Agony of a People

Zabel Yesayan was a prominent Armenian writer and intellectual whose many novels and non-fiction works include In the Ruins, her account of the Adana massacres. Arakel Minassian is a PhD candidate at at the University of Michigan, USA

• List of Figures Editor’s AcknowledgmentsTranslator’s PrefaceTranslating Hokevark or the Untranslatable Life-form Maral Aktokmakyan Between the Lines: Haig Toroyan’s Testimony and the Armenian Genocide Elyse Semerdjian Note on TransliterationIntroduction by Zabel YesayanChapter 1: Dikranagerd, November 1914. Economic Boycott. The Burning of the Bazaar. Military Requisitions and Mobilization.Chapter 2: Jarabulus, December 1914 to November 12th, 1915. The Condition of the Armenians Until February 1915. The First Signs of Enmity. The Attempt to Massacre 2,000 Armenian Workers. The Incident of the Loggers.Chapter 3: The Deportations in Cilicia: Zeytun, Dört-yol (Chork Marzvan). Hajn. Aintab.Chapter 4: The Story of a Wealthy Village. The Sight of the Arriving Refugees. The Collapsed Woman. Nighttime Assaults. A Complaint to the Turkish Authorities.Chapter 5: An Armenian Mother. Children Are Sold Off. The Role of a Greek Woman.Chapter 6: The Distribution of Bread. The First Corpses on the Euphrates. Seventy Children Drowned.Chapter 7: Episodes from the Deportations of Armenians from Armenia. Dikranagerd. Mardin. In Resulayn. In Tell Abyad. In Edessa Arap Pinar.Chapter 8: The Plain of Suruç/Suruj Plain (Armenian cemetery). Jarabulus’ Bazaar. The Image of the Nizib khan.Chapter 9: The Transportation of the Population by Train. Water… Water… A Woman from Yerznga, and the Deportation of Yerznga. The Story of Chemeshgadzak.Chapter 10: The Deported Population on Foot Towards Aleppo. A Bride’s Escape. The passage of Seventy Armenians from Erzrum (the Deportation of Erzrum).Chapter 11: Groups of Armenians passing through Birecik. Murad, Murad, You Have Fulfilled Our Wishes.Chapter 12: Aleppo. Turkish and Armenian Committees for Settling the Deportees. The Behaviour of Aleppo’s Armenian Population. The Condition of Aleppo’s Armenian Population. A General Picture. The Passage of the Armenian Intellectuals. Zohrab and Vartkes.Chapter 13: The Edessa (Urfa) Resistance. The First Steps of Deportation. The Armenians Are in Revolt. Negotiations. A Turkish Army Besieges the Armenian Quarter. 15 Days of Fighting. Edessa Ruined. The Former Situation.Chapter 14: A Wedding Among the Kurds. A Temporary Order Concerning the Property of the Exiled Armenians. The Birecik Armenians Convert to Islam, yet are Still Deported. The Words of a Turkish Soldier from Marash.Chapter 15: The Turks’ Suspicious Attitude Towards Me and the Other Local Armenians. Jarabulus’ ’s The German Hospital at Jarabulus. Captain Otto Oehlmann, a German Officer. My Departure.Chapter 16: Meskene. The Teacher. Towards RaqqaChapter 17: Raqqa. The Armenian Cemetery. The Sight of the People Gone Mad in the Field. The State of the Exiles on the Left Bank in Raqqa. The Burial of a Girl.Chapter 18: Towards Deir ez-Zor. Marash’s Armenian Villagers. The Image of the Population on the Banks of the Euphrates. A Second Meeting with a Group of Armenian Exiles.Chapter 19: Deir ez-Zor. Meeting with the Colonel. The Market. A Girl from Mezere. Before the Pharmacy.Chapter 20: Towards Aney. Aney. An Old Man Loses Consciousness. The Market.Chapter 21: Towards Hadise. Hadise. The Price of Freeing an Armenian Girl.Chapter 22: Hit. The Students of Aintab’s Seminary. The Market. An Armenian Girl is Requested from Baghdad.Chapter 23: Ramadi. 300 Armenians from Zeytun in a cave. The Conduct of an Arab Baker. Fallujah. The Story of a Wealthy Armenian Family.Chapter 24: Baghdad. 49 Armenians Are Deported. The Gallows. The Armenians’ Situation. The German Consul’s Resistance. The Words of Halil Pasha.Chapter 25: Towards Persia. The Arabs Steal Two Trunks of Weapons. We Cross the Border. The German Officer Takes to Illness. He Goes Mad. Towards Kermanshah. The German Officer Commits Suicide. The Russians Capture Kermanshah, and I go to the CaucasusAfterword: Testimony and Authorship: Zabel Yesayan’s The Agony of a People, Marc Nichanian

Minassian delivers a hauntingly beautiful English translation of this important document that at once shocks and moves its readers to confront the unspeakable atrocities witnessed by Haig Toroyan, who traversed several deportation routes during the Armenian genocide. First recorded by the prolific writer Zabel Yesayan, Toroyan’s testimony arrives here to the Anglophone world in the raw and unfiltered quality of its original, which itself mimics the urgency of the oral account. Agony of a People will become an invaluable source for scholars of genocide, trauma, and Armenian studies.