Grigoris Balakian

Krikor Balakian (Armenian Գրիգորիս Պալագեան, transliteration Grigoris Palagean; * 1875 in Evdokia (now Tokat ); † October 8, 1934 in Marseille) was an Armenian bishop, an eyewitness to the genocide and witness in the Talaat process in Berlin.

Life

Krikor Balakian was a graduate of the College of Sanasarian Karin (now Erzurum ). He spent two years studying architecture in Germany and eventually became an engineer - surveyor. He settled for Vardapet consecrate ( actually means doctor; Armenian title for the higher clergy within the Armenian Apostolic Church ). Krikor Balakian was one of the arrested in Istanbul on April 24, 1915 about 250 Armenian leaders.

One group was discharged to Ayaş. With 190 other Armenians from the capital Balakian was deported to Çankırı northeast of Ankara. Of these, should survive only 16. In a group of 48 deportees, he marched in the direction of Çankırı Der Zor. On the way, he managed to win the trust of the gendarmerie captain Şükri Bey. He learned of the extermination plan against the entire Armenian population. Balakian succeeded in Islahie flight. First, he could submerge as a worker at the Baghdad Railway, where both Turkish deserters and Armenian refugees were used as forced laborers. Were killed when Armenian workers between Maras and Bartsche, Balakian fled to another phase of construction of the Baghdad railway and, with the aid of German engineers, disguised as Mr. Bernstein, escape to Constantinople Opel to Paris.

At the Berlin Process 1921 against Talaat Pasha assassin Soghomon Tehlirian he joined - in addition to Johannes Lepsius - as a defense witness on. The German court was so shocked by the reports of the genocide happening in the Ottoman Empire, the former Interior Minister Talaat has to answer one of the main culprits that Tehlirian was acquitted.

Krikor Balakian was prelate of Manchester, London and finally Bishop of Marseille in the sequence. Two churches were in Marseille and Nice ( église Ste Marie, 1928), built under his direction, and various chapels and schools.

Services

His memoir Armenian Golgotha ​​are an important source of genocide. In it, he describes his experiences during the deportation. Krikor Balakian was one of the few surviving leaders, who reported on the genocide. Since Komitas Vardapet belonged to the same group of detainees as Balakian, are his statements about the trauma of the famous composer and founder of Armenian classical music, of particular importance. Komitas probably escaped through the intervention of a high-ranking Turkish friend of the murder; his mental condition deteriorated rapidly after the experience of deportation and massacre. He died in 1935 in a psychiatric hospital in Paris.

Works

  • Հայ Գողգոթան [ The Armenian Golgotha ​​; Armenian original ], Volume 1, Mekhitarist Congregation, Vienna 1922, Volume 2, Imprimerie Araxes, Paris 1959 ( French translation:. arménien Le Golgotha ​​, Le cercle d' Écrits caucasiens, La Ferte- Sous- Jouarre 2002 (Volume 1) ISBN 2-913564-08-9, 2004 ( Volume 2 ) ISBN 2-913564-13-5
  • Armenian Golgotha ​​. A Memoir of The Armenian Genocide, 1915-1918, translated by his great- nephew Peter Balakian and Aris Sevag, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2009 ISBN 978-0-307-26288-2
  • Churches of Ani
488832
de