Pain of Genocide Still Lingers for Armenians and their Church

Geoffrey Orens

March 1, 2004

Forgiveness is one of the central teachings of Christianity. Yet for Armenians, who hail from the oldest Christian nation in the world, it is not easy to turn the other cheek to the genocide perpetuated against their people by the Turks. According to many Armenians, forgiveness is hindered because the Turkish nation will not admit that the genocide took place.

"Armenians are ready to forgive, but forgiveness needs confession for it to be full and total," said Father Mardiros Chevian, the dean of St. Vartan's Armenian Cathedral in New York City. "We pray for the Turks because they need it more than we do."

On April 24, 1915, a day commemorated by Armenians as Genocide Memorial Day, hundreds of Armenian leaders were killed by authorities of the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul, Turkey. Over the span of the next eight years Turkey purged its Armenian population. Many were deported, carrying with them books and items from churches. Others were massacred outright or died during long death marches where many were raped, beaten and starved. Some Armenians were even crucified. During the death marches, the local priest would minister to his flock and bury the dead. Armenian organizations estimate that around 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the genocide period.

Cheavian said that when Turkish soldiers entered their communities, Armenians would huddle in churches and sing the Armenian hymn, "Lord Have Mercy." According to historical sources Turks burned many churches to the ground with the community still inside.

"We lost the bulk of our priests then," Chevian said. In the Armenian Church, a priest is ordained married or as a celibate monk. Chevian noted that the church was forced to reassign monks living in monasteries to serve parishes. Only now, he says, has the Armenian Church recovered.

The death marches ended in the Syrian Desert, where many Armenians were murdered or left to fend for themselves. By 1923 there were virtually no Armenians living in Turkey or West Armenia. Aram Arkun -- St. Vartan's librarian -- said that during the genocide many Armenians were offered their lives by Turkish soldiers if they would convert to Islam. They refused. "They turned down mortal lives for eternal ones," Chevian said.

One of the reasons Armenians have been so close to their faith is because the local church in Armenia was the center of education and the place where people would go if they needed help, said Dzrunik Aghajanian, a consul for the Armenian Mission to the United Nations. Perhaps more important, Aghajanian said, was the fact that Christianity goes so far back in Armenian history -- the nation officially converted in 301 -- that it has become an integral part of Armenian identity and their heritage. Faith and the Armenian Church, Aghajanian said, "is everything that comes with being Armenian, your history." Faith, she said, "is part of your blood, with the cells you have." She said that as many faced the fear of losing their identity, their faith grew stronger.

Chevian and Aghajanian said that some genocide survivors lost their faith because of the genocide. They could not understand why God would bring so much suffering on the first nation to accept Christianity. Some thought there must have been something Armenians had done to provoke God's wrath. However, Aghajanian said, many people who survived "were still able to start new lives. That is part of your faith."

Although it has been nearly 89 years since the beginning of the genocide, Armenians say its effects reverberate throughout daily life. "Even our teenagers," Chevian said, "they're so far removed. But the story is theirs. And it will continue. I don't know how long." Chevian noted that every Armenian has at least one person in the family who died in the genocide. Arkun said the Armenian Church applies pressure every year to try and get the United States government to recognize what happened. Not only would such affirmation be welcomed among Armenians, but with the U.S. government on the Armenians' side, Turkey might finally capitulate. The U.S. government is reluctant, he believes, because it does not want to hurt relations with Turkey.

However, Armenians are quick to distinguish between the Turks who committed the genocide and their descendents. "We never identify the whole nation with the people who did harm to the Armenians," Aghajanian said. "When you hear the stories, you would always hear that if it was not for a certain Turk, and other Armenians, we would not have survived."

Even before the genocide, Armenians had long been a suffering people. Armenia has been invaded several times, and there has not been a 50-year period of peace since the nation converted to Christianity. In addition to the genocide, the twentieth century also brought Soviet rule, and the U.S.S.R. officially banned the Armenian Church. In the early 1990s, after Armenia became independent again, pogroms against Armenians occurred in the neighboring nation of Azerbaijan. The pogroms coincided with a violent territorial conflict between the two newly independent nations over land given to Azerbaijan by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1924. The disputed region contains a majority Armenian population. The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic people, and the pogroms opened old wounds.

Chevain noted that because of Armenia's history of conflict and oppression, there is not the same focus on the suffering Christ on the cross and on the passion -- that recalls Jesus's trial and crucifixion -- that one finds in the Roman Catholic Church.

"When you have been a suffering people already, you don't need to know about the suffering Christ. You need to know about the victorious Christ, the resurrection Christ. Our eyes have been set on the empty cross, the resurrected Christ."

Chevian's message to Armenians on the issue of the genocide is indeed one of resurrection. "Every school opened, every priest, every book published, every poem published, every piece of music written is righteous revenge, positive revenge," he said. Arkun noted that he believes it helps many Armenians to know that Christ made a sacrifice Himself. According to Christian belief, Jesus allowed himself to die in order that others could help be saved through belief in his resurrection. Because even Jesus suffered and made such a sacrifice, Arkun believes Armenians are pulled closer into their faith.

As the ninetieth anniversary of the beginning of the genocide approaches, Armenians remain hopeful that the issue of recognition will be resolved soon. A Turkish apology would relieve a large burden. "All it takes is one sentence," Chevian said. "One sentence. But they won't do it."

(Updated April 24, 2004)