Prelude to Genocide

Virginia Gavian Rivers, Author of Prelude to Genocide

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Genocide Denial, Kim Kardashian and National Newspaper Ads

The timeliness of the issues involving genocide denial have been vividly illustrated by two unusual full page ads that recently appeared in leading national newspapers, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Television celebrity Kim Kardashian entered the argument with outspoken words posted first on her social media and used later in the second advertisement.

The first ad appeared in The Wall Street Journal last April and was sponsored by “Fact Check America”. It presented what seems to be the official Turkish government position denying there was significant government responsibility in the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in 1915. That number represents about one third of Turkey’s Armenian population. A majority of those Armenians lived in the eastern part of Turkey, where massacres of Armenians took place 20 years earlier.

Kim Kardashian responded promptly to the WSJ advertisement with a letter she posted on her social media and later published in an advertisement in The New York Times. In the letter, Kardashian said, “Money talks, and right now it’s talking crap. My family and I are no strangers to BS in the press. We’ve learned to brush it off…” She went on to say “…For The Wall Street Journal to publish something like this…for a trusted publication like the WSJ to profit from genocide – it’s shameful and unacceptable…”

When asked in April about publishing the ad, The Wall Street Journal had replied, “We accept a wide range of advertisements, including those with provocative viewpoints. While we review ad copy for issues of taste, the varied and divergent views expressed belong to the advertisers.”

screen-shot-2016-10-11-at-2-31-39-pmIn her letter, Kardashian addresses the WSJ‘s position by saying. “Advocating the denial of a genocide by the country responsible for it—that’s not publishing a ‘provocative viewpoint’, that’s spreading lies. It’s totally morally irresponsible, and, most of all, it’s dangerous. If this had been an ad denying the Holocaust, or pushing some 9/11 conspiracy theory, would it have made it to print?” She also wrote, “Many historians believe that if Turkey had been held responsible for the Armenia genocide and reprimanded for what they did, the Holocaust may not have happened. In 1939, a week before the Nazi invasion of Poland, Hitler said, ”Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” We do. We must. We must talk about it until it is recognized by our government, because when we deny our past, we endanger our future…”
Kardashian’s letter became the centerpiece of a full page ad that appeared in The New York Times on September 17. It was sponsored by the Armenian Educational Foundation, which is dedicated to furthering the Armenian heritage through education. The Foundation is located in Glendale, California, home to a large number of Armenian Americans.

She – together with many Armenian American groups and individuals – has advocated unsuccessfully for President Barack Obama to use the word “genocide” when referring to the 1915 massacre of Armenians.

The full text of the ad and the entire letter by Kardashian can be found on her website:
https://www.kimkardashianwest.com/behind-the-scenes/918-kim-kardashian-armenian-genocide

An article about this topic recently appeared in Vanity Fair magazine:
http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/09/kim-kardashian-armenian-genocide-new-york-times-ad

Genocide Denial: Who Cares and Why

How is it possible for anyone to look at the photographs of corpses heaped, emaciated, naked, and argue that a genocide or massacre is an artifact, somehow staged, its cause some force of nature, disease or war or famine, and not a planned effort to exterminate a population?  The facts are well documented.   We have surely all seen some of the awful photographs taken by different witnesses at different places, and heard or read accounts by witnesses and survivors.

Turkey’s government has been denying it implemented a policy of eliminating its Armenian citizens in 1915.  Its denial, similarly, extends back to the hamidieh massacres orchestrated against that Christian minority from 1895 into 1896 and beyond.  Yes, there were “violent incidents” in 1895-1896, it maintains, but they were essentially random and not systematic.  Not (the argument goes on) a result of deliberate government policy.  Moreover (say Turkish officials), in a time of drought, banditry and disease, death rates soar.  Muslims die along with infidels.

One question this position cannot address is how, then, the 1895-96 incidents followed the army from one city to the next all over eastern Turkey, where the Armenian population was most numerous.  Erzerum’s “Incident” was preceded by several other “incidents” of violence against Armenians in nearby cities.  It was followed by similar “incidents” in close range.  Readers of my historic novel, “Prelude to Genocide: Incident in Erzerum” will be swept into the events of that fraught time.

Because my father passed family stories along to me and my brother, we can never take the Turkish government position seriously.  Many second and third generation Armenian Americans whose elders survived the 1915 genocide of Armenians agree.  They demand the Turks acknowledge the government’s role in the tragedy, as Germany has done with the Holocaust.

“Admit it,” they say, “And then we can heal that open wound.  Only then can we move on.”

Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel Laureate in Literature, was forced to flee his country in 2005 after stating, “Thirty thousand Kurds have been killed here, and a million Armenians. And almost nobody dares to mention that. So I do.”   He returned later in 2005 to face the charges against him.

Pamuk said in an interview the same year with BBC News that he wanted to defend freedom of speech, which was Turkey’s only hope for coming to terms with its history: “What happened to the Ottoman Armenians in 1915 was a major thing that was hidden from the Turkish nation; it was a taboo. But we have to be able to talk about the past.”

Pamuk has been joined by a number of other private Turkish citizens, particularly academics, who have spoken out about the need to recognize the Armenian Genocide.  Their remarks have not been prosecuted, so far as I know. The Turkish government, however, continues to deny that there was government involvement in the deaths of Armenians, either in 1915 or in 1895-1896.

Pamuk is the author of numerous novels, including My Name is Red, Snow, The White Castle, The Museum of Innocence and The Red Haired Woman, along with a memoir, Istanbul—Memories And The City and the screenplay for “Secret Face,” a movie.  He is among several Turkish writers who have published essays critical of the government’s treatment of its Kurdish minorities.

Timely evidence of the continuing disagreement about the genocide/massacres of Armenians in Turkey appeared recently in The New York Times.   Interested readers are invited to visit my next blog, “Kim Kardashian and the Armenian Genocide”.

Refugees, Migrants and Jobs

Refugees, migrants and jobs

Are they true refugees, defined as fleeing persecution, or “mere” migrants, seeking opportunity better than can be found at home?  Does the distinction even matter?  In either case, they are hungry, homeless, needy and foreign. Most likely, their faith and customs differ from the country where they are seeking help.  Race as well as ethnicity may add complications to their entry.

The refugee crisis has been on the news for so long that many of us are jaded, no longer giving it much thought.  It all seems helpless, beyond our capacity to make any difference.

Yet these people living miserably in camps around Europe might have been welcomed, had they come to Europe or the UK or US in better economic times.  What if there were not already great numbers of unemployed and underemployed workers, especially youth, in the host countries?  What if we, potential host countries, agreed to use this enormous new supply of labor to invest in roads, schools, parks, early childhood education, expanded medical facilities? Paid jobs provide stimulus to the economy, particularly when the workers are spending their wages on basic necessities, locally. Employing the unemployed is a win-win for all.  Persuading government to invest funds directly or indirectly into creating these jobs might help solve the crisis.

Famine and violence In Turkey from the late 19th century and well into the 1920s created many refugees.  They pressed the resources of cities; so did numerous migrants fleeing religious persecution. They needed shelter, food, clothing and work.

Historically, international religious organizations such as Christian missions and churches and private businesses have filled some of these needs.  Private businesses, whether a lone carpenter or a small local shop would find new workers among these displaced groups.  Similarly, a trade group operating internationally found merchant seamen and laborers.

Often there was little if any help provided by government.  It was up to private businesses, charitable groups and churches to feed and take in refugees and then put them to work, first training them in the skills of rug-weaving, tailoring, baking and building.  Children, with their small fingers, and young women were especially well suited for tying the small knots in rugs.  Thus (in Prelude to Genocide:Incident in Erzerum) the refugee child Serop and his young sisters in law Oskee and Asnee were taught to weave so they could earn their living. Their loving landlady provides them with a loom.  It is given with respect and hope for their future.

In another situation, a Muslim carpenter takes on a young Muslim migrant as a novice apprentice. He needed help, for the violence in Erzerum on October 30, 1895 left many homes partially or entirely destroyed.  Carpenters had all the work they wanted, and not enough hands. For a Muslim carpenter to take on another young Muslim migrant as a novice apprentice was a smart business decision.

Another example shows how opportunity may cross religious lines. The Christian businessman Martiros sees promise in a young Muslim migrant and hires him to learn shoe-making. Martiros, short-handed, serves two purposes: added shoe-making help along with useful reassurance to his many Muslim customers.

Single women were trained to sew and taught new ways of cooking and baking, in order to  support themselves.  Often, as happens in Prelude to Genocide: Incident in Erzerum, they would be given work at the church or school, where students and teachers, priests and others must be fed and clothed. The less fortunate stayed on the streets, dependent on handouts, competing for odd jobs and committing petty crime to survive.

Violence and famine led to enormous relocations and other disruptions in everyday lives.  Then or now, there was rarely a simple path for any of those displaced. As the novel illustrates, most help is temporary.  Longer lasting solutions take place locally and one at a time.  In the absence of government assistance, it was generally up to organized charity, to private business, and to individual generosity to create positive change.  This may still hold true.

An excerpt from “Prelude to Genocide”

A Brief History of the
Armenians through 1895 •••••••••••••••••••

The Armenian homeland is an area bordered by the Caucasus and Pontus mountains in what is now eastern Turkey and the Armenian Republic. Its people trace their roots to early Urartu, near Mt. Ararat and Van.

Located as they were on an important route for trade and conquest, Armenians look back on a long history of domination by stronger neighbors: Syria, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Persia and Turkey, among others. ose conquerors o en allowed Armenia self rule; however, it has been a fully independent nation only during the reign of King Tigran the Great from about 95 to 55 BCE; under Bagratid kings from 886 to 1045 CE; and from 1198 to 1375 as the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia in an area along the Mediterranean to the southwest, populated by Armenians who ed repeated invasions of the eastern plateau. Armenian Cilicia provided essential help to the European crusaders.

Armenia became the rst Christian state in 301, a er its ruler Tiridates III, newly converted by Saint Gregory the Illuminator, proclaimed Christianity the o cial state religion. When Armenia adopted its own alphabet a century later, a golden age of Armenian literature followed. e Armenian Apostolic Church was established in the sixth century and still exists independently of both the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches. During its later political eclipses, Armenia has depended on the church to preserve its unique identity.

The Armenian people remained Christian during centuries of Turkic-Muslim dominance and Ottoman rule that extended from about 1520, or 1639 for the eastern plateau, until WWI. Ottoman rulers allowed non-believing religious minorities self government, providing their religious leaders maintained order within their millets (religious groups, primarily Armenian, Greek Orthodox and Jewish) and collected required levies. Each millet saw to the schooling of its own and settled internal disputes.

The subject minorities were not allowed to testify in Muslim proceedings and this fact meant special di culties for minority members—and special opportunities for criminals. Although millet members were restricted from military service and forbidden to own rearms, Armenians could and did serve as government o cials and advisers. Many Armenians were merchants; they were also disproportionately represented in the practice of medicine and law and in the business of banking and nance because they tended to be well educated.

By the 1850s, some 2.5 million Armenians were Ottoman subjects, living predominantly in Turkey’s eastern provinces. The number dropped after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, when thousands of eastern Armenians emigrated to Russia in expectation of a better life—and protection from Kurdish raids and discriminatory rule.

A nationalist fever spread through Europe during the 19th century, sparking the creation of three nationalist Armenian organizations (Armenakan, 1885, Hunchagist, 1887, and Dashnakstutsiun, 1890). This added to the suspicions of Sultan Abdul Hamid and his advisers as to the loyalty of Turkish Armenians. With some justification, Turkish Armenian subjects were already seen as preferring Russian to Ottoman rule; some numbers had cheered the Czar’s soldiers as they marched into eastern Armenia in 1877 and some 25,000 Armenians had followed the retreat across the border at war’s end in 1878.2

Although the Ottomans had adopted a liberal constitution to satisfy foreign objections in 1876, it was not implemented. In fact,

Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who came to power the same year, imposed further restrictions on the minorities. He rankled at ongoing pressure from foreign diplomats to grant Christian subjects equal rights with the empire’s Muslim majority, including protection from Kurdish raids on their farms and villages.

Ottoman leaders had long feared Russian expansion. Sultan Abdul Hamid II felt especially threatened when the Treaty of Berlin (1878) gave Russia control of Kars and other formerly Ottoman territory on the eastern plateau. He was angered by diplomatic  efforts on behalf of religious minorities and was aware that three secret Armenian parties were trying to advance nationalist goals.

The autumn of 1895 was fraught with anxiety for Armenians living in eastern Turkey, their historic homeland. In 1894, the Armenians of Sassun had been slaughtered by military forces for refusing to pay taxes . Intervening months had seen an increase in assaults on Armenian villages by Kurdish tribesmen and militia (hamidieh) armed and encouraged by the Sultan.

In late September 1895, Armenian demonstrators in Constantinople were routed by police. For several days following, mobs wreaked violence on Armenians and in the Armenian quarter of the capital. Anti-Armenian violence erupted soon after as the Fourth Army moved south through the eastern provinces where Armenians were concentrated,: on October 8, Trabizond and neighboring Armenian villages, then Erzincan on October 21, Bitlis and Gemush-khan and surrounding villages on October 25, Baiburt on October 27 and Urfa on October 27- 28.5 A er Erzerum’s “incident” on October 30, violence came to Diyarbekir and Arabkir on November 1-3, Malatia on Nov. 4-9, Kharput on November 10-11, Sivas on November 12, followed by Amasia, Aintab and Marsovan. Kayseri suffered on November 30,6 and more violence struck Urfa in late December, with many Armenians killed. Nor is this list complete.

Again, foreign diplomats and missionaries decried these events, pressed for an end to the depredations and to secure equal rights for the Empire’s Christian subjects. Again, they heard promises which were not implemented. Britain, France and Russia participated in diplomatic protests in 1895. It did not serve the national interests of the European powers to confront the Sultan with military force. Their threats added to the Sultan’s anxieties about the Empire’s security.

An estimated 100,000 Armenians fled to Russia, Greece and other countries following the “incidents” in 1895-96.

note: Erzurum was the ancient capital of Armenia and was the capital of Erzurum province during the Ottoman Empire. Along the course of its history it was also known as Garin, eodosiopolis, Erzen-el- Rum, Arzerum, and Karin. Many contemporary sources refer to it as Erzerum. Similarly, various names and spellings are found for other cities, towns and villages such as Sassun.

 

 

Refugees, family and community: coping with loss and violence

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The news stories have been unrelenting and painful: refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Albania, Pakistan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Iran, Ukraine, Somalia, Sudan.  Fleeing war, turmoil, violence at home, needing assistance from others, their numbers overwhelming facilities at the places they have landed.

Their personal stories overflow with loss.  It is wrenching to hear them.  And easier for us that few such refugees are here in the United States, where more help might be expected.

We may know what to do when someone in our own family is displaced, bereaved or suffers some other  significant  loss.  When it’s a dear friend or neighbor, we give aid and comfort as best we can.  Our role in these situations is natural, clear, expected.  Similarly for a stricken person’s church, pastor, rabbi or imam: a familiar task within a community.

What to do, though, when some unknown child or adult or family knocks on our kitchen door, begging food, needing a place to stay?  What if some disaster  — storm or war, flood or accident – has upended their normal lives and left these strangers destitute and displaced from their community?

Your response will probably depend on where else you think the strangers might find help.  Is there a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, a municipal center nearby that would give assistance?  But if there are no such resources, how will you respond to the pleading on your doorstep?

All over the world, in old times and modern, beggars beseech strangers for food and money.  Many cities today have programs to help them:  food, shelter, blankets, clothing, and sometimes, work. This is not true for every city even in developed countries including the United States.  Instead, religious communities may fill the need to some degree, and very well in some instances — always depending on members of the faith to provide money and time for this assistance.

And so it was for Marjan, her family and many other Armenian Christians living in eastern Turkey in 1895-1896 during the hamidieh massacres (named for Sultan Abdul Hamid II).  Erzerum’s ecclesiastical leader, Bishop Shishmanian, directed the congregation to help the refugees clamoring at the doors of Saint Asdvadzadzin Armenian Apostolic Church and they responded generously.  When widow Sharopyan took some dozen refugees into the unused rooms of her large house, Marjan and many other church members went to cook, sew and care for them.  Others donated food, bedding, clothing and fuel.

There was little question of the Kavafian family taking in a young refugee and his sister, newly orphaned in Trabizond’s violence a few weeks earlier  — they were related by a marriage some time back. The orphans’ transition was made easier by similar upbringing.

A greater test of charity came when the Kavafians provided a young peasant family with shelter in the stable near the kitchen.  The Kavafians not only fed and clothed them, but Marjan and her sister-in-law worked at helping them adapt to changes that nearly overwhelmed them. When the young family needed another place to live, Marjan and her sister-in-law found a welcoming home for these three young peasants.

Later developments brought bereavement and fear of violence directly into their household. The Kavafians sustained one another, continued to care for “their” refugees and were in return helped by the refugees and the process of caring for them.

Neighbor relationships emerge as crucial in the basic drama at the novel’s heart. It was their Muslim neighbors who made sure the Christian family was safe during the violence in Erzerum, and ultimately, it was these neighbors’ efforts which reunited the family of Marjan’s friend.

Through its stories, Prelude to Genocide: Incident in Erzerum illustrates the compelling importance of the relationships among neighbors, communities and families in helping individuals survive and overcome the violence and anxiety that occur in times of upheaval.

Inspiration for writing “Prelude to Genocide:Incident in Erzerum”

 

Why I wrote “Prelude to Genocide: Incident in Erzerum”

 

My father told us three stories learned from his mother: first, how she’d been nailed into a box and smuggled from eastern Turkey into Russia after the Armenian massacres of 1895 – she always wept, he said, in recounting her family’s escape – and second, that she’d lived with her husband and his brothers in their parents’ home.  At times, that household included as many as 40 adults and children.

She also recounted that the family was saved during the massacre in Erzerum by their close friend, a Muslim  Army captain who lived next door.  Yet my father, born three years later, was named for an uncle killed in that massacre.  This puzzling fact creates the central mystery as Prelude to Genocide: Incident in Erzerum unfolds.

A second cousin, born in Erzerum, survived the great Armenian Massacre of 1915 and the subsequent famine, with her sister and mother.  At age 19, Zevart left an orphanage in Smyrna to marry an Armenian-American who brought her to this country.  She and Joe raised their family in Brooklyn, and through careful saving, brought her mother, sister and an aunt to live down the street.    Years later, when my own family moved to Brooklyn, my father sought out compatriots at the Armenian Apostolic Church.   Zevart  called him upon learning from a church friend that a man with her family name was now residing nearby.

Zevart and Joe became caring friends to my parents, brother and me, sympathetic to our need for family.  With warm affection, they included us in many family celebrations ringing with Armenian song, dance and language.  One son played the oud, an instrument similar to the Russian balalaika.  My father happily shifted from his accented English, but he did not encourage us to pick up Armenian from them.  He saw no point in having his children learn the language of a tiny country.

Zevart Kolligian became a priceless source of information about life in Erzerum and the customs of Armenian Christians there and here.  I visited my aunt Zevart many times during the long years of research and writing that preceded publication in 2015. She invariably welcomed me with a fresh baked meal of her boreg, roast chicken and stewed green beans, along with tea and cookies.

My aunt Zevart generously loaned me her English-language copy of a book about life in Garin, an alternative name for Erzerum, as remembered by Armenian survivors.  The book was published by the Garin Compatriotic Union of the United States in 1975 in a limited edition of only 100 copies; I tried to find the book without success until 2015, when an Internet-savvy librarian located a copy through a dealer on the west coast.  I was both astonished and happy to claim it — and to finally return Zevart’s book to her daughter Louise.

That book has been tremendously useful to me in portraying life for Erzerum Armenians in 1895, with its chapters on language, proverbs, songs, customs, religions, education, marriage, civic life, prominent citizens, literature, libraries, political parties and other aspects of life as remembered in Erzerum before the 1915 Genocide.

 

My father’s recollections of his boyhood in Kars helped me develop the character traits of his parents, grandparents and other family members.  His father’s harsh discipline, his mother’s generosity to beggars and rivalry among siblings reappear in the earlier family household.  A remarkable horse given to him as a young soldier by a departing English officer now belongs to the Muslim friend who plays a central role in the novel. The Armenian Apostolic Bishop who was a family friend in Kars became the family friend and Bishop in Erzerum; the historic fact of Bishop Shishmanian’s exile from Erzerum for an indiscreet letter was woven into the story.

The rich world of these stories inspired me to write the book; I required many other sources to understand enough about life in eastern Turkey in the 1890s to write Prelude to Genocide: Incident in Erzerum.

 

 

 

 

 

the author's grandmother Marjan Kavafian

the author’s grandmother Marjan Kavafian

Welcome to my new blog!

Hi, and welcome!  My name is Virginia Rives author of Prelude to Genocide. I’m so happy to have you as a visitor to my blog about my new book.  This project is very special to me, and I hope to share some of that excitement with you here.

I’ll be using this blog to interact with you about Prelude to Genocide, expanding on some of the topics in it and posting on some of the ideas related to my book.  This is a great place for you to get to know me, and I’m looking forward to getting to know you, too.

What did you think of Prelude to Genocide?  What questions do you have for me?  How do you relate to my book?

I’ll be returning here frequently with new posts and responses to feedback from you.

Until next time, please tell me a little bit about yourself.  Thank you!