By Harut Sassounian
Last month, I wrote an article about the 8,000 letters that the Armenian survivors of the (Ottoman) Hamidian Massacres of the 1890s had written to Catholicos Khrimian Hayrig, describing their tragic experiences and seeking his assistance for their basic necessities of food and shelter.
This week, I came across another extremely valuable book compiled by Bedros Donabedian in 1922, titled, “The Cry of the Tormented” (Tsayn Darabelots), published in Paris in Armenian. Donabedian was an officer of the British High Commission in Constantinople between 1918 and 1922. The book contains over 300 letters written by the survivors of the Armenian Genocide during the years 1915 to 1919 describing their heart-wrenching eyewitness accounts, while the atrocities were taking place. Many of them perished after writing these letters.
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Here are excerpts from some of the letters written in the midst of the Armenian Genocide:
–From Vartig Dzniguian. Garin. Feb. 6, 1919: “My soul, you ask about my brother. The poor fellow is free from this miserable world. Those who survive the troubling conditions of this evil world and depart to heaven are happier than those who are living in this world.”
–From Satenig. Der-Zor. No date: “My brother, we started marching through bloody roads, advancing toward Malatya…. Here, over 170 male adults were snatched from our ill-fated caravan and all of them were tortured to death in the presence of their own families by the order of the Kurd Bey. I am the only survivor of my family. I witnessed how one by one they were viciously killed or died from torture and hunger. I will also face the same fate…. Your miserable sister.”
–From Vartan. Erzerum. March 8, 1917: “Dear, we survived. The rest of the boys were shot; but my daughter-in-law, Khachinga, was Turkified. Should you ask me about your family members, I have no information about them. But, Ohan, Setrag and my Baghdasar were shot. If you ask about your father-in-law’s family members, all the adults were killed, but the children are alive. If you ask about Tato’s family, the adult members are killed, but the children are alive. If you ask about the Oshkers, all the adults were killed. All of Mirak’s family survived and live among the Kurds. Lern’s adult family members were killed. The rest are alive. Sako’s adult family members were killed. The rest are alive. My dear, I can’t put on paper the many tortures and difficulties we went through to survive. We stayed hungry for weeks or collected tasteless grass which we ate without salt so we would not die from hunger. For an entire year, we faced such difficulties. We were almost always hungry. We could not find barley bread to eat, until one day God opened a door for us. We came here, where the Russian authorities provide us daily with a half-ration of bread. So we live hungry and get upset. Many refugees died from hunger and cold, deprived of everything they had. The Turks thoroughly looted us, took all our money, and left us naked.”
–From Stepan Garabedian. Batum. April 6, 1917: “Brother, we have no one else with us who made it to Russia. I want you to know that I picked up two of my children; and, facing death, I marched through snow and valleys and, putting my trust in God, I survived.”
–From Sarkis. Perri. February 17, 1917: “Dear cousin, if you ask me about your family members, no one is left except Assadour’s wife who was snatched by the Turks. They shot Assadour along with my uncle…. I lost all my family members. The only survivors are my brother and I. All the rest, including the children, have perished.”
–From Mother Sofo. Erzerum. January 24, 1917: “My children, the sad news came and will tell us word for word what was witnessed. Darkness has engulfed our world. Having escaped such tortures — hungry, thirsty, barefoot — we arrived at Eriza and Erzerum with fear in our hearts. What is going to happen to the people up in the mountains, in the cold and without a bed to lie on? A black grave! The pain is strangling me. It’s difficult to write the names of the dead. I try to stay strong, but tears fall from my eyes and roll down when I remember the more than 100 young lives who died from fear and torture in front of my eyes.”
It is extremely important to locate the original copies of these most valuable eyewitness testimonies. Donabedian, in his 1922 book, mentioned two addresses: 1) Printing house: Hagop Turabian, 227 Boulevard Raspail, Paris, France; 2) Donabedian’s own address: 53 Addison Gardens, London, W. 14, UK.
Individuals or Armenian organizations in Paris or London should try to locate these archives. If the originals are discovered, they should be sent to the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan.
This book was translated into English in 2015 by Dr. Garo Khachigian and edited by Mary Ellen Hewsen at the request of the Armenian Museum of Fresno. Even though the English translation is not published as a book, its contents can be downloaded from Kindle through Amazon for $9.95.
This book should be published and distributed worldwide in several languages. Besides the Armenian original and the English version, these letters have been translated into Turkish, Russian, Spanish and partly German, none of which is published.
All those interested in making a contribution towards the printing costs of this valuable book in English, can send an email to: [email protected].
