Books and Articles
Taner Akçam , From Empire to Republic : Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide (Zed Books, 2004), 288 pp.
The murder of more than one million Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish government in 1915 has been acknowledged as genocide. Yet almost 100 years later, these crimes remain unrecognized by the Turkish state. This book is the first attempt by a Turk to understand the genocide from a perpetrator's, rather than victim's, perspective, and to contextualize the events of 1915 within Turkey's political history and western regional policies. Turkey today is in the midst of a tumultuous transition. It is emerging from its Ottoman legacy and on its way to recognition by the west as a normal nation state. But until it confronts its past and present violations of human rights, it will never be a truly democratic nation. This book explores the sources of the Armenian genocide, how Turks today view it, the meanings of Turkish and Armenian identity, and how the long legacy of western intervention in the region has suppressed reform, rather than promoted democracy. Taner Akçam is Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota.
Peter Balakian, Burning Tigris, The The Armenian Genocide and America's Response (HarperCollins; 2003) 496 pp.
During the United States' ascension in the global arena at the turn of the twentieth century, America's humanitarian movement for Armenia was an important part of the rising nation's first epoch of internationalism. Intellectuals, politicians, diplomats, religious leaders, and ordinary citizens came together to try to save the Armenians. The Burning Tigris reconstructs this landmark American cause that was spearheaded by the passionate commitments and commentaries of a remarkable cast of public figures, including Julia Ward Howe, Clara Barton, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Alice Stone Blackwell, Stephen Crane, and Ezra Pound, as well as courageous missionaries, diplomats, and relief workers who recorded their eyewitness accounts and often risked their lives in the killing fields of Armenia. First Chapter www.harpercollins.com/authorintro/catalog/excerpt_xml.asp?isbn=0060198400
Gary Jonathan Bass, Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals, Princeton University Press, 2000, 402 pp.
Gary Jonathan Bass, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton and a former reporter for the Economist, examines several cases: the trials of Bonapartists in 1815, trials following World War I of German war criminals and of Turks who carried out the genocide of the Armenians, the Nuremberg trials and their equivalents in Tokyo, and contemporary efforts to prosecute individuals guilty of war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Chapter One: Introduction 3 Chapter Two: St. Helena 37 Chapter Three: Leipzig 58 Chapter Four: Constantinople 106 Chapter Five: Nuremberg 147 Chapter Six: The Hague 206 Chapter Seven: Conclusion 276 Chapter Eight: Epilogue 284 http://pup.princeton.edu/chapters/s6925.html
Dadrian, Vahakn N. The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus (Providence, Rhode Island, and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995).
Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide New York : Basic Books, 2002, 384 pp.
Samantha Power, The executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Power examines how Americans have very rarely marshaled their might to stop genocide and mass terror against Armenians, European Jews, Cambodians, Iraqi Kurds, Bosnians, and Rwandans. Power writes, "Whatever America's commitment to Holocaust remembrance (embodied in the presence of the Holocaust Museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C.), the United States has never intervened to stop genocide. This book is an effort to understand why. While the history of America's response to genocide is not an uplifting one, "A Problem from Hell" tells the stories of countless Americans who took seriously the slogan of "never again" and tried to secure American intervention. Only by understanding the reasons for their small successes and colossal failures can we understand what we as a country, and we as citizens, could have done to stop the most savage crimes of the last century." Drawing upon declassified cables, private papers, exclusive interviews with Washington's top policy-makers, and her own reporting from the modern killing fields in Bosnia in 1993, Power brings a story-teller's gift for gripping narrative together with a reporter's hunger for the inside story. With the authority of one who has witnessed such atrocities herself, Power goes on to set a visionary and yet feasible agenda for how the United States might change course to prevent or halt future genocide. "A Problem from Hell" makes a riveting moral argument for why, as both great power and global citizen, we must renew our vigilance against genocide. Power's chapter on Rwanda can be read online as "Bystanders to Genocide" in the September 2001 issue of the Atlantic Monthly . Also her conclusion was published in the New York Review of Books March 14, 2002. See Genocide and America .
Jay Winter, Paul Kennedy, Antoine Prost, Emmanuel Sivan (Editors, America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915 336 pages Publisher: Cambridge University Press; (January 2004) Publisher: Cambridge University Press; (January 2004) 336 pages
The essays in this collection examine how Armenians learned of this catastrophe and tried to help its victims. Knowledge and compassion, however, were not enough to stop the killings, and a terrible precedent was born in 1915. The Armenian genocide has haunted the U.S. and other Western countries throughout the twentieth century. Contents Introduction: Witness to genocide Jay Winter Part I. The Framework: 1. Twentieth-century genocides Sir Martin Gilbert 2. Genocide in the perspective of total war Jay Winter 3. The Armenian genocide: an interpretation Vahakn N. Dadrian Part II. During the Catastrophe: 4. A friend in power? Woodrow Wilson and Armenia John Milton Cooper 5. Wilsonian diplomacy and Armenia: the limits of power and ideology Lloyd E. Ambrosius 6. American diplomatic correspondence in the age of mass murder: documents of the Armenian Genocide in the US Archives Rouben Paul Adalian 7. The Armenian genocide and American missionary relief efforts Suzanne Moranian 8. Mary Louise Graffam: witness to genocide Susan Billington Harper 9. From Ezra Pound to Theodore Roosevelt: American intellectual and cultural responses to the Armenian genocide Peter Balakian Part III. After the Catastrophe: 10. The Armenian genocide and US postwar commissions Richard G. Hovannisian 11. Congress confronts the Armenian genocide Donald A. Ritchie 12. When news is not enough: American media and Armenian deaths Thomas C. Leonard.
The Encyclopedia of Genocide, Israel W. Charny, Editor in Chief; Rouben Paul Adalian, Steven L. Jacobs, Eric Markusen, Samuel Totten, Associate Editors; Marc I. Sherman, Bibliographic Editor; Pauline Cooper, Managing Editor; Forewords by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Simon Wiesenthal; [santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 1999, Two volumes, 720p.]
Other Books
Kazarian, H. "How Turkey Prepared the Ground for Massacre." Armenian Review 18,4-72 (Winter 1965).
Bardakjian, Kevork B. Hitler and the Armenian Genocide (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Zoryan Institute, 1985).
Bryce, Viscount, preface, Arnold Toynbee, editor. The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916: Documents presented to Viscount Grey of Falladon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (London: Sir Joseph Causton and Sons, Limited, 1916).
Dadrian, Vahakn, N. German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide: A Review of the Historical Evidence of German Complicity (Watertown, Massachusetts: Blue Crane Books, 1996).
Davis, Leslie A. The Slaughterhouse Province: An American Diplomat's Report on the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917, Susan K. Blair, editor (New Rochelle, NY: Aristide Caratzas, Publisher, 1989).
Hovannisian, Richard G., editor. The Armenian Genocide in Perspective (New Brunswick, U.S.A. and Oxford, U.K.: Transaction Books, 1986).
Hovannisian, Richard G., editor. The Armenian Genocide: History, Politics, Ethics (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992).
Mazian, Florence. Why Genocide? The Armenian and Jewish Experiences in Perspective (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1990).
Melson, Robert. Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1992).
Miller, Donald E., and Miller, Lorna Touryan. Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1993).
Phillips, David L. Unsilencing the Past: Track Two Diplomacy and Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation by (Berghahn Books, New York/Oxford)
Ternon, Yves. The Armenians: History of a Genocide, Rouben C. Cholakian, translator (Delmar, NY: Caravan Books, 1981).
Vidal-Naquet, Pierre, preface, Libaridian, Gerard, editor. Crime of Silence, The Armenian Genocide: The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (London: Zed Books Ltd., 1985).
Chalk, Frank and Kurt Jonassohn, The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
Totten, Samuel, et al., Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1997.
Online bibliographies
From the database of the Armenian Research Center, The University of Michigan-Dearborn, 4901 Evergreen Road, Dearborn, MI 48128-1491.
Prepared for the Holocaust Museum by Gerald Ottenbreit, Jr., Research Assistant, under the supervision of Dr. Dennis R. Papazian, Director, Armenian Research Center, The University of Michigan-Dearborn, 4901 Evergreen Road, Dearborn, MI 48128-1491.
Revised slightly for Lucille Sarkissian, November 17, 1992. www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/facts/gen_bib1.html
June 14, 1996 www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/facts/gen_bib2.html
Reports, Research and Transcripts
June 1921 Berlin Trial of Soghomon Tehlirian (1896-1960) for the March 15 assassination of Talaat ***** (1874-1921), architect of the Armenian Genocide. Mehmed Talaat ***** (1874-1921), was the former Ottoman Minister of the Interior and principal leader of the Armenian Genocide. He had previously been convicted in absentia and sentenced to death by a Turkish Tribunal in July 1919, but Germany refused to extradite him. He was shot and killed on March 15, 1921 in Berlin by Soghomon Tehlirian (1896-1960), who immediately turned himself in to police. Tehlirian was the sole survivor of a massacre of his family during the genocide. He and his lawyers used the Berlin Court, by which he was acquitted, to in effect put Talaat's actions on trial. Tehlirian's personal trauma played a role in inspiring his actions, but he was also a part of "Operation Nemesis" a secret ring of Armenian youths which assassinated several former Ottoman leaders in the early 1920s. The trial transcipt was publiched by Armin T. Wegner (1886-1978) See armenianhouse.org/wegner/docs-en/talaat-1.html
Bryce Report 1916 THE TREATMENT OF ARMENIANS in the Ottoman Empire 1915-16 Documents presented to VISCOUNT GREY OF FALLODON Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs By Viscount Bryce (London, 1916) www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1915/bryce/ / www.cilicia.com/bryce/a00tc.htm / www.gomidas.org/books/bryce.htm
The ICTJ-TARC Report "Applicability of UN Genocide Convention to Events which Occurred During the Early Twentieth Century" Read the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) Report prepared in February 2003 for The Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Committee (TARC). The report makes a detailed legal argument supporting two positions: "The Genocide Convention does not by its terms apply to acts that occurred prior to January 12, 1951" and "Although the Genocide Convention does not give rise to state or individual liability for events which occurred prior to January 12, 1951, the term 'genocide', as defined in the convention, may be applied to describe such events." This is a 17 Page PDF file with 59 footnotes.
In the two years after it was published this report became both influential and controversial. The ICTJ-TARC report has been strongly attacked by some Armenian and some Turkish commentators, who criticize it for different reasons. Recently David L. Phillips, who chaired the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission and is Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations, has published the book Unsilencing the Past: Track Two Diplomacy and Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation (Berghahn Books, New York/Oxford) [For Phillips Bio see www.cfr.org/bio.php?id=179 ]
.Intervention and Shades of Altruism During the Armenian Genocide by Richard G. Hovannisian from “Intervention and Shades of Altruism During the Armenian Genocide.” In Richard G. Hovannisian, ed., The Armenian Genocide: History, Politics, Ethics. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992, pp. 177ff.
Rudy Brueggemann's An Armenian Journey (Oct. 2001) a photo travel journal Read his story exploring a journey through Turkey in October 2001 to document sites linked to the genocide of the Armenian people by the Ottoman Turks from 1914 to 1922. Nearly 1.5 million civilians were slaughtered in the first documented case of genocide in the 20th century www.rudyfoto.com/studiesinevil.html
Ms. Arutyunyan's May 2000 Honors Thesis in History "Treatment of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1918 in Germany throughout the 20th century" www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/arutyun/ThesisIndex.html
Commemoration
April 2005 marks the 90th Anniversary of beginning of Genocide of Armenains and Assyrians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. The anniversary will be commemorated in numerous events around the world.
Academic conferences will be held in Los Angeles, April 1-3, in Paris, April 14, in Yerevan, April 20-23 and Copenhagen, May 18-19. On April 2 California youth will begin a 19-day, 215-mile walk from Fresno to Sacramento.
On April 15, an interfaith service in Ottawa, Canada will be held in the Notre Dame Roman Catholic Cathedral. On April 20 on Capital Hill in Washington, D.C. an event will be held by the Congressional Armenian Caucus.
In San Francisco poetry and theater events from will be held from April 19 to 22. On Sunday, April 24 many events will be held in New York City and on the same day in Los Angeles a benefit concert at the Universal Amphitheatre, featuring the rock group System Of A Down. See also area events in Boston and New Jersey
Additional events are being planned in Sydney, Australia; France (or France), Lebanon, Russia and the United Kingdom For a global calendar see www.genocideevents.com for a discussion blog see RESEAUNATE.90 Also see Resources on the Armenian Genocide on this website.
Details:
215 Mile Walk in California Will Honor Victims of the Armenian Genocide - March for Humanity Campaign Marks 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide California youth will walk from Fresno California to the State Capitol starting on April 2, 2005. The 215-mile 19-day journey, titled March for Humanity, aims to raise awareness about the unpunished crime of genocide committed against the Armenian people between 1915 and 1921. Upon arriving in Sacramento, March participants, human rights activists, and Armenian American community members will gather at the State Capitol for a rally organized to thank the California State Legislature and 36 other states’ legislatures for officially recognizing the Genocide. For more information about the March for Humanity, visit www.marchforhumanity.org
UCLA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE SERIES IN ARMENIAN STUDIES http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/history/centers...t0401-0305.html After Nine Decades The Enduring Legacy of the Armenian Genocide Sponsored By: The Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History, Co-sponsored by the UCLA International Institute Center for Near Eastern Studies, Center for European and Eurasian Studies Friday, April 1, 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m., AGBU Manoogian Center [2495 E. Mountain Street], Pasadena Saturday, April 2, 9:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m., 100 Moore Hall, UCLA Sunday, April 3, 1:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m., Court of Sciences 50, UCLA
JEUDI 14 AVRIL à 19h30 UGAB / MÉMORIAL DE LA SHOAH Conférence au mémorial de la Shoah à l'occasion du 90e anniversaire du génocide arménien. Le génocide des Arméniens fait toujours l'objet d'un négationnisme d'état. Pourquoi ? Rencontre avec trois historiens : Yves Ternon, Raymond Kevorkian et Hans-Lukas Kieser. Accès : Métro : Saint-Paul ou Hôtel de Ville (ligne 1), Pont-Marie (ligne 7), Bus : 96, 69, 76, 67, Balabus, Parking : Baudoyer (place Baudoyer), Lobau (rue Lobau). Rens. : 01 42 77 44 72 Mémorial de la Shoah, 17 rue Geoffroy l'Asnier, 75004 Paris Mémorial-CDJC
An International symposium dedicated to the Armenian Genocide entitled "The 21th Century without Genocide" to be held in Yerevan April 20-23, 2005.
ARFD Youth Union organized a march from the Yerevan State University to the Yerevan EU Office on the occasion of the upcoming 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
An exhibition “Restoration of Armenia” will be opened in the historical museum of the Voronezh State University on March 28.
In Ottawa, the ecumenical service will be held in Notre Dame Roman Catholic Cathedral. Ottawa area church leaders interfaith representatives have been invited to participate in the ceremony with a prayer reading, which will also be included in the commemoration booklet. The head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ottawa His Eminence Abp. Marcel Gervais, will deliver his message ion this occasion. The diplomatic corp. and official guests have also been invited. Please join us in Ottawa, for this event, on Friday April 15 2005, at 7:30pm Notre Dame Cathedral (385 Sussex Drive).
US Congressional Caucus for Armenian Issues Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) have announced that an event devoted to the 90-th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey will be held in the Capitol Hill, the Armenian Assembly of America reported. The event will be held under the aegis of the Congressional Armenian Caucus and the Armenian Embassy in US April 20.
Film
Feature films:
Ravished Armenia (1919) Black and White Sound Mix: Silent Directed by Oscar Apfel (1878 -1938) Also Known As: Armenia Crucified (1919) (USA: working title) Auction of Souls (1919) Credited cast: Aurora Mardiganian .... Herself (as Aurora Mardijanian) Irving Cummings .... Andranik Anna Q. Nilsson .... Edith Graham Henry Morganthau .... Himself, as Ambassador
Based on the novel Ravished Armenia; the Story of Aurora Mardiganian, the Christian Girl, Who Lived Through the Great Massacres ... by Aurora Mardiganian (interpreted by H. L. Gates; New York, 1918). Summary: During World War I, the Turks accuse the Armenians of secretly supporting the Russians, and despite the pleas of American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau the Armenians are rounded up to be sent south. Families are broken up as the men and women are separated; many men are massacred; and the refugees are forced to march across the desert without food or water. At night, only those girls who are buried in the sand by older women are able to escape the "infamy" of the Turks. Against this background is told the story of Aurora Mardiganian, the daughter of a prosperous Armenian family of Harpout, in the shadow of Mt. Ararat. Passelt *****, the Turkish governor, demands her hand in marriage, but her father refuses since she would have to deny her Christian faith. Miss Graham, an English girl who teaches at the mission, feeling an obligation to her students, disguises herself as an Armenian and joins the refugees. Miss Graham and Aurora, with the aid of Andranik, a young shepherd attracted to Aurora, escape but are captured by Kurds, violated, and sold into a harem. They are sent to a slave market, after trying to escape, where Andranik buys them. They are captured again by Turks, who have pursued them into a monastery. As a warning against further escape attempts they are shown "a supreme horror--The Cult of the Germans": a long line of naked girls who have been crucified. However, they do manage to escape again, making their way to the American mission. see Anthony Slide, Ravished Armenia and the Story of Aurora Mardiganian ( Rowman & Littlefield, 1997, 240 p.
Assignment Berlin Director: Hrayr Toukhanian Produced by: Muse Pictures, Hrayr Toukhanian Genre: Drama Date: 1983 Language(s): English Length: 94 Minutes (not 1998 movie of the same name)
Forty Days of Musa Dagh (1982, 143 min. ) Page 1 of 11 Directed by Sarky Mouradian Writing credits Franz Werfel (novel) Alex Hakobian (screenplay) Michael Constantine .... Talaat ***** Peter Haskell - Maris Durand (1982)
See Richard G. Hovannisian, "The Armenian Genocide and Patterns of Denial," in The Armenian Genocide in Perspective, ed. Richard G. Hovannisian (New Brunswick and Oxford, 1986), pp. 120-21, elaborates that the 1934 filming of Werfel's novel in Hollywood by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer evoked Turkish protests. As a result, the State Department got involved, and the Turkish embassy was authorized to censor the script before filming began. Continued Turkish activities caused the film to be suppressed until 1982, when it was released by a group of private Armenian businessmen. also www.mousaler.com
Komitas 1988 Director Don Askarian www.don-askarian.am
KOMITAS (1869- 1935) One of the most renowned Armenian Churchmen and musician of modern times was Gomidas Vartabed, also known as Komitas From 1910 Komitas lived in Constantinople, where he founded the choir, "Gusan", with 300 members. They organized several successful concerts. To him the credit is due that he visited the remote regions of Armenia, where he collected the songs of the peasants. This way he preserved the memory of Armenian talk-songs for future generations. Following a concert with Armenian music in Paris, Claude Debussy said: "Had Komitas only composed the one song 'Homeless', even then he would have been a great artist". ln1915, the Turkish government realized its plan for the systematic destruction of the Armenian people, and 3/4 of the Armenian population perished (2 million victims). Komitas, in exile, witnessed the horrors of slaughter (pregnant women with bellies slit open. The rape of children, dismembered bodies, etc.). The first signs of a nervous disorder. Internment in a psychiatric hospital. Komitas found himself in a hopeless Situation: The people to which he had dedicated his entire life was almost destroyed. To this was to be added the engendering physical and Spiritual suffering to which Komitas was subjected in the psychiatric hospital. In October 1922, the mental hospital Viliejuif in Paris issued Komitas a certificate of discharge which, however was not used. He kept his memory and analytical ability. He did not compose a single note of music. All of the so-called normal humanity became disgusting for him. The most normal place for him was a psychiatric clinic. Komitas spent his 20 last years in mental hospitals. He died on October 22, 1935, at the Viliejuif. In 1936 remains of this great man was transferred to Yerevan and interred in the Pantheon. "devastated by the horrors of the 1915 massacre and spent the rest of his years in various mental institutions." emigrated from the Soviet Union to West Germany, and biographer Nune Hovhannisyan gushes, "He is perhaps the only director whose ‘purely Armenian’ films have been professionally distributed and proved financially successful in Germany, Japan, Holland and England
Ararat 2002, 115 min.) Atom Egoyan Director: Atom Egoyan Distributed by: Miramax Theatrical Release Date: November 15, 2002 (NY/LA)
This film-within-a-film follows the production of a historical epic about the holocaust (1915-1923) of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, focusing on how it changes the life of a young man working as a driver on the set. www.egofilmarts.com
Documentary films:
Dr. J. Michael Hagopian, a 37 year resident of Thousand Oaks, recently celebrated his 50th year as a documentary filmmaker. Amazingly, Hagopian survived the Armenian Genocide by being placed inside a well by his parents when their lives were in danger in 1915. Currently, Hagopian is completing The Witnesses, a film which presents the Genocide through eyewitness accounts. He has also produced several other outstanding documentaries. Where Are My People is Hagopian’s first Genocide film and the first ever produced on the subject. He made the 30-minute piece in 1965 and says the film was "a cry for help. It was like saying look what happened." The Forgotten Genocide, narrated by Armenian-American actor Mike Connors, was the second film in his series and was made in 1976 The third film Hagopian made called The Armenian Genocide, was commissioned by the State of California in 1991 and produced for use in public high schools.
Where Are My People? (1965, 28 Min) J. Michael Hagopian's classic documentary with emphasis on Armenian history - the first film ever produced on the Armenian Genocide;
The Forgotten Genocide (1976, 28 Min) The classic documentary of the first genocide of the Twentieth Century. Narrated by Mike Connors, television and motion picture star;(nominated for two Emmy Awards in production and writing)
The Armenian Genocide (24 Min) A film originally commissioned by the State of California after a nation-wide competition. Specially prepared for young people.;
Cilicia . . . Rebirth in Aleppo (30 min.), An inspiring view of how the Armenian survivors of the Genocide established a new life for themselves in Syria;
Supplement to the Forgotten Genocide (17 min) The Supplement to The Forgotten Genocide continues beyond the genocide, to the establishment of the first Armenian Republic in 1918, the Sovietization of Armenia and the rebuilding of Armenian life in Diaspora. Narrated by Mike Connors;
The Armenian Case (45 Min) The Forgotten Genocide along with the Supplement to The Forgotten Genocide comprises the contents of The Armenian Case. Narrated by Mike Connors;
Mandate for Armenia (25 Min) A rare documentary by the U.S. Army of General James G. Harbord's mission to Turkey and the Republic of Armenia in 1919;
Legacy (23 Min) depicts the work of the Armenian Film Foundation and the importance of motion pictures in telling the Armenian story. Rare sequences reveal for the first time the burning of Smyrna, Kurds living on the slopes of Mount Ararat, lost Armenian communities in the Great Syrian Desert, and selected testimonies of eyewitness survivors of the Armenian Genocide now living in North America and Australia.http://www.armenianfilmfoundation.com/films.html
Een Muur van Stilte Dutch Directed and produced by Dorothée Forma Humanistische Omroep Foundation, The Netherlands
A critically acclaimed documentary film paralleling the personal and professional lives of Turkish historian Tanar Akcam and Armenian historian Vahakn Dadrian - and their call for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The 54 - minute film was shot in Turkey, Germany, Belgium and the United States and was shown on Dutch national television.http://www.omroep.nl/human/tv/muur/W_O_S/home.htm http://www.omroep.nl/human/tv/muur/home.htm
Mr. Akcam spent a year in prison for "spreading communist propaganda" before escaping to Germany. There, influenced in part by Germany's continuing struggle to understand its history, he began to confront his own country's past. While researching the post-World War I trials of Turkish leaders, he began working with Vahakn Dadrian, a pre-eminent Armenian historian of the killings. Their unlikely friendship became the subject of a 1997 Dutch film, "The Wall of Silence."
Survivor testimonies
Sion Abajian b. 1908 "We used to eat grass."
Vahe Antreasyan 1913 "pared thanks to a Turkish family friend who took them into her own home and pretended that the boys were her sons"
Bedros Bahadourian b. 1903 "Two, three, four, five bodies on top of each other."
Garabet Bogosyan b.@1908 "One day soldiers had come and they rounded up all the men"
Kristine Hagopian b. 1906 "They raped him. Raped! Just like that. Right in front of us. And that official made us watch"
Sam Kadorian b. 1907 "I was covered with blood from the other bodies on top of me."
Shahnazar Keotahian b. 1902 "Suddenly an order was given to stop under a walnut tree."
Arpiar Missakian b. 1894 "They had mixed sand with the flour--so we ate this hard bread, and sand crunched under our teeth."
Iskouhi Parounagian b. 1897* "The loss of my mother in this way inflicted a pain of denial from which I have never recovered. For a long time, I would not speak."
Edward Racoubian b. 1906 "Of a caravan of nearly 10,000 people, there were now only some of us 300 left."
Hayastan Terzian* b. 1905 "Consul Davis saved us. Everybody else, my sisters, my maternal aunt, all of them, all of them, were deported. Our whole village was wiped out."
Lorna Touryan Miller, Donald Eugene Miller, Survivors : An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide (February 1999) Univ California Press, 1999, 274 pp.
See also the Miller's The Armenian Genocide: Survivor Interview Guide (helpful as a giude to any survivor interview) www.cilicia.com/armo10b1.html
Click here - For Survivor and Eyewitness Testimonies from other Genocides
Websites
Armenian National Institute (est. 1997) Website includes international affirmation about the Armenian genocide (statements, resolutions, proclamations, trial extracts), educational resources (how to teach about genocide, resource guides, curricula, information on video documentaries, etc.), genocide research (chronology, sample documents, photos, survey to press coverage, and guide to bibliographies). www.amermenian-genocide.org See also preparations for a Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial in Washington DC at 14th and G Streets, N.W, (two blocks from the White House) to be opened in 2008. Ross Vartian, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America and former head of the museum effort, says the Museum's purpose is twofold: Remembrance of the murder of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923; and education of visitors about genocide in an effort to prevent it from happening anywhere else in the world
The Genocide Education Project (www.GenocideEducation.org) - The Genocide Education Project is a nonprofit organization and it's mission is to help prevent genocide by assisting educators, students, and educational organizations with teaching and learning about human rights and genocide, particularly the Armenian Genocide, by developing and distributing instructional materials, providing access to teaching resources and organizing educational workshops.
TeachGenocide.org (www.TeachGenocide.org) - Site published for teachers by The Genocide Education Project where various downloadable teaching resources are available on the Armenian Genocide..
Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Documentation and Research (est. 1982, Cambridge, MA) www.zoryan.org
Armenian Research Center University of Michigan
Dearborn www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/
Center for Holocaust Studies (est 1979, Brookdale Community College Lincroft, NJ) "To be a resource for: education about historical issues of the Holocaust, genocide, elimination of racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of prejudice that damage our society; and development of outstanding programs and activities regarding these crucial human issues." The library includes books on the "Holocaust and other genocidal events in history". The center also sponsors "Armenian Remembrance Day This is our commemoration of the first genocide of the 20th century." www.holocaustbcc.org
Armenian American Society for Studies on Stress and Genocide, New York
International Executive Service Corps (IESC, est. 1964) volunteer business experts working in developing regions, including Armenia and Rwanda. In 2001 IESC joined with Geekcorps, the "Peace Corps for Geeks" - "technology volunteers enabling communities worldwide", which has a partnered with the Kigali, Rwanda firm Alphasoft, to run a database of cases being brought before Gacaca Trials.
Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) Est. in 1993 as a cooperative effort of ethnic and religious organizations that pledged to share resources, information, and to work together for the promotion of human rights in countries where Islamic extremism is dominant. The Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights represents minority religious and ethnic communities under attack by an ideological movement that is intolerant, discriminatory, racist and even genocidal: a Radical Islamist-Jihad culture. The Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights is an umbrella coalition representing various organizations from the following communities: Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Bahais, Humanist Muslims, Copts, Assyrians, Syriacs, Southern Sudanese, Maronites, Philippinos, West Africans, Ibos, Slavic Christians, Armenians, Arab Christians, Nubians, secular intellectuals, and women's groups. www.dhimmi.com
Zoryan Institute of Canada (est. 1984, Toronto, Ontario) Research centre on the Armenian Genocide www.zoryan.org A Division of the Zoryan Institute, the International Institute for Genocide & Human Rights Studies holds Intensive, Two-week Summer Institute on Genocide and Human Rights to be held in Minneapolis (July 5-16, 2004) and Toronto (Aug. 3- 13, 2004) providing 4 credits from the University of Minnesota. www.genocidestudies.org
Intensive, Two-week Summer Institute on Genocide and Human Rights to be held in Minneapolis (July 5-16, 2004) and Toronto (Aug. 3- 13, 2004) Two summer courses, providing 4 credits from the University of Minnesota, will feature world-renowned genocide scholars Taner Akçam, Joyce A. Apsel, Brent Beardsley, Frank Chalk, Vahakn N. Dadrian, Stephen C. Feinstein, Richard G. Hovannisian, Jacques Kornberg, Eric Markusen, Roger W. Smith and Gregory Stanton. The program uses a multidisciplinary approach to compare the Jewish Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide and the Rwandan Genocide, among others, with a focus on the Armenian Genocide as the archetypal genocide of the 20th Century. The courses are organized by the International Institute for Genocide & Human Rights Studies (A Division of the Zoryan Institute) www.genocidestudies.org
Peace Pledge Union (est. 1934, London) Study guide on genocide for student, teachers and parents, includes material on past genocides in NAMIBIA, ARMENIA, UKRAINE, the HOLOCAUST, CAMBODIA, GUATEMALA, RWANDA and BOSNIA www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/
www.theforgotten.org (est. 2002) Armenian Genocide education website with high bandwidth graphic, photos and film interviews with survivors and others
Imperial War Museum (London) Offers two permanent exhibitions concerning genocide: "The Holocaust Exhibition" (opened 2000) and "Crimes against humanity: an exploration of genocide and ethnic violence" examines the common features of genocides and instances of ethnic violence over the last one hundred years, including Nazi Germany, Bosnia, Cambodia, Armenia and Rwanda. www.iwm.org.uk
Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (est. 2000, Shalom College, University of New Souty Wales, Sydney, formerly Centre for Comparative Genocide Studies, est. 1993) Website includes a special "Pontian Genocide and Asia Minor Holocaust Research Unit" which collects and translates archives and eyewitness testimonies. www.aihgs.com
Shato D'Sayfo (Year of the Sword): Ottoman Genocide Against the Assyrian Nation 1915 www.aina.org/martyr.htm The Armenians lost 1.5 million, Assyrians (Chaldeans) lost 250,000 people.
