RA, Yerevan 0028
Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute
Contact: Arevik Avetisyan
Tel: (374 10) 39 09 81
Fax: (374 10) 39 10 41
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http: //
New documents on the Armenian Genocide in 1915.
19.10.2007
In the result of the consistent work during last years new
photos and documents on the Armenian Genocide were revealed from
different countries’ state archives and private collections by various
researchers dealing with the issues of the Armenian Genocide. Photos
made by Austrian military man Victor Pitchman are of great interest.
Victor Pitchman was born in Vienna in 1881. He was in Turkey from 1914
till the end of the World War First. First he served in Turkish then in
Austrian and German armies. He built Turkish mountain firing in Erzerum
and drew war map of the South Western Asia for the German main
headquarter. Being in Erzerum he witnessed Armenian slaughters carried
out by the Ottoman government. There are deportation views of the
Armenians in photos made by Pitchman near Erzerum. Artem Ohandjanyan,
doctor of historical sciences, a resident of Austria provided these
photos with the photo collection of the AGMI.
New photos were revealed also in the state achieves of the "Doutsche"
bank and they were contributed to the AGMI. Meanwhile the museum
collection was enriched with dozens of unprinted memoirs recorded by the
survivors of the genocide.
Reminiscence "War and Peace memories" by Eric af Wirsen, military
attache of the Swedish Embassy to the Ottoman Empire, contains exclusive
facts on the Armenian Genocide. One of its chapters is titled as
"Slaughter of one nation" where the author describes one of the greatest
crimes of the 20th century. The author witnessed the mass graves of the
Armenians in the vicinity of Euphrates as well as he had direct contacts
with foreign diplomats, who witnessed the massacre. Mr. Wirsen writes,
"Slaughters were carried out in such ways that humanity has never seen
since the middle ages".
Wirsen was informed by different consuls that the Turkish gendarmes
entered houses of foreign diplomats, and without any words they shot
their servants of Armenian origin. Eric af Wirsen notices that it is
difficult to release the Germans from the responsibility as they did
nothing to prevent the bloodshed. Mr. Wirsen also states that some
German officers gave back the medals and rewards granted by the Ottoman
government with the following reason they cannot accept any honors from
a government carrying out such cruelties. "I join to the words of
general fon Lossov who tete-a-tete told me that slaughters of the
Armenians were the most terrible brutalities in the world history",
wrote E. Wirsen.
As a primary source this work is important and valuable as
first it was written by a representative of Sweden, a neutral state
during the war, where Ambassador Morgenthau’s evidences are affirmed for
many times. Concluding the above mentioned chapter, Wirsen wrote "I
constantly recollect cynic expression of Talaat’s face when he said
there is no "Armenian problem" anymore".
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
