The Red Rugs of Tarsus: A Woman's Record of the Armenian Massacre of 1909

by Helen Davenport Gibbons

This is an unusual and riveting account by a young American mother who was living in Ottoman Turkey in both 'Constantinople' and Tarsus in Armenia during the opening years of the twentieth century. This was period of turmoil-a time of several cholera outbreaks, the war between Turkey and Italy, the Balkan War and the unrest that eventually led up to the conflagration that was the First World War. Helen Gibbons found herself enmeshed in many of these historic events, but the most significant and terrifying ordeal came with the massacres of the Armenian people by the Turks which turned into nothing less than genocide. The twentieth century has seen many examples of 'ethic cleansing,' each appalling episode seeming by its horror to eclipse the last. So it is perhaps unsurprising that the suffering of the Armenian people one hundred years ago has been relegated to the dusty corners of the public consciousness for all but those who had a direct connection with it. It is always right that these crimes against humanity should be returned to the spotlight of the present. In this book the account is made particularly poignant by the eyewitness recollection of one who lived through those days of terror and personal danger.



IHALF WAY THROUGH THE FIRST YEAR
IITHREE CHRISTMASES AND THE SEVEN SLEEPERS
IIIA VISIT TO ADANA
IVGREAT EXPECTATIONS
VROUND ABOUT TARSUS
VIHAMLET AND THE GATHERING OF THE STORM CLOUDS
VIITHE STORM APPROACHES
VIIITHE STORM BREAKS
IXLIFE AND DEATH
XWHY?
XIABDUL HAMID'S LAST DAY
XIITHE YOUNG TURKS AND THE TOY FLEET
XIIIA NEW LIFE
XIVOFF TO EGYPT

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 4, 2009

Reviews

[Hripsime Melkumyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing read! I just finished Diana Abgar's section "Betrayed Armenia". The sad part is that 100+ years later Armenians are going through the same hell, fighting for survival and dealing with the same bloodthirsty monster. Every part was relatable, the moral poverty, the silence and the indifference of great powers:

"... and the civilized world does not care, for Armenian Massacres come and go, and the civilized world is getting used to them." Diana Abgar

[Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another important source on Armenian genocide.