Q&A: ACCOUNT OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TRANSLATED SO OTHERS WILL NOT REPEAT ATROCITIES
By Phyllis Sides
Journal Times Online, WI –
Nov 21 2006
Second of two parts: The first genocide of the 20th century started in
Turkey in April 1915. Racine resident Mariam Sahakian has a first-hand
account in her father’s memoirs. Sahakian’s father, Varteres Mikael
Garougian, survived the killing and recorded his experiences for
posterity.
Armenians say that Turkish authorities executed 1.5 million people
between 1915-1923, accusing them of helping the invading Russian Army
during World War I. Turkey rejects the genocide claim, saying Armenians
were killed in civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
However, Henry Morgenthau, the United States ambassador to Ottoman
Turkey between 1913 and 1916, wrote of the mistreatment and killings
of the Armenians in "Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story," a memoir of his
years in Turkey. Because the past is important Sahakian translated
her father’s memoirs into English.
This is part two of a two-part interview. The first part was published
Monday.
When did you decide to translate your father’s memoirs and how long
did it take? Shortly after I retired in 1988, I began to read again
our father’s gift to us – his treasure, the manuscript that he had
left to my brother and me. As a tribute to our parents, I began
translating it by 1990, intending to make it available to my family
and my brother Mikael. However, as I worked on it, I realized that
my father’s uncommon life might be of interest to others.
The whole process took me over 12 years to complete because I used
quite a few sources to corroborate some events Varteres describes,
as well as searching for maps and geographical sources, contacting a
number of living survivors, etc. Also, I didn’t work on it everyday
and when I did, it usually was for only two to three hours at a time.
When he died in 1958, my father’s Armenian manuscript, interspersed
with some Turkish, French, Arabic, consisted of 286 legal size,
handwritten pages of text only and was not completely ready for
publication in Armenian. There were several separate sections, as well
as some eyewitness accounts by others, which had to be incorporated
into the text as I translated it.
To his work I added a translator’s preface, title, chapters and chapter
headings, 16 pages of footnotes, a Turkish and an Armenian glossary,
a suggested bibliography, and a 19-page index. In addition to all
the above, I sketched three maps and selected photos with captions.
The Armenian title my father had used was "Narrations from my life:
what I saw, heard, and endured." However, I changed it to "Destiny of
the Dzidzernag." When he was a French Legionnaire, he was sending
articles to Armenian newspapers in America using the pseudonym
"Dzidzernag," which is the swallow that symbolizes Armenia. I think
of my parents – in fact all the Armenian immigrants of those times as
Dzidzernags – and this tribute is for all those immigrants, who as
my father describes it in his manuscript, were uprooted from their
ancestral lands and courageously tried to relocate elsewhere were –
and I quote him – "like seeds flung to the winds."
What did you learn from the process? I learned how important our roots
are, as well as developed a greater appreciation for our immigrant
parents, as well as other immigrants. I marvel at their ability to
leave homeland and find roots in such faraway places – also their
ability to survive such horrendous difficulties and cruelties.
Although we were taught to speak Armenian by our parents and to read
and write by our father in the safety of our home in this country,
we only were aware of how precarious and uncommon their previous
lives had been. A few hints now and then, or a brief story of some
troubles they had encountered. Reading my father’s manuscript as well
as other related sources while translating has left us in awe of our
parents’ lives.
Why is your translation important? The word `genocide’ was coined
by our President Woodrow Wilson, a true scholar, who was active
in promoting the League of Nations after World War I. "Destiny
of the Dzidzernag" is a factual record of those times. My 19-page
index includes numerous people’s names and places, since many have
been changed or are no more, as well as some events. The suggested
bibliography and my footnotes add to its value. Professor Robert O.
Krikorian’s enlightening foreword emphasizes the historical importance
of Varteres’ translated memoirs. I will remain grateful to him for
encouraging me to have it published and showing me the path to do so.
Hopefully, this book, in its own small way, will help readers to
understand they must prevent genocide, atrocities. In the 1930s,
when some in Adolph Hitler’s circle of advisors argued against
his plan to exterminate the Jewish people, he convincingly stated,
"After all, who now remembers the Armenians?" Let us always keep in
mind this famous statement by George Santayana; "Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
06/11/21/local/columns/iq_4284040.txt