As a young woman in 1898, Theresa Huntington left her New England home and traveled to another world. For seven years she lived and worked in Harpoot (Kharpert) in the Ottoman Empire. She wrote home regularly. 
Now Stina Katchadourian has discovered Theresa's old letters. And they are fascinating. 
The letters give us insights into the daily lives of Ottoman Armenians. Theresa describes their holidays and celebrations, their social customs and traditions. 
She writes about how people dressed and what they did in their free time. She describes in mouth-watering detail what they ate. She writes about their friendships and loves, their hopes and their fears. 
In addition, Theresa gives us an insider's portrait of a missionary community and its relationship to Armenians and Turks during the reign of Sultan Abdlhamid II. 
Well-written and fun to read, this volume is an excellent introduction to Armenian social history in the late Ottoman Empire.

Great Need over the Water : The Letters of Theresa Huntington Ziegler, Missionary to Turkey, 1898-1905

Biographies & Memoirs

Katchadourian, Stina

Community & Culture

Taderon Pr

Starting with the earliest immigrants before World War I, this work plots the ups and downs of the Armenian community of Syracuse, New York, up to the present. 
The book describes how one small community experienced the formative events of American-Armenian history. It traces the institutional developments of the early years-the establishment of churches, cultural organizations, and political parties. It follows the ruptures of the 1930s-the advent of the pro-Soviet Harachtimagan movement, the assassination of Archbishop Tourian in New York City, and the split within the Armenian Apostolic Church throughout the United States. It stays with the community though World War II, the Cold War, and more recent developments. 
Drawing on numerous interviews, a wealth of letters, minutes, and other documents, as well as firsthand experience, the author delivers an intimate biography of the Syracuse family.

Like One Family : The Armenians of Syracuse

History

Mesrobian, Arpena S.

Americas

"Ambassador Morgenthau's Story," one of the best known personal accounts of the Armenian Genocide, has been republished by the Gomidas Institute. The new edition features an introduction by Ara Sarafian. 
"This important and oft-cited work has been out of print for some time now," Sarafian noted. "April 24, 2000, seemed an opportune moment to make it available once again to the reading public." 
Henry Morgenthau was the United States ambassador in Constantinople at the time of the Genocide. He had frequent encounters with the top government officials who organized the Genocide. At the same time, he received detailed reports from American consular officials posted throughout the Ottoman Empire. 
His memoir, first published in 1918, is thus an authoritative account of the destruction of the Armenian population in historic Armenia. It is cited in the works of such Genocide specialists as Vahakn Dadrian, Ronald Grigor Suny, and Richard Hovannisian. 
Morgenthau had been a successful lawyer and real estate developer in New York prior to his appointment as ambassador in 1913. He was a conscientious and hard-working diplomat. In 1915, he began receiving eyewitness reports about the destruction of Armenians all over the empire. Concerned, he confronted Ottoman leaders in Constantinople. 
Sarafian reports that "by mid-July 1915 Morgenthau had concluded that a campaign of race extermination was taking place. In a letter now in the National Archives, he wrote, 'Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing and from harrowing reports of eye witnesses it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion.'" 
After the United States entered World War I and severed diplomatic relations with Ottoman Turkey-the U.S. did not declare war on the Ottoman Empire-Morgenthau was free to write his memoirs. "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story" was written in a popular style and was based on the ambassador's diaries, other private papers, and diplomatic reports from 1914-16. The memoir was first serialized in "World's Work" and then published as a book in 1918. The work was a damning indictment of Ottoman leaders for their entry into World War I and the genocide of Armenians. 
Morgenthau narrates the piecemeal manner in which the Ottoman Turks slid into World War I. One of the key episodes in this development was the passage of two German cruisers, the "Breslau" and the "Goeben," into the Bosphorus in August 1914. These ships (with their crews) were technically transferred to the Ottoman navy and used in the Ottoman attack on Russia. He gives fascinating insights into the subsequent period, with the destruction of the Ottoman navy, the Allied landings at Gallipoli, and the threat to Constantinople. He relates how, at one point, the Ottoman government even prepared to abandon its capital and move to Asia Minor. However, the most disturbing chapters in "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story" are those dealing with the genocide of Armenians. 
Morgenthau discloses his conversations with Ottoman leaders, such as Talaat Pasha (Minister of Interior), Enver Pasha (Minister of War), and Hans Wangenheim (German Ambassador). He relates how once Talaat Pasha even admitted in private, "No Armenian can be our friend after what we have done to them." 
On another occasion Talaat Pasha asked for a list of Armenian insurance-policy holders in American life insurance companies so that the Ottoman government could cash in their policies. Talaat reassured the American ambassador that the Armenians in question were "practically all dead" and had no heirs to collect the money. 
Sarafian notes that "such disclosures can be corroborated as a matter of record. The Ottoman government did approach foreign insurance companies and requested such lists of Armenian policy holders-and these were for communities which were destroyed the previous summer." 
Perhaps because of his own Jewish background, Henry Morgenthau was particularly sensitive to the plight of Armenians. As he related in a private letter to his son, Henry Morgenthau Jr., Ottoman Armenians were like the people of Israel in captivity, though they did not have a Moses to lead them out of their predicament. 
Morgenthau's sympathy for Armenians was very real and did not wane. "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story" remains as powerful today as it was 82 years ago when it was first published.

Ambassador Morgenthau's Story

Morgenthau, Henry

Sarafian, Ara

Asia

"Marsovan 1915" is a critical edition of the diaries of Bertha Morley, an American music teacher in Marsovan (near Kharpert). It is a blow-by-blow account of the Armenian Genocide in Marsovan between April and September 1915. Editor Hilmar Kaiser notes that the diaries, which were written for Morley's own private purposes, record the systematic disintegration of the Marsovan Armenian community: the arrest of Armenian community intellectuals, the methodical deportation of the rest of the population, and the eventual destruction of deportees. Morley narrates how Armenian property was plundered by Ottoman local and central officials and how Armenian women and children converted and were absorbed into Muslim households. She also testifies to the efforts of Ottoman authorities to conceal their criminal activities.

Marsovan 1915: The Diaries of Bertha Morley

Morley, Bertha B.

Middle East

In 1916 the British Parliament published a Blue Book that identified the events of 1915-16 as a systematic effort to exterminate the Armenian people. The Blue Book has been one of the most solid and influential sources on the Armenian Genocide. A critical, uncensored edition, edited and with an introduction by Ara Sarafian, has now been published by the Gomidas Institute.

The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916 : Documents Presented to Viscount Grey of Falloden by Viscount Bryce (Uncensored Edition) aka "The Blue Book"

BRYCE, JAMES

Toynbee, Arnold Joseph

TOYNBEE, ARNOLD

Set at the time of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, "The Fool" provides invaluable glimpses into social conditions in western Armenia at the time. It portrays the development of an Armenian civil rights movement in Ottoman Turkey. "The Fool" is an account of a heroic struggle to defend ordinary people from the depredations and avarice of Ottoman authorities, neighboring peoples, and a corrupt Armenian establishment. It is the story of a revolutionary struggle to establish a just and civil society in Armenia. This historical novel has served as an "I have a dream" speech for generations of Armenians. In the course of a romantic and hopeful novel, Raffi depicts in detail the way of life of Armenian peasants, their psychology, and the conditions under which they survived. He also portrays the central ideas that fuelled Armenian radical intellectuals of the day. "The Fool" is arguably the single most important work of literature dealing with the Armenian Question in Ottoman Turkey. Raffi depicts many of the actual figures and settings involved in the events of the time. The classical clarity and drama of its dialogue, the Armenian aphorisms that play such an important role throughout the story, the philosophical depth and moral passion embodied in it all make this novel a remarkable encounter with one of the greatest creative minds in modern Armenian history. Donald Abcarian's new translation includes extensive notes and a glossary.

The Fool: Events from the Last Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78

Literature & Fiction

Րաֆֆի

Genre Fiction

A missionary from Salem, Nebraska, witnesses the destruction of Armenians in Harpoot (Kharpert).

"The German, the Turk and the Devil Made a Triple Alliance": Harpoot Diaries, 1908-1917

Atkinson, Tacy

Efronia Katchadourian was born in 1894 to a Christian Armenian family living in the Ottoman Empire. In her late eighties, she finally wrote the long-secret story of her ill-fated youthful love for a Persian Moslem during the era of the Armenian genocide. Her daughter-in-law Stina introduces the memoir and interweaves an affectionate narrative that brings together the historical, biographical, and cultural elements of her indomitable mother-in-law's tumultuous world.

Efronia: An Armenian Love Story

Katchadourian, Efronia

Shepard of Aintab

Shepard Riggs, Alice

Historical

Maria Jacobsen was a Danish missionary stationed in Harpoot in the early part of the twentieth century--including during the genocide of Armenians in 1915. Her diaries constitute a key eyewitness account of the treatment of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. Jacobsen's diaries were translated from the original Danish by Kristen Vind and edited by Ara Sarafian. 
According to Sarafian, these diaries are "documentation of the utmost significance" and comparable to the eyewitness accounts of Henry Riggs ("Days of Tragedy in Armenia"), Tacy Atkinson ("The German, the Turk and the Devil Made a Triple Alliance"), and the reports filed by U. S. Consul Leslie Davis. However, unlike these American witnesses, who had to leave this region in April 1917 (when the United States entered World War I), Jacobsen carries on her narrative until the end of the war. In this sense it is a more complete record of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. 
Maria Jacobsen watched the persecution of Armenians from close quarters and tried to save as many Armenian women and children as she could. She pleaded with the Ottoman authorities, provided clandestine relief, and recorded what she saw. Her diaries are invaluable for a critical understanding of the Armenian Genocide.

Diaries of a Danish Missionary: Harpoot, 1907-1919 (Armenian Genocide Documentation Series, 5)

Jacobsen, Maria

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