A Response 100 Years Later

Hasmik Hakhverdyan

Description

The following album is the response of the unanswered letters written in 1894-1923 as proofs of the Armenian Genocide.
100 years later 100 notable figures replied to 10 unanswered letters of the intellectuals and victims of the Armenian Genocide.
Based on the Armenian Genocide witnesses’ evidences an art contest was announced. Under the name “Past in Present” 20 best works out of more than 100 are involved in the album.
Presented archival evidences and letters are accompanied with explanatory, analytic materials and photos as facts of the reality. The aim is to help the reader to make conclusions.

Sujets

• Arts visuels
• Histoire des Arts
• Histoire des Arts
• Histoire des arts visuels
• History
• Art

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 28 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781796056280
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

An Album-book
 
 
A Response 100 Years later
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hasmik Hakhverdyan
 
Copyright © 2023 by Hasmik Hakhverdyan. 763833
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
 
 
ISBN: 978-1-7960-5629-7 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-7960-5630-3 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-7960-5628-0 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023901246
 
 
 
Rev. date: 03/03/2023
 
The following album which is the summary of the project “A Response 100 Years Later” is the response to the unanswered letters and other pieces of evidence written in the years from 1894 to 1923 as proofs of the Armenian Genocide.
The project focused on the following two aspects - correspondence and art.
100 years later 100 notable Armenian and foreign figures replied to the 10 unanswered letters of the intellectuals and victims of the Armenian Genocide. Some of the responses are included in the “1915-2015 letters” section of the album.
Based on the Armenian Genocide witnesses’ pieces of evidence, an art contest was held, with the best 20 works out of more than 100 entitled “The Past in Present” included in the album.
Within the album all the archival shreds of evidence and letters are accompanied with explanatory, analytic materials and photos as proof of the reality. The aim is to help the reader to draw conclusions and, if they want, write “a response” on the last blank page of the album. It also symbolizes the denial of the Armenian Genocide, the Armenians’ expectations, the innocent victims and their canonization.
Contents
Introduction
Karo Vardanyan
Episodes from the Armenian History
Meghrig Jabakjouryan - Nerkizian
Section 1. 1915-2015: Letters
The arrest order of the Armenian intellectuals
Garegin Khajak: Without chains
Hasmik Hakhverdyan
Daniel Varouzhan, Rouben Sevak: The sons of a similar fate
Gayane Mkrtchyan
Grigor Zohrap: To the destiny we surrender
Nara Danielyan
Smbat Byurat: This is just a storm that will end, don’t worry
Hasmik Hakhverdyan
Komitas: A concern
Gayane Mkrtchyan
Siamanto: I adore every powerful thing
Hasmik Hakhverdyan
Yervand Otyan: The “luckiest” wanderer
Gayane Mkrtchyan
Armin Wegner: The photo-journalist of the Armenian Genocide
Nara Danielyan
General Andranik: A monument no pedestal can bear
Karo Vardanyan
David Atamian: Where are their graves?
Hasmik Hakhverdyan
The robbery of the century
Anahit Astoyan
Section 2: Art
The Armenian’s power
Armen Gasparyan
Project “The Past in Present” The art response to the evidences of the Armenian Genocide
Sarah Berberyan’s evidence
Suren Safaryan: WHAT’S MY FAULT?
Narek Knyazyan: THE LAST
Stella Grigoryan: RISE
Armen Zakaryan: MEMORY
In front of the ruined house
Vahagn Igityan - Tadevosyan: NEMESIS
The owners of the country
David Tevanyan: BELIEF
Tashkhot
Ara Shahumyan: A RESPONSE 100 YEARS LATER
Deir-ez Zor hero
Hayk Petrosyan: THE HERO OF DEIR-EZ ZOR
Sem Kadoryan’s evidence
Arpine Ketsyan: IT HAS NEVER BEEN FORGOTTEN
Zackary Demirtshyan: THE HUMANITY HELLHOLE
Ilya Nekrasov: SOULS
Pomegranate
Narek Alekyan: MIGRATION
Manvel Matevosyan: TO THE ETERNITY
Heghine Hovhannisyan: A CENTURY AGO
A sea of tears
Rafael Manoukyan: KOMITAS - HERITAGE
My angel
Sargis Babayan: APOCALYPSES
Maya Avagyan: YOU HAVE RISEN FOR THE WORLD TO KNOW
Mher Khachatryan: MY ANGEL
Yevnig Salibyan’s evidence
Syuzanna Hakobyan: DOLOROSSA
Return home
Artem Melik-Azaryants: RETURN HOME
We are awaited there: Pilgrimage to Western Armenia
Elmira Shahnazaryan
Epilogue
Hasmik Hakhverdyan
Introduction

…We were not only dictated a fate but also an everlasting topic, which will always be reflected in our literature and art as a nightmare and which we will never get rid of, even when the desired moment comes, and the whole world recognizes the Armenian Genocide. No atonement will soothe the 100-year-old cut, a wrinkle on the Armenian’s soul, named “the Genocide”.
On the eve of the 100 th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the well-known slogan has automatically aroused inside us and has become popular today: “I remember and demand”. In the last hundred and a few years only the first part of this slogan - “I remember”- was mentioned and kept through generations about the tragic memory of the genocide and exile from the homeland. In the present with the above-mentioned topic having received state sponsorship and encouragement, the second part of the slogan - “I demand” was gradually formed, aiming to replace the mentality of a victim to the persistence of a demander.
Taking into consideration this idea, the project “A Response 100 Years Later” was organized by the Museum of Literature and Art, the results of which are included in the namesake album. The first part of the album is dedicated to the Western Armenian intellectuals. It is well-known that the young Turks firstly arrested and brutally killed the Western Armenian intellectuals-in this way “beheading” people, which would, according to their cruel plan, enable them to carry out the genocide without any “fuss”.
Referring to the golden generation of Western Armenian intellectuals as a powerful source of inspiration, the project made the well-known Armenian and foreign figures and the young participants of the contest - artists and sculptors think over the reality of the Armenian Genocide.
For long months, in order to comprise this part of the album, the project staff studied numerous letter-evidences both from our museum and other archives, each of them worth mentioning for its eloquence. Nevertheless, only ten of them were to be included in the album, and for this aim certain criteria were taken into account: the popularity of the artists, the literary value of the texts, sentimentality, availability of facts proving genocide therein, etc. Besides the aforesaid, other main criteria to be distinguished, were the peculiarities and thoughts which the selected figures were famous for within a certain period of study. Komitas with his tragic life has traditionally been perceived by generations as one of the symbols of the massacred Armenians. Grigor Zohrap, with his broad interests and prolific literary-social-political activity, was the leader of the Western Armenian intellectuals of his generation. Yervand Otyan, as well as Arshak Chopanyan, Vahan Tekeyan and others, were among those few writers, who managed to escape from the Turkish yoke by mere chance and lived not only their lives but also the lives of their massacred generation: they created ten times more than a common mortal is capable to. Not only was Siamanto the first in Western Armenian reality to raise the poetry of revenge and struggle, but he was an exceptional poet, who focused only on this topic refusing other inspirations as well. According to one of A. Isahakyan’s evidence, Siamanto once tore his tender romantic poems angrily swearing never to refer to this topic as long as his country and nation suffered from the Ottoman brutalities.
It is not accidental at all that General Andranik is also included in the album with his touching letter to his soldiers. He was one of our epic heroes having gone through the hell of the Genocide and later considered one of the most heroic generals of the World War I by foreigners for his exceptional participation and contribution both in Armenian and World history 1 . It’s worth mentioning that Turkey showed a political “grimace” with the commemoration of the victory of Gallipoli (Chanakkale) just on the 100 th eve of the Armenian Genocide, trying to shift the world’s attention from the Genocide commemoration. Another fact worth mentioning is that the minister of war, Enver, attaching importance to the decisive battle (April, 1915) taken place near north Persian Dilman village, located his “invincible” regiments of Gallipoli right there, aiming at making great Turkey stretching to India. And these very regiments were defeated by Andranik, glorifying his and his soldiers’ names in the Russian historiography. The rest of these very “invincible” regiments escaped in panic from Andranik spreading fearful legends such as “Andranik Pasha is the devil and the satan”, “no bullet touches him”, “it’s impossible and useless to struggle against him”.
It’s symbolic that Grigor Zohrap called his first novel “Lost Generation” (1886). How could a 25-year-old energetic and optimistic fellow know that three decades later he would become an unfortunate witness of his generation’s slaughter? How could he know that for weeks he would in vain knock on villains’ doors, demanding an explanation and that he would follow the traces of his generation? This generation played an exceptional role in the Armenian history, and there was never to be such a generation again. That’s what one of the representatives of the exiled generation writes: “The names which I remember and I forgot represent the generation who, with his sacrifice, revolutionary character, his moral perception, was only once born and the world never saw such a generation again…I have seen many generations in different places but “the smell and taste” of that generation was different, just like Artamet apple even if it is wormy. 2 ”
Each of the representatives of Zohrap’s eminent generation - Varouzhan, Siamanto, Rouben Sevag - had their b