A NEW ABRIDGED ENGLISH TRANSLATION "CILICIA 1909: THE MASSACRE OF ARMENIANS" WAS RELEASED

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.11.2009 12:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A new abridged English translation by Ara Stepan
Melkonian and Ara Sarafian was just released by the Gomidas Institute
of London under the title "Cilicia 1909: The Massacre of Armenians."

The book by Hagop H. Terzian was published in Istanbul in 1912,
but confiscated by the Ottoman government. Terzian, a pharmacist by
profession, documented his own and other eyewitnesses’ experiences
during the 1909 massacres in the Adana province. Born in Hadjin in
1879 and educated in Constantinople, he barely escaped the horrific
events, however, was arrested on April 24, 1915 and killed, along
with many of his colleagues.

Sarafian introduced the new volume on Monday, October 12, during the
Armenian Studies Program Lecture Series at California State University,
Fresno, in observation of the one hundredth anniversary of the Adana
Massacres. The detailed descriptions that Terzian recorded in his
diary are chilling, to say the least, but should be widely required
reading. The suffering to which the Armenian population of Adana was
subjected by mobs – in two stages – could be summarized as "going
through hell and back," if you survived!

According to the book, over 21,000 Armenians were murdered during
less than two weeks of massacres. As a result of lootings, in the
Adana province the Armenians lost an estimated 5,400,000 gold liras
in economic and personal property.

With their translation, Ara Stepan Melkonian and Ara Sarafian have
done a great service, not only for recorded history but also for the
illumination of our coming generations. Although the book encompasses
many disturbing and graphic descriptions of eyewitness accounts, it
is easy to read and should be read by every student of humanity. It
provides a preview of what followed six years later, during the
1915 Armenian Genocide. Anyone who would like to educate younger
people about atrocities that may be committed by mankind against
man, or provide help with interpreting unfolding current events,
with the goal of pre-empting and preventing genocidal recurrences,
should hand them a copy of "Cilicia 1909", Asbarez.com reported.