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Af Karekin Dikran
Extracts from DR (Danish
Radio) broadcasts about
Danish Missionaries during and after the Armenian Genocide.
From 6th May, 28th September to 17th October 2009.
In may, september and october 2009, DR (Danish Radio) has broadcast 3
major documentaries each half an hour duration about the Armenian genocide
and 5 other shorter histories, each with 15 minutes duration about
Armenians who live in Denmark and their relation to Danish missionaries: -
Karen Jeppe and Maria Jacobsen who worked among the Armenians in Aleppo
and Danish Bird's Nest in Byblos Lebanon.
Abstract
The Armenian genocide is still politically inflamed in Turkey, here
almost after 100 years since it happened. Turkey does not acknowledge,
that genocide has happened, but is under pressure at least to talk about
their bloody history. The question is included within the negotiations
about opening the Turkish-Armenian border, which is anticipated to happen
at the end of the year 2009. At the same time Turkey is under pressure by
both USA and EU to acknowledge the injustice in 1915-1917, where between
800,000 to 1.5 million Armenians were deported and massacred.
In these broadcasting series we learn about the Armenian genocide, where 3
Danes were placed in the center in Turkey and how they experienced it.
Maria Jacobsen was a missionary and a nurse in east Turkey and she wrote
the entire process in her diary. She tells in her diary about the
organized deportations, about the murders, about hunger, children being
thrown in the river, and the great work that the missionaries carried out
to save the few, particularly the children's.
Karen Jeppe was a teacher and principal of an orphanage in Urfa, which is
located at the edge of the Syrian desert, which was the destination to the
minority, that have survived deportations and executions. Karen Jeppe had
hide Armenians for several months, under the wooden floor in her house,
and later she provided food to them in their hiding place up in the
mountains.
Carl Ellis Wandel was the Danish envoy in Istanbul from 1914 to 1920. He
wrote accounts thoroughly to the Danish foreign ministry about the
encroachments and about the intentions of the Turkish government. There
was no doubt with these three Danish observers that, the murders was
central planned, organized and carried out.
The taboo that Turkey at last talks about
May 6th 2008. at. 17:10 O'clock P1 and 19.41
So it happened again. The international acknowledgment of the Armenian
genocide have to wait.
On the memorial day of the genocide 24th april, president Barrack Obama
issued a declaration, where he carefully avoided the word ³genocide².
Otherwise he used the word diligently in his presidential campaign, but
now the crucial word disappeared - and instead Obama spoke about
³atrocities², that was carried out from 1915 against the Armenians.
As for the last 93 years there is the consideration of diplomacy, that
makes Obama to step cautiously. Turkey is the bridge to Asia, Caucasus and
Middle east, now as before, the Turks have never acknowledged the Armenian
genocide.
Right now there is a thaw break between Turkey and the land Armenia, and
the American president does not wish to disturb.
Armenians from all over the world have protested against Obama´s going
down to his knees to Turks, but at the same time many acknowledge, that
never before there has been such good possibilities to acknowledge that
the Armenian genocide has been brought to the international agenda.
Because the Turks are discussing openly now about the case. The taboo is
broken.
Turkey changes its security policy
Orientering on P1 monday 28th september at 17:10 O'clock.
The broadcasting's began 28th september under the headline: ³Turkey
changes its security policy², which will pave the way to acknowledgment to
the Armenian genocide. The DR journalist Helle Schøler Kjær has
interviewed the historian and researcher Taner Akcam, at Clark University,
Massachusetts, USA. Mr. Akcam talked about the present possibilities that
Turkey might acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, and told about Ergenekon
past and present history.
Orientering on P1 also broadcast 29th september an interview with a
Turkish citizen Ani, with Armenian roots who has lived all her life in
Istanbul. She grew up without knowing much about the history of her people.
Martin Selsøe made this interview.
Annihilation Begins
P1 tuesday 29th september at 15:03-15:33 O'clock.
There was an interview with the historian Matthias Bjørnlund whose
master is about the Armenian Genocide, Mr. Matthias Bjørnlund told about
the three Danes history and their recordings, who remained in Turkey
during the genocide. When the annihilation began the Danish governmental
envoy Carl Ellis Wandel and Danish Inga Nalbandian, who was married to an
Armenian Mardiros Nalbandian have made accounts of their observations. The
couple Nalbandian had to send their 6 and 8 year old boys from
Constantinople all alone through warring countries of Europe, to save them
from the dangers that ruled Istanbul to come to safety in Denmark. There
was an interview with the grandchild of Inga and Mardiros Nalbandian as
well as an interview with the grandchild of Mr. Carl Ellis Wandel who had
written accounts about the Armenian Genocide. The historian Matthias
Bjørnlund told about Mr. Wandel´s accounts which is kept at present in
Danish State Archives and foreign ministry archives. On 30th september the
transmission was about the recent openness of Turkey who are speaking
about the Armenian tragedy, but yet deny that they have murdered 1,500,000
Armenians, but there are circles that are interested about what really
happened during 1915-1923.
Mr. Kemal Cicek kept on saying - ³No²
5th october the broadcasting was an interview with the historian Kemal
Cicek, the leader of Turkish Historic Society, the Armenian-section, a
special state institution with close bond to the minister presidents
office. Mr. Kemal Cicek has researched the historic events under the First
World War, and specialized himself with the Armenian question while
researching and with this background he dismissed that the events were a
deliberate genocide, even though in genocide circles it is heavily
documented and acknowledged the fact of the genocide.
In contrast to Holocaust-deniers there was non insane of racist
argumentation's with Mr. Kemal Cicek argumentation's. He acknowledges,
that Armenians in Anatolia were subject to criminal killings during the
last period of the Ottoman Empire, he even used the term, ³Crime against
humanity², he acknowledged, that hundred thousands were deported, and many
of them died. Mr. Kemal Cicek insisted, that this is only a minor part of
an larger history, and that - which is very important - that there was no
plan or intention to kill the Armenians and annihilate them from what is
called Turkey today. There was no state plan and therefor no genocide,
concluded Mr. Kemal Cicek.
Kemal Cicek went on saying: - No one can deny the fact, that many
Armenians, Turks and Arabs were killed under massacres during the war,
what I am saying is, the number of them, who died under the massacres
during the war is not so high as claimed. The situation in 1915 was that,
the First World War raged and the Ottoman Empire was in disintegration.
From northeast the Russian army advanced towards west to the Osman
heartland, and from Armenia, Armenian political consignments and Armenian
officers requested to the Armenian inhabitants of Anatolia to join to the
Red Army or make sabotage against military convoys and supply lines.
With this background the Osman administrator Talat Pasha decided, that the
Armenians constituted a grave menace to the army, that all Armenians
should be deported from Anatolian districts, where they no longer could
bring the warring army in danger. So far is historians on both sides to
the strife of words and murder in Anatolia agree.
To support the argument about, that factually it was a carefully planed
and carried out with the intend of genocide, the other part has put
forward telegrams of Talat Pasha in Istanbul, who instructs his province
governors to once for all solve the Armenian question and annihilate the
Armenians.
In a telegram to the governor of Aleppo, present Syria Talat Pasha writes,
the existence of all Armenians should cease without consideration to
gender or age.
From the other side Kemal Cicek said, the documents are false. Telegrams
are not written by Talat Pasha, and therefore can not be used as evidence.
There's cables, that has been displayable in the Armenian media, there
indicates, that Talat Pasha gave the order to kill the refugees, however
they're all false. Unfortunately they are used as a kinds propaganda
documents, and therefore the Turkish government and the Turkish historians
asks, that there establishes a commission, so we can put the originals on
the table, there has been many about, to make forgery, but it is not
professional historians, that have made it. It is propaganda from the
Armenian government and civil movement in USA. They don't care if they
mislead people, since their aim is to propagandize about the Armenian
massacres - and I acknowledge, that there was massacres, but those who
committed crime against humanity and Armenians were persecuted and passed
judgment under the war, said the historian Kemal Cicek.
Already when the war raged, 1,500 officers from the Osman army were
persecuted and judged to the crimes that they committed against the
Armenians. 67 of them were executed by hanging.
To Kemal Cicek this is evidence for, that already in early times, where
the blood was not yet coagulated has taken the crimes very seriously as it
was: namely crimes, but when neither that time or today should put the
state and government to be responsible is because, the killings mainly
were committed by criminal bands and soldiers who had deserted.
Kemal Cicek finds it proofed, that 200.000-300.000 Armenians lost their
life, however the vast majority due to disease and hunger, and vast
majority in Caucasus, where they escaped to and therewith were under the
Russian administration. But that 1,5 million Armenians have been killed,
as the Armenian sources claim, is there long way so to speak about.
To underline the point about the hard conditions of the time, Mr. Kemal
Cicek points out, that 2,5 Muslims were killed, when the Red Army expelled
them from Caucasus to Turkey. All in all Anatolia was filled of people on
the run from the World War I and the decomposition of the Ottoman Empire.
Armenians escaped out, and many others moved in, said Kemal Cicek.
So is Kemal Cicek ready to accept the designation ³genocide², if it is it,
it ends with?.
Kemal Cicek said: ³Of course I will accept, why not?. We all learn from
history, and if the historic documents can establish beyond any doubt,
that what happened was genocide, so must I and all others accept that fact.
- And in that case we have to pay the price to that, whatever it might be
after international law, it is my opinion. In the 20th century there was
many genocide's, even they were not called as such. Many say ³the Armenian
genocide², ³the Armenian genocide², ³the Armenian genocide², but it is a
definition, that has to be established by the international tribune, which
is appointed in 1948.
It is not to the historians to decide if it is a genocide, one can say one
million Iraqis dead is genocide, but it is not, what you say, that is
valid, but what the tribune says.
Carl Ellis Wandel: Annihilation Begins
³Turks are carrying through with extensive Energy their ferocious
Intend, to wipe out the Armenian People². The conclusion stands when one
reads in one among hundreds of reports, that the Danish envoy in Istanbul
has sent to the Danish foreign ministry under the First World War.
Carl Ellis Wandel came to Turkey as Danish envoy in the summer of 1914.
Few months later Turkey was in war as an ally to Germany, and a year after
the organizing of the elimination of Armenian minority in the country was
fully in motion.
The historian Matthias Bjørnlund has excavated forth Wandel´s reports and
personal documents at foreign ministry archives. He found a acrid
analytical brain, a courageous gentleman, and a man about the town.
Wandel frequently used the phrase ³chauvinists² about the Young Turks, who
had the power during World War I in Turkey. In an attempt to build up a
national state, they had only one possibility to avoid the partition of
the country, that is to say the elimination of Armenians. It was
implemented with detailed plan, which researchers since then have
uncovered.
Carl Ellis Wandel did entirely his own contribution to save Armenians from
deportation and destruction. When the Turkish soldiers came to pick up
those Armenians, who worked at that hotel, where Wandel´s envoys staff had
their housing, he simply engaged them temporarily as employees to the
envoys staff, so they avoided to be deported. It is Wandel´s grandson,
professor emeritus at Aarhus University, Carl F. Wandel, tells the story.
During the broadcasting, Frans Nalbandian, the grandchild of the author
Inga Nalbandian and former rector to the Armenian college in Istanbul,
Mardiros Nanbaldian told the history during the Armenian persecutions and
massacres where Mardiros Nanbaldian came to suffer a nerve disease due to
the terrible atrocities against his people.
Maria Jacobsen: - Anatolia flows with corpses.
P1 tuesday 6th. october at. 15:03-15:33 O'clock.
On 6th october 2009, the broadcasting was about Maria Jacobsen, where
the DR journalist Helle Schøler Kjær actually had visited Harpoot (Kharpert)
to prepare her reportage.
Maria Jacobsen was sent to the eastern Turkey as a missionary and a nurse
in the period 1907 to 1919. She witnessed the genocide and recorded in her
diaries. After the war she took to Lebanon and was in charge of the
management of Danish Bird's Nest that K.M.A had established to take care
of Armenian orphans.
Maria Jacobsen was only 24 years old, when she in 1907 traveled as a
missionary and a nurse into the depth of Turkey. She choose to stay
without wavering, when the World War I broke out, and while the Turkish
authorities initiated the persecution of the Armenians, she came to help.
Maria Jacobsen helped, wherever she could, and this was good for both,
weather they were Turkish soldiers and persecuted Armenians.
Maria Jacobsen frequently wrote into her diaries during the entire
genocide. About house searches, jailing, torture, deportations and murder
of man, woman and children.
The whole thing started in april 1915, and few months later she wrote:
Now the soldiers are going from house to house and writing down how many
People there are and say to them which Day they have to be finished to
take away to exile Within 4-5 Days. All shall be, rich, poor, old, young,
Cripple and Sick. No one believes that they will be taken away secure in
spite of all Governments Promises And if they arrive their Destination
what they have before them. A Dessert No House no Work Places where they
can buy most necessary things, when we speak to them they say: We have
only Death, Sword, Fire, Hunger and Thirst for os, most of them will
perish on the way, our Woman will be abducted, our Men killed.
An American consul in the district after a ride tour tells, that he has
counted thousands of corpses around a neigbouring lake.
The DR broadcasting continued with readings from Maria Jacobsen´s diaries
and Matthias Bjørnlund spoke about the Danish missionaries who stayed in
the area where massacres and persecutions took place. He added that ³Also
Turkish, German, Australian sources documented the genocide perpetrated
against the Armenians. Kirsten Lund Larsen, the general secretary of KFUK
and KFUM, (YMCA) read from Maria Jacobsen´s diaries.
Rescuing the survivors
October 13th 2009, at 15:03-15:33. O'clock.
This broadcasting dealt with the rescuing the survivors. Karen Jeppe
was in Urfa (Edessa) in Turkey during the genocide and she hide her
Armenian friends for several months from the authorities even though she
had become a nerve wreckage. After the genocide she was prime motor to
establish a new Armenian society in Aleppo, Tel Simen, Tel Tina, Tel Arman
in Syria.
In the begining of 1920ies the Danish Karen Jeppe saved many hundred
forced-assimilated Armenian woman and children's out of Turkish families
as commissary to the former League of Nations (present United Nations) She
lived in Aleppo and after the genocide was leading figure to build up an
entirely new society for survived Armenians.
But the League of Nations was a disappointment both to Karen Jeppe and
many of her contemporary people, who had taken the responsibility of
Armenian survivors destiny. Due to disagreements a final peace with Turkey
finished, without naming Armenians with a single word.
This very day Armenians living in Aleppo get tears in their eyes, when
they speak of Karen Jeppe, that saved the lives of their mother, father or
grandparents; they are the last link of the generation.
The history of Karen Jeppe was told by the next generation of the
survivors in Aleppo, - and through extracts of letters and histories about
that life, that was dedicated to Armenians.
Ties between Danes and Armenians
After the major programs was over, there was 5 report broadcasting's
from DR P1, starting monday 13th to friday 17th october, where Danes and
Armenians were interviewed.
These five reportage's were:
1) - Two sisters lost the contact with each other after the genocide, when
the first one was adopted by the Danish missionary Jenny Jensen and came
to Denmark, and the other was adopted by an Armenian priest family in
Beirut. They met 55 years after at the Copenhagen airport. It was the son
and nephew Paul Melikian, who told the story of his mother and her aunt,
who were the sole survivors of the entire family after the genocide.
2) - There is something special about having one's roots from Musa Dagh,
where seven villages had entrenched themselves and fought against the
Turks under the genocide. They were rescued by the French navy. Araxie (Kabakian)
Petersen, herself a former Bird's Nest child married to Danish Steffen
Pedersen told the story of her grandmother, who was among the people of
Musa Dagh mountain, and what really happened there. Also Haroutyun Hajian
from Aleppo told about his roots and the struggle about Musa Dagh.
3) - As 4-5 five year old, both Araxie Kabakian and Karekin Dickran came
to the Bird's nest in Lebanon, where Maria Jacobsen establishes an
orphanage after the genocide and administrated the home until her death in
1960. Both have told their experiences within the walls of Bird's Nest,
the only home they knew, how the home was organized and their close
relations to Maria Jacobsen who became their Mama. There was an old
recording that Magda Sørensen the Aunty of Bird's Nest had recorded the
children's singing Christmas carols and sending greetings to Mama's sister
Anna Jacobsen who had gone to retirement in Denmark.
4) - When one wanders around in the Armenian society in Aleppo, the dead
are always present. Generally all families miss their not so fare past. In
this broadcasting Armenians from Aleppo told their history, stories that
is closely connected to the Danish relief worker Karen Jeppe.
5) - Inga Nalbandian was an author and journalist in Istanbul from 1909 to
1916, when she took to Denmark and settled down with her four children's.
Her Armenian husband was dead, and the Armenian genocide was unfolding, so
it was no longer secure to be in the country. The broadcasting was about
the woman with a strong will and readings of abstracts from Inga
Nalbandians novels about the genocide and the wide open World War I seen
from Istanbul.
Journalist Helle Schøler Kjær
The broadcasting's were arranged and organized by the journalist Helle
Schøler Kjær. For her preparation Helle has been in Urfa, Harpoot in
Turkey, Aleppo as well as to Der-el-Zor in Syria and the present Armenian
Bird's Nest in Lebanon.
Helle Schøler Kjær in daily is a journalist and editor secretary to the
Danish program called Deadline and in many years she has been engaged with
the Middle east issues and has produced several broadcasting's on DR P1
about the subject.
From 15th november Helle Schøler Kjær can title herself as author. In that
date her book ³1915: Danish witnesses to the Armenian Genocide² will be
published by the publishing house Vandkunsten and presented to the general
Danish public.
Recommended literature:
- "A Shameful Act" af Taner Akcam, Holt Paperback, Metropolitan Books
- "The History of the Armenian Genocide" by Vahakn N. Dadrian, Berghahn
Books
- "Diaries of a Danish Missionary" by Maria Jacobsen, Gomidas Institute
Books
- "Your Brother's Blood Cries Out" by Inga Nalbandian, Gomidas Institute
Books
- "1915: Danske Vidner til Det Armenske Folkemord" (Danish Witnesses to
The Armenian Genocide) by Helle Schøler Kjær, Publishing house
Vandkunsten.
Links
http://www.dr.dk/P1/reportagen
http://www.dr.dk/detarmenskefolkemord
http://www.folkedrab.dk/
http://www.forlagetvandkunsten.dk
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