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PRESS RELEASE BY:
GOMIDAS INSTITUTE
GAROD HOUSE
42 BLYTHE RD.
LONDON W14 0HA
ENGLAND
EMAIL: press@gomidas.org
12 April 2005
GOMIDAS INSTITUTE PUBLISHES SECOND UNCENSORED EDITION OF BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY BLUE BOOK ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
James Bryce and Arnold Toynbee (Ara Sarafian ed., intro. and annotations),
The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-16: Documents Presented to Viscount Grey of Fallodon by Viscount Bryce [Uncensored Edition], 2nd ed., (Princeton and London: Gomidas Institute) 2005, xxiv +
678, map. ISBN 1-903656-51-6. Hback, UK£45.00 / US$70.00
The Gomidas Institute is pleased to announce the 2nd edition of the uncensored edition of the 1916 British Parliamentary
Blue Book on the Armenian Genocide. "The recent denial of the Armenian Genocide and the continuing attacks on the Blue
Book by Turkish officials has revived interest in this work," said Ara Sarafian (Gomidas Institute), who compiled the
uncensored edition of the Blue Book. "Until recently it was a mere reference work, but now it has become a centrepiece of discussions."
Last month Turkish Parliamentarians agreed to send a petition to the British Parliament to protest against the 1916 work.
According to the latest Turkish press reports, the final text for the petition has been drafted for the signature of 550
Turkish Parliamentarians. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has already indicated that this petition will be conveyed to the
British Houses of Parliament. According to Turkish Parliamentarians, the British Blue Book was a wartime propaganda fabrication concocted by British agents to tarnish the image of Ottoman Turkey and its German allies.
According to Ara Sarafian, an archival historian on the Armenain Genocide, the 1916 work was a milestone in our
understanding of the Genocide and a creditworthy publication. The centrepiece of the 700 page work was a collection of
informed accounts on the Genocide. Most of these materials can still be found in various archives around the world, most
notably in the United States. The current uncensored edition gives full citations for each of these reports. Some of the most
devastating materials were written by United States consuls in the interior provinces of the Ottoman Empire. These
materials, as the uncensored edition of the Blue Book points out, were leaked to the public by the State Department in
Washington DC. "Deniers of the Armenian Genocide refuse to acknowledge these documents as a matter of course, because that is the nature of their work," adds Sarafian.
The Gomidas Institute has recently published two other documentary works related to the Armenian Genocide and the Blue
Book. These are "United States Official Records on the Armenian Genocide 1915-1917" and "United States Diplomacy on
the Bosphorus: The Diaries of Ambassador Morgenthau, 1913-1916." Both titles represent core United States records on
the Armenian Genocide, including reports which were not leaked to the British by the Americans in 1915-16. Sarafian
states that the new moves by Turkish Parliamentarians will result in embarassment, because the British parliamentary report stands up to severe and honest scrutiny.
The Gomidas Institute is an independent centre of modern Armenian Studies, including the documentation of the Armenian Genocide. For the latest publications by the Institure, please visit its designated distributors at www.garodbooks.com
HISTORIC MAPS of ARMENIA
The Cartographic Heritage
By Rouben Galichian
Rouben Galichian's book is a highly impressive collection of maps of Armenia spanning twenty six
centuries - from a Babylonian clay tablet of the 6th Century BC, to current day.
The result of many years of research and perseverance, this book is truly a phenomenal achievement by
this dedicated cartographer. The book is a glossy work of art which will stir interest in all who see it,
whilst also being an essential tool of reference for historical accuracy for scholars.
FOR FULL DETAILS IN ENGLISH In Acrobat .pdf PLEASE CLICK HERE
FOR ORDER FORM (Europe) PLEASE CLICK HERE
FOR ORDER FORM (USA) PLEASE CLICK HERE
20% DISCOUNT IF ORDERED NOW WITH FORM PRINTED FROM ABOVE LINKS
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GALICHIAN'S BOOK "HISTORICAL MAPS OF ARMENIA" REVIEWED BY THE
"GEOGRAPHICAL" MAGAZINE
"Historical Maps of Armenia" by Rouben Galichian has been reviewed on pages 84/85 of the February 2005 issue of London's Royal
Geographical Society's monthly magazine - "Geographical". The review is very favourable and small, but the magazine has chosen to
include depiction of three maps with it. One map in Ottoman Turkish dated from 1802, shows Armenia over the region of Van and Erzrum,
the other a map of Arran, Armenia and Azerbaijan, by the Persian geographer al-Istakhri dates from the 10th century, showing Armenia, with
its cities and mount Ararat. The third is a map entitled "Real Armenia" by a German mapmaker, dating from 1718.
(Click this link to see scanned image in .jpg format)
The two preceding articles in the magazine are a five page spread of the exhibition of Turkish art in the Royal Academy (on display until
April 12) and the next one is a series of photographs from Turkish minorities. There is a photo of Armenian women from Sevan, a group
photo of Armenian Revolutionaries and photo of a religious ceremony in the Holy Cross Church located in Akhtamar island of lake Van.
(Alas, the captions of pages 81 and 83 are reversed!). The short article refers to the darker side of the empire building as well and refers to the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
The Burning Tigris
By Peter Balakian
Published by William Heinemann (Price £18.99)
Today, as Turkey seeks to join the EU, it still denies the horror from the last years of the Ottoman Empire presided over by
its government when over a million people were slaughtered in the first genocide of the modern world. Indeed, Peter
Balakian argues that this genocide showed the way to the Nazis as they formulated their own 'Final Solution' to the Jewish
question. Today, as we commemorate the tenth anniversary of the massacres in Rwanda, the question of ethnic cleansing is still one that burns with relevance.
'The terrible fate of the Armenians, whose attempted destruction provided a template for the Jewish Holocaust, is brilliantly
described, as is the remarkable response of the United States, in the face of a humanitarian tragedy of a type that has,
unfortunately, been repeated again and again, into our twenty-first century. Peter Balakian has done a great service to the
history of the Armenians.'
Sir Martin Gilbert
Peter Balakian reveals the three stages of persecution of the Armenian people, from the relatively small-scale massacres
under Abdul Hamid II to the ethnic cleansing undertaken by the forces of the Committee of Union and Progress under the
cover of the First World War. Balakian makes use of the eye-witness accounts of US diplomats and missionaries and the
terrible testimony of the persecutors themselves during the short-lived trials of the 1920s. He exposes the failures of the
great powers to respond effectively – just as they failed to halt later genocides. And he shows how the issue of oil changed
the focus of US foreign policy in the 1920s so that the fate of the Armenians was forgotten and the lessons of the genocide ignored.
Compelling and authoritative, this groundbreaking book restores the Armenian tragedy to its rightful place in history.
Published in the memorial month of the Armenian genocide, as New York Life Insurance finally settles the claims of some
thousands of the victims' families ninety years after their deaths, The Burning Tigris brings the forgotten genocide back to the forefront of public awareness.
Peter Balakian is Professor of the Humanities at Colgate University. He is the author of Black Dog of Fate, which won the
1998 PEN/Martha Albrand Award. He lives in Hamilton, New York. Peter Balakian will be in the UK at publication.
For information please contact Cassie Chadderton,
Publicity Director, William Heinemann,
on 020 7 840 8773 or email cchadderton@randomhouse.co.uk |
