20.01.2015


Towards the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute is launching “The book of the month” project.

The books will be selected very carefully: they must be the memoirs of the Armenian Genocide survivors, research papers and other publications of great importance. The aim of this project is to introduce the readers with rare and still unknown works related to the topic in order to make them aware of the subject and provide an in-depth knowledge about the Armenian Genocide.

The memoirs of Sargis Torossian “From Dardanelle to Palestine”, which is published in Armenian and Russian by the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, is the book of the January.

The book presents the memoir of Sargis Torossian, an Armenian officer in the Ottoman army. This memoir of exceptional importance is published in many languages including Turkish.

The memories narrate the odyssey of the Armenian officer in the Ottoman army who passed through the horrors of WWI. Unexpected changes of events and figures, and presentation of the history of the Armenian Genocide from totally unexplored point makes the narration of Sarkis Torossian more interesting and exciting and leaves an indelible impression on readers.

The story of Sarkis Torossian is not just memoirs, but unique monument and living testimony of the Armenian Genocide. Being a participant in Dardanelle battle, one of the blood-stained battles of the war, Sarkis Torossian was awarded by the Ottoman Government. Nevertheless, his family and relatives were exiled and brutally murdered by the same government.

The interesting and attractive story of eyewitness-author tells about rapidly developed events in European and Middle Eastern military and political fronts, mixed with the drama of his personal adventures and experiences. The hero did not experienced the horrors of the genocide, however he became a victim of one of the greatest crimes of the twentieth century _ the Armenian Genocide organized and carried out by the Ottoman Government.

Let us recall, that RA President Serj Sargsian made a reference to the memoirs of Sargis Torossian in his response letter to the Turkish President Rejep Erdoghan, where especially mentioned:

“Captain Sargis Torossian, an Armenian artilleryman, also joined the troops of the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Gallipoli. He was an officer, dedicated to the defense and security of the Empire, and was honored with Ottoman military awards for his loyalty and heroism. Nevertheless, in that same year, marking the culmination of mass killing and forced deportation, preliminary planned and perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, the wave of massacres did not bypass even Sargis Torossian. His parents, brutally killed, and sister, perished in the Syrian Desert, were among 1.5 million Armenian victims of Genocide.”