Norwegian Missionary’s Diary Contains Eyewitness Accounts of Genocide, Says Demoyan

GLENDALE—The diary of a Norwegian missionary, an eyewitness to the Armenian Genocide, was found in the attic of his grandchild. It will soon be brought to Armenia and will be kept in the Armenian Genocide-Museum, Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute Director Hayk Demoyan said during a discussion at a Glendale Public Library. He is holding meetings with representatives of the Armenian organizations of the US West Coast to discuss the arrangements to be organized ahead of 2015, which will mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Demoyan discussed the Genocide Museum’s major recent publications on the Armenian Genocide, including survivor memoirs, eyewitness accounts, reprinted editions of rare primary sources and collections of newly-discovered documents and works on the Cilicia massacres of 1909.

“The genocide perpetrated by Turks was not only a crime against humanity, but also a cultural genocide, which, however, did not break the spirit of a book-loving nation,” Hayk Demoyan said.

An exhibition dedicated to the 500th anniversary of Armenian book-printing was opened at the Glendale Public Library. Exceptional publications dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries brought from Ararat-Eskijian Museum and private collections, as well as the recent publications of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute were displayed.

AGMI is planning to publish a number of books and issue electronic editions to continue the centuries-old traditions of publishing, Demoyan told the audience. He told the attendees how the 400th anniversary of Armenian book-printing was celebrated 100 years ago. It also coincided with the 1,500th anniversary of creation of the Armenian alphabet. In 1912 the two jubilees were on the front pages of the tens of Armenian periodicals of Constantinople, Van, Kharpert and Sebastia.

In those years of cultural progress, Armenians were planning to establish new theaters, participate in the Olympic Games in Berlin and were thinking about the protection of women’s rights. In three years the genocide organized by the Turkish Government razed everything to the ground.

Despite the fact that Turkey is using all means to deny the genocide, new evidences comes to prove the crime. The diary of the Norwegian witness of the Armenian Genocide will soon be translated into Armenia and will enrich the collection of the AGMI.