Terian Continues Lecture Series on Genocide and Literature

Evelyn Demirchian
Staff Writer

On Thursday, March 11, the Armenian Studies Program’s Eighth Kazan Visiting Professor, Dr. Abraham Terian, gave an in-depth lecture on the subject of early literary responses to the Armenian Genocide.
First responses of those who lived through the Genocide were written accounts of their experiences. Most of these were detailed and drawn straight from the fresh memories of the survivors and witnesses of the Genocide.

According to Dr. Terian, “Any memoir by an Armenian survivor is a monumental work.” One such example would Bishop Grigoris Balakian’s memoir, Armenian Golgotha. Balakian was arrested on April 24, 1915 and his work vividly explains how there existed an atmosphere of sheer tension and pressure, among the arrested Ottoman Armenian intellectuals and leaders who anticipated the worst in the detention centers.

Armenian Golgotha follows their experiences on their way to the interior, where gendarmes who intended to kill them intercepted the group. The deaths are recounted in detail by Bishop Balakian and remain to this day a dark, but very illuminating account of the tragedies suffered. Dr. Terian recounted this memoir, and asked “What does he [Bishop Balakian] have to say as a religious man and spiritual leader? To understand these events through the eyes of such an individual is to gain insight into an event that few survived and few could handle in the years following.”

Dr. Terian pointed out that writers in the East and West differed greatly in their responses to the Genocide. In the Soviet Union, leaders emphasized that once a people were under the Soviet blanket, they should forget all past grievances and look to the future. As such, there wasn’t a lot of literature produced directly on the Genocide after 1920.

“Under communism, it was a taboo to speak of Genocide or to write of it,” stated Dr. Terian.
A few writers though did stand out, such as Raphael Patkanian who penned the poem “My Arax,” and Levon Avedissian’s “I’ve Cried it All.” A lasting symbol for the Eastern Armenians was, and remains today, the great Mount Ararat. A strong symbol, only comparable to the Jewish people’s Zion, our Mount Ararat has evoked feelings of irony and injustice post-Genocide as it lies just inside of Turkey. A beautiful symbol of Armenian heritage, it has been in sight, yet just out of reach.

Early responses in literature to the Genocide were not typically in poetic or artistic form. Interestingly, it was in the last half of the twentieth century and in recent years that the topic of the Genocide and events of World War I have taken an artistic turn.

Dr. Terian’s lecture was an important look into the literary aspects of the Genocide. Dr. Sergio La Porta concluded the evening with some observations, focusing on the Turkish response, and declared that now we are seeing more and more Turkish writers turning to Armenian themes.

The literature, memoirs and poems alike, all gave an encompassing look at the sheer brutality, discrimination, and death that the Ottoman Armenians faced in World War I. This all serves to educate the public and will, with the recent new push to recognize the Genocide in the United States and European nations, aid in getting justice for those Armenians and Ottoman Christians who were killed.