SYMPOSIUM ON ADANA MASSACRE OF ARMENIANS TO BE HELD IN LONDON IN MARCH 2009
PanARMENIAN.Net
25.09.2008 14:14 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ To mark the centenary of the Adana Massacres of 1909
a one-day symposium will be held at the London School of Economics on
28 March 2009. The meeting will look back at Adana 1909 to evaluate
the humanitarian activity in the aftermath of the 1909 massacres and
to explore the response, imagery and meaning ascribed to those events.
Since 1909, Adana has continued to resonate as an evocative historic
community in the consciousness of the Armenian Diaspora, and it
has commanded artistic responses in literature, art and film,
Gibrahayer.com reports.
Possible subjects might include, but are not limited to, the following:
the response to Adana 1909 by observers, survivors, humanitarian
organizations and writers; analysis of or new approaches to the
classic texts by authors such as Zabel Yesayian, Souren Bartevian,
Siamanto, Arshagouhi Teotig or Hagop Terzian; analysis of texts by
foreign observers on Adana 1909; Adana in oral narratives or song;
the relationship between art, violence and mourning; literary texts
or film or artwork exploring Adana as lost (or ancestral) home,
images of Adana, memory or Diasporan identity.
Adana Massacre was the second series of large-scale massacres
of Armenians to break out in the Ottoman Empire. The atrocities
committed in the province of Adana in April 1909 coincided with
the counter-revolution staged by supporters of Sultan Abdul Hamid
(Abdulhamit) II (1876-1909)
A prosperous region on the Mediterranean coast encompassing the old
principality of Cilicia, once an independent Armenian state between
the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, the province of Adana had
been spared the 1890’s massacres. The disturbances were most severe
in the city of Adana where a reported 4,437 Armenian dwellings were
torched. The outbreaks spread throughout the district and an estimated
30,000 Armenians were reported killed.