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E-Mail 'The ‘Great Calamity’ Hoax: What ‘Medz Yeghern’ Actually Meant for the Survivors' To A Friend
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Sincere thanks for all the work put into researching the term ‘yeghern.’
‘Calamity’ conveys that something awful or devastating happened but it fails to clearly convey that it resulted from criminal acts. We all agree that the genocidal campaign was criminal. Also criminal is the fact that the perpetrators benefit from their crimes, to our detriment, still today. Let’s leave no room for doubt. The genocide was the greatest of the yegherns (crimes) committed against our nation by the Ottoman Turks, thus the label ‘Medz Yeghern’.
Victims of crimes are entitled to justice. Are victims of calamities? Words matter. Meaning matters.
When will Turkey pay for these crimes that devastated the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks of Asia Minor?
Boyadjian, you stated that the Armenian “Genocide was the greatest of the yegherns (crimes) committed against our nation by the Ottoman Turks”.
For me, Medz Yeghern -quoting, Raffi Hovannisian – “was worse than genocide, incredible as that sounds”. The word genocide or tseghapanoutiun has long ceased to convey to me the calamity, the cataclysm, that humanly incomprehensible tragic happening that befell on our nation.
This is where the debate about calling it genocide or not becomes absurd, trivial, and tertiary” says Raffi Hovannisian and I agree. Therein lies the difference in our perception of the term.
In the end, we may never be able to do justice to that Armenian term – Medz Yeghern – in English.
Boyajian
“When will Turkey pay for these crimes that devastated the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks of Asia Minor?”
You must firstly lodge your case at the court in Hague if the court says that the Armenian genocide took place . This will pave the way for a monetary compensation although it will still be very problematic and complicated if Turkey is liable to pay that compensation alternatively keep repeating the same stuff for another century without bearing any fruit . You should also note that the statement the Armenian president made for a while ago caused an extreme anger in the Turkish society. If you are talking about territorial claim then you should start buying lot of weapons .I hope this enlightens you guys a little bit
Turkis cowboy john the vain,I see that you are still parroting the same quaks.Time will come when we’ll be back to our 4000 years’ homeland.In our village in Armenia we bury our dead towards the west.Understand the meaning?
This article is a very informative and important study into the roots of the word “yeghern”. The meaning of words is important from a political standpoint.
This series of articles are incredibly informative – you have done an important service!
Boyadjian
“Calamity’ conveys that something awful or devastating happened but it fails to clearly convey that it resulted from criminal acts.”
I agree with your comment re the interpretation of “calamity.” I would add that this word does not even clearly denote a crime against humanity. We have to think about the word in modern usage, not pre1944 and Lemkin. Oxford defines calamity as being “a disaster, a great misfortune, adversity, deep distress.” Webster calls it “an extremely serious event fraught with terrible loss and adversity, a state of dire distress or misfortune.”
Lemkin knew what was done to my family when they were butchered – Genocide.
You are right, Perouz. Calamity is simply insufficient to express the extent of the crime committed by the genocidal campaign of the Ottoman/CUP governments. A crime against humanity should not be diluted or labeled something other than what it was—genocide.
Excellent research and dialogue. Boyajian and Perouz are correct in their perspectives. I believe that one day soon the Turks will admit to massacres, but deny genocide. We will be pressured by third parities with a ” isn’t that enough” position. There is a large interpretive difference between “calamity” and “crime” in English; thus the appropriateness of “genocide”. We must be prepared to not compromise on genocide ever and remember that an apology may be a means but not the end. Justice means to return what was stolen.
Today’s Weekly reports that Members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey are now arguing about who killed the Armenians! Sounds like they now acknowledge that someone must have killed us.
Here is an excerpt:
“In the ensuing argument, parliamentarian Yusuf Halacoglu, from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) party, addressed Kurdish members of the National Assembly asking, “Then tell me frankly—and I, in turn, will show you all the documents—who killed the Armenians?”
http://armenianweekly.com/2013/01/04/turkey-parliamentarians-argue-over-who-killed-armenians/
They finish with this comment: “Nurettin Canikli, head of AKP parliamentary group said, “There is no massacre, genocide, and assimilation in this nation’s history.”
I wonder what they will decide to call this “killing of the Armenians.” I agree, Stepan, they won’t want to use the word “genocide.” It’s simply too accurate. It’s meaning is beyond doubt or argument. And as Boyadjian has pointed out, we will hold them accountable; we will expect justice.
Thank you for a very informative and interesting article.
However, all this preoccupation with the translation of the word yeghern and more specifically Medz Yeghern has been in great part due to President Obama’s use of the phrase to avoid using the word Genocide. This, in my opinion, emboldened the progressive Turks to use the phrase to escape persecution (and perhaps death). After all they too were not using the word. The phrase is often preceded by another phrase “as the Armenians call”. Well the bottom line is that when Armenians say Medz Yeghern they mean nothing less than Genocide. I believe that should be our response. Let’s do away with all that calamity vs crime nonsense.
Vahe Apelian: Re; your comment to Boyajian that the word “genocide” may have “long ceased to convey to me the calamity, the cataclysm, that humanly incomprehensible tragic happening that befell on our nation.”
Most of the English speaking world, and indeed, most scholars in every discipline in the world, clearly understand what was done when the word “genocide” is used. A “tragic happening that befell on our nation” is not what is generally understood when “genocide” is used, nor does it explain what was done to my family who were among the 1.5 million or more who were intentionally murdered during the Armenian Genocide.
A tsunami, an earthquake, an uncontrollable forest fire, are “incomprehensible tragic happening[s],” that frequently result in the loss of many human lives when they occur in any nation. This does not describe the intent or the act of genocide. Boyajian’s comment is worth repeating, “Let’s leave no room for doubt.”
Perouz
Rest assured that when it comes to English, more likely than not we will always go on using the term Armenian Genocide -Հայոց Ցեղասպանութիւն. Obviously there cannot be any argument against the use of the term both in Armenian and in English.
The fact remains, however, should we ever visit the Armenian Genocide Monument in Dzizernagapert, Armenia, the mother of all the Armenian Genocide monuments word wide, we will not be visiting the monument of Հայոց Ցեղասպանութիւն – Hayots Tseghaspanoutiun – Armenian Genocide; but will be visiting the monument of the Մեծ Եղեռն – Medz Yeghern. The official name of the monument is the latter not the former, as far as I know.
Naturally the Soviet Armenian authorities in1965 were well aware of both terms. They chose Medz Yeghern. You may argue that political considerations drove them to choose the term they chose. Much like the political considerations that drove President Obama to use the term Medz Yeghern instead of Armenian Genocide President Reagan used. A moot point to debate.
It is always going to be Medz Yeghern for me because not only 1.5 million Armenians were annihilated, but also its heartland was usurped and its survivors were banished for good. There are many more genocides listed in the Internet. Ours pales in comparison to some of them in sheer number of the persons annihilated. However, I believe, ours remains unprecedented in its thorough ethnic ‘cleansing” from its millennia old heartland Apparently for lack of a better term to describe this Great Armenian Dispossession (coined by Raffi Hovanissian), the term Medz Yeghern came into our lexicon and found resonance in me as well.
http://www.genocide-museum.am/arm/director.php
it says Հայոց Ցեղասպանութիւն, at least for the official museum.
Vahe: The numbers who were murdered have no place in any discussion of genocide. It is murder with the intent to annihilate the entire race, irrespective of their numbers that defines the word. It is the intent to erase their claim to their own culture, to erase even the names of the places where they lived. The Armenian Genocide does not “pale in comparison” to any genocide.
When you speak about the language Obama uses in discussing the Armenian Genocide, let us not forget that the weasel also said, “America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides,”
Ken Hatchikian was on the mark when he responded by saying, “President Obama today completed his surrender to Turkey, shamefully outsourcing U.S. human rights policy to a foreign state…”
I have been to our Genocide Memorial and Museum many times, Vahe, including during the Soviet era. Avery’s comment is correct. I first went there just after the Memorial was built, before the land surrounding it was even landscaped. The Museum had not yet been built. The tour bus had to park a considerable distance away from the Memorial. There were not even any dirt paths to it. I remember the terrain was very hilly, covered with stones and tall, wild grasses. We had all brought flowers with us. As we walked over the uneven terrain, some of us supporting others, we could see the Memorial ahead of us in the distance. Our eyes never left it as we walked toward it in utter silence. Only the wind in the tall aspens could be heard. By the time we arrived, we were all in tears as we placed our flowers around the eternal flame. Many fell to their knees sobbing; some pounded the stones in anguish as they called out the names of our people who had been butchered. We knew what had been done to them. We all knew what the Turkish intent was. It was the complete annihilation of the Armenian people. It was genocide. Every Armenian needs to go there at least once. You will better understand why we must never let the eternal flame go out; why we must never let the world forget that Genocide was intended and then perpetrated against our people.
Thanks for bringing back the memory of that pilgrimage, Vahe.