PORTSMOUTH, R.I. — For the first time, a voluminous collection of first-hand accounts of atrocities experienced and reported by repatriating Armenian and other Christian survivors of the WWI deportations have been translated into English by Dr. Vatche Ghazarian. The seminal collection is appropriately titled, The Post-WWI Rise of Turkish Nationalism and Resumption of Genocidal Policies: A Collection of Prime Sources Documenting the Treatment of Armenians and Greeks in Turkey .
The book has been published by Mayreni Publishing (2023) through a grant from The Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund.
The 640-page hardcover contains more than 600 reports collected from as many cities, towns and villages scattered throughout the provinces of modern Turkey. Collected by the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul from April 1919 to October 1922, these reports document the maltreatment received by Armenian and other Christian survivors of the 1915 deportations when they attempted to repatriate to their homes and villages in post-armistice Turkey.
The tragic events reported by the repatriating survivors include the robberies, rapes, intimidations, imprisonments, famine and mass murders carried out by Turkish nationalists (former Ittihadists and Kemalist nationalists), often in territories governed under the auspices of French and British Allies. The heinous actions perpetrated by Turkish nationalists in post-WWI Turkey and enumerated in this collection clearly support the thesis that genocide, as stipulated in Articles I and II of the Genocide Convention, collectively or individually punishable acts under Article III of the same Convention occurred, and that modern Turkey is erected upon the blood and ruined homes of its Ottoman-Christian citizens.
“The compilation of the records proved to be the most painstaking part of the author’s research. These records leave no room for doubt about the genocidal policies of the Turkish nationalists (under the leadership of their ‘enlightened reformer,’ Atatürk, who aimed to exterminate the Armenians and the other remaining Christian indigenous peoples. The materials in this section present the cut and dried reports sent by Armenian leaders, both spiritual and secular, from the provinces to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople (Istanbul) regarding the hopelessness of those who were rescued from the yatagan (Turkish sword) and who were on the verge of famine and extermination — in large part women, older adults, and children — as well as the dreadful condition of Armenian orphans,” said Minas Kojayan, PhD, in Keghard.
