Armenian Genocide to be discussed in London (Ontario) Congress PT2

[Hovik]

Part III: The Armenian Genocide

12:30-2:00pm in SH 2355

Powerful Silences: Becoming a Survivor Through the Construction of
Story Arlene Voski Avakian ([email protected]), University of
Massachusetts

Abstract: Survivors' accounts of traumatic events function on many
levels for both the teller and the hearer. The construction of these
stories and their telling may also provide a means of countering the
devastating psychological effects of the trauma. This paper will
explore one story about the Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915 as
told to me by my grandmother, Elmas Tutuian. Tutuian's story omits as
much as it tells. Examining this narrative from a psychological and a
textual perspective, I suggest that by choosing to be silent about
parts of her experience, Tutuian constructed herself as a survivor
rather than a victim.



La Memoire Des Survivants Comme Irrefutable Temoignage Historique du
Genocide des Armeniens
Verjine Svazlian ([email protected]), Museé-Institut du Génocide des
Arméniens de l'Acadmie Nationale des Sciences d'Arménie

Abstract:Les récits et les chants folkloriques (650 units), communiqus
par les témoins oculaires survivants ayant survécu par miracle au
Génocide des Arméniens organisé entre 1915 et 1922 par la Turquie
ottomane, et que nous avons recueillis, enregistré sur cassettes audio
et vido pendant 50 ans en Arménie, en Grèce, en France, aux Etats-Unis
d'Amérique, en Turquie et ailleurs, ont la valeur d'importants
documents historiques et juridiques .

L'étude scientifique de ces documents folkloriques donne une claire
notion de tout le cours du Génocide des Arméniens, du pillage de leurs
biens et de leurs droits humains fouls aux pieds, ainsi que de leurs
héroiques combats contre leurs persécuteurs.

Traumatic Pasts and Silent Presents: Testimony of the Genocide's
Aftermath in French-Armenian Literature Between the Wars
Talar Chahinian ([email protected]), U.C.L.A.

Abstract: My paper proposes that French-Armenian literature of the
post-Armenian
Genocide period written by survivors can be read as a testimonial of
the trauma in its aftermath through the very repression of genocide
memory, in spite of the lack of an explicit genocide memory in the
texts. The trauma of the aftermath can be mediated indirectly, through
the use of indexical (figurative) representation. My paper is a
symbolic reading of symptoms of trauma in both the content and the
form of Hratch Zardaryan's novel Mer Gyanke, [Our Life] (1934) and
Zareh Orbuni's novella Pordze, [The Attempt] (1934).


Aftereffects of War and Colonialism

Facilitating War: Trauma, Memory and Gender
Doris Goedl ([email protected]), Institute for Social
Research, Salzburg, Austria
Abstract: This paper establishes interconnections between a
psychoanalytical approach to trauma, memory and gender, based on
theoretical and practical work as a psychologist (psychodynamic work
with a group of war-traumatized women in Croatia 1994 - 1997) and as a
social researcher in a research-project conducting interviews
(2002-2004) with men an women in Slovenia, Croatia and
Bosnia-Hercegovina concerning their memories on socialism, transition
and war.
I will highlight how processes of social transformation, political
transition and disintegration in former Yugoslavia can be interpreted
as collectively experienced historical Trauma as well as look at
individual memories and narratives from a gender perspective.

Teaching Gender and Genocide
Lynn M. Maurer ([email protected]) and Anthony Q. Cheeseboro, Southern
Illinois University, Edwardsville

Abstract: Our paper recounts the experiences of incorporating the
issues of gender and race into a university interdepartmental course
on war and peace. These issues are often overlooked in traditional
teaching and understanding of war, thus leading to denial or a
distorted "memory" of issues, such as genocide.
We found that students enter the classroom with preconceived ideas and
ideologies that inhibit memory and deny the multiple roles of women in
war and gender specific attacks involved in genocide. Here we bring
our experience and data forth to be compared with similar courses thus
aiding educators to overcome challenges to memory.

[Gavur]

'the Armenian Genocide And Collective Memory'

A New Book by Verjine Svazlian

During the past few years, interest toward the Armenian Genocide (1915-1922) has grown, primarily due to the fact of the recognition of this historical evidence by numerous countries. The official Turkish and pro-Turkish historiography, however, continues to distort and deny the true historical facts.

In this respect, the popular testimonies communicated under the immediate impressions of the said events are also, besides the official documents published in various languages, of an important historico-factual value. Inasmuch as the Armenian nation itself is the object of that massive political crime and, as in the elucidation of every crime, the testimonies of the eyewitnesses are decisive, similarly in this case, the testimonies of the eyewitness-survivors are of prime importance, since each one of these testimonies has, from the juridical point of view, an evidential significance in the equitable solution of the Armenian Case and in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

As a result of the deportation and the genocide, a considerable part of the Western Armenians (more than 1.5 million) was exterminated, while those who were miraculously saved were dispersed in different countries of the world, creating the Armenian Diaspora as a historical reality. Many of the eyewitness-survivors of these tragic events have periodically been repatriated, beginning from the 1920s, from the Diaspora to Soviet Armenia and settled in the newly built localities symbolizing their former native cradles.

Beginning from as early as 1955 and during 50 years, Doctor, Professor Verjine Svazlian, Leading Researcher of the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide and of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, have written down, tape- and video-recorded and studied the testimonies (660 units) communicated by eyewitness survivors (remaining faithful to the popular speech), who were miraculously saved from the Armenian Genocide. The originals of these testimonies are kept at the archives of the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide of the NAS RA.

On the occasion of the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the "Belge" Publishing House in Istanbul (Turkey) has published the Turkish version of Doctor, Professor Verjine Svazlian’s study: "The Armenian Genocide and Historical Memory" ("Ermeni soykırımı ve toplumsal hafıza"). Editor and publisher of the book is human and nation rights’ activist, progressive Turkish intellectual, public and political man, writer Rakip Zarakolu.

"Gitutyun" Publishing House of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia has published the book also in Armenian (2003), English (1st edition, 2004; 2nd edition, 2005), French (2005), German (2005) and Russian (2005).

The present study represents the course and the historical events of the Armenian Genocide, which have been completed, substantiated and confirmed by the testimonies and the songs of historical nature (in Armenian and Turkish languages) communicated by the eyewitness-survivors of the Armenian Genocide, forcibly deported from about 100 localities of Western Armenia, Cilicia, Anatolia and resettled in Armenia and the Diaspora (Greece, France, Italy, Germany, USA, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, the Balkan countries, Turkey).

These factual testimonies authentically reproduce the mobilization, the arms collection, as well as the massive deportations and massacres of the Armenians organized by the government of the Young Turks during the First World War.

The ethnographic materials of the present study author have quoted from her bulk book of firsthand sources (Verjine Svazlian. "The Armenian Genocide." "Testimonies of the Eyewitness-Survivors." Yerevan, "Gitutyun" Publishing House NAS RA, 2000 (in Armenian)).

The present study, confirmed with the popular materials, become, with its uniqueness and historico-cognitive value, objective, factual, authentic and irrefutable testimony elucidating, in a simple, popular language, the Armenian Genocide.

The study contains a map of the deportation and the Genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Turkey, photographs of the eyewitness survivors, and summaries in English, French, German, Turkish, Russian and Armenian.

At the end of her study the author concluded: "It is time, therefore, that the present government of the Republic of Turkey, adopting now the road of progress, has the courage of admitting the obvious historical truth, which has been substantiated over and over again by written as well as oral evidences and is not in need of any further proofs. That historical truth is called the Armenian Genocide."