The Armenian Genocide

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND THE HISTORICAL MEMORY

(Summary)

During the past few years, interest toward the Armenian Genocide (1915-1922) has grown, due, primarily, to the fact of the recognition of this historical evidence by numerous States. The official Turkish and pro-Turkish historiography, however, continues to distort and deny the true historical facts.

In this respect, the popular testimonies communicated under the immediate impressions of the said events are also, besides the official documents published in various languages, of an important historico-factual value. Inasmuch as the Armenian nation itself is the object of that massive political crime and, as in the elucidation of every crime the testimonies of the eyewitnesses are decisive, similarly in this case, the testimonies of the eyewitness-survivors are of prime importance, since each one of these testimonies has, from the juridical point of view, an evidential significance in the equitable solution of the Armenian Case and in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

As a result of the deportation and the genocide, a considerable part of the Western Armenians (more than 1.5 million) was exterminated, while those who were miraculously saved were dispersed in different countries of the world, creating the Armenian Diaspora as a historical reality. Many of the eyewitness-survivors of these tragic events have periodically been repatriated, beginning from the 1920s, from the Diaspora to Soviet Armenia and settled in the newly-built localities symbolizing their former native cradles.

Beginning from as early as 1955 and during about 50 years, we have written down, tape- and video-recorded (remaining faithful to the popular speech) the testimonies (600 units) communicated by the eyewitness survivors miraculously saved from the Armenian Genocide; the originals of these testimonies are kept at the archives of the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

The ethnographic materials of this study have been quoted from our book: Verjiné Svazlian. The Armenian Genocide. Testimonies of the Eyewitness-Survivors. Yerevan, “Gitutiun” Publishing House NAS RA, 2000, 500 p. (in Armenian).

The present study represents the course and the historical events of the Armenian Genocide, which have been completed, substantiated and confirmed by the testimonies and the songs of historical nature (in Armenian and Turkish languages) communicated by the eyewitness-survivors of the Armenian Genocide, forcibly deported from 70 localities of Western Armenia, Cilicia, Anatolia and established in Armenia and the Diaspora (Greece, France, Italy, Germany, USA, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, the Balkan countries, Turkey).

These factual testimonies authentically reproduce the mobilization, the arm-collection, as well as the massive deportations and the massacres of the Armenians organized by the government of the Young Turks during the First World War.

These popular materials become, with their uniqueness and historico-cognitive value, objective, factual, authentic and irrefutable testimonies elucidating, in simple, popular language, the Armenian Genocide.

VERJINE SVAZLIAN

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