. After the all-night service, the Brotherhood and the pilgrims return to Jerusalem in procession, '

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f^s> r» • CLASS OF DEACONS

', •; * : i The class of deacons of the Patriarchate (1924-1930) who studied as beneficiaries of the five-year scholarships established by the late Badrig Gulbenkian. In the front row, center, is Patriarch Yeghishe Tourian; to his right is Bishop Papken, later Coadjutor Catholicos of Cilicia; to his left is Patriarch Mesrob, then dean of the Seminary of the Patriarchate; next to the latter is Canon Bridgeman of the Episcopal Church in America. In the middle of the second row is Patriarch Cyril II, then sub- dean of the Seminary. To his right is Bishop Sion; to whose right, Zgon Vardapet. The first deacon on the extreme left of the same row is the Very Rever- end Serovpe Manoukian, at present in the United States as Patriarchal Delegate to raise funds for the needy and the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

TWO PRICELESS CHALICES

Gold chalice of many colors, decorated by Diamond-studded gold chalice, with engrav- stippling. Gift of the Armenian colony in ings of scenes from the life of Christ. Egypt; work of Armenian goldsmiths of Smyrna.

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One of the priceless embroidered hangings of the Chapel of Gelkhadir—two angels presenting the head of the Apostle St. James in a shroud, to the Mother of God. Gelkhadir is the tomb of the head of St. James, one of the Twelve, brother of John the Evangelist, and one of the sons of Zebedee. The two brothers were known as "The Sons of Thunder." James, who was beheaded by Herod in A.D. 44, was the first of the Apostles to be martyred. The faithful brought his head to Jerusalem and buried it in the home of James the Brother of Our Lord, the first bishop of Jerusalem. The latter was buried there, too. On the site of these two graves the Armenians later built the Cathdral which commemorates their names. The Chapel of Gelkhadir and the Tomb of Tyarneghbar, the brother of Our Lord, are within the Cathedral. The two James's are the patron saints of the Armenian Patriarcliate of Jerusalem, o >>S.S CI J^

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.^ ^ S ii; OJ i> (U K G -Q OS "'^ TJ J !^ -r^ w M r1 s-i oa; P tH OJ THE TOMB OF CHRIST IN THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER

In the center of the Church cf the Holy Sepulcher is the edicule built over the Tomb of Christ, then newly hewn in the rock from where Our Lord arose. A large marble slab is placed over the tomb. The interior as well as the exterior of the edicule is decorated with images and lamps by the three main religious communities — Greek, Latin, and Armenian—which are the custodians of the principal international Christian Holy Places. The order of daily celebrations of the liturgy in the edicule of the Tomb of Christ is established as follows: the Greek Liturgy from 1:00 to 3:00 A.M., the Armenian Liturgy from 3:00 to 5:00 A.M.. and the Latin Mass from 5:00 to 7:00 A.M. THE ENTRANCE TO SOORP ASTVADZAMAYR, THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY

Soorp Astvadzamayr, in the valley of Gethsemane, where the Holy Virgin is buried, is the oldest and most imposing church edifice in Jerusalem, owned jointly by Armenians and Greeks. It is surrounded by the historic Garden of Gethsemane, part of which is the property of the Armenians, and the other part of the Greeks. On the tomb of the Virgin, which is in the center of the church, daily mass is said by the Armenians and the Greeks, according to their respective rites. The Armenian, mass is celebrated by a vardapet, a member of the celibate clergy with rank below that of bishop, who visits the church for the purpose, accompanied by choristers.

EMBROIDERED BAZPAN

Embroidered and pearl-studded bazpan (cuff) worn by celebrant of mass. The writing in Armenian at the lower end of the pair of bazpans states that it was made for the use of Patriarch Hovhannes in 1171, according to the Armenian calendar, or in A.D. 1723. gg^g^^

THE CEREMONY OF THE HOLY FIRE

The ceremony held on Easter eve, when all lights in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are put out and thousands of the faithful meet at the sanctuary. The procession forms around the tomb of Christ, when an Armenian bishop and the Patriarch of thri Greeks enter the Holy Sepulcher with bundles of candles in their hands, which they light and give out as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ, after which starts the Armenian procession. The picture represents the overflow crowd from the sanctuary in the courtyard.

CHURCH OF ST. TOROS

Built within the walls of St. James Monastery by the Armenian King Leo, in memory of his son Toros, who suffered martyrdom in battle. It is a beautiful and lovely church, where four thousand Armenian illuminated manuscripts are kept. The Vardapet in the corner is the late Patriarch Cyril II, who was at one time the curator of this manuscript library. 1 X! cS CD CD 4J S H - > (U CO 4-3 ?H M a ^0 .^ g3 Sh H O be S w a CS ^ o •r' OJ !D a O ^ o P s Gj 4^ o «2 g fo hJ O t3 H g

-U -U O 4-3 -i-i ^ -tJ |JL| THE MONASTERY AT BETHLEHEM

This is the Armenian Monastery, next to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Here hve three vardapets, choristers and lay members of the Brother- hood, as custodians of the rights of the Armenians, and conduct the dail,y services. In the picture are a number of the clergy and monastics. Within the walls of the Monastery is a separate Armenian church, and accommodations for pilgrims. The Vardapet in the center of the picture who wears a cross is the great hero of Zeitoun, the mountain fastness in Cilicia where the native Armenians success- fully resisted the Turkish armies for a long time, until the tragic days of the first world war.

THE GREAT HALL OF THE PATRIARCHATE

The spacious, beautiful hall built by Patriarch Hovhannes Ismirtsi, decorated with the paintings of Armenian Patriarclis and the autographed pictures of European royalty and other dignitaries. The pictures were presented on the occasion of visits and other historic circumstances. The pictures across the hall ai'e those of King George V and Queen Max'y of England, presented in 1929 on the occasion of the jubilee of Patriarch Yeghishe Tourian. .

A GROUP OF DEACONS IN THE COURT OF THE CATHEDRAL

St. Stephen's Day is the great day of the deacons. On that occasion they put on their most elaborate vestments and conduct all the church services. The fifth from the right is Bishop Tiran, primate of the Armenian Church in North America.

KHATCHKAR

Old Armenian style khatchkar, inset in the wall of the Court of St. James Cathedral. A khatchkar is a slender, flagstone or stone slab, on which is executed decorative crosses by sculpture, and which is placed at shrines and on the tombs of notable people. The exterior and interior walls of churches in Jerusalem are decorated with similar khatchkars by the pious. Frequently the inscriptions on these stones are of great historic value. The artistic skill which they represent is sometimes of the highest quality.

(Continued from page [229] of this pictorial supplement) Diamond-studded and embroidered miter, vakas (collar worn by the Patriarch while officiating at mass) and artakhurak (headband of the same) of Patriarch Grigor Sheghtayakir (The Chain-bearer) In the 1700's, in the days of this Patriarch, the Ar- menian Monastery in Jerusalem was under Moslem rule. At that time the Monastery was in dire financial distress and the church vestments were left in security against debts. f I Patriarch Sheghtayakir, wearing an iron chain to symbolize the plight of the Monastery, visited the Armenian settlements everywhere to raise money for the Monastery. After meeting all the debts and redeeming the church vestments he repaired and further embellished the monastery and the church edifices with new gifts. The present splendid condition of St. James Cathe- dral is the fruit of his painstaking effort and delica.te taste. His chain is preserved to this day in the Cathedral. I'S^n :•

THE ENTRANCE TO THE MONASTERY

The ancient and impressive entrance to the Monastery opens on Armenian Street. The thick heavy iron gate is closed at nightfall, in keeping with the rules of the Monastery, and the keys are delivered to the Patriarch, who returns them when the doors are to open at the ringing of the church bell at daybreak.

THE COURT OF ST. JAMES CATHEDRAL

The Court of St. James Cathedral, which in the past has served as the mausoleum of Patriarchs; and the main entrance leading into the sanctuary. Pualicatian6.

of the ARMENIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL OF AMERICA

Armenia Reborn. By Charles A. Vertanes with an mtroducnon by Robert W. Searle. Armenian National Council of America, N. Y., 1947. 216 p. Cloth. 8 vo. Illustrated. Topical bibliography. Appendices. Map. Index. $3.00. Armenia Reborn contains a brief history of the Armenian people since Sumerian times; a survey of the Armenian Question from the Treaty of San Stefano to the Treaty of Lausanne; a detailed description of the achievements of the Armenian Republic since 1920; a discussion of the present status of the Armenian Question and of current efforts in its behalf. Highly recommended by church and lay leaders, including Bishop Noel Porter, Frederick L. Fagley, J. M. Dawson and L. P. Chambers. Pierre Van Paassen

characterizes it as : "highly informative and brilliantly written . . . invaluable in an understanding of the situation in a very inflammable corner of the Near Easr ... a distinct service to the Armenian people and to the triumph of justice in humanity."

The Plea of the Little People. By Dr. F. L. Fagley^ 4 p. Free. The Armenian Crisis, 1912-1914. By Roderig H. Davison^ re- printetd from the American Historical Review. 25 p. 15c. The Beginnings of Genocide. By Joseph Guttman, 19 p. 10c. An Appeal to the UN by the World Armenian Congress. 1947, 11 p. 25c. Memorandum on the Proposed Aid to Greece and Turkey. Presented to the Government of the U. S. by the A.N.C.A., March, 1947, 5 p. 15c. A Memorandum on the Armenian Question. Presented to the Council of Foreign Ministers, March 7, 1947. 22 p. 25c. At the Foot of Ararat. By Hewlett Johnson^ Dean of Canterbury, 25 p. 15c. Armenian Exhibit and Festival, 1949. With colored plates of Terlemezian's Ararat and scene from the Battle of Vartanantz, 4 p. 15c. Teghekatoo. Monthly bulletin (in Armenian) of the Armenian National

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