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Unknown Armin Wegner: new research on one of Genocide's key eyewitnesses
http://www.reporter.am/go/article/2012-08-19-unknown-armin-wegner-new-research-on-one-of-genocide-s-key-eyewitnesses
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Published: Sunday August 19, 2012
Armin Wegner. Photo copyright by Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen via Wikimedia
Yerevan - A new publication on Armin T. Wegner, the German medic
within the Sixth Turkish Army led by General Colmar von der Goltz, has
been published by Dr. Tigran Sarukhanyan, the Alexander von Humboldt
Fellow at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Institute of
Archaeology and Ethnography.
One of the key eyewitness chroniclers of the Armenian Genocide,
"Wegner is still venerated by most of the Armenians as a "hero",
"martyr", "victim" of injustices. It took me much time and tremendous
energy to go further in my Wegner research," writes Sarukhanyan. "This
required learning German at the Goethe Institut in Germany, to attend
all German archival institutions, to read tens of thousands of pages
of research material in German on Wegner and the Armenian
Genocide. The outcome was sensational."
Sarukhanyan's newly-published article is entitled "Armin T. Wegner's
(1886-1978) WW I Media Testimonies and the Armenian Genocide" examines the
"early testimonies" by Armin T. Wegner on the Armenian sufferings,
witnessed by him in the Ottoman Empire.
Following his return from the Ottoman front Wegner worked in the
German Propaganda Service, published about 70 articles on Turkey,
where he paid highest tribute to the Young Turk leaders: Talaat, Jemal
and Enver, Germany's war-time allies.
In these articles Wegner described Armenians as "traitors" of the Turkish
state whom the Turks "spared" by relocating into the southern parts of the
Empire. Austrian writer Franz Werfel publically chided Wegner for this
position towards Armenians.
But with the end of World War I in 1918, Wegner became an advocate on the
plight of Armenians, publicly protesting their treatment and testifying in
defense of Soghomon Tehlirian who assassinated Talaat in Berlin in 1921.
The original research "Armin T. Wegner's WWI Media Testimonies and the
Armenian Genocide" was published as part of the volume "Orientalische
Christen und Europa" edited by Martin Tamcke and publisjhed by Harrassowitz
Verlag in Wiesbaden, Germany in 2012 (ISSN 0340-6326 ISBN
978-3-447-06757-7). Sarukhanyan can be contacted at [email protected].
http://www.reporter.am/go/article/2012-08-19-unknown-armin-wegner-new-research-on-one-of-genocide-s-key-eyewitnesses
-
Published: Sunday August 19, 2012
Armin Wegner. Photo copyright by Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen via Wikimedia
Yerevan - A new publication on Armin T. Wegner, the German medic
within the Sixth Turkish Army led by General Colmar von der Goltz, has
been published by Dr. Tigran Sarukhanyan, the Alexander von Humboldt
Fellow at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Institute of
Archaeology and Ethnography.
One of the key eyewitness chroniclers of the Armenian Genocide,
"Wegner is still venerated by most of the Armenians as a "hero",
"martyr", "victim" of injustices. It took me much time and tremendous
energy to go further in my Wegner research," writes Sarukhanyan. "This
required learning German at the Goethe Institut in Germany, to attend
all German archival institutions, to read tens of thousands of pages
of research material in German on Wegner and the Armenian
Genocide. The outcome was sensational."
Sarukhanyan's newly-published article is entitled "Armin T. Wegner's
(1886-1978) WW I Media Testimonies and the Armenian Genocide" examines the
"early testimonies" by Armin T. Wegner on the Armenian sufferings,
witnessed by him in the Ottoman Empire.
Following his return from the Ottoman front Wegner worked in the
German Propaganda Service, published about 70 articles on Turkey,
where he paid highest tribute to the Young Turk leaders: Talaat, Jemal
and Enver, Germany's war-time allies.
In these articles Wegner described Armenians as "traitors" of the Turkish
state whom the Turks "spared" by relocating into the southern parts of the
Empire. Austrian writer Franz Werfel publically chided Wegner for this
position towards Armenians.
But with the end of World War I in 1918, Wegner became an advocate on the
plight of Armenians, publicly protesting their treatment and testifying in
defense of Soghomon Tehlirian who assassinated Talaat in Berlin in 1921.
The original research "Armin T. Wegner's WWI Media Testimonies and the
Armenian Genocide" was published as part of the volume "Orientalische
Christen und Europa" edited by Martin Tamcke and publisjhed by Harrassowitz
Verlag in Wiesbaden, Germany in 2012 (ISSN 0340-6326 ISBN
978-3-447-06757-7). Sarukhanyan can be contacted at [email protected].