Judgement Unto Truth: Witnessing the Armenian Genocide

Ephraim K. Jernazian

Transaction Publishers, Jan 1, 1990 - History - 176 pages

This dramatic personal narrative is a unique contribution to understanding past and current events in the Near East. These memoirs of an American Protestant clergyman reveal little known aspects of major events in Asia Minor in the early twentieth century, give valuable insights to their background, and describe pivotal interrelationships with the western world. Those perceptions are woven into the story of the author's protracted genocidal experiences. Dispassionately rendered, Judgment Unto Others is a call for truth and justice.

In the Hamidian massacres of 1895. Jernazian, a five-year orphan, loses two brothers. When all the Armenian Protestant clergy of Cilicia are killed in the Young Turks' "Adana massacre" of 1909, Jernazian answers the call to replenish the vacant pulpits. In 1915, when the "final solution to the Armenian question" is in progress, the author, an interpreter of the Turkish government, is in a unique position to observe the genocidal process. Afterwards, he and his new bride work to rehabilitate destitute survivors. He serves as liaison and advisor during the British and French occupations (1919-21). And during the Kemalist revolution (1921-23), Jernazian loses his remaining family and nearly his own life. Only through a miraculous escape after twenty-one months in a Turkish prison is he reunited with his wife, her mother, a daughter, and a son born three months after his arrest.

An unusual blend of religious idealism and pragmatic politics, his memoirs provide a singular emotional experience. As Vahakn Dadrian observes in his Introduction, "This volume is a unique document of historical significanceThe author presents comments and interpretations which portray him as an acute observer of intricate events." The book will appeal to historians of the period, educators, and professionals with an interest in the use and abuse of state power, and specialists interested in human behavior in extreme conditions. Ephiram K. Jernazian (1890-1971) experienced the events described in this book. After 1923, he served as pastor and community leader in New York, New England and California.

Alice Haig, Reverend Jernazian's daughter, translated these memoirs from the original Armenian in consultation with her father while he was living.REVIEWS:"Indispensable reading for anyone interested in Armenian and Near Eastern history, the missionary movement in the Ottoman Empire, and the process of genocide. Jernazian witnesses the Genocide at the intersection of biography and history; his book is at once a chronicle of and a tribute to the individual and collective will to resist and survive."--Gerard J. Libaridian, Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation

"It has powerful passages and is of significance to the Armenian community and beyond."--Ben H. Bagdikian, University of California, Berkeley.

Contents

• Eclipses and Armenians: 7
• Fragments from a Lost History: 12
• A Lion and Forty Eyes: 15
• Narrow Escapes at Ebenezer and AkSoo: 17
• Tarsus the Renowned City of Cilicia: 20
• St Paul and Young Turks: 22
• The Turning Point of a Lifetime: 26
• A Theological Camelot: 28
• The Eye of Mesopotamia: 35
• Seferberlik: 40
• The Military Draft Turkish Style: 43
• Three Bags of Rice: 46
• Restraint: 48
• Warning from Zeitun: 53
• Three Taps of the Pen: 56
• Officials and Guerrillas: 59
• Regrouping: 64
• Kiamilan Imha: 70
• No More Appeasement: 73
• A Beautiful Autumn Day: 77
• The Battle: 83
• Abandoned Property: 90
• Turkish Refugees at Urfa: 96
• Famine and Disease: 98
• Marie: 100
• Someone to Weep for Me: 106
• Armistice: 109
• A Reluctant Mission to Aleppo: 113
• Word of Honor: 118
• Uncertain Fate: 123
• Arrest and Imprisonment: 129
• Preliminary Trial: 133
• Stones from the Fortress: 137
• From Prison to Prison: 139
• Survival in Prison: 143
• A Jailbreak That Failed: 147
• A Spark of Hope: 150
• The Snare Is Broken: 152
• Reunion: 154
• New World: 159
• Postscript: 163

Bibliographic information

• Title: Judgement Unto Truth: Witnessing the Armenian Genocide; Volume 4 of Zoryan Institute Survivors' Memoirs
• Author: Ephraim K. Jernazian
• Translated by: Alice Haig
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers, 1990
• ISBN: 1412827027, 9781412827027
• Length: 176 pages
• Subjects: History / Holocaust; History / Middle East / General; Political Science / Human Rights