Category Archives: MEMORY

Summary 

Ruben H. Melkonyan

Key words – Young Turks; Kemalists; non-Muslim minorities; Lausanne; Greek citizens living in Istanbul; discriminative policy; monoethnic Turkey; Ecumenical Patriarchate of Costantinople; Cyprus; deportation.

It՛s widely known that the history of Ottoman Empire is full of examples of state persecutions, discrimination, massacres and genocides against Christians. The aspirations to create monoethnic, that is Turko-Islamic state became more obvious during the government of the Young Turks. The same policy was adopted by the authorities of the Republic of Turkey established in 1923. This fact can be explained by following circumstances. First of all, Turkish state had already become instiutionally hostile against all non-Turkish nations. Besides, the majority of the founders of Turkey were former Young Turks, the bearers of nationalist ideology. However, there are specialists, including the Turks, who bring the period of governmenr of Young Turks even up to 1960 and ascribe some elements of young Turkizm to the Democratic Party which was in power in 1950-60s. Main periods of the policy of discrimination against non-Muslim minorities in the history of Turkish Republic were: 1. Exchange but in reality exile of Greeks in 1923 2. The “20 classes” draft in 1941 3. “Tax of Wealth” in 1942 4. Pogroms of 6-7 September 1955. However, the comparison of facts shows that the last and one of the most important links of this chain was the exile of the Greeks from Istanbul in 1964 which is not sufficiently examined yet. On March 16,1964 the government of Turkey officially stated that it unilaterally considered invalid the agreement signed between Turkey and Greece in 1930. This meant the emergence of legal basis for exile of the Greek citizens living in Turkey. At that time nearly 12.500 Greek citizens were living in Turkey. All of them were condemmed to exile. However deportation of these 12500 people meant inclusion of much more wide masses as they were connected by marital and family ties with the Greeks, citizens of Turkey. Exile of the Greeks in 1964 became the important stage of consecutive politics of ethnic purges in Turkey.

Summary

Ashot N. Hayruni

Key words – Karen Jeppe; Urha; Aleppo; Genocide (Mets Yeghern) ; League of Nations; Johannes Lepsius; German Eastern Mission; liberation of the kidnapped Armenians

For the first time the present article fully covers the pro-Armenian activity of the great humanist, a Danish missionary Karen Jeppe. The activity started in 1903 and was spread in various directions: solicitude for orphans and widows, support to deported Armenians during the Genocide, liberation of Armenian children and women captivated in Muslim homes and harems, provision of material and moral support to thousands of Armenian refugees gathered in Aleppo, as well as a creation of new settlements in Syria for refugees and liberated Armenians and so on. Jeppe dedicated her entire life to the rescue efforts, which had invaluable significance for the salvation of thousands of Armenians. The salvation included an entire range of work including medical care, education, and upbringing. Jeppe gave great importance to the fact that liberated Armenians could live independently and at the same time have a worthy place in the Armenian national-collective life. Therefore, she created all possible conditions for them to receive not only targeted education and upbringing but also to obtain some specialization. The article, which for the first time puts into scientific circulation many valuable sources simultaneously provides important information about other people and organizations that contributed to rescue activities undertaken by Jeppe.

Summary

Ararat M. Hakobyan

Key words – A. Mikoyan, post, nostalgia for 1937, Bolshevik, facts, decree, Communist Party, episode, Karabakh, self-determination, independence.

Recently, the issue of renaming streets, monuments, memorial plaques or other neighborhoods named in memory of several party and state figures of the Soviet era has become the subject of discussions at the social and even governmental levels in Armenia. One of the publicly discussed topics is the issue of placing a statue of Soviet and state figure Anastas Mikoyan in the center of Yerevan. Among the party and state figures of the Soviet era there were people whom the Armenian people valued and respected. However, for decades, the Armenian society as a whole has negatively treated A. Mikoyan because of the indifference of the latter toward the national interests of the Armenian people. Separate documents and materials presented in a number of episodes in this publication indicate the non-Armenian activities of Mikoyan. Thus, only the Armenian Bolsheviks, along with A. Mikoyan, who was the secretary of the Committee in Tbilisi at that time, boycotted and did not participate in the East Armenian Congress considering it a “nationalistic enterprise”. Then, in December 1919, while addressing his pro-Turkish theses to V. Lenin, Mikoyan considered a mistake the Declaration on Turkish-Armenia, adopted by the Soviet government of Russia: according to this declaration, Western Armenians were given the right to free self-determination. In his opinion, it was playing into hands of “Armenian nationalists”. A. Mikoyan believed that the Armenian bourgeoisie cherished insane hopes to “seize a part of Turkey”, and its sponsor – the Entente’s imperialists wanted to rob Turkey and make it a new colony.

Similarly, Mikoyan’s attitude was negative in the issue of the annexation of Karabakh and Zangezur to Armenia.

In addition, he was against the Armenian delegation led by L. Shant to hold talks and sign a peace treaty with Soviet Russia.

And finally, in 1937, A. Mikoyan, already a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of CPSU, who arrived in Armenia at the height of political repression that fell to the share of the Soviet state, has a certain responsibility for expanding the lists of innocent Armenians executed and expelled by hundreds.

Thus, the facts cited above give grounds to conclude that any attempt to perpetuate the name of A. Mikoyan in Armenia is simply immoral (unacceptable).

Summary

Ashot N. Hayruni

Key words – Karen Jeppe, Urha, Genocide (Mets Yeghern), Johannes Lepsius, German Eastern Mission, Humanism, children, religious propaganda, ateliers.

This article is a new attempt to fully cover the work of Karen Jeppe, a woman who, unlike many other friends of the Armenian people and humanists, not only raised her voice of protest against the Turkish genocidal policy and informed the civilized world about it, but also undertook a specific mission of salvation and dedicated her whole life to that mission.

The activity of Jeppe in the Armenian children’s home of Urfa before the First World War is described in the first part of the article. In 1902, thanks to the publications and presentations of Aga Meier Benedictsen, the friend of the Armenian people, Agе Meyer Benediktsson, the founder and the head of the Danish Committee for Assistance to Armenia, young Karen Jeppe learned about the terrible situation of Armenians who survived the massacres in the 1890s and, against the will of their parents, she decided to go to Armenia and devote herself to the needs of the Armenian people. Jeppe informed Benediktsson of her decision and when she learned that J. Lepsius was looking for a teacher for an orphanage in Urfa, she addressed to the latter and received his consent. On October 4, 1903, she left for Urfa, where she soon became the de-facto head of this institution.

In 1915, when the mass eviction of Armenians began, Karen Jeppe temporarily sent most of the children from the orphanage to their relatives to spend the summer holidays. The staff of the orphanage tried to do their best to save local Armenians from persecution. After the first arrests in Urfa, Jeppe regularly provided information to the American and German consuls in Aleppo about the continuing illegality, urging them to use their influence in support of the Armenians. At the same time, Jeppe harbored many innocent Armenians in her home who were threatened with death.

In the fall of 1917, when the government no longer pursued the surviving Armenians as before, Jeppe sent the Armenians hiding in her house to the south of Urfa to Arabs where they could be safe. She also temporarily sent her two foster children to a Kurdish leader and left for Europe in December … to return soon.

Summary

Edita G. Gzoyan

Key words – Armenian Genocide, forced transfer of children, League of Nations, Aleppo Rescue Home, Karen Jeppe, humanitarian assistance, Armenian women and genocide, eyewitness testimonies.

Forcible child transfer is one of the five genocidal acts listed in Article II of the Genocide Convention listed co-equally with acts of killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and measures to prevent births. Forcible child transfer was part of the Armenian Genocide administered by the Turkish authorities.

This article deals with the issue of forced transfer of children and women during the Armenian Genocide. It presents the humanitarian efforts of the League of Nations to save the Armenians from Muslim captivity. To this end the League of Nations established a Commission of Enquiry with its headquarters in Aleppo and Constantinople.

The Aleppo Rescue Home was administered by the League of Nation Commissioner Karen Jeppe who saved Islamized Armenians from the French zone of occupation. In the League of Nations Archives 1464 individual surveys of the rescued Armenians are kept, from which 573 were girls and women. These are eyewitness testimonies that represent the policy of forced child transfer during the Armenian Genocide. The testimonies of these female inmates also represent and affirm the organizational pattern of the Armenian Genocide.

Summary

Ararat M. Hakobyan

Key words – ARF Dashnaktsutyun, CCK (b)PA, N. Aghdjagala, Manuk Khushoyan, secretary of the village council, murder, Supreme Court of the ASSR, trial, F. Ashrafyan, P. Sinoyan, S. Stepanosyan, defendant, expulsion, political persecution.

After Armenia became a Soviet republic, the Communist Party began to pursue dissident political parties and, above all, the most influential Armenian party – ARF Dashnaktsutyun. One of the ways to achieve the dissolution of the party were the trials where the party was accused of organizing terrorism. For these purposes, a high-profile trial was organized and conducted at the highest level in connection with the murder of a small official, the secretary of the council of one of the villages of Armenia – M. Khushoyan. In fact, the murder was committed on the basis of domestic problems and personal enmity, but it was given a political character, attributing it to the ARF Dashnaktsutyun governing members, in order to discredit the party and accelerate its disintegration. But a study of the materials of the case and the trial shows that the political color of the case is artificial and unjustified.

Summary

Susanna G. Hovhannisyan

Key words – Hovhannes Tumanyan, Echmiadzin, refugees, orphans, genocide, diaries, drafts, records, children, Nvard, Satenik Ohanjanyan, Western Armenia, Van, Alashkert, Erzrum, Mush, Berkri, Tiramerik, Abaga, Khndzorken, Bitlis, Datvan, Panchi, Manazkert.

The article introduces a few episodes of Tumanyan’s activities in Echmiadzin during the period of the Armenian Genocide, particularly August-September of 1915. Tumanyan’s diaries kept many testimonies about the life of orphans and refugees sheltered in Echmiadzin during that period.

Heroism of a teacher Hakob Jrbashyan and Arpiar Safrastyan to save 300 children of a bording school of Varag is represented, the incidents, which took place while migrating to Igdir from Shatakh, Archesh, Van, Alashkert, Erzrum, Mush and other regions of Western Armenia, as well as description of massacre which took place in Gortsot, Tiramerik, Abagha, Berkri, Khndzorken, Bitlis, Mush, Datavan, Panchi and other places are represented. There are also facts about material losses of the Armenian people in Manazkert and Western villages: statistical data about the refugees who had become victims of epidemic during a month in Echmiadzin, which are expressed in Tumanyan’s telegrams sent to the Armenian National Bureau.

18 out of 100 articles of literary-critical, political-public nature written by the poet during the period from 1914 to 1918 remained unfinished and in draft condition which often remind records. Today these drafts have also value of ratification: they express testimonies and thoughts of the poet as a witness of Genocide. The author emphasized horrors of Genocide and created an image of human-beast.

The poet’s orphan-protecting activities started in Echmiadzin which continued until the end of his life. In February of 1920 by the initiative of Haskel / High Commissioner Colonel of Allies (appointed in summer of 1919) / Armenian Orphans and Refugees Subscription Committee was formed and Tumanyan was elected as chairman.

Tumanyan’s selfless bravery and multi-layer devoted activities carried out during Genocide period are considered to be a striking example of humanity and patriotism in the history of all nations.

One fragment of Stalinist repressions

Summary

Artavazd G. Darbinyan

Key words – “The case of Pirmalak”, 1937, Stalin’s repressions, arrest, fear, threat, execution, exile, exculpation.

In Soviet historiography, the dominant opinion is that, after the Nazi Germany attack, political violence in the Soviet Union practically ceased, but it is not true. After the attack, the trains continued to deliver tens of thousands of victims of political repressions to labor camps. At the first stage of the war, in 1941, a concrete example of political violence in Armenia was the arrest and exile of 15 people (mostly youth) of the Talin region and the village Pirmalak of the same region. The case was based on the indictment numbered “investigation file 9265”, which we will conditionally call the “Pirmalak Case”. According to the decision taken by the special committee by NKVD on December 23, 1942 (of course, the trial was not conducted), one of the members of the group – Gevorg Mirakyan (according to the indictment, he was the leader of the anti-revolutionary Dashnak organization) was sentenced to maximum punishment – еxecution by firing squad with the confiscation of personal property, and the other members of the group were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Summary

Hasmik M. Yesayan

Key words – discrimination, nativism, restrictive covenants, immigration policy, natives, “undesirables”, racial classification, citizenship.

This article makes an attempt to investigate the legal status of the Armenians settled in Fresno, California in the 1880-1920s in the context of national policies of the United States. The Nativism, an Anglo-Saxon influential movement, formed in 19th century was aimed at maintaining racial purity, and the United States government adopted a variety of different laws for that purpose. The most essential of these laws was the law on refugee citizenship, which was accompanied by discussions about the ethnic origins and the refugees deprived of the rights came across serious obstacles in all of the legal and social fields and the immigration restricting laws of 1921-1924s, which resulted in significant reduction of the Armenian immigration to the United States, including California, Fresno.

The article discusses the origin and the reasons of the national discrimination against the Armenians in Fresno County, caused by nativism, as well as the inter-ethnic relations between the Armenians and the natives. It reveals the restrictive covenants, which were aimed at «undesirables», including Armenians. These laws created complications and obstacles for the Armenians in their new homeland, Fresno.

As a subject of Azeri and Russian historical-fictional workouts

Summary 

Vahram R. Simonyan

Keywords – Nikita Mikhalkov, Azerbaijani falsifications, Turkmanchai agreement, A. Griboyedov, Heraclius II, P. Tsitsianov, relocation, Russian Cossacks, Nerses Ashtaraketsi, E. Lazaryan, Immigration Committee, I. Paskevich.

The article examines the policy of the Russian government, regarding the relocation of Persian Armenians due to Turkmenchay agreement and the involvement of the Russian writer Alexander Griboyedov. The author shows that the relocation of the Persian Armenians is their return to their historic homeland from which they were deported during the reign of Shah Abbas in the early 17th century.

During the Russian­Persian war of 1826­1828, after the failure of the policy of resettlement of 80,000 Little­Russian Cossacks, the Russian government accepts the proposals of the Armenian figures (Lazarevs) and organizes the resettlement of the Persian Armenians.

We’ve presented the efforts and huge practical and advocacy contribution in this process of Georgian Armenians eparch ­ Nerses Ashtaraketsi, colonel E. Lazaryan, M. Argutyan­Dolgorukiy and others. The efforts of the above­mentioned figures have not received a proper assessment by the commander of the Caucasian Corps I. Paskevich, because of the machinations of which Alexander Griboyedov was among the officials carrying out thorough inspection of E. Lazaryan, the head of the Committee for the resettlement of the Persian Armenians.

As it is well­known, in the Soviet historiography in the research process of Persian Armenians’ migration a great importance was attached to the role of Alexander Griboyedov. But historical facts show that A. Griboyedov was only the executor of the will of central government and had little sympathy for the Armenians. Meanwhile Soviet mythmaking made Griboyedov the savior of longsuffering people. Modern Azerbaijani historiography, which is based on the ridiculous concept of Armenians «being newcomers» in Eastern Armenia, seeks to use Soviet mythmaking about Griboyedov­armenofile for their own purposes. Another manifestation of it is the attempt to win over to his side the famous Russian director N. Mikhalkov and remove the serial film about Griboyedov. The aim of this venture is the justification of the invented concept of «Western Azerbaijan», whose demographic face was contorted by the resettlement of Armenians from Persia and the Ottoman Empire.