Elie Wiesel called the genocide of the Armenians during the First World War ‘the Holocaust before the Holocaust’. Around one and a half million Armenians - men, women and children – were slaughtered at the time of the First World War. This book outlines some of the historical facts and consequences of the massacres but sees it as its main objective to present the Armenians to the foreign reader, their history but also their lives and achievements in the present that finds most Armenians dispersed throughout the world. 3000 years after their appearance in history, 1700 years after adopting Christianity and almost 90 years after the greatest catastrophe in their history, these 50 ‘biographical sketches of intellectuals, artists, journalists, and others…produce a complicated kaleidoscope of a divided but lively people that is trying once again, to rediscover its ethnic coherence. Armenian civilization does not consist solely of stories about a far-off past, but also of traditions and a national conscience suggestive of a future that will transcend the present.’ [from the Preface]
Elie Wiesel called the genocide of the Armenians during the First World War ‘the Holocaust before the Holocaust’. Around one and a half million Armenians - men, women and children – were slaughtered at the time of the First World War. This book outlines some of the historical facts and consequences of the massacres but sees it as its main objective to present the Armenians to the foreign reader, their history but also their lives and achievements in the present that finds most Armenians dispersed throughout the world. 3000 years after their appearance in history, 1700 years after adopting Christianity and almost 90 years after the greatest catastrophe in their history, these 50 ‘biographical sketches of intellectuals, artists, journalists, and others…produce a complicated kaleidoscope of a divided but lively people that is trying once again, to rediscover its ethnic coherence. Armenian civilization does not consist solely of stories about a far-off past, but also of traditions and a national conscience suggestive of a future that will transcend the present.’ [from the Preface]
Map
Preface
Yehuda Bauer
Prologue
Huberta von Voss
Acknowledgements
PART I: INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1. Between Ararat and the Caucasus: Portrait of a
Tiny Country in Five Lessons
Tessa Hofmann
Chapter 2. The Armenian Genocide: An Interpretation
Vahakn N. Dadrian
Chapter 3. The Turkish Denial of the Armenian Genocide in
its European Context
Taner Akçam
Chapter 4. The Silent Partner: Imperial Germany and the
Young Turks’ Policy of Annihilation
Wolfgang Gust
PART II: PORTRAITS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
History Chapter 5. The Investigator: Vahakn N.
Dadrian, Genocide Scholar (Cambridge, MA)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 6. A Foundation of Facts and Fiction: The Poet
and Writer Peter Balakian (Hamilton, NY)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 7. The Memory of Cilicia: Claude Mutafian,
Historian and Mathematician (Paris)
Dorothea Hahn
Chapter 8. Lord of the Books: Vartan Gregorian, President
of the Carnegie Corporation (New York City)
Huberta von Voss
Words Chapter 9. Shadows and Phantoms: Michael J.
Arlen, Writer and Media Critic (New York City)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 10. The Ashes of Smyrna: Marjorie Housepian
Dobkin, Writer (New York City)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 11. The Tracker: Nouritza Matossian, Writer and
Actress (London and Nicosia)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 12. Difficult Truths: Nancy Krikorian, Writer
(New York City)
Hrag Vartanian
Chapter 13. A Seedbed of Words: Hrant Dink,
Editor-in-chief of the Armenian Newspaper Agos (Istanbul)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 14. La Femme révoltée: Human Rights Activist and
President of the Armenian PEN-Club, Anna Hakobyan (Yerevan)
Rainer Hermann
Chapter 15. Vocation: Azgayin gortsich. Zori Balayan: An
Intellectual (Karabakh-Yerevan)
Tessa Hofmann
Faith Chapter 16. The Catholicos of All Armenians:
His Holiness Karekin II (Echmiadzin)
Rainer Hermann
Chapter 17. The Modernizer with the Miter: His Holiness
Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia (Antelias,
Beirut)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 18. Referee on a Slippery Pitch: His Beatitude
Mesrop II, Patriarch of the Armenians in Turkey (Istanbul)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 19. With Cellphone and Habit on Lord Byron’s
Island: Father Grigoris and the Novice Artour (San Lazzaro,
Venice)
Huberta von Voss
Arts and Architecture
Chapter 20. Son of an Amazon: Ashot Bayandur, Painter
(Nicosia and Yerevan)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 21. Seismograph of Different Worlds: Painter
Sarkis Hamalbashian (Gyumri and Yerevan)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 22. Fitzcarraldo in the Olive Grove: Garo
Keheyan, Philanthropist and Impresario (Nicosia)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 23. Ibis Eyes: Artist and Poetess Anna Boghiguian
(Alexandria and Cairo)
Huberta von Voss
Film and Photography
Chapter 24. Screening His stories: The Film-maker Atom
Egoyan (Toronto)
Ian Balfour
Chapter 25. Hollywood in Downtown Cairo: Van Leo,
Photographer (Cairo)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 26. Beyond All Limits: On the Art of Film-maker
Artavazd Peleschjan (Moscow)
Gerald Matt
Music
Chapter 27. The Voice of France: Charles Aznavour, alias
Varenagh Aznavourian (Paris)
Pascale Hugues
Chapter 28. Under the Stars: Accordion-player Madame
Anahit on the Alleys of Beyoglu (Istanbul)
Christiane Schlötzer-Scotland
Commitment
Chapter 29. Ways to Identity: Berge Setrakian, President
of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (New York City)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 30. Daily Bread of Resolutions: Hilda Tchoboian,
President of the Euro-Armenian Federation (Brussels)
Daniela Weingärtner
Politics and Diplomacy
Chapter 31. From Diamonds to Diplomacy: Vartan Oskanian,
Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs (Yerevan)
Rainer Hermann
Chapter 32. Armenia’s Attorney on the Banks of the Seine:
Minister Patrick Devedjian, Legal Adviser to French President
Chirac (Paris)
Michaela Wiegel
Chapter 33. In the Mission Quicksands: Benon Sevan,
Ex-Undersecretary General of the United Nations (New York City)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 34. The Man with the Mirror: The Armenian
Ambassador to the OSCE and to International Organizations in
Vienna, Jivan Tabibian (Vienna)
Huberta von Voss
Life of Images
Chapter 35. Courier of the Czar: The Petrossian Caviar
Empire and Its Owner, Armen Petrossian (Paris)
Gil Eilin Jung
Chapter 36. End of a Long Journey: The Sexton Michael
Stephen and the Armenians in India (Madras)
Jochen Buchsteiner
Chapter 37. The Skeptic of the Jaffa Gate: Kevork
Hintlian (Jerusalem)
Paul Badde
Chapter 38. “Excuse me, how do I get to the front?” The
Brothers Monte and Markar Melkonian (Los Angeles)
Michael Krikorian
Chapter 39. The Everyday Life of a Hero: Levon Arutunyan,
Veteran of the Karabakh War (Yerevan)
Rainer Hermann
Chapter 40. The Magic of the Opal: The Jeweler Varoojan
(John) Iskenderian (Sydney)
Ron Knight
Chapter 41. ¿Vos hablás armenio? Rosita Youssefian,
Teacher of Armenian (Buenos Aires)
Josef Oehrlein
Chapter 42. Portrait of Survival: Reflections on the Life
of Vahram S. Touryan (Pasadena)
Lorna Touryan Miller
Chapter 43. Grande Dame of the Myths: The Archeologist
Nina Jidejian (Beirut)
Huberta von Voss
Chapter 44. A Perfectly Normal Story: Alfred and Ophelia
Mouradian (Berlin)
Jochen Mangelsen
PART III: SYMBOLIC PLACES
Chapter 45. Swan Song in the Holy Land: The Armenian
Quarter in Jerusalem
Jörg Bremer
Chapter 46. Last Stop: The desert of Deir-es-Zor
Nouritza Matossian
Chapter 47. Gangway to Life: The Armenian Quarter of
Bourj Hammoud in Beirut
Victor Kocher
Chapter 48. Struggle for Survival: Franz Werfel and the
Armenians of Musa Dagh
Hannes Stein
Chapter 49. An Eye for an Eye: The Assasination of Talaat
Pasa on the Hardenbergstrasse in Berlin
Tessa Hofmann
Chapter 50. Inch Piti Asem? The Tsitsernakaberd Genocide
Memorial in Armenia
Mark Grigorian
Epilogue: The Dichtomy of Truth and Denial and the
Remembrance of a Courageous Turk (Toronto)
K.M. Greg Sarkissian
Annex
Key Dates in Armenian History
Glossary
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
Huberta v. Voss worked for many years as a political correspondent for various German dailies, before becoming spokesperson of the Speaker of the Bundestag. During the diplomatic assignment of her husband to Beirut and Nicosia, she edited and translated amongst others the Lebanese poet Nadia Tuéni from French into German. She has earned a M.A. in Political Science, Modern History and French Philology. She has three children and now lives as a freelance journalist and author in Berlin.
“…certainly a well-put together and edited compendium of Armenian socio-political and cultural essays ...And it has a great deal to offer both the educated and altruistic reader alike about the passionate and fatalistic woven threads that compose Armenian life and identity today.” · Armenian Weekly “…highly informative and important for the understanding not only of an ignored past…One reads with astonishment how much creative potential the oldest Christian people still has.” · Die Welt “In this book Armenia…is not so much a nation rather than a landscape of remembrance, broken up and held together by violence and expulsion and through an eternal ‘traveling’ culture. Huberta von Voss allows us to experience this culture through the portraits of members of this culture who are dispersed throughout the world.” · :die tageszeitung
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