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GOMIDAS INSTITUTE PRESS RELEASE 2 January 2007

Two New Publications on Armenian Genocide Commemorate this Year's Holocaust Memorial Day in U.K.

LONDON, U.K. – On Tuesday, January 2, 2007, at a special gathering, the Gomidas Institute announced the publication of two new books on the occasion of Great Britain’s annual commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day, which will take place on January 27, 2007. Holding a reception at its headquarters at Garod House, the Institute’s director Ara Sarafian announced that every year the Gomidas Institute marked Holocaust Memorial Day in a special way. Last year it commemorated the occasion by co-sponsoring two award-winning films on the Armenian Genocide at Riverside Studios in west London. This year the Institute is releasing two invaluable books by Vahram Dadrian, who was a child survivor of the Genocide. Both books, Forsaken Love and To the Desert: Pages from My Diary, were originally written in Armenian in the immediate aftermath of World War I.

Vahram Dadrian was only 15 when his family was deported from Chorum, and ended up in Jeresh (Jordan) in 1915. Throughout this period (1915-1919) Vahram kept a diary of what he saw and heard around him. In 1920, he prepared his diaries, as well as an historical novel about the Genocide, for publication. These two works were not published for several decades until the author had left Turkey. Dadrian’s diary, To the Desert, was first translated into English and published by Gomidas Institute Books in 2003. His novel Forsaken Love was translated in 2006 and is just being released for the first time. Both titles are in paperback in the Institute’s Taderon Press series. Forsaken Love was originally titled in Armenian From Amongst the Graves: Pages from My Diary. This title was changed to Forsaken Love in order to focus on the poignant love story that is in the novel. The names of some of the characters were also changed to make the work more accessible to English speaking audiences. Forsaken Love is about the destruction of Ottoman Armenians in 1915, written from the perspective of victims. Though a fictional account, it is based on real testimonies, which Dadrian heard and recorded himself. Many of the scenes in the novel are clearly based on his diaries (To the Desert). The opening political setting of the novel is the Ottoman entry into World War I, followed by the decision of the Turkish government to deport and eliminate Armenian subjects. Forsaken Love captures the sense of bewilderment, helplessness and suffering of Armenians following the victimization of entire communities, the mass arrest, torture, and killing of community leaders, the execution of Armenian soldiers serving in the Ottoman army, and the great massacres of Der Zor. Dadrian portrays Armenian criminals, informers, and apostates who work with the executioners, as well as others who become slave workers simply to live. Within a single novel, Dadrian presents real scenarios – some simple, others profound – about the Armenian Genocide. Dadrian also introduces the Arab struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire. This is first portrayed through a group of Arab deserters, led by an officer from a prominent Arab family, who help to save Armenians in Der Zor, and then other Arab characters from Lebanon and Syria. The presence of the Arab struggle in Dadrian’s novel should not be surprising, given that the author’s family survived the Armenian Genocide amongst Arabs in Jeresh (Jordan) from 1915 to 1919 (as chronicled in To the Desert). The political setting of the novel changes with the end of World War I (1918) and the expectation of Armenian survivors to return to their homes and villages – under the protection of the Allied powers. However, by 1923, these survivors are abandoned by the European powers (most notably France and Great Britain) when a new Turkish nationalist movement sweeps across Cilicia (and many other parts of the former Ottoman Empire) and seals the fate of the Armenians once and for all. The novel is centered around a main character, Kirk, who survives this period to tell his story. He is a romantic hero who resists his executioners and fights for his people, while his world collapses around him, first with the apparent death of Sara (his fiancée from Erzeroum), and then with the death of his second love and wife, Julia, who dies in his arms. Forsaken Love is a remarkable novel reflecting much of the reality of the Armenian Genocide; its original Armenian-language edition influenced a whole generation of Armenians over the years.

For information on how to obtain Forsaken Love and To the Desert: Pages from My Diary, please contact info@gomidas.org

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Last modified on 13 November 2007.