In the Ruins: The 1909 Massacres of Armenians in Adana, Turkey

Scott Neuffer

 

Zabel Yessayan, In the Ruins: The 1909 Massacres of Armenians in Adana, Turkey, translated by G. M. Goshgarian, AIWA Press.

This unsparing, unflinching, and darkly poetic account of the 1909 massacre of 30,000 Armenians in Adana, Turkey, makes Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness seem like leisure reading. That’s because Zabel Yessayan, one of the most important Armenian woman writers of the modern era, is relentless in capturing every horrid detail of genocide: every burnt building, every blood-streaked field, and every broken and whimpering face of those who survived the massacre.

NAASR Announces First Winners of Aronian Armenian Studies Book Prizes

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) recently announced the winners of the first Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies. Aronian, who passed away on Nov. 17, 2015, established the prizes last year, to be awarded annually to an outstanding scholarly monograph in the English language in the field of Armenian studies and, in alternating years, to a translation from Armenian into English of a work of literature or of an academic book within the field of Armenian studies.

Shifting the Armenian National Narrative on Women

Rupen Janbazian

 

Throughout Armenian history, women have held various roles in the national reality—from Armenian queens and princesses ruling in the medieval period, to female participation in the national liberation struggle of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Women have been instrumental in the many successes and accomplishments of the Armenian people; after all, they represent about half of the population. So, why wouldn’t they be credited with an equal share of the recognition and praise that men receive?

The Treatment of Women in the Armenian Genocide: New Document Discovered in Paris Library

During their studies in the Nubarian Library of Paris, Turkish historian Umit Kurt and journalist Alev Er have discovered a document on the Armenian Genocide, hitherto unpublished, whose author is the well-known female writer Zabel Essayan. Her 11-page document tells the details of what happened with Armenian women in and after 1915. Zabel Essayan submitted the document to Boghos Nubar Pasha, chairman of the Armenian National Delegation, according to an article published on August 21, 2014 in the Istanbul-based Armenian  “Agos” periodical, which has introduced some extracts of the document.(*)

AIWA Presents Newly Translated Books by Famed Author Zabel Yessayan

Zabel Yessayan is remembered as one of the most talented and prolific Western Armenian writers of the modern era. Yet, few of her works have been translated into Western languages, and even fewer into English. In order to introduce the English-language reader to the diverse output of this outstanding author, the Armenian International Women’s Association (AIWA) arranged the translation of select works and release two books of Yessayan’s writings at a Publication Party on Sunday, March 23, at the Armenian Cultural Foundation (ACF) in Arlington, Mass.

"Jewels of Devotion and Self-Sacrifice": Ottoman Armenian Women as Teachers

Jennifer Manoukian

 

The Armenian press in the late Ottoman Empire was the site of heated debates among writers and intellectuals, who would rip apart each other’s arguments and attack each other’s character with a ferociousness that might surprise even the most jaded, twenty-first century reader. The article above sparked a lengthy debate on education in the pages of the Constantinople-based newspaper Massis. While keeping its focus on the unique challenges facing young female teachers, the article also touches on thorny gender and class inequalities that inflamed some Armenian intellectuals and drove them to air their vitriol in a series of responses to the article.

Constantinople and Smyrna in the Diasporan Armenian and Greek Imaginaries

Jennifer Manoukian

 



. . . Բայց դուն, տեսի՜լք ընտանի, հիմա ա՜յնչափ հեռացած,
Ըսէ՜, իրաւ է որ ա՜լ պիտի երբեք չբացուիս
 Դիմացն զքեզ փնտռող իմ անսահման կարօտիս . . . ։
Դուն որ եղար, ո՜վ Պոլիս, լոյսն աչքերուս նորաբաց,
Ճի՞շդ է, ըսէ՜, որ ա՜լ մենք օտարնե՜ր ենք իրարու
 Եւ իրաւունք չունի՜մ ես քու հողիդ մէջ թաղուելու. . . ։

[But you, familiar vision now so far away,
Tell me, is it true that you will never again open your arms wide for
My limitless longing that has been searching for you?
You, oh Constantinople, you that became the light of my newly opened eyes,
Tell me, is it true that we are now strangers to each other
And that I no longer have the right to be buried in your soil?]

In Armenian, writers can express longing, yearning, and nostalgia not only through the words they select, but through their careful use of punctuation. The ( ՜ ), called yergar in Armenian, is an evocative particularity of the language: in lengthening the vowel over which it is placed, it has the power to heighten the plaintive, wistful tone of a text. In the final stanzas of Vahan Tekeyan’s 1924 poem “Constantinople,” printed above, the yergar allows the anguished intonations and quiet disbelief of the poet to reverberate in our ears as we become participants in his requiem for a city that has spurned him.

Towards Cilicia

Zabel Yessayan

Translated by Jennifer Manoukian

The 1909 massacres of Cilicia, focused in Adana, were the subject of abundant literature at the time. The "Grand Dame of Armenian literature," Zabel Yessayan (1878-1943), published in 1911 her testimonial masterpiece Աւերակներու մէջ (Amid the Ruins), written after her July-September 1909 sojourn as a member of the delegation sent by the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople to help the victims and search for orphans. The following is the first chapter of the book.