RAFAEL DE NOGALES MENDES AND WE
By Yuri Khachatrian
AZG Armenian Daily
19/04/2007
Moscow publishing-house ‘Russki vestnik’ has recently published
a new book concerning our biggest national tragedy -The Armenian
Genocide. The book called ‘Four years under the crescent’ is written
by a Venezuelan writer, service man and political figure Rafael de
Nogales Mendes. This book is one of the first worldwide echoes of
the Armenian Genocide, which has had a hard and peculiar destiny.
Rafael de Nogales Mendes was born in 1879, in San Christobal,
Tachira state, Venezuela. He got higher education in Europe –
studying at High Military Colleges of Germany, Belgium and Spain. He
was fluent not only in Arabic and Chinese, but also in Spanish,
English, French and German. He took part in many military actions and
had a stormy life full of events: in 1898 he struggled with Spanish
against USA in Cuba, in 1902 he took part in the next Latin-American
revolution in Venezuela, in 1904 he appeared in China and took part
in Chinese-Japanese war, in 1908 he returned to his motherland but
because of the new dictator Chuan Vicente Gomes he had to leave for
Europe. Soon he became an officer of the Turkish expeditionary forces
in Iran, and after this took part in the evacuation and genocide
of the Armenian people of West Armenia as an officer of the Ottoman
Empery military forces. So he became one of the eyewitnesses of the
First Genocide in the world.
He is a bearer of the Iron Cross Order, which he received at the
hands of Wilhelm 2nd for the services in the World War I.
Then he took part in the revolution of Nicaragua.
After that he was a military leader of the Palestinian right-bank
region. After the war he appeared in Alaska as a gold searcher and
soon he became a cowboy in Arizona.
Rafael de Nogales took part also in the Mexican revolution being with
Madero side-by-side after the revolution.
He wrote several books about his stormy and rough life – ‘Memories
of General Rafael de Nogales’, ‘The plundering of Nicaragua’, ‘Four
years under the crescent’, etc.
The book ‘Four years under the crescent’ (‘Cuatro anos bajo la Media
luna’) is very important and significant for Armenian people as it is
about the Armenian Genocide. The acknowledgement of his guilt and the
pangs of conscience made him to speak and tell the world about the
first genocide and the most nasty and horrible tragedy in the world.
The book was published in 1920, in Venezuela. The writer was pursued
and even an attempt was made upon him, and all the print run of the
book was bought and destroyed. The second edition published in the
Caracas City by the ‘Casa de Especialidades’ publishing-house had
the same fate. At that time Nogales lived in Panama. He died in 1936
from tuberculosis.
Even today its very difficult and even impossible to find this book
in the libraries of the world. Only an example of this edition was
preserved by an eyewitness of the Armenian Genocide, our compatriot
Mihran Kehyan, who had been evacuated from the West Armenia and
settled in Venezuela. The mentioned example has been placed at the
disposal of the publishing-house in Moscow.
The book has a nice preface. The parts about Armenia and Armenians
have detailed footnotes. The book has also a wonderful design and two
maps – one is the map of the historical Armenia and the second one is
the map of the regions where the genocide has been committed. There
are also several photographs in the book that have historical and
documentary value. The print run of the book is ten thousand.
Our people must know about Rafael de Nogales and his life. This book
is translated and published into English and French languages. It
would be great if the book was translated into Armenian and presented
to the Armenian reader.