"Portraits of Hope - The Armenians"

I mentioned this book a while ago in one of my previous logs as being a book I was looking forward to reading. Well, I just finished it and it was well worth the time. A very readable, well written and informative book. Unfortunately, as far as I know, it is only published in German titled "Portraet einer Hoffnung - Die Armenier" edited by Huberta von Voss and published this past spring by Verlag Hans Schiler. If you happen to read German, I recommend this book.

The first part of the book consists of introductory essays on Armenia and Armenians, the genocide and the Turkish denial and a very informative essay on the role of Germany and the German army in the genocide. The third part of the book contains essays on places that are linked to the genocide and its survivors, like Musa Dagh, Deir-es-Zor, Tsitsernakaberd, the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City and the Armenian quarter in Beirut, Bourj Hammoud.

The middle part, and by far the largest part of the book is taken up by portraits of Armenians from all over the world, from all walks of life, most of whom are descendents of genocide-survivors. Most of those portrayed are Diasporans, some are locals, most are still alive, a few are not. Many famous or prominent Armenians are portrayed, such as Atom Egoyan, Charles Aznavour, Vartan Oskanian, Catholicos Karekin II, Hrant Dink, Benon Sevan and the brothers Monte and Markar Melkonian. However, a large part of the book is also devoted to portraits of "ordinary" Armenians, such as Rosita Youssefian, a teacher of Armenian in Buenos Aires (who, if I am not mistaken, participated in this site's Diaspora-log for a while some time ago), Madame Anahit, a local celebrity in Istanbul where she earned her living by playing the accordeon in the many cafe's and restaurants there (I remember watching a short documentary about her on Dutch VPRO-television several years ago) and Kharabagh-veteran Levon Arutunyan. To name just a few. While reading the essays, you don't just read about these people, you read about different partsof history and different places as well (the Armenian colony in India, the Armenian Monastery on the island of San Lazarro in Venice).

My personal favorites include the portraits of the president of the Armenian chapter of PEN Organisation Anna Hakobyan, Hrant Dink, actress and author Nouritza Matossian, Alfred and Ophelia Mouradian (an Armenian couple who ended up living in Germany and who helped Armenian POWs in Germany during the Second World War) and Levon Arutunyan, the Kharabagh-veteran. I missed one big diaspora in the book, the Armenian diaspora in Russia, but this may be due to the fact that the Genocide is the red thread throughout the book and the Russian-Armenian diaspora is more recent and economy-driven instead of genocide-driven.