Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1918

by Grigoris Balakian, Peter Balakian

On April 24, 1915, Grigoris Balakian was arrested along with some 250 other leaders of Constantinople's Armenian community. It was the beginning of the Ottoman Empire's systematic attempt to eliminate the Armenian people from Turkey-a campaign that continued through World War I and the fall of the empire. Over the next four years. Balakian would hear witness to a seemingly endless caravan of blood surviving to recount his miraculous escape and expose the atrocities that led to over a million deaths.

Armenian Golgotha is Balakian's devastating eyewitness account-a haunting reminder of the first modern genocide and a controversial historical document that is destined to become a classic of survivor literature.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, Memoir, Biography, The World, World War I

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

ETA: I think, in a nutshell, that this is the MOST comprehensive of all the books I have read about the Armenian genocide, but not the most fun to read. I am not religious. I objected to some part of the book for this reason. I felt that some parts simply did not make sense! I would think: what do you mean with that paragraph. However his description of Berlin when the war began, and how he escaped, and as a summary of all that happened to the Armenians, all of these things I liked a lot.

BUT I found it strange that terrible things happened to all the Armenians and NOTHING happened to his Mom! I guess she was just lucky. Just a bit strange that nothing was said about her........except that he loved her and missed her so much.


****************


The author survived the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, 1915. We have here an eyewitness account of the atrocities. It is translated by his great nephew Peter Balakian. He too has written of his Armenian heritage in Black Dog of Fate: An American Son Uncovers His Armenian Past. "Armenian Golgotha" is considered a seminal work, similar to books such as Elie Wiesel's Night, Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, Michihiko Hachiya's Hiroshima Diary and Nadezhda Mandelstam's Hope Against Hope: A Memoir. I picked it up to check out the author, started it and couldn't put it down. It starts in Berlin, where he was studying. WW1 has just commenced. The description of Berlin at this moment is riveting.

I wanted to read this before The Sandcastle Girls which everyone is reading. For those of you interested in other books about the Armenian Genocide I have quite a few on this shelf: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

This book should be read by those who want a thorough description of the fate of the Armenians at the hands of the Young Turk triumvirate: Talat, Enver and Jemal. It is complete; it details all aspects of the Armenian genocide. It is a personal memoir of the author’s own experiences, his deportation from Constantinople across Turkey eastward toward Aleppo and Der Zor in the Syrian Desert and his escape. It is also about the numerous other Armenians he encountered and how the fate of the Armenian people was tied up with the events of WW1. He promised himself and others that if he survived he would record what had happened. He felt he had to live to document for future generations exactly what transpired. If you want to know the complete story of the Armenian tragedy during WW1, this is the book to choose.

This is a difficult book to read. The subject matter is horrible, just as bad as the most gruesome events concerning WW2.

The language is in some sections old-fashioned, even though the edition I read was translated and published in 2009 by Peter Balakian. Grigoris Balakian, the author, was a priest and later a bishop in the Armenian Apostolic Church. His religious beliefs are reflected in his writing style:

In the loneliness of my room, with my arms outstretched, I came to my knees, asking for help for myself and for all the unfortunate and oppressed, for moral strength and vigor, from the inexhaustible treasury of eternal power . The wind of fear subsided, and with my soul recharged, my turmoil and agitation abated. The fear of unfamiliar and unexpected dangers that I had felt an hour before evaporated, as I received new strength and courage from the inexhaustible source. (page341)


There are a few parts where the text simply doesn’t make sense. Grigoris is hiding disguised as a sick German patient in a hospital. He is not sick:

An Armenian from Bandirma by the name of Garabed was assigned to serve me; like me he was a fugitive, working in the hospital as a servant. Garabed took me for a German patient and attended me dutifully, every day he took my temperature and recorded it on the little board on which my name was written: ENGINEER MUELLER, 40 YEARS OLD, DIABETES

A doctor had once told me that if my temperature dropped suddenly from 40 to 37 Celsius I would die. After some weeks I began to put the thermometer under my tongue, and on a piece of paper I traced mountains and valleys, plotting points from 37 up to 40, then 41 degrees, and again gradually decreasing it. For a month I passed peaceful days this way without incident, and eventually, since I had food and books and gave praise to God, I grew accustomed to this imprisonment. (page 350)

This doesn’t make sense. Was the doctor’s statement caustic? Snide? How could his temperature vary if he wasn’t sick? Garabed took the temperature every day!

I wondered why when Grigoris eventually returned to Constantinople he told us nothing of his mother’s experiences. She was there waiting for him. How had she gotten through these times? Nothing was said!

The author has every right and reason to hate the Turks. I believe definitely in the events I am told concerning the massacres and atrocities committed, but occasionally it did flit through my head that perhaps some exaggeration or misrepresentation could be embedded in the events. I feel very bad even saying this……. but that is the truth. The author is not impartial. How could he be? He began writing the book immediately after the war when all was vivid in his mind. Yes, these facts must be told!

This maybe sounds like I did not like the book, but I DID. When he tells of his own personal experiences and how he escaped and how he helped others it is a truly riveting documentation of events! I would like to give this book five stars because of its thoroughness. He has followed up what has happened to all those deported with him in April 1915. There is research and careful notes, a bibliography, maps and even photos. You get a complete picture of the Armenian genocide and how it played out during the War. While the historical details were sometimes dry, the personal events pulled you in.

I give the book four stars because of the points mentioned above. Although I want to give it five stars I simply can’t. I am awfully glad the book was written, and I hope people read it.

[Mythili · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?l...

On April 24, 1915, some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders were arrested in Constantinople. Grigoris Balakian, a Christian vartabed, or priest, was among them. "It was as if all the prominent Armenian public figures—assemblymen, representatives, revolutionaries, editors, teachers, doctors, pharmacists, dentists, merchants, bankers, and others in the capital city—had made an appointment to meet in these dim prison cells," he later wrote. Balakian was witnessing the start of a campaign of cultural annihilation orchestrated by the Turkish government; within days, many of his fellow prisoners had been deported east by train towards certain death in the valleys of central Turkey. In the weeks and months ahead, still more would follow, sent on horseback, cart, donkey, and foot to die in the remote deserts of northern Syria.

After an extended detainment in Chankiri, 200 miles east of Constantinople– time bought by sheer bribery– Balakian's own caravan began a tortuous march towards Der Zor, the Syrian outpost whose name would become synonymous with death itself. The first volume of Armenian Golgotha chronicles the month-and-a-half journey (made, in Balakian's case, primarily on foot) through hunger, exhaustion, grief, and the inescapable specter of death; littering the trail were the decomposing skeletons and long-haired skulls of women and girls who had been slaughtered on the path before them. "We were living through days of such unheard-of torture, it was impossible for the mind to fully comprehend," Balakian writes. "Those of us still alive envied those who had already paid their inevitable dues of bloody torture and death."

In April 1916 Balakian escaped, fleeing by foot through an eighteen-hour downpour and hiding in an abandoned mill before finding his way to the first of several families who would offer him shelter. In the following two and a half years he disguised himself as a railway worker, vineyard worker, mentally ill hospital patient, and German soldier, finding refuge among friends and kind strangers and even living alone in the forest for a time before making his way back to Constantinople. There, in the autumn of 1918, he was able to start writing about all he had seen, a witness long in the making. "While traveling this road to death," Balakian reflects, "I was intent on learning everything I could about the martyrdom of my race. I was thinking too, that if it was possible to somehow survive, I might shed light on these criminal events." In the meantime, Balakian's own story—the odyssey of a priest who crafted escape upon escape, disguise upon disguise and evasion upon evasion—had become a legend. That very tale had even returned to his own (disguised) ears as a story of a singular hope for redemption. "If only the priest were freed, at least all the miseries and misfortunes would not have been for naught," one Armenian woman confided to him.

When Balakian did find freedom at the end of the war, he felt "a painful and weighty responsibility: writing this history." The term "genocide" would not be coined for thirty years; to understand the events he'd witnessed, Balakian could only retrace the historic tensions in Turkish-Armenian relations and the rise of pan-Islamic and pan-Turkish nationalism that marked the years before WWI. In his account, the seeds of calamity were visible well before the atrocities began. Because municipal government posts were off-limits, European-educated Armenian Christians took jobs in private enterprise, international trade, medicine and the arts—prospering, but incurring the resentment of their Turkish neighbors. The possibility of Armenian independence through Russian aid also complicated the Turkish government's strategic relationship with the Central Powers. In a speech delivered in February 1914, Baron Rudiger von der Goltz Pasha, the newly appointed chairman of the German-Turkish Society, argued that Turkey's Armenian Christian population posed a liability for the Ottoman Empire. "In order to save Turkey from a new calamity," von der Goltz Pasha explained, "it is necessary to once and for all remove the half a million Armenians living in the provinces . . . contiguous to the Russo-Turkish borders, and move them from those border areas southward, to the vicinity of Aleppo and Mesopotamia."

That "removal" was euphemism quickly became apparent. Balakian writes that by early 1916 the Interior Minister had openly declared, "it is necessary to eradicate the Armenians." With the Ottoman Empire's key Armenian intellectuals already exiled or silenced, the community lacked the leadership to protect the remaining population. The government-implemented "deportations" were in fact nothing short of death marches designed to starve their victims. Deportees who survived into the depths of the desert would find themselves attacked by mobs of local villagers as well as newly released prisoners, pardoned to carry out the government's dirtiest work. Remembering one such mass killing, a Turkish captain described its methods to Balakian thus: "It's wartime, and bullets are expensive. So people grabbed whatever they could from their villages—axes, hatchets, scythes, sickles, clubs, hoes, pickaxes, shovels—and they did the killing accordingly." Before death, many suffered sexual assault, dismemberment, and decapitation. After death, their bodies were stripped, plundered of whatever family wealth had been sewn into the hems and linings of their clothing, and left to decompose in the desert.

In early 1914, there were an estimated total of 2.15 million Armenians in Turkey; by 1918, that number had fallen by more than a million. Balakian would live to see the end of the war, the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of an independent Armenian republic. But there would be no real reparation for the Turkish government's war crimes. In fact, to this day the Turkish government refuses to officially acknowledge the genocide; more than ninety years later, remembering and accounting for this atrocity remains the work of independent scholars, historians, and the Armenian diaspora as a whole. As such, a first-hand account reported with Balakian's precision and farsightedness is an artifact of immeasurable value.

What particularly distinguishes Armenian Golgotha is the breadth of perspective from which it draws. Balakian was fluent in Armenian, Turkish and German and comfortable with the political elite and working class alike. His diplomatic dexterity and talent for shape-shifting allowed him to live for more than two years under assumed names and identities and to incorporate multiple points of view into his account of the war's events. Armenian Golgotha reverberates with diverse voices, from the cryptic warnings of a sympathetic Turkish minister at the war's outset, to secret government telegrams shared in a moment of indiscretion, the hauntingly matter-of-fact confessions of a Turkish captain who estimated he'd had a hand in 42,000 deaths, and the plainspoken commentaries of German, Swiss and Austrian travelers-turned-bystanders. For four years, Balakian was surrounded by those who were either certain that he would soon be dead or had no idea that he was a refugee. With no reason to fear him, they spoke freely to him; in Armenian Golgotha, he faithfully transcribes their accounts. As the author's grandnephew and translator Peter Balakian said in a recent interview, the sum effect is something of a "polyphonic acoustic."

But the beating heart of this work is the clear-eyed and heartbroken voice of Balakian himself. "Oh my tribulation was unbearable," he wrote, "for I was the only surviving shepherd of a banished flock. But I too was a deportee and wanderer." Even in translation, the language of Balakian's anguished narrative displays an unsettling poetry. On the night when Constantinople's intellectuals boarded a "special train" to embark on their long deportation, Balakian wrote, "we moved to our graves, nameless and unknown, to be buried forever." When conditions worsened, he wrote, "None of us was able to sleep or eat, our appetite extinguished by the continuous nightmare of death; we were smoldering without a flame, consumed without burning." Balakian's gift for imagery holds even during the most harrowing of scenes. Of a brutal mass killing, he writes that young men were "massacred with axes, like trees being pruned."

Perhaps such renderings bear the touch of his translator and grandnephew, a poet in his own right. A priest by vocation, Balakian was mindful to subordinate his literary inclinations to what he saw as the primary task of bearing witness. Although his poetic language at times forays into the un-witnessed, he is wary of such attempts at imaginative reenactment. Recounting a massacre he learned of in which a Turkish mob of 10,000 killed more than 6,000 Armenians, Balakian stops short at the scene of the bloodbath: "It is impossible to imagine, let alone write about, such a crime or drama in full detail," he wrote. "To have an imagination that powerful requires the special inner capacities of criminals." Balakian's literary talents were many, and his expansive imaginative powers and capacity for reinvention played no small role in his survival. However, it is finally not these creative powers but the strength and range of his observations and experience that make Armenian Golgotha an uncommon, unflinching portrait of the Armenian genocide—and the powerful testament Balakian hoped it would be.

[Anirudh Sharma C A · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t think I have any right to rate a book that is a memoir of a Genocide and multiple massacres. Nothing wrong in saying that I’ve gained extensive knowledge about Armenian Genocide, World War 1 and the Ottoman Empire after reading this book (and obviously referencing multiple books related to this book and tonnes of documentaries). The tribulations that the Armenians have gone through in the last century is second to none and to add salt to the wound, it’s FORGOTTEN!

About Grigoris Balakian - the hardships that this man had to endure and to still empathize with other Armenians going through this is incomparable. From Constantinople to Der Zor along Chankiri, Konya, Kayseri, Boghazliyan, Yozgat, Hasanbeyli, Islahiye, suleymanli, Adana and other provinces of Cilicia, this man went through a complete exile across provinces of Turkey without food and water for days, tough to even fathom.

I would recommend spending a couple of months reading this book, understanding the sufferings that war creates before supporting war in any form in this day and age. A gut wrenching story, but nonetheless a new nation a new opening for Armenia. Go Hayastan!

[Славея Котова · Rating 5 out of 5]

На подобна книга трудно може да се напише ревю, което да е лишено от емоции. Такива, както виждам, изобилстват сред ревютата тук, затова само ще кажа, че редакторите на книгата са свършили чудесна работа. Бележките под линия са винаги намясто с препратки към събитията, които Балакиан само споменава, но не описва подробно. Книгата има изведена хронология на целият период на войната, както и всички важни събития от Арменския геноцид. В края има предложена библиография разделена на арменски и турски автори, което е достатъчно предвидливо.
Иначе, за мен много ценни бяха коментарите на Балакиан за участието на немците в геноцида, било то и мълчаливо, както и за ползите на Германия от извършването му.

[Lee Downen · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does one rate, review, or recommend a book that depicts the horrendous evils of a genocide? "Good," "5-stars," and "Rivals the literary style, psychological insight, and socio-political understanding of Solzhenitsyn and Frankl" are all quite lacking (and probably sacrilegious).

Yet this book that deserves a wider reading. Several reasons might be offered: e.g., its historical, political, or psychological importance. Each of these reasons has merit. The Armenian genocide that began in 1915 was an inspiration for later 20th-century genocides. Hitler once asked his military commanders, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" (The quote, from his 1939 Obersalzberg Speech, is debated; at least one extant version contains it, though, and many historians consider it to be authentic.) Another reason might be to understand the significance of the Biden administration's recent decision to recognize the Armenian genocide as, well, genocide. This might seem trivial until one realizes that the Turkish state and much of broader Turkish society deny that it happened. Or one might recommend the book because of the supposed insight it offers into human nature. A recent Jocko podcast discussed the book along this line.

However, when one reads about the barbaric acts committed by the Turkish people against hundreds of thousands of children, one's mind quickly turns to the theodical. Consider the following representative passage:

The wretched Armenian mothers who were unable to take their underage children (two to six years old)—had to leave them on top of the already dead. Tearfully, the eyewitnesses told us how two large mounds of corpses of thousands of Armenian children rose up in front of Kanle-gechid, among them also numerous children who had not yet died and who extended their small hands, searching for their mothers. The eyes of these emaciated and neglected angels bore a look of pleading and protest, directed toward their mothers and toward God. And from their half-dead lips, some of them cried that sacred word "Mommy" [Maariiiig] for the last time. (225)

These are the kinds of realities that most people never have any acquaintance with, thankfully. Yet they are realities, real violations that happened to real, inviolable persons—realities that one cannot bear very much of without going mad. But someone must bear them in mind because every plea and every protest from every little child demands an answer.

[Dan Sihota · Rating 2 out of 5]

Over the years, I have studied the Armenian Genocide in great deal, and this book, Armenian Golgotha by Grigoris Balakian, is well known as one of the earliest published accounts of the events. So when I got a copy of this book I was eager to read it for myself.

Given how much I had heard about this book, especially its importance in detailing some of the events of the Armenian Genocide, something which the modern Republic of Turkey continues to deny to this day, I really wanted to like this book, unfortunately, I am unable to do so.

Armenian Golgotha is not a novel and nor is it a scholarly piece of work, it is a memoir by Grigoris Balakian, an Armenian priest who was one of the Armenians arrested by the government of the Young Turks in Constantinople on 24 April 1915, a date which is often seen as the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. Balakian, along with many of the other Armenians arrested on that day, was deported to the Syrian desert, however, he managed to escape and remain in hiding until the end of the war. Balakian's story makes for a fascinating read, how overnight someone of importance can have his life turned upside down and struggles to stay alive while witnessing horrors all around him. Had Balakian simply described his own experiences and what he had seen, I would have no issues with this book. However, Balakian spends a great deal of time describing wider events and commenting on political events. Well written scholarly works try to remain objective and provide sources for everything stated. Unfortunately, Balakian doesn't provide sources when describing events he is not personally witness to, and neither is he objective, at times parts of the book just sound like the rants of an angry man.

I think it would have been better had Armenian Golgotha been written as two separate books; one, a memoir detailing Balakian's own experiences; and the other, an objective scholarly piece, with sources, which describes the wider events around the Armenian Genocide.

As much as I would like to, I am unable to give this book a higher rating, however, I would still recommend this to anyone unfamiliar with the events of the Armenian Genocide.

[Daniel Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Armenian Golgotha is an eye witness account of the diabolical systematic genocide inflicted by the Ottoman Turkish government on the Christian Armenian people during World War I. The author Grigoris Balakian a priest in the Armenian Apostolic Church was one of the many intellectuals forced to leave his homeland and people at the hands of the Turkish government in 1915. This book translated by Balakian’s great nephew Peter Balakian chronicles the atrocities witnessed by Grigoris Balakian as he and his countrymen where forced on death marches for unending months, the story of his escape, his life as a refugee, and his return home.
Throughout this book one cannot help but see the hand of GOD at work in this man’s life. Balakian was a man of faith and action though at times tested beyond belief often paralleling with Job.
At times the accounts in this work are unbearable, and incredibly disheartening. But throughout his distresses Balakian kept hoping for a better tomorrow, what he and his people hoped would be the “resurrection of the new Armenia.” Hope for the future seemed to be a common trait among the Armenian people.
In chapter 28 Balakian quotes some passages of Scripture that gave him comfort when circumstances seemed insurmountable. Personally, I will never again be able to read Psalm 79:1-3 without thinking of this man and his people.

“O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
They have given the bodies of your servants
to the birds of the heavens for food,
the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
They have poured out their blood like water
all around Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them.”

[Christopher Rex · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an amazing book and what an amazing man at its center. The only drawback to this incredible memoir is the length. The reality is, the author endured, witnessed and overcame so much during the Armenian Genocide that I am unsure how it could be effectively shortened without sacrificing the story. Also, he clearly had a mission to tell as many details of as many people and incidents as possible in order to "honor" their memory and to insure that their memories were not erased from history (as the Turks have continually attempted to do). As such, it is not a book for the "casual" reader as it is 440pp. or so. But, as a historical source, an amazing tale of survival and a detailed look into the 20th Century's "forgotten" genocide it is invaluable. The author pulls no punches in describing events, but he keeps his biases largely in check by pointing out Armenian traitors who betray their own people and praising the honorable Turks who refused to participate in this morally bankrupt mass-murder. Moreover, his understanding (and relaying) of the larger global forces at work during WWI adds to the overall value historically. Highly readable and recommended. It is worth noting that, sadly, the US continues to officially "deny" the Armenian Genocide and bow to the Turks whitewashing of history. The shame of such a stance is beyond pardon, and this book clearly demonstrates why.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I didn't feel my pulse racing while I read this, I guess this must be a powerful work of memoir, because in my first (now abandoned) draft of this review I attempted to assault the Ottoman Empire with an unabridged dictionary. I had a nice lie down, and realized that the overwhelming majority of potential readers of this review will already be aware that massacres and holocaust denial are BAD, so it was not really necessary to tell them so again. As for the others, they're probably beyond convincing.

There was much evil abroad in the world then, and there still is now. As a person of average talent and treasure, I feel that I can't do much about the world's cruelty and injustice. So, I try to read about it, as unpleasant as it is, because remembering seems, well, better than nothing.

Review from 5 April 2009 Washington Post here.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Armenian Golgotha was a fantastic book that provided a moving first-hand account of the Armenian genocide of 1915. Unfortunately, it was such a heavy topic that I had a hard time getting through it. The first 250 pages are dedicated to Balakian's deportation under the most deplorable conditions imaginable. After that, it follows his escape from the Turks via disguise and deception. A tough read, but an important text.

[Jeni Enjaian · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the translators (including the author's great-grandnephew) mentioned in the preface, Balakian often waxes eloquent turning passages of history into sermons. Even so, I appreciated this massive memoir for the insight it gave into the story of an Armenian intellectual who managed to survive the Genocide. For an amateur (master's degree level) historian on the topic, this book proved a tremendous resource.

[Erma Odrach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an eyewitness account of the Turkish government's (which they deny to this day) persecution and murder of over a milion Armenians in 1915 - one of the biggest mass-murders of the past century. Very sad, emotional and gripping. Really enjoyed the writing.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, the Truth exists despite turkish claims. A first hand account of the genocide that happened all too recent ago. How in the world is this turkish society not prepared to admit it and the world turn its back and ignore it? Lord, we have met the enemy and he is us.

[Rachel Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Armenian Golgotha is a stunning, sweeping, tragic, terrible necessity of a book; I feel sobered and humbled after having read Grigoris Balakian's memoir of the Armenian Genocide. Translated and brought to the English by Peter Balakian, the author's great-nephew who wrote The Burning Tigris, this multi-volumed work is vital to understanding the genocide in both a personal a political sense. Grigoris Balakian survived the genocide, having been arrested in the April 24, 1915 mass roundup of Constantinople intellectuals, and marched in caravans among dozens or hundreds of other emaciated and exhausted Armenians down to the Syrian desert—he knew nothing but death awaited him there, but he vowed to himself early on not to die so he could carry on the Armenian story.

A high-level priest in the Armenian Apostolic Church, Balakian writes his memoir essentially to the Armenian people, as his preface notes. Countless people over the course of the nightmarish journey—both the death march south and the return escape back north—urged Balakian to tell their stories as well as his own, to encompass the tragedy of the Armenian people in a book so the world would know about it. Balakian seems to take this to heart by explaining in detail the workings of the Turkish government, the politics around World War I and, of course, the horrifying details of the mass killings themselves.

After having read The Burning Tigris, which is centered more on an American point of view, I was floored by the raw descriptions Balakian provides of the atrocities committed by the Young Turk government and those under their command. This book is much more comprehensive as a narrative of the entire genocide from when the first deportations occurred to after the World War I armistice. As a priest, Balakian was able to engage in some interesting conversations with Turkish officials or soldiers, as well as Armenians mercifully employed in positions that prevented their deaths. These calculated conversations shed so much light on the entire system in place by the Turkish government and their plans to eradicate the Armenian people. It's such a unique book in that aspect, because not only could Balakian narrate his own struggles, but he also was privy to more political or religious information from higher-level officials. And as a priest, he naturally views things through a religious lens, which is strange in some parts of the book, but understandable when considering how huge a role faith had in his entire way of life. The last several chapters of the book especially tend to lean toward the spiritual and philosophical, which normally I dislike in memoirs, but, again, given Balakian's role in society and the ordeal he went through, it was still interesting to read from that perspective.

Unsurprisingly, Armenian Golgotha is a very difficult book. Its subject matter is intense and and will leave you with grotesque mental imagery of the massacres committed and fill you with anxiety for the fate of Balakian and those who harbor him to relative safety. He writes of people he met along the way, those who survived and those who didn't. He rarely delves into the personal other than to mention people he used to know in Constantinople, and I do wish there had been more reflection on his own family and friends and more emphasis on the psychological effects the genocide was having on Balakian the longer it went on—both of these subjects were broached briefly but not nearly long enough. I certainly do appreciate the firsthand look at the Armenian genocide even if he tried to adopt a more narrative tone in some places, because this is the kind of tale that rarely survives atrocities. As a historical document, it's priceless.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given recent history, it would seem the term "ethnic cleansing" is of late 20th Century origin. Armenian Golgotha , Grigoris Balakian's firsthand account of the Armenian genocide during World War I, disabuses any such notion. Balakian, an Armenian priest, notes several times that the Ottoman Empire embarked on an intentional campaign to "cleanse" itself of Armenians.

Even though this April marked the 95th anniversary of the beginning of this particular persecution of Armenians, whether to call what happened genocide or something else continues to be debated today. Given that Balakian relates the history from the perspective of someone persecuted by the Turks during that war, his book likely remains controversial today, more than 80 years after the first volume of it was first published.

Balakian was one of some 250 Armenian intellectuals and leaders arrested by government order in Constantinople on April 24, 1915, the event commonly viewed as the beginning of the campaign against Armenians in Turkey. Calling what ensued "cleansing" is perhaps the least blunt description used in his memoir. Perhaps that is because Balakian attributes its use to a police captain who escorted him during part of his trip into exile. According to Balakian, "the Turks always used this term, especially the government officials, when referring to the massacre of Armenians."

Massacre is a term used far more often as Armenian Golgotha struggles to describe both Balakian's personal experiences and what was happening overall. He frequently says the Ottoman Empire's actions were a deliberate plan to "annihilate" or "to completely exterminate the Armenian race." First published in 1922, Armenian Golgotha was, sadly, a preview of what the world would become all too familiar with later in the 20th Century, whether the Holocaust in World War II or the "ethnic cleansing" that occurred in Europe, Asia and Africa later in the century. Yet Balakian never uses the term genocide. There's good reason -- it was not coined until 1943.

Balakian's tale of survival combines both abject misery on the road of exile and an escape and years-long evasion that could form the basis of several adventure stories. But rather than being simply history or memoir, Armenian Golgotha clearly was intended to bear witness to the genocide, its victims, its villains and its heroes. Thus, Balakian frequently lists or comments on people whose memory he seeks to preserve. That tendency, combined with an at times prolix and effusive style, sets the book off from most modern works of history or memoirs. In addition, there are lengthy quotations from conversations that occurred several years before the book was first published. Still, this doesn't undercut the book's aim.

Armenian Golgotha is actually a combination of two separate volumes written by Balakian after the war. The first, called "The Life of an Exile" in the book, was the work published in Armenian in 1922 and covers Balakian's life from the beginning of the war through his journey from Constantinople toward Der Zor, an outpost in today's Syria abutting a vast desert where thousands of Armenians died. The second volume, "The Life of a Fugitive," details his escape and two years of disguises, false identities and struggles in an often harrowing effort to return to Constantinople. It was not published until 1959, some 25 years after his death, when it was discovered among his sister's papers when she died. With the assistance of a variety of people, American poet and author Peter Balakian began translating the work into English in 1999, a process that culminated in the book's publication in the U.S. in 2009. The book was released in trade paper last month.

Balakian's story relates the stories of massacre upon massacre on the forced marches to exile, the road to the Armenian Golgotha as he terms it. In addition to outright murder, thousands would die along the way or in overcrowded, filthy camps whose conditions Balakian says the Turks created in the hope of starting epidemics. The numbers Armenian Golgotha propounds are horrendous. Of the more than 1.5 million Armenians deported during the summer and fall of 1915, Balakian says some 800,000 were massacred on the way to Der Zor while another 400,000 died of hunger and starvation. Of those who did reach the deserts of Der Zor, some 250,000 died of starvation from August 1915 to August 1916. In the late summer of 1916, most of the remainder were massacred, leaving roughly 5,000 survivors out of the deportees, a number Balakian says disease and hunger reduced to only 400-500 by the summer of 1918.

"In reality," Balakian writes, "deport was synonymous with murder." In fact, "the life an Armenian was worth less than that of a chick or chicken."

The effects of these events on individuals is seen even in Balakian. Although he credits his survival to his faith, there are times it appears even that comes into question. At one point, rather than pointing to prayer, he observes that "believing that wishing for something could make it happen, I used to repeat over and over to those around me, 'I have decided not to die.'" And the seemingly endless horror and atrocities leads him to conclude later that "we'd been abandoned by both God and mankind; our only salvation was the grave, but we couldn't even count on that."

Balakian's perspective is unique in other respects. Fluent in Armenian, Turkish and German, he was able to speak directly with individuals who experienced or observed the events from a wide variety of standpoints. In addition, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to Austria-Hungary throne, was assassinated in 1914 and war was subsequently declared, Balakian was studying in Berlin and provides firsthand accounts of events there. And on November 13, 1918, he saw 44 warships of the Entente fleet steam past Constantinople into the Bosphorus.

In addition to the extreme and excruciating events during the war, Balakian also recognizes an outcome that, while not physically painful or fatal, was at least as damaging and deadly for Armenians as a whole. He repeatedly comments that the deaths of the Armenian "martyrs" and one of the hopes that kept survivors going was that in pursuit of an independent Armenian nation once the war was over. Yet that dream was little more than false hope based on a belief the Entente powers were fighting for "rights and justice" and on misleading promises. "After the Armistice, all such promises would soon be forgotten, as each victorious power aimed first to secure the lion's share of territory for itself," Balakian writes. "An oil field would prove much more valuable than the fate of a small and weak Christian people." Thus, although an independent Armenian republic was proclaimed, in late 1920 it was invaded and subsumed by Turkey and the Soviet Union, giving pause to whether the suffering of the Armenians was meaningless.

Those who deny or dispute whether the Ottoman Empire embarked on a genocidal campaign against the Armenians will, of course, find Armenian Golgotha biased and one-sided. Others will find it an excruciating firsthand account of ethnic torment. But the somewhat surprising fact that the Armenian genocide continues to cause debate nearly a century later doesn't detract from the fact Balakian accomplished his main goal -- to commemorate the events of 1914-1918 and the people caught up in them.

(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie)

[ElenaSquareEyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Armenian genocide isn’t something I’d even heard of before finding this book for my Read the World Project. While I learnt about WWI in school, it was naturally focused on Britain’s involvement and little time was spent on what other people and countries that weren’t part of the main Allied forces or Central powers were going through. In fact, I don’t think I even learnt that Turkey was allied with Germany in WWI, Austria-Hungary and Germany were the ones we learnt about.

Naturally based on the subject matter Armenian Golgotha is a very intense and bleak read. Reading about what the Armenian people went through, from intellectuals to the everyday person, was very hard at times. Photos were included throughout the book which were hard to look at.

It’s wrong to presume but somehow I thought that the Armenians would be killed as quickly as possible, but that was not the case. Women were raped, people starved to death or faced countless diseases, and when hundreds of people were murdered at once, it wasn���t quick. A quote that stuck with me was from a Turkish soldier, describing how people were massacred: “It’s wartime, and bullets are expensive. So, people grabbed whatever they could from their villages – axes, hatchets, scythes, sickles, clubs, hoes, pickaxes, shovels – and they did the killing accordingly.”

The way that Balakian recounts the horrors he witnessed treads a fine line between clinical and emotional. Armenian Golgotha is full of facts and insights into the political, historical, and cultural context of the genocide which is very interesting and is – unfortunately – a reference point to other atrocities that have happened since. While Balakian never shies away from what happened it’s clear to see how his experience affected him. How the suffering he saw and experienced shaped him, and how he was still able to trust those who had been ordered to hate him and his people. A few brave Turks, who, with some of their German allies working for the Baghdad Railway were one of the many people who helped Balakian escape, showing while it’s easy to tar a group of people with the same brush, there are those who are willing to resist terrible orders.

That was one of the many interesting things in Armenian Golgotha, Balakian was often incredulous that his fellow Armenians would trust what the Turkish government was saying or promising, and the same goes for a lot of Turkish police and military, after what they’d been through. But there was still the odd person, especially those far enough away from the governments influence that may be willing to help.

Armenian Golgotha is an important account of a tragedy that I knew nothing of. I’ve learnt a lot from this memoir and the time spent on explaining historical or political contexts to certain situations was very helpful. It’s a tough read but also a compelling one.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

Balakian was a senior figure in the Armenian church when WW I began, and the Turks--urged on by the Germans--undertook to deport and murder the entire population of ethnic Armenia in order to free up their homeland for Turkish and German use. Balakian was in a group of 100 Armenians who were driven from Constantinople east and south across Turkey and through Armenia toward Syria for more than a year. Along the way they were starved, beaten and robbed, and saw the evidence of genocidal murder in the places they passed. More than 1 million innocent men, women and children were murdered and violated in the most degrading and despicable ways during the period from 1915 to 1918. Balakian himself finally escaped from his group in southern Turkey and made his way in various disguises back toward Constantinople, which he reached at about the time of the armistice. The book is long; Balakian seems able to remember amazingly fine details. The stories of atrocities are never-ending and extraordinarily brutal; given the reputation of the Turks over the years it's quite likely that most of them are true. Let's not quibble; the Armenian genocide is a proven fact, and if Balakian has embroidered on it a little bit, what difference does it make? It was an international atrocity of epic proportions, and to the everlasting shame of both Germans and Turks. Unbelievably, even now the Turks still prevaricate about it.

[Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balakyans work is not another historical piece. It is a fascinating eye-witness account of the Armenian Genocide, seen from the point of view of a survivor and leader of survivors. And not just that, father Balakian was more than just a regular Armenian, he was a high ranking member of the Apostolic Church, the chief institution of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. This gave him a supreme insight into the genocide, in fact, he was informed of the conspiracy against the Armenians but failed to convince the patriarch of the coming catastrophe.

The biblical events are skillfully illustrated by a beautiful language and a complete mastery of christian allegory - as illustrated by the very title of the book. But being a german educated engineer, Balakian also shows an incredible attention to detail and a healthy empirical analysis of events.

At times the travels from village to village can be tedious to read about, but nearly the entire work is a captivating and incredible journey which will leave you thinking for a long time. I strongly recommend the book - especially to anyone from Turkey, as a counterpiece to the genocide denial sweeping that country.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Around the World Reading Challenge: ARMENIA
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Incredibly long and dense memoir by an Armenian Catholic priest who was arrested in 1915 and bore witness to the Armenian genocide committed by the Ottoman Turkish government. This isn't something I've heard a lot about, and I appreciated learning more about what happened, but I can't say this made for an enjoyable read. Not only due to the horrors being described, but because Balakian is just not the best narrator. This wasn't edited, and it really needed to be -- far too long and monotonous at times, with a lot of repetition and occurrences that really should have been cut. This was also written not long after the first World War, and by a member of the Catholic Church, so the religious sermonizing and period-typical viewpoints weren't my favorite--do you really have to refer to all young girls as "virgins" as if that is their only worth? This was honestly more like a 2 star read for me, but I'm giving it 3 stars because I do think it's a historical tragedy that isn't given much coverage, particularly with the current Turkish government still denying that a genocide ever even occurred.

[Maud (reading the world challenge) · Rating 3 out of 5]

[#88 Armenia] "Are humanity, pity, and conscience limited by nation or fatherland?" This book is thick and dense, to the point that I had to take a break halfway through it. The author is a priest who was arrested and deported at the beginning of what would be a genocide led by the Ottoman Empire to eliminate Armenian people from Turkey. The length of the book is explained by the author's will to recount everything that he had seen, a promise he made to himself and to his people as he escaped. As a result, the book is tough to read and repetitive in its recounting of the atrocities, but it is also necessary. I knew close to nothing about this part of history; I wish it was taught at school, and I'm glad this reading challenge allowed me to become more aware of the world I live in.

[Raymond Dolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly thorough and moving memoir that describes the overall details of the Armenian Genocide and the specifics that Balakian experienced during his journey.

Balakian goes into an impressive amount of detail about people, places, and events, often recalling long paragraphs that he was told. He uses his unique position as a priest as well as his general agreeableness to connect with and hear from many different people from Turkish policemen to beaten down Armenian children.

He describes some genuinely horrific events here that I knew nothing about before reading. Overall, this is a very comprehensive account that I found fascinating. Amazing if you want to learn more about what the genocide was like for the Armenians.

[William Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very important book about a mostly forgotten event which took place during the First World War. The event is the massacre of 1.5 million Armenian Catholics by the Turkish government whose leader in 1915. It is interesting this event has largely been forgotten or ignored by the world community. There has been a movement to call this event a genocide by the Turks because we are afraid to offend them because we use Turkey as a military staging. And now we have a US President who praises their repressive regime.

[OskariF · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Armenialainen golgata' on aika tyrmäävä kirja. Koska kyse on muistelmista, ei kokonaiskuvan tuovasta tietokirjasta, on kirja pitkälti hirveyksien latelua viikosta ja paikkakunnasta toiseen. Joukkomurhan kokeminen on tietysti kauhunhetkestä toiseen kulkemista, mutta Balakian tarjoilee näiden kokemusten lomassa myös terävää analyysia siitä henkisestä ilmapiiristä, joka sai turkkilaiset nationalistit ryhtymään "armenialaiskysymyksen lopulliseen ratkaisuun".

[Ozan Aytas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5. Soykırıma dair bir tanıklık okumak tarifi zor bir deneyim. Bazen dağınık, bazen kaos halinde olsa da dokunaklı bir yazarlık becerisi olduğunu da düşünüyorum. Aynı zamanda savaş öncesi Berlin ve İstanbul'dan başlayarak şehirlerdeki, kırsaldaki, köy ve kasabalardaki, Ermeni aydınlari ve politikacıları arasindaki ruh haline dair detaylı bir inceleme.

[Christina C · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the book was difficult to read due to its content, I learned much from it. Great historical events laid out in a way that is understandable and touching. English translation is also very understandable.

[Josh Maher]

Armenia

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

A genocide little known in the US. As told through the eyes of a survivor, on the eve of WWI the Turkish Empire begins a systematic cleansing of Armenians.

[Steve Cran]

While studying in Germany at a theological seminary in Berlin, Grigoris Balakian, found himself getting caught up in the days events. Events in Austria-Hungary and Serbia started the war. Turkey and Germany were on the same side. In the midst of his studies Grigoris Balakian is summoned back to Turkey. While making his way back Grigoris make several poignant observations. The Germans mistreat people of foreign decent, especially if they are from enemy countries. Taking the ship back Grigoris realized that it was to his advantage to praise the Germans and the Turks. This made traveling g easier and may have even saved his life.

Upon arriving in Istanbul Grigoris makes several observations, about both the Turks and the Armenians and their political parties. He views things intelligently and with a critical eye. As World War I is looming most countries are keeping quiet and holding their cards close to their chest. The Armenians are the opposite they are loudly proclaiming support for Britain and France, the enemies of Turkey and Germany. Grigoris senses quite accurately that the Turkish government is preparing something big for the Armenians and feels that Armenian actions are just provoking Turkish ire and giving them man excuse for what they plan to do.

April 24, 1915 along with other leaders and intellectuals of the Armenian nation, Grigoris finds himself arrested and being deported to the interior of Turkey. The Destination is Chatirli. The trek in a caravan drives Komitas insane. Other intellectuals die along the way. This book is testament to what Grigoris Balakian was forced to endure. The ultimate aim of the Turkish government was to annihilate the Armenian nation. Along with arresting the intellectuals young men of fighting age were drafted as soldiers and then placed into labor battalions. After being place into a labor battalion they were disarmed worked to death and then finally executed at a mass grave. Turkish military also searched the homes of Armenian families confiscating what ever weapon they could find. Most Armenians did not have weapons so the Turks ended up confiscating kitchen knives. Later on the elderly, women and children were marched through the desert al the way to Dar es Zor a fiery hot desert.

The march was a death march. The Armenians were marched under the hot blazing sun and exposed to the elements. They were deprived of food and water. When they made enough distance from population centers the caravans of Armenians were set upon by violent criminals called "Chetes". They were released from Turkish prison with the sole purpose of annihilation of the Armenian population. They not only stole from the Armenians but they butchered the Armenians ruthlessly like savages.

Grigoris Balakian eventually escapes by working for a German rail road company. Disguised as a German he makes his way make to Constantinople or Istanbul. He eventually settled in Paris, France.

This is one document that demands to be read. It is a first hand account of the horrors experienced by the Armenian nation and it is filled with plenty of background knowledge. Grigoris Balakian does not just state the facts of tell a story. He informs the reader and analyzed everything with a critical eye. The man survived by his wits.

Grigoris tells us well the nature of the Turk and their brutal way of life. They have no education yet they persecute the Armenians for having an education. Their way of life is depredation and thieving. They thieve not only from Armenians but also from other Muslims. It was Armenians who were the craftsmen, farmers, doctors, intellectuals and financiers. When the Armenians were annihilated the Turks lost everything. They had no doctors to cure the sick, no one to harvest the grain, no craftsmen to repair needed tools. The Armenians were the pillar of Ottoman society.

The Germans who were Christians like the Armenians yet allied with the Turks were just as disdainful toward the Armenians as the Turks were. They stopped people from giving Armenian refugees food and they held very negative opinions towards the Armenians. The German military supported and even promoted the Ottoman campaign against the Armenians.

The Armenian leadership does not escape unscathed by his critical eye either. Many like the Nalbandian profited from the Genocide because the Turks gave them confiscated Armenian property and wealth. The Patriarchate was infiltrated with traitors who informed the Young Turks of everything that transpired. Many Armenians helped turn over other Armenians to the Turks and even helped the Turks draw up lists of Armenian community leaders. Other Armenians who were in the Turkish government knew in advance about the Young Turks plans and did not do anything to warn their fellow Armenians.

[Ivo · Rating 4 out of 5]

World Books Project #6 - Armenia
this is for my own benefit, written right after i finish these books, so excuse the inelegant format of the review and the sometimes contradictory/off the cuff thoughts

It feels weird to review such an intensely personal manuscript.

In terms of teaching me about Armenia, I couldn't really ask for better - not only does this book give a pretty thorough examination of the nation's history up to its painful birth in 1918, it goes on at length about the characteristics of the Armenian people and their worldview. The language is evocative, and I could clearly picture the entire novel unrolling cinematically inside my head, for better or worse.

I hate to call any piece of media 'important' because of how meaningless that is as a descriptor, but this feels earned, particularly when Turkey continues to deny wrongdoing a century on, despite ample evidence of premeditated mass murder. In retrospect, it's also frightening to see the early iterations of rhetoric and genocide techniques later employed by Nazi Germany, which makes the book even more striking to a European like me.

I read an English translation of this book, so I don't know how many of the minor issues are down to that. The foreword makes a point of mentioning that the text has been edited to flow better, but there were still random passages of repeated sentences that felt clumsy and sort of awkward. Armenian Golgotha is clearly fueled by unimaginable grief, trauma, and passion, but the moments when Balakian makes a random remark/assertion to prove a point about another nationality or race come across as weird given the context, e.g. an assertion towards the end of the text that Mohammed had a Jewish scribe as a way to make a dig at Jewish people? Again, I understand that it's a different time and all that, but it seems strange.
The passages that are just a dry summary of current events are jarring amidst very heartfelt personal prose, but I understand that they're needed to frame the events.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend reading this - it might be required reading, even - but it's definitely not something to approach carefully and with the right mindset, in order to truly learn.

[Rune Clausen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woah..

This book made me absolutely sick to my stomach on multiple occasions from the very detailed descriptions of the inhumane massacres of hundred of thousands of innocent armenians, whose only crime was just that, being armenian. Not only is the massacres well described, but so are the absolutely horrendous conditions under which the armenian prisoners had to live while being transported to their place of massacre. Many died on the road, from starvation, physical exhaustion or just from seemingly pointless killing by the turkish police soldiers, whose job it was to protect the prisoners on their march to death.

The armenians were sickenly systematically targeted and cleansed from all over asia minor and the caucasus for for all the 4 years from 1915-1919 that the first world war lasted.

Grigoris describes his long journey starting in pre-way Berlin where he was a student, to his imprisonment in Constantinople on the 24th of april 1915, along with the remainder of the armenian intellectuals. Then describes the absolutely soul crushing journey he and his fellow prisoners suffered through most of Turkey on the way to Deir Ez-zor in the syrian desert to be massacred, in which he miracoulesly managed to stay alive, and keep his caravan of fellow prisoners alive aswell, from using all his powers as a priest, and by paying a lot of bribes. Still only managed the bare minimum of survival.
He details his escape along the railroad line, which was being build by the Germans, who was partly sympathetic to the armenians, and his life as a refugee undercover for years moving from place to place while being protected by high ranking armenians and germans.
He survives and is able to return to Constantinople at the end of the war.

The story is soul-crushing, heart-wrenching, sickening and makes you lose all faith in humanity. But from the ashes and the blood of over a million innocent armenians rose the proud independent nation of Armenia which to this day is proving the resistance of the armenian people.

Fantastic, necessary read.