Books Archives

Release of the book “The Reform of Time, Ottoman Armenia, Mahmud II, the Tanzimat, Constantinople 1780-1860,” Onnik of Jamgocyan

November 18, 2015 By administrator

After “Bankers Sultans”, the historian Onnik Jamgocyan just published the book “Reforms Time, Ottoman Armenia, Mahmud II, the Tanzimat, Constantinople 1780-1860” published by Editions of the Bosphorus. A reference book on Ottoman Armenia and Constantinople Armenians in 1780-1860.

“The Time of Reforms” of Onnik Jamgocyan is the second volume of a trilogy dedicated to the economic, political and social of Constantinople, after the first book on the Bankers Sultans. Onnik Jamgocyan this Kazaz Artine -saraf Mahmud II and Duzian -Fermiers of the Imperial Mint. Their days are full of events: the hanging of a Greek Patriarch (1821); the end of the Janissaries and their Jewish bankers (1826); the battle of Navarino and the exile of the Catholic Armenians (1828); Paskewitsch Yerevan and the passage of the plain of Ararat to the Russians; the recognition of the Armenian Catholic nation (1830) and the Protestant Armenians (1847). The Tanzimat (1839), and Hatt-i-Humayoun (1856) Abd-ul-Mecid I giving hope to non-Muslim subjects of the Empire and before the organic laws of the three nations.

This work by Onnik Jamgocyan high accuracy, makes us relive this rich period of Ottoman history that the Armenians are closely related. To read.

Onnik Jamgocyan is one of the best specialists in Ottoman Turkey. His first book “Bankers Sultans” is being edited in Turkish in Turkey. Born in Istanbul in 1955, Onnik Jamgocyan is Doctor in History from the University of Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne (1988), authorized to supervise research by the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences (2011), he studied history Ottoman. The author deals mainly with financial Istanbul, the Armenian nation in Turkey (1700-1900), trade links with Venice and Trieste, the Russian-Turkish relations and navigation in the Black Sea.

The reforms of Time “Ottoman Armenia,” Mahmoud II, the Tanzimat, Onnik Jamgocyan of Constantinople 1780-1860 Editions of the Bosphorus (266 Avenue Dumesnil, Paris 12e), 305 pages, € 26. (+ € 4 shipping) check made payable to the Onnik Jamgocyan and send the Editions of the Bosphorus.

Krikor Amirzayan

Pablo Kendikian Explores the Structure and Actions of the Turkish Imam Gulen Movement in New Book

November 6, 2015 By administrator

Pablo Kendikian

BUENOS AIRES (Agencia Prensa Armenia)—In an interview with Diario Armenia, the newspaper of the Armenian community in Argentina, Pablo Kendikian, Director of Agencia Prensa Armenia, speaks about his book, “Fethullah Gulen.”

“Basically, what I wanted was to clarify the reasons of this movement,” said Kendikian.

“Clearly, the Gulen Movement is a project of power and has a different strategy in each of the regions in which it operates. What characterizes them is the long-term planning of their projects. The motor that moves them is the utopia of the realization of a neo-Ottomanism inside and outside of what was the Empire. I dare say that it is the idea of a modern, globalized pan-Turkism.”

Kendikian says that, “they create a Turkish diaspora where they do not have [one], they ‘evangelize’ in Africa, and are betting on future political cadres and leaders in the countries of Central Asia and the Balkans. They create empathy in countries with Armenian communities, and they do this with more than 900 schools outside Turkey, distributed in over 130 countries.”

“In many parts of the world, particularly in Argentina, the project was cut short as a result of the fight between the former partners Fethullah Gulen and President Erdogan. Because of this, the followers of the Gulen Movement were unable to advance in their project designed to work against everything that could damage Turkey’s image in the world.”

Quoting Professor Khatchik DerGhougassian, who wrote the foreword to the book, Kendikian called the Gulen Movement “one of the main tools for the denial of the Armenian Genocide.”

“The Movement gives away trips to Istanbul to officials of different levels, as well as qualified journalists. There, they show the impressive institutional structure they have in Turkey or in the country of origin and the economic power that supports them. They address each guest individually on the issue of [the] Armenian Genocide,” added Kendikian.

In addition, shortly after the Criminal Court of Istanbul condemned Fethullah Gulen for conspiracy against the State, Pablo Kendikian questioned the privileged place that the Gulen Movement has in Argentina. “I think the Argentinean Foreign Ministry, through the Register of Religions, should review its registration as a religious organization because, clearly, the main objective of the Gulen Movement is political, despite being a brotherhood with a clear religious identity.”

“Strategically, the Movement presents itself as an advocate of interfaith dialogue, away from politics. But that is contradicted when they violently interfere in the affairs of the Turkish political structure.”

India: For the Love of Armine: Indian author says his new novel is tribute to memory of Armenian Genocide victims

October 27, 2015 By administrator

Abie Alexander

Abie Alexander’s new book “For the Love of Armine” that tells about a love story between a young Armenian woman, Armine, and an Indian man is a tribute to the memory of the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide on the 100th anniversary of the massacres.

The author of the book, an Indian based in the United States, says that writing about the Armenian Genocide was on his mind for a long time, but he did not want to make it a documentary, or simply a description of some facts.

“I tried to write in such a way that the Genocide could be presented in a clear way to the reader, but without being too explicit.

The events take place in the 1970s and in 2005, but the entire book is about the Genocide and the events that happened 100 years ago,” says Alexander. “I had two goals in writing the book: to show to young Diaspora Armenians what sufferings their ancestors went through and finally to inform non-Armenian readers about the Armenian Genocide.”

The novel about the young couple’s love story weaves a tapestry of the history and culture of the Armenian people going back in time to their very beginnings as a nation and down to the traumatic Genocide in 1915 at the hands of the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. The events described in the book take place in India’s southern Kerala state, which is known worldwide for its production of various spices which are in high demand. The writer presents Kerala Armenians, who miraculously survived the Genocide, and settling down in a new place established the settlement of New Garni and got engaged in trade.

Alexander says that whichever country he is in he tries to find a local Armenian church there, visits and studies it.

“The Armenian Diaspora is unique and special. They adapt to the environment never losing their identity. And the Diaspora is the main theme of my book. I present the small Armenian community, which, like many other Armenian communities around the world, seeks to preserve its ethnic traditions, culture, language, and most importantly, faith in the Armenian Apostolic Church,” says Alexander.

A financier by profession, Alexander worked for the State Bank of India for many years and then for World Vision and Search for Common Ground. Now he is Chief Financial Officer for Institute for Development Impact. The 62-year-old says he has traveled to and managed projects in India, the United States, Armenia, Uzbekistan, and several counties in South East Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. At present, he lives and works in the United States.

Alexander does not consider himself a writer, but the “For the Love of Armine” novel is actually his fifth book.

For the first time he learned about Armenia in 2005 in Cyprus, where he attended a training course organized by World Vision.

“It was then that I first met Armenians and learned about them. One day, our group traveled to the Turkish part of Cyprus, where a problem arose on the border between frontier officers and two Armenian women of our group, who were not allowed to cross the border. The following day they told me about Armenia, Armenians and everything which is connected with this wonderful country,” says Alexander. “I first came to Armenia in 2006 and the very first moment I got off the plane, I don’t know why but I fell in love with this country,” he adds.

The book “For the Love of Armine” was published in three languages – Armenian, English and Russian. The English and Armenian versions are already on sale online.

Source: By Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Book (Armenian Genocide) of the German historian Michael Hasemann uses the secret archives of the Vatican

October 15, 2015 By administrator

The scientific and German historian Michael Hasemann just published in Germany the book “an den Armeniern Völkermord” (Armenian Genocide) whose essential elements is based on the revelation of the Vatican secret archives. During 5 years, the German historian searched the documents relating to the genocide of Armenians in the Vatican archives are drawing some 3000 pages of documents that can shed new light on the genocide. Historians had once got hold of the documents of the German archives, USA, Italy, Austria, but the Vatican archives remained closed to researchers.

It proves especially from those documents that the Vatican Pope Benedict XV had written two handwritten letters to the Sultan to ask him to stop the massacre of the Armenians. Letters unanswered effects. After that the Pope would have alerted the world public opinion about the fate of Armenians slaughtered in the Ottoman Empire. Michael’s book Hasemann “Völkermord an den Armeniern” was released in Germany in April and the author hopes the face of success, it will be translated into Armenian and published in Armenia. He also hopes that the Vatican documents related to Armenian genocide are received by the Academy of Sciences of Armenia. Michael Hasemann also claims that today the Vatican has a very important role in the recognition of the genocide, including the declaration of Pope Francis in April recognizing the Armenian genocide.

Krikor Amirzayan

Armenian Boy’s Memoir of Survival, 1915-1919 “An Armenian in the mountains of Eastern Anatolia” Book

October 14, 2015 By administrator

Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan: An Armenian Boy’s Memoir of Survival, 1915-1919’ by Aram Haigaz (Maiden Lane, 396 pages, $26.95)

By William Armstrong – william.armstrong@hdn.com.tr

In June 1915, the entire Armenian population of Shabin Karahisar set fire to their homes and fields and headed to a fort on the mountain above the town. They had heard news of the deportations and massacres of Armenians across eastern Anatolia, so decided to stock up on food and animals and took to the old Roman castle. Up there, 5,000 held out against Ottoman battalions for one month until famine forced them to surrender.

The 15-year-old Aram Haigaz was among them. Almost his entire family was killed in the siege, and he was sent with his mother on one of the forced marches leading to the Syrian desert. His mother was massacred and her body thrown into the Euphrates, leaving her son as the only surviving member of the family. He managed to survive by converting to Islam and was took on by a local Turkish master, proving his usefulness as a worker and as one of the few left who could read and write.

“Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan” vividly describes Haigaz’s time as an “orphan and slave” in the badlands of eastern Anatolia. It is an extraordinary document, an ethnographic treasure trove on the years after the massacres and deportations of 1915. It describes a harsh land of tribesmen and chieftains, nomads and illiterate peasants. Bandits haunted the mountains, Ottoman army deserters moved furtively from village to village, Kurdish gangs rebelled against the authorities, wolves stalked the land. The Ottoman Empire was still at war and its already destitute population was subjected to endless calls for equipment, leather, wool, and animals. The Russians had driven deep into Anatolia, subjecting civilian Muslim Turks to atrocities as they occupied the land up to the city of Erzurum.

The ruin of physical and psychological trauma is everywhere. “I could not speak or pray in my mother tongue,” Haigaz writes at one point, “Had anyone known that every night after lights were out, I secretly prayed to the Christian God of my forbears, my head would have been cut off.” Occasionally he comes across other Armenian “leftovers of the sword,” nervously hiding their identity in the now-entirely Muslim landscape – women taken on as wives or servants, or boys young enough to become Muslim and survive as serfs.

The Kurdish tribes had in many places executed the massacres against the Armenians, but in Haigaz’s account they despised the Turks even more. The Kurds, he writes, “looked upon their Turkish rulers as a source of unspeakable evil and malice.” At one point one of the (many) local girls he tries to woo somehow finds out that he is Armenian, so he says he is willing to become Kurdish just for her. “If the Turks come to collect us again, I am going to find a way to get to Dersim. I will become a Kurd and live with them in peace,” he writes. The boundaries of ethnic and religious identity can be hazy, but they can also be the difference between life and death.

Perhaps surprisingly, “Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan” is not just a catalogue of misery. It is also the story, sometimes even humorous, of a rich and adventurous life in an ancient society. Occasionally that story drags over the course of more than 300 pages. Once the initial horror has passed, the book sometimes seems like a hard-to-distinguish parade of events. But some episodes really do stand out. At one point Haigaz is involved in the cold-blooded murder of an unarmed Turkish boy, described in shockingly blank language. The author does not return to the subject again; apparently desensitized after so many years of bloodshed.

Haigaz grew from boyhood to manhood during his four years as a shepherd and servant, before making a daring escape at the age of 19. He eventually settled in the U.S., where this book was published in Armenian in 1972. Surprisingly, this volume is its first appearance in English. Amid countless other titles cashing in on the 100th anniversary of the genocide this year, it is certainly worth seeking out.

published on: hurriyetdailynews.com

* A shorter, edited version of this review appeared in the Times Literary Supplement.

October/15/2015

Western Armenia: Ararat, the mountain of mystery – Paolo Cossi

September 13, 2015 By administrator

Ararat, the mountain

According to the Bible, after the flood of Noah’s Ark to have landed on Mount Ararat, one of the highest peaks of modern Turkey, with more than 5000 meters. What reality corresponds to this story? This is what Azad Vartanian, the main character of Ararat, undertook to discover. Because it is convinced that by comparing testimonies and historical reports we can get to precisely determine the location of the site has yet to keep track of the Ark. Arrived on Ararat, he understands that, beyond the sacred aura that surrounds it, this site is mostly a place eternally disputed, marked by a long history of conflicts that have left incurable wounds in the memory of all populations of Anatolia, and is still tightly controlled by the army of the Turkish state. These wounds resurface over the words, gestures and silences old Kurdish shepherds who receive Azad with friendship, inform him, guide him through the deserts and dark places where took place in 1915, the massacre of Armenians who lived Mountain. With modesty, they make him discover what remains of their villages and their inhabitants. Reached the end of his research on the ancient mystery of the Ararat mountain, Azad scientific discoveries Vartanian will import him less than, painfully, he will have learned from it, the world in which he lives and men who inhabit …

Once BD speaking on condition of the Armenian genocide, the main character what this album Azad Vartanian, Armenian Italian adventurer, aims to reach Mount Ararat where, according to some legends, stories and especially after Aerial reconnaissance of the US Air Force, would have failed the Ark of Noah. But before we get there he will have to avoid military that prevent access to the mountainous area to tourists especially because of the hunt against members of PPK. Greeted by a man of the mountains Azad will be confronted with an event of the past which he was unaware of the existence and extent, to know whether certain customs and special way to bake bread.

This comic speaks of the oppression of the Kurds, Armenians, a genocide and hidden secrets that must be preserved, the scenario is supported by black and white drawings as to alleviate suffering. The negative fact remains that these drawings are more air sketches, probably with more details the story would have taken more depth, but this detail does not spoil anything in the history of this adventurer.

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Sunday, September 13, 2015,
Stéphane © armenews.com

‘Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia’

September 10, 2015 By administrator

In 2015, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the remarkable story of one family’s survival.

The Armenian world was shattered by the 1915 genocide. Thousand of lives were lost, families were displaced and the narrative threads that connect them to their own past and homelands were forever severed. Many have been left with only fragments of their family histories: a story of survival passed on by a grandparent who made it through the cataclysm or, if lucky, an old photograph of a distant, yet silent, ancestor.

By contrast the Dildilian family chose to speak. Two generations of storytellers gave voice to their experience in audio and video recordings, lengthy written memoirs, in diaries and letters, and most unusually in photographs and drawings. Their story covers a 50-year time span that encompasses three pivotal and often violent moments in Armenian and Ottoman history: the period leading up to and including the Hamidian Massacre of 1894-96; the 1915-1918 deportation and killing of the Ottoman Armenians, during which the Dildilian family rescued and hid dozens of young Armenian men and women; and the massacre and final expulsion of the surviving Armenian population during the Turkish War of Independence, 1919-1923 – an often-overlooked, but no less integral, part of the Armenian story.

Their descendant, Armen T. Marsoobian, uses a unique array of family and public resources to tell this story and, in doing so, brings to life the tumultuous events of the early twentieth century. Their remarkable story is one of survival against overwhelming odds and in the face of mortal peril.

Armen T. Marsoobian is Professor of Philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. He is a descendant of the Dildilian family.

Reviews of Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia

“I was awed by Fragments of a Lost Homeland. I was moved by its precision and poignancy: its authenticity of detail and the wrenching story that emerges image by image and detail by detail. This family memoir is among the most powerful detective stories to emerge from Armenian Genocide.”

— Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of The Sandcastle Girls

“In Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia, Armen Marsoobian, a professor at Southern Connecticut State University, has produced a formidable work of research that is partly microhistory, partly political history. At times the book reads like a novel, focusing on the trajectory of Marsoobian’s forebears, the Dildilian family, starting with their lives in the Ottoman empire and ending with their migration to the United States in the first half of the 20th century. The narrative is enriched with an amazing range of visual material: photographs, drawings, maps, house plans. “Keeping family secrets can be motivated by a variety of reasons,” he writes. “Secrets hidden by one generation from the next are often the result of shame or fear: the shame that comes from believing – often falsely – that one should have behaved differently in a morally challenging situation or the fear of causing harm if a trauma is passed on to the younger generation…” Marsoobian describes powerfully the struggle to survive and its impact on the human psyche. The chapter on the forced Islamisation of the Dildilian and Der Haroutiounian families is riveting. Despite the importance of Marsoobian’s grandfather to the government, he and his family were forced to convert to Islam and adopt Turkish identities in order to avoid deportation. Thus Tsolag became Pertev, Mariam became Meryem, Jirair became Fatih and Aram became Zeki. Reading this list of names, I could not help but wonder how many other families in Turkey had been in a similar position. How many names have been changed, erased, forgotten. The final exile, and the final chapter, arrives when the Dildilians understand that there is no future for them in their homeland. Together with Armenian orphans they leave their beloved Anatolia behind.”

— Elif Shafak, published April 27, 2015, The New Statesman

Armen T Masoobian’s Fragments of a Lost Homeland is a book of primary source materials, rather than a history. Miraculously, several of his grandfather’s family survived the genocide – by conversion to Protestantism and then Islam, by bribery, by good luck, or thanks to a ‘righteous Turk’ – and in 1922 escaped to the USA, together with their diaries, which Masoobian has collated. After travelling to their former homes in the Anatolian cities of Amasya, Merzifon and Sivas, where a substantial Armenian population created a thriving culture of which lamentably little remains today, he set about piecing together the diaries, letters, historical documents, eyewitness accounts and pictures of the time. The result is a sometimes bewildering narrative, so extended are the Armenian families, so frequent are the reversals of fortune and so uncertain is the sequence of some events. There is much here for historians and even filmmakers to develop – for instance, the story of Kiremidjian, an Oskar Schindler of Anatolia, who saved hundreds by inventing vital jobs for them in a military factory. Above all, Masoobian gives a feel for the horror, the fear and the sometimes quite unreasonable hope that the victims felt, an emotional and tangible re-creation that even the best historian could not arrive at.

— Donald Rayfield, published April 29, 2015, The Literary Review

Upcoming California Book Tour Dates

September 12, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM:
“From the Capital to the Provinces: Armenian Photographers in the Late Ottoman Period,”
A Conference on Armenian Photographers: “The Eyes of Our Culture.” Ararat-Eskijian Museum, Mission Hills, CA.
For information contact: (747) 500-7585 or ararat-eskijian-museum@netzero.net

September 15, 7:30 PM:
“Memory, Memorialization & Bearing Witness: Contested Memories of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey Today,” at, in the University Business Center, Alice Peters Auditorium, Room 191, on the Fresno State University campus.
For more information contact the Armenian Studies Program at 278-2669, or www.fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.

September 16, Noon:
“The Presence of Absence: Photographing Loss and Violence,”
University of Southern California, Ground Zero Coffeehouse.
Sponsored by the USC Institute of Armenian Studies.
IN CONVERSATION guest is Armen Marsoobian of Southern Connecticut State University and author of the recently-published Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia (I. B. Tauris). On September 16 at noon, USC Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni will lead Marsoobian in conversation about his family’s unique collection of photographs from 19th and early 20th century Ottoman life. These photographs, which have been exhibited in Turkey, portray a story of vibrant culture, exile, memory, and history.
Please call 213.821.3943 if you have any questions regarding the event, including parking and directions.

September 17, 7:00 PM:
“Resisting the Darkness: The Story of an Islamized Armenian Family, 1915-1918: An Illustrated Talk. Glendale Public Library at the Glendale Adult Recreation Center, 201 Colorado St., Glendale, CA.
Information: Elizabeth Grigorian, Armenian Outreach Coordinator, Glendale Library, Arts & Culture at egrigorian@glendaleca.gov or call (818) 548-3288.

September 19, 2:00 PM:
“Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia.” Armen T. Marsoobian will describe his on-going project of memorialization of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey as seen through the photographs of one family. La Jolla Riford branch of the San Diego Public Library 7555 Draper Ave, La Jolla, CA 92037. Tel: 858-552-1657

Release of a book in Persian “Confessions. Turks and Kurds speak of the Armenian Genocide “

September 6, 2015 By administrator

Iran has just been published in Persian (Iranian) book Isak Younanessian, member of Hay Dat Committee (Armenian Cause) “Confessions. Turks and Kurds speak of the Armenian Genocide. “ According to the site Akunq.net the book consists of two parts. The first is a condensed presented the denial policy of Turkey about the Armenian question and the Armenian Genocide. In the second part, the book includes the statements of Turkish intellectuals and Kurds on the Armenian genocide. It evokes much the statements of Hasan Cemal (Djemal) the grand-son of Cemal Pasha, one of the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress responsible for the genocide of the Armenians. The book also discussed the positions of dozens of Turkish or Kurdish personalities recognizing the Armenian genocide.

Krikor Amirzayan

Books dedicated to Armenian Genocide Centenary on display at Moscow Book Fair

September 2, 2015 By administrator

Genocide, Book

Armenia will present books dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide at the Moscow International Book Exhibition-Fair, RIA Novosti reported.

More than 400 publishing houses from 30 countries are participating in the fair that opens on Wednesday in pavilion No 75 of VDNKh exhibition center.

Serbia, Iran and Armenia are the special guests this year. Poetry recitations and concerts of musical groups representing national cultures of Serbia, Iran, and Armenia are scheduled to take place in the area adjacent to the pavilion.

Canada: Karanian’s ‘Historic Armenia After 100 Years’ to Be Presented During 3-City Tour of Canada (Video)

August 25, 2015 By administrator

OTTAWA, Canada—Matthew Karanian, the author of Historic Armenia After 100 Years, will present his groundbreaking new book in Canada during a three-city tour of the country in September.

The Canada book tour is organized under the auspices of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to Canada, and commemorates the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

Historic Armenia After 100 Years (Stone Garden Press, 2015) is the first-ever historical guide to the ancient Armenian homeland. The book includes 125 color photographs and maps that show Western Armenia as it appears today.

The premiere event is at 9 p.m. on Fri., Sept. 11, at the Tekeyan Center, 825 Rue Manoogian, St. Laurent, Quebec. This event is hosted by the Tekeyan Cultural Association.

Karanian will also speak at 1 p.m. on Sat., Sept. 12, at the Armenian Embassy, 7 Delaware Ave., Ottawa, Ontario. The event at the Armenian Embassy is hosted by Ambassador and Mrs. Armen Yeganian.

The concluding event for will begin at 2 p.m. on Sun., Sept. 13, at the Armenian Community Center, 45 Hallcrown Place, Toronto, Ontario.

The Toronto event is co-hosted by the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) of Toronto, the Hamazkayin Educational and Cultural Society of Toronto, the Toronto Hye Agoump, and the Bolsahay Cultural Assocation Toronto. The entire tour is under the auspices of the Armenian Embassy in Canada.

The author will be available to sign copies of Historic Armenia After 100 Years at each event. For more book tour details, visit www.HistoricArmeniaBook.com.