Genocide Remembrance Day

 

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception


Genocide Remembrance Day (Armenian: Եղեռնի զոհերի հիշատակի օր) or Genocide Memorial day is a national holiday in Armenia and is observed by Armenians in dispersed communities around the world on April 24.

It is held annually to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide from 1915 to 1923. In Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, hundreds of thousands of people walk to the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial to lay flowers at the eternal flame.
The date 24 April commemorates the Armenian notables deported from the Ottoman capital in 1915, of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders, most of whom would be executed, which was a precursor to the ensuing events.

The deportation of Armenian notables also known as the Red Sunday (Armenian: Կարմիր Կիրակի Garmir Giragi) is an event during Armenian Genocide when leaders of the Armenian community of the Ottoman capital, Constantinople, and later other locations were arrested and moved to two holding centers near Ankara upon the order of the Minister of the Interior Mehmed Talaat Bey of April 24, 1915. With the adoption of the Tehcir Law on 29 May 1915, they were later relocated, within the Empire and most of them killed. 24 April is observed as a Genocide Remembrance Day, to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

Minister of the Interior Mehmed Talaat Bey gave the detention order on April 24, 1915. The operation commenced at 8 p.m. At Constantinople, the action was operated by Chief of Police of Constantinople Bedri Bey.

On the night of 24–25 April 1915, in a first wave 235 to 270 Armenian leaders of Constantinople, clergymen, physicians, editors, journalists, lawyers, teachers, politicians, etc. were arrested upon an instruction of the Ministry of the Interior. The differences in number may be explained by the uncertainties of the police as they imprisoned people with the same names.
There were further deportations from the capital. The first task was to identify those imprisoned. They were held for one day in a police station (Ottoman Turkish: Emniyeti Umumiye) and the Central Prison. A second wave brought the figure to 500–600.
In the end of August 1915 about 150 Armenians with Russian nationality were deported from Constantinople to holding centers. Few of the detained were released the same weekend as writer Alexander Panossian (1859–1919) before even being transferred to Anatolia.

Holding centers

Most of the arrested were sent after identification of the particulars from Central Prison over Sarai Burnu by steamer No. 67 of the Şirket company to the railway station of Haydarpaşa. After waiting for ten hours, they were sent by special train in the direction of Ankara the next day. The train was under way with 220 Armenians.An Armenian train conductor got a list of names of the deportees. It was handed over to the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Zaven Der Yeghiayan, who right away tried in vain to save as many deportees as possible. The only foreign ambassador to help him in his efforts was US ambassador Henry Morgenthau. After a train journey of 20 hours, the deportees got off in Sincanköy (near Ankara) Tuesday noon. At the station Ibrahim, the director of the Central Prison of Constantinople, did the triage. The deportees were divided into two groups.

One group was sent to Çankırı (and Çorum between Çankırı and Amasia) and the other to Ayaş. Those separated for Ayaş were transported in carts for a couple of hours further to Ayaş. Almost all of them were killed several months later in gorges near Ankara. Only ten (or thirteen) deportees of this group were granted permission to turn back to the capital from Ayaş.
A group of 20 latecomers arrested on 24 April arrived in Çankırı around 7 or 8 May 1915. About 150 political prisoners were detained in Ayaş, about 150 intellectual prisoners in Çankırı.

Court martial

Dr. Nazaret Daghavarian and Sarkis Minassian were removed on 5 May from the Ayaş prison and taken under military escort to Diyarbakır along with Daghavarian, Jangülian, Khajag, Minassian and Zartarian to appear before a court martial. They were, seemingly, murdered by the band of brigands led by Cherkes Ahmet, and lieutenants Halil and Nazım, at a locality called Karacaören shortly before arriving to Diyarbakır. The murderers were tried and executed in Damascus by Djemal Pasha in September 1915. The assassinations became the subject of a 1916 investigation by the Ottoman Parliament led by Artin Boshgezenian, the deputy for Aleppo.

Marzbed dispatched to Kayseri to appear before a court martial on 18 May 1915. After his release from the court, he worked under fake Ottoman identity for the Germans in Intilli (Amanus railway tunnel). He escaped to Nusaybin, where he fell from a horse and died right before the armistice.

Release

Any prisoners released came through the intercession of influential persons who they found through their own means. Five deportees from Çankırı were freed upon intervention of ambassador Henry Morgenthau.

In total, twelve deportees were granted permission to return to the capital from Çankırı. These were Komitas Vardapet, Piuzant Kechian, Dr. Vahram Torkomian, Dr. Parsegh Dinanian, Haig Hojasarian, Nshan Kalfayan, Yervant Tolayan, Aram Kalenderian, Noyig Der-Stepanian, Vrtanes Papazian, Karnik Injijian, Beylerian junior. Four deportees were granted permission to come back from Konya. These were Apig Miubahejian, Atamian, Kherbekian, Nosrigian.

The remaining deportees were under the protection of governor of Ankara Vilayet. Mazhar Bey defied the secret instructions of Talat Pasha minister of the interior. End of July 1915, Mazhar was replaced by central committee member Atif Bey.

Deportation

After the passage of Tehcir Law on 29 May 1915, Armenians left at the two holding centers were deported to Ottoman Syria.
On 11 or 18 July 1915 a first convoy with 56 prisoners arrived at the Çankırı holding center with no survivors.

In August 1915, Atif Bey started the deportation of the Armenians living at the "Ankara Vilayet". On 19 August, a second convoy with 30 deportees left Çankırı. Their fate is better known as two of them survived, one of whom was Aram Andonian.This group continued their journey first by train as far as Ankara and then in carts to Çankırı. After a week in the military barracks they were allowed to stay in town at their own expense, with the condition that they remain under supervision, whereas those sent to Ayaş were kept jailed in the garrison.

Survivors

After the Armistice of Mudros several surviving Armenian intellectuals came back to Constantinople, which was under allied occupation. They started a short but intense literary activity that was ended by the Turkish victory (1922–23).