InternationalThis April, read Balakian and Odian
Published: Friday April 03, 2009
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In this first week of April, two memoirs on the Armenian Genocide appear for the first time in the English language. Both are well worth reading, and they are best read in conjunction with one another.
Armenian Golgotha,
Accounts by foreign observers in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-17 make up an important part of the literature on the Armenian Genocide. The testimony of U.S. officials - like Consul Jesse B. Jackson in Aleppo or Consul Oscar Heizer in Trabizon, and of missionaries like Henry Riggs, Maria Jacobsen, and Tacy Atkinson in Harput, and Bertha B. Morley in Marsovan - give invaluable information. The testimony of Turkish and German observers adds an important perspective.
In an effort to prove that the Armenian Genocide is not a figment of the Armenian imagination, some people dismiss Armenian testimony, focusing exclusively on foreign testimony that may be seen as more "neutral." But that is a serious mistake. The testimony of Armenian survivors is an irreplaceable source of information and insight into the genocidal experience.
The publication of these two important memoirs in English is thus an important step.
Grigoris Balakian's account, long available in Armenian, gives the classic story of the Genocide. He was among the 250-odd intellectuals and community leaders famously rounded up on April 24, 1915. He came across decimated "deportation" caravans along his own deportation route, which allowed him to form a broader picture. He spoke to Armenian deportees, Turkish officials, German engineers, bystanders and participants alike. Ultimately he was able to attest to the Der Zor massacre of 1916, when tens of thousands of those who survived the deportation all the way to the desert were killed off.
Odian's story shows that there were many variations on the classical story of the Armenian Genocide. The subtitle is telling: "My Exile and Return from Der Zor, 1914-1919." Zor was not a place Armenians typically returned from. Odian arrived there in 1917, after the Zor massacre had run its course. His survival in a different part of Syria, which was under the rule of Cemal Pasha, a member of the empire's ruling triumvirate, suggests that the Young Turk leadership was not unanimous in its approach to Armenians.
Coming to Zor after the massacre, Odian was able to see Armenian survivors who had converted to Islam - and to note that the population did not expect them to actually participate in religious rituals, suggesting that there was an effort to hide and protect Armenians.
This April, as we prepare to mark the 94th anniversary of the Genocide and as we take active steps to encourage our elected officials to acknowledge the events as genocide, we would do well also to increase our own store of knowledge. These two memoirs by prominent Armenians are an excellent place to start.
