Armenian Genocide Survivor Testimonies Online Book: Summary

genocide survivor testimonies: introduction
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This is the on-line complete text of the book "The Armenian Genocide: Testimonies of the Eye-witness Survivors", generously allowed e-publication by the author, Verjine Svazlian. It is written in Eastern Armenian. If you do not have your browser configured for displaying Armenian, you should click here.

SUMMARY - AUTHOR - BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

TESTIMONIES OF THE EYE-WITNESS SURVIVORS

VERJIN SVAZLIAN

(Summary)

During the past years, interest toward the fatal events of the Armenian Genocide has grown, especially when Turkish historiographers obstinately tried to distort the true historical facts. In this respect, the popular songs and memoirs created under the immediate impression of the said events are, besides the official published documents, of an exceptional historico-cognitive value; in spite of their importance, however, they had almost not been recorded and studied until recently.

As a result of the Genocide of the Armenians in 1915, the deportation from Cilicia (1921) and the disaster of Izmir (1922), more than 1.5 million Western Armenians were exterminated, while those who were rescued and miraculously survived, remained homeless and deprived of their motherland; they were compelled to migrate and to settle in different countries of the world, creating the Armenian Diaspora as a historical reality.

After long wanderings, many of the eye-witness survivors of these tragic events have been repatriated to the Motherland from Constantinople, the Balkan countries, Greece, France, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and settled in newly-built localities symbolizing their former native cradles.

The present collection includes oral memoirs and folk songs of historical character (in Armenian and Turkish languages), which we have inscribed since 1956 in Armenia and partly in the Diaspora; they have been narrated and sung by Armenian repatriates, representatives of the senior generation of eye-witnesses, miraculously saved from the Genocide and deported from 70 localities of Western Armenia, Cilicia and Anatolia.

These factual documents truthfully depict the mobilization, the arm-collection, the mass exile, massacre and slaughter organized by the government of Young Turks, as well as the heroic self-defensive battles of Van, Sassoun, Moush, Shatakh, Shapin-Garahissar, Moussa Dagh, Urfa and later (1920-1921), of Ayntap and Hadjn.

Although the Turkish autocracy cruelly suppressed the heroic resistance started in various localities, nevertheless, the fearless Armenian heroes, who fought for their elementary human rights and for the physical survival of their nation, recorded brilliant pages in the history of the national-liberation struggle of the Armenian people.

In the process of recording the materials, we have tried to be faithful to the oral speech of our 550 narrators and to the specific dialect of their language. Some interpretations are given by special footnotes.

Besides the memoirs and songs, the collection includes also a historico-scientific introduction, where, along with the historical events, we have analysed the recorded oral folk materials (600 units), the original texts and notes of which are kept as a special fund (Verjin Svazlian Fund) in the archives of the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

The collection is provided with a glossary of foreign words and dialects, footnotes, historical map, songs accompanied by musical notes, information about the narrators and their photographs.

The present oral testimonies, which have been inscribed (written down, audio- and video-recorded) word by word, fragment by fragment in the course of 45 years, are, by reason of their originality and historical value, unique factological and documental evidences reflecting, in a simple folk language, the tragic events of the Armenian Genocide.

LE GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS

TEMOIGNAGE DES SURVIVANTS

VERJIN SVAZLIAN

(Rsum)

Ces dernires annes le problme du Gnocide des Armniens devient de plus en plus actuel, car l'historiographie turque altre obstinment les faits historiques dignes de foi. Dans cette optique, outre les documents officiels publis, une grande valeur historique et factologique s'attache aux chants folkloriques et commmoratifs, composs sous l'impression immdiate des vnements mentionns, qui n'ont jamais encore t enregistrs ni tudis.

Aprs le Gnocide de 1915, la dsertation de la Cilicie par les Armniens (1921) et la catastrophe de Smyrne (1922), lorsqu'on compte plus de 1.5 millions de victimes parmi les Armniens d'Armnie Occidentale, de Cilicie et d'Anatolie, ceux qui chappent par miracle au massacre, rests sans abri et sans patrie, sont contraints  se disperser  travers le monde en crant la Diaspora Armnienne en tant que phnomne historique.

Aprs de longues errances, ayant trouv asile  Constantinople, en Grce, en France, en Syrie, au Liban, en Iraq, en Egypte, dans les pays Balkaniques et ailleurs, nombre de ces Armniens se rapatrient ensuite en Armnie Sovitique et s'installent dans les localits nouvellement construites qui portent le nom de leur pays d'origine.

Le prsent recueil inclut les rcits commmoratifs oraux et les chants folkloriques de caractre historique de 70 localits (en armnien et en turc), composs par les Armniens dports d'Armnie Occidentale, d'Armnie Cilicienne et des provinces peuples d'Armniens d'Anatolie, reprsentants de la gnration ane des rapatris, tmoins oculaires sauvs par miracle du Gnocide, que nous avons enregistrs  partir de 1956 en Armnie et partiellement dans la Diaspora.

Ces documents factologiques sont des tmoignages authentiques des recrutements de soldats, des rassemblements militaires, des dportations en masse et des massacres organiss par les gouvernments des Jeunes Turcs, ainsi que des hroques batailles d'autodfense livres en ces jours tragiques par les Armniens de Van, Sassoun, Mouch, Chatakh, Chapin-Garahissar, Moussa Dagh, Ourfa et d'autres lieux, de mme que plus tard (1920-1921) par ceux d'Ayntap et de Hadjen.

Bien que ces mouvements de libration nationale aient t crass par l'autocratie turque, les courageux hros ayant combattu pour les droits lmentaires de l'homme et l'existence physique de la nation ont brill d'un clat sans pareil dans l'histoire de la lutte de libration nationale du peuple armnien.

En enregistrant ces sujets, nous avons tch de rester fidle au langage oral de nos 550 narrateurs et  ses particularits linguistiques et dialectales; les renseignements indispensables sont donns en annotations.

Outre les sujets ethnographiques, le recueil inclut une introduction scientifique o, paralllement aux vnements historiques, les sujets folkloriques oraux (600 units) enregistrs sont analyss. Les originaux et leurs enregistrements sont conservs aux Archives du Muse-Institut du Gnocide des Armniens de l'Acadmie Nationale des Sciences d'Armnie, fonds Verjin Svazlian.

Le recueil est muni d'un glossaire de mots dialectaux et trangers, de commentaires, une carte historique, de notations des chants, de renseignements sur les tmoins oculaires sauvs par miracle du Gnocide et de leurs photographies.

Les mmoires enregistrs (par crit, ainsi que sur cassettes audio et vido) au cours de 45 annes, mot par mot, phrase par phrase, et prsents dans ce recueil sont d'une originalit et d'une valeur historique telles qu'ils en deviennent des tmoignages factologiques et documentaires dignes de foi, exprimant en simple langage populaire les vnements du Gnocide des Armniens.

 

 

 

()

       ,          .   ,    ,  -               ,            .

   1915 ,    (1921 .)    (1922 .),   1.5     ,   ,     ,     ,      .        -        -    , , , , , , ,          ,      .

          (  ),  -  70   ,   .   ,       1956      -  ,           .

             ,     ,           , , , , -,  , ,  (1920-1921 .) -   .

       ,  ,           ,       - .

           550 ,     ;     .   ,    ,           (600 ),           -     .

  ,           ,  ,  ,      .

  45    ,     ( ,   -  -   )           -   , ,  ,       .

 

  , ", " "  1934 .  " ,  " , -    : 1947 . " " ""   :

1956 . " "   .    "    "   :

1956   " "   "  "  " ,     ""    ""   " " "-"  ":

1958  "   " " . "   :    ""  . "   :

1961         ,  1996      " -:

1965 . "  ",  1995 .  "":

"  "     " "  ,      "":

"     ",   " "" "  :

".

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

VERJIN SVAZLIAN, ethnographer and folklorist, was born in 1934 in Alexandria (Egypt) in the family of the writer and public man Karnik Svazlian, himself an eye-witness survivor of Turkish tyranny.

In 1947, she has been repatriated with her parents to the Motherland, Armenia.

In 1956, she has graduated with honours from the Department of the Armenian Language and Literature of the Kh.Abovian Armenian State Pedagogical Institute.

Beginning from 1956, she has, on her own initiative, started to write down and thereby saved from a total loss the various folklore creations communicated by the repatriates forcibly deported from Western Armenia, Cilicia and the Armenian-inhabited provinces of Anatolia, as well as the narrated memoirs of the eye-witness survivors of the Genocide.

Starting from 1958, she has worked at the M.Abeghian Institute of Literature of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia. During her post-graduate studies, she has been a M.Abeghian grant-aided student.

From 1961, she has worked at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia and, from 1996, also at the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

She has maintained her Candidate thesis in 1965 and her thesis for a Doctor's Degree in 1995.

She has participated in republican and international conferences, discoursing upon folklore, ethnography and the Armenian Action. She is also the author of a number of scientific papers published in the Motherland and in the Diaspora.

Publications:

 .   ,    , . 4,   ., , 1973:
-,   "", . 6,   ., , 1973:
-",   "", . 12,   ., , 1984:
-,   "", . 15,    ., , 1998:
 ",    , . 16,   ., , 1984 [1985 . "     "   " "  
 " " "]:
.   ,    ., , 1994:
" ".   ",    ., , 1995:
" "  "  " "",    ., , 1997:
"       ." . ""  , , 1997.
"The Armenian Genocide in the Memoirs and Turkish Language Songs of the Eye-Witness Survivors." "Gitutiun" Publishing House of the NAS RA, Yerevan, 1999.
 ,    ., ", 2000:
 ". " "" ",    ., , 2000 [2000 .  24-,  " 85-  "       ,  "       "" ,   " "   "]:

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 

" " " " "   "" ", , 1990:
"" .,    " , , 1935:
" ., " , , 1921
 .  "  , , """, ", , 1999:
 ", "  ", , 1961
 ., . 1914-1917, , 1969
" .,   "  " ,  , 1934:
" .  "  , "   (   ), , 1986:
" ., "  ", , 1970:
"" . .,  " , "", 1956
" ., " (1909-1946), , 1956:
 . .,  "   " 1919-1920 ., , 1987:
 ., " , . 6, , 1959
" .,  "   (""), , 1946
" .,  1915-1916 " " "   ", , 1998:
 .,   "  , , 1965
 . ., " 1915 . "   ", , 1990:
 ., -   ",  , 1957:
" " "", , 1965
" .,  "  " 18901925, , 1930
   1890-  1915- "", . ", 1945:
" ., " "   ("  " ), , 1991
" . .,   ,  "", 1942:
 . ., " , , 1969:
" .,     ", , 1955
 . ., - ""   1919-1921 ., , 1970:
" .,   , .   ,  "", 1953:
 .,  ",    , . 16, , 1984:
 ., .   , , 1994:
 ., " "".   ", , 1995:
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