Among the numerous initiatives launched to commemorate the centenary
of the Armenian Genocide is a reading of Armenian literary works on a
grand scale. Organized by two cultural institutions in Germany, the
initiative will honor the memory of Armenian intellectuals rounded up
and killed on April 24, 1915, by presenting public readings of their
works and those of later writers. On November 20, at the
Bundespressekonferenz in Berlin, Dr. Rolf Hosfeld, director of the
Lepsiushaus, and Ulrich Schreiber of the International Literature
Festival Berlin, presented the initiative to representatives of the
international press. The call issued by the organizers, reads as
follows: “The International Literature Festival Berlin (ILB) and the
Lepsiushaus Potsdam are calling for a worldwide reading on April 24,
2015, the day that marks 100 years since the beginning of the Armenian
Genocide.
“Several hundred Armenian intellectuals — poets, musicians,
parliamentary representatives and members of the clergy — were arrested
in Constantinople (today Istanbul) on April 24, 1915, and deported to
the Turkish interior where most of them were murdered. It was the start
of a crime against humanity. The extermination of the Armenians during
World War One was the first systematically planned and executed genocide
of modern times. More than a million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
died during this genocidal campaign.
