Testimonies of Armenian orphans who survived the genocide in Turkish-language documentary and memoir literature. Armenian Genocide and Ottoman archives From the book by Mikhail Sokolov “Chechnya - has history already been forgotten?”

Since the beginning of the 90s, over 300 thousand Russians have left Chechnya. In 1992, in Grozny alone, according to official data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic, 250 people of Russian nationality were killed, 300 went missing: (From the report of the Chairman of the Board of the Russian Community of the Chechen Republic Oleg Makoveev)

“IT’S LIKE HELL HERE.”

In front of me is a copy of a letter from the residents of Grozny, who are usually called “Russian-speaking”. This message, addressed to former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov with the naive note “personally,” can rightfully be considered a cry of despair.

“We, the residents of Grozny, who did not have the opportunity to escape in 1994-1996, miraculously survived in the basements. They lost their homes and property. Every day a threat to the lives of each of us hangs over us. There are no more than 5 thousand of us Russian women, old people and children left in Grozny. We appeal to you as a patriot and intellectual: save us, accept us in Russia. We pray for you and believe in you. In Grozny and in Chechnya in general today, for Russians it’s like hell.”

I don’t know whether this call of despair reached the addressee. Most likely no. The chairman of the board of the Russian community in Chechnya, Oleg Makoveev, who came to us, to the editorial office of Trud, with a whole pile of documents, does not know this.

Here is just a tiny part of the list of abuses and torments he provided, experienced by the Russian population of Chechnya during the years of the Dudayev-Maskhadov regime.

The Nesterovs, Vera and Mikhail, were shot in October 1996 in their home in Grozny, near the railway station.

Mikhail Sidor - a pensioner, a Cossack of the Grozny district of the Terek Cossack army, was shot with his family (wife and two sons) in his home in Grozny on August 6, 1996.

Alexander Khaprinikov was stabbed to death in September 1996. Lived in Grozny on Rabochaya Street, 67.

Alexander Gladilin, a Cossack, a resident of the village of Mekenskaya, Naursky district, worked as the head of the local administration. In April 1997, he was captured by militants of the National Security Service of the ChRI, thrown into a dungeon, where he was subjected to torture and abuse. Released personally by Maskhadov for 10 tons of flour.

From a letter from residents of the village of Asinovskaya: “Before 1995, 8,400 of us Russians lived in the village, now there are 250 left. Since August 1996, 26 Russian families have been killed, 52 of our households have been seized.”

T.V. (she refused to give her last name) from Gudermes writes: “We came from the cemetery and sat at home with our friends, the Sapronovs. When Tanya and Volodya went home, Chechens from white Zhiguli cars shot them point-blank with a machine gun. They had a good house, and apparently someone from the “titular nation” liked it:

I was fired from my job. They force you to cover your face with a scarf, in Sharia style, so that your hair is not visible. But I’m not a Muslim, but an Orthodox Christian: Russians are removed from leadership positions and Chechens are installed, even the most illiterate ones. One Chechen I knew worked as a shepherd all his life, tending sheep, and then he fought on Maskhadov’s side and became the head of the depot.”

ORTHODOX - INTO SLAVERY

The gangster, purely criminal genocide of the Russian-speaking population in Sharia Ichkeria was accompanied by brutal persecution of people on religious grounds. In fact, Orthodoxy was outlawed by Maskhadov’s authorities in Chechnya.

From a letter from the rector of the parish of the Orthodox Church of the Holy Archangel Michael, Father Zacharias (Grozny) to His Holiness Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus':

“It is impossible to describe in human words the terrible life we ​​live here. This is life in hell, among brazen evil and complete lawlessness: Chechens do not want to work peacefully with people of other nationalities, they prefer to live by robbery, theft, and kidnapping. Many of them are armed, steal and rob everything they can in everyday life and at work. The slave trade in Chechnya has become a normal phenomenon; they make business out of everything. And we, the Orthodox, are destined for the fate of slaves.”

How Father Zakhary (Yampolsky) looked into the water. In October 1995, the second priest of the Grozny church, Father Alexander (Smyvin), was brutally beaten; in January 1996, Father Anatoly (Chistousov) and Father Sergius (Zhigulin) were kidnapped in Grozny. In January 1997, hieromonk Father Evfimy (Belomestny) and novice Alexy (Ravilov) were driven into slavery. In the spring of 1999, Russian priests Father Peter (Makarov), Father Peter (Sukhonosov) and another hieromonk were kidnapped in the village of Asinovskaya. And on July 19, 1999, directly from the church in Grozny, Father Zakhary himself was taken into slavery, along with church elder Yakov Roshchin and parishioner Pavel Kadyshev.

Until 1994, there were ten parishes of the Orthodox faith in the Chechen Republic. Under the “victorious” Maskhadov, only one remained - the Church of St. Archangel Michael in Grozny. How the parishioners of the last Orthodox church survived is described in another letter from Father Zacharias, written in May last year: “For us: time has acquired a special relationship to life. If you lived for a day and were not robbed, humiliated, violated, enslaved, and especially not killed, then this is a miracle and happiness: Everything that the parish acquired during its hundred-year existence was plundered, destroyed and burned.”

WILL THE RUSSIANS RETURN HERE?

Axiom: a criminal has no nationality. Just as, by and large, the anti-people regime, which serves the interests of a handful of scoundrels who seized power, does not have it. The Chechens themselves also suffered from bandit tyranny in Sharia Ichkeria.

According to the Ministry of Nationalities, from 1996 to 1999, more than 5 thousand Chechens were kidnapped for ransom. About 500 thousand Chechens who did not share the views of the separatists were forced to leave their homeland and, fleeing the revenge of the “victors,” settled in various regions of Russia.

But the Chechens, whatever you say, have reliable protection - historical teip ties, the mountain law of blood feud, which the most rabid terrorists cannot but take into account. The Russian and Russian-speaking population of Chechnya was not only not protected by anything from the arbitrariness of the Ichkerian authorities, for them great Russia itself turned out to be almost a stepmother.

Resident of Gudermes T.P. complains: “It’s not only Russians who are killed here. Chechens too. Everyone is suffering. Bandits don’t care who they kill, as long as they have something to take and loot. But at least the Chechens can go to the mountains, to their relatives, but for us Russians, where can we go? In Russia, no one is waiting for us; on the contrary, we are not welcome there. They are called either Chechen bedding, or something worse. We are undesirable to any authorities, that’s what’s offensive: After the war, I and my children visited Novgorod, Budennovsk, and Georgievsk in the Stavropol Territory. But because of the bad attitude towards us there, she returned to Grozny. We, people from Chechnya, are not liked in Russia either. There are embittered people who lost someone in the war, but what is our fault? The fact that we were born on Chechen soil and it is dear to us?”

The leadership of the Russian community in Chechnya and the Terek Cossacks have specific proposals to stabilize the situation.

One of the proposals is to create Russian autonomy in the traditional Cossack Naur and Shelkovsky regions or return these regions to the Stavropol Territory, from where they were “removed” by Nikita Khrushchev. But, apparently, such a solution to the problem is unrealistic, since in Russia today there is no legislative basis for it. The only correct solution now, according to experts, is the return of the Russian population to Chechnya and its broad participation in the formation of local government bodies. Representatives of the Russian-speaking population and the Cossacks should also be part of the new, emerging government of the Chechen Republic.

Vladimir Yanchenkov

From the book by Mikhail Sokolov “Chechnya – has history already been forgotten?”

“In 1991-1992. TENS OF THOUSANDS of Russians were massacred in Chechnya. In Shelkovskaya in the spring of 1992, the “Chechen police” confiscated all hunting weapons from the Russian population, and a week later militants came to the unarmed village. They were engaged in re-registration of real estate. Moreover, a whole system of signs was developed for this purpose. Human intestines wrapped around the fence meant: the owner is no longer there, there are only women in the house, ready for “love.” Women's bodies impaled on the same fence: the house is free, you can move in...

I saw columns of buses, which, due to the stench, could not be approached within a hundred meters, because they were filled with the bodies of slaughtered Russians. I saw women cut straight lengthwise with a chainsaw, children impaled on road sign posts, guts artistically wrapped around a fence. We Russians were cleaned out from our own land, like dirt from under our fingernails. And this was 1992 - there were still two and a half years left before the “first Chechen” (war).

During the first Chechen war, video recordings were captured of minor Vainakhs having fun with Russian women. They put women on all fours and threw knives as if at a target, trying to hit the vagina. All this was filmed and commented on...

Then came the fun times. Russians began to be slaughtered right on the streets in broad daylight. Before my eyes, the guy was surrounded by Vainakhs, one of whom spat on the floor and invited the Russian to lick the spit off the floor. When he refused, his stomach was ripped open with a knife. Chechens burst into a parallel class right during class, chose the three prettiest Russian high school girls and dragged them away with them. Then we found out that the girls were given as a birthday present to a local Chechen authority.

And then it got really fun. Militants came to the village and began to clear it of Russians. At night, the screams of people being raped and slaughtered in their own home could sometimes be heard. And no one came to their aid. That's how we... were cut out one by one. Tens of thousands of Russians were killed, several thousand ended up in slavery and Chechen harems, hundreds of thousands fled from Chechnya in their underpants.

In January 1995, the above-mentioned gentleman (Gaidar), as part of a large delegation of “human rights activists” (headed by S.A. Kovalev), came to Grozny to persuade our soldiers to surrender to the Chechens under their personal guarantees. ... 72 people surrendered. Subsequently, their mutilated corpses, with signs of torture, were found in the area of ​​the cannery, Katayama and Sq. Just a minute.

A. Kochedykova, lived in Grozny:

“I left Grozny in February 1993 due to constant threats of action from armed Chechens and non-payment of pension and salary. I left the apartment with all its furnishings, two cars and a cooperative garage and moved out with my husband. In February 1993, Chechens killed my neighbor, born in 1966, on the street. They pierced her head, broke her ribs, and raped her. War veteran Elena Ivanovna was also killed from the apartment nearby. In 1993, it became impossible to live there; people were killing all around. Cars were blown up right next to people. Russians began to be fired from their jobs without any reason. A man born in 1935 was killed in the apartment. He was stabbed nine times, his daughter was raped and killed right there in the kitchen.”

B. Efankin, lived in Grozny:

“In May 1993, two Chechen guys armed with a machine gun and a pistol attacked me in my garage and tried to take possession of my car, but could not, because... it was under repair. They shot over my head. In the fall of 1993, a group of armed Chechens brutally killed my friend Bolgarsky, who refused to voluntarily give up his Volga car. Such cases were widespread. For this reason I left Grozny.”

D. Gakureanu, lived in Grozny:

“In November 1994, Chechen neighbors threatened to kill me with a pistol, and then kicked me out of the apartment and moved in there themselves.”

P. Kuskova, lived in Grozny

On July 1, 1994, four teenagers of Chechen nationality broke my arm and raped me in the area of ​​the Red Hammer plant when I was returning home from work.

E. Dapkulinets, lived in Grozny:

“On December 6 and 7, 1994, he was severely beaten for refusing to participate in Dudayev’s militia as part of Ukrainian militants in the village. Chechen-Aul."

E. Barsukova, lived in Grozny:

“In the summer of 1994, I saw from the window of my apartment in Grozny how armed people of Chechen nationality approached the garage belonging to Mkrtchyan N.’s neighbor, one of them shot Mkrtchyan N. in the leg, and then they took his car and drove away. »

G. Tarasova, lived in Grozny:

“On May 6, 1993, in Grozny, my husband, A. F. Tarasov, went missing. I assume that the Chechens forcibly took him to the mountains to work, because He's a welder."

E. Khobova, lived in Grozny:

On December 31, 1994, my husband, Pogodin, and brother, Eremin A., were killed by a Chechen sniper while they were cleaning up the corpses of Russian soldiers on the street.”

N. Trofimova, lived in Grozny:

“In September 1994, Chechens broke into the apartment of my sister, O.N. Vishnyakova, raped her in front of her children, beat her son and took away her 12-year-old daughter Lena. So she never returned. Since 1993, my son was repeatedly beaten and robbed by Chechens.

V. Ageeva, lived in Art. Petropavlovskaya Grozny district:

M. Khrapova, lived in Gudermes:

In August 1992, our neighbor, R.S. Sargsyan, and his wife, Z.S. Sargsyan, were tortured and burned alive.

V. Kobzarev, lived in the Grozny region:

“On November 7, 1991, three Chechens fired at my dacha with machine guns, and I miraculously survived. In September 1992, armed Chechens demanded to vacate the apartment, threw a grenade, and I, fearing for my life and the life of my relatives, was forced to leave Chechnya with my family.

T. Alexandrova, lived in Grozny:

“My daughter was returning home in the evening. The Chechens dragged her into a car, beat her, cut her and raped her. We were forced to leave Grozny.”

T. Vdovichenko, lived in Grozny:

“My neighbor in the stairwell, KGB officer Tolstenok, was dragged out of his apartment early in the morning by armed Chechens, and a few days later his mutilated corpse was discovered. Lchino herself did not see these events, but O.K. told me about it (K.’s address is not indicated, the event took place in Grozny in 1991”)

V. Nazarenko, lived in Grozny:

“He lived in Grozny until November 1992. Dudayev condoned the fact that crimes were openly committed against Russians, and no Chechens were punished for this. The rector of Grozny University suddenly disappeared, and after some time his body was accidentally found buried in the forest. They did this to him because he did not want to vacate the position he held.”

V. Komarova:

“In Grozny, I worked as a nurse in children’s clinic No. 1. Totikova worked for us, Chechen militants came to her and shot the whole family at home. My whole life was in fear. One day, Dudayev and his militants ran into the clinic, where they pressed us against the walls. So he came into the clinic and shouted that there was a Russian genocide here, because... Our building used to belong to the KGB. I wasn’t paid my salary for 7 months; I left in April 1993.”

Yu. Pletneva, born in 1970:

“In the summer of 1994 at 13:00 I was an eyewitness to the execution on Khrushchev Square of 2 Chechens, 1 Russian and 1 Korean. The execution was carried out by four of Dudayev’s guards, who brought the victims in foreign cars. A citizen passing by in a car was injured.

At the beginning of 1994, on Khrushchev Square, one Chechen was playing with a grenade. The check jumped off, the player and several other people nearby were injured. There were a lot of weapons in the city, almost every resident of Grozny - a Chechen. The Chechen neighbor was drinking, making noise, threatening rape in a perverted form and murder.”

A. Fedyushkin, born 1945:

“In 1992, unknown persons armed with a pistol took away a car from my godfather, who lived in the village. Chervlennaya. In 1992 or 1993, two Chechens, armed with a pistol and a knife, tied up their wife (born in 1949) and eldest daughter (born in 1973), committed violent acts against them, took a TV, a gas stove and disappeared. The attackers were wearing masks. In 1992, in Art. Chervlennaya was robbed by some men, taking away an icon and a cross, causing bodily harm. Brother's neighbor who lived in the station. Chervlennoy, in his VAZ-21-21 car, left the village and disappeared. The car was found in the mountains, and 3 months later he was found in the river.”

V. Doronina:

“At the end of August 1992, my granddaughter was taken away in a car, but was soon released. In Art. Nizhnedeviuk (Assinovka) in an orphanage, armed Chechens raped all the girls and teachers. Neighbor Yunus threatened to kill my son and demanded that he sell him the house. At the end of 1991, armed Chechens burst into my relative’s house, demanded money, and threatened to kill me. My son was killed."

S. Akinshin, born 1961:

On August 25, 1992, at about 12 o'clock, 4 Chechens entered the territory of a summer cottage in Grozny and demanded that the wife who was there have sexual intercourse with her. When the wife refused, one of them hit her in the face with brass knuckles, causing bodily harm.”

R. Akinshina (born 1960):

“On August 25, 1992, at about 12 o’clock at the dacha in the area of ​​the 3rd hospital in the mountains. hospital in Grozny, four Chechens aged 15-16 years old demanded to have sexual intercourse with them. I was indignant. Then one of the Chechens hit me with brass knuckles and they raped me, taking advantage of my helpless state. After that, under threat of murder, I was forced to have sexual intercourse with my dog.”

N. Lyubenko:

“In the entrance of my house, people of Chechen nationality shot one Armenian and one Russian. A Russian was killed for standing up for an Armenian.”

T. Zabrodina:

“There was a case when my bag was snatched. In March-April 1994, a drunken Chechen entered the boarding school where my daughter Natasha worked, beat his daughter, raped her and then tried to kill her. The daughter managed to escape. I witnessed a neighboring house being robbed. At this time, the residents were in a bomb shelter.”

O. Kolchenko:

“Before my eyes, my employee, a 22-year-old girl, was raped and shot by Chechens on the street near our work. I myself was robbed by two Chechens, and Chechen money was taken away at knifepoint.”

V. Karagedin:

“They killed their son on 01/08/95, earlier the Chechens killed their youngest son on 01/04/94.”

“Everyone was forced to accept citizenship of the Chechen Republic, if you don’t accept. You won’t get food stamps.”

A. Abidzhalieva:

“They left on January 13, 1995 because the Chechens demanded that the Nogais protect them from Russian troops. They took the cattle. My brother was beaten for refusing to join the army.”

O. Borichevsky, lived in Grozny:

“In April 1993, the apartment was attacked by Chechens dressed in riot police uniforms. They robbed me and took away all my valuables.

N. Kolesnikova, born in 1969, lived in Gudermes:

“On December 2, 1993, at the stop “section 36” of the Staropromyslovsky (Staropromyslovsky) district of Grozny, 5 Chechens took me by the hands, took me to the garage, and beat me. They raped me and then took me to apartments, where they raped me and injected me with drugs. They were released only on December 5.”

E. Kurbanova, O. Kurbanova, L. Kurbanov, lived in Grozny:

“Our neighbors - the T. family (mother, father, son and daughter) were found at home with signs of violent death.”

T. Fefelova, lived in Grozny:

“A 12-year-old girl was stolen from neighbors (in Grozny), then they planted photographs (where she was abused and raped) and demanded a ransom.”

Z. Sanieva:

“During the battles in Grozny, I saw female snipers among Dudayev’s fighters.”

L. Davydova:

“In August 1994, three Chechens entered the house of the K. (Gudermes) family. The husband was pushed under the bed, and the 47-year-old woman was brutally raped (also using various objects). A week later K. died. On the night of December 30-31, 1994, my kitchen was set on fire.”

T. Lisitskaya:

“We lived in Grozny near the station, and every day I watched trains being robbed. On New Year’s Eve, 1995, Chechens came to me and demanded money for weapons and ammunition.”

K. Tselikina:

T. Sukhorukova:

“At the beginning of April 1993, a theft was committed from my apartment (Grozny). At the end of April 1993, our VAZ-2109 car was stolen. On May 10, 1994, my husband G. Z. Bagdasaryan was killed on the street by machine gun shots.

Y. Rudinskaya, born in 1971:

“In 1993, Chechens armed with machine guns committed a robbery at my apartment (Novomarevskaya station). They took out valuables, raped me and my mother, tortured me with a knife, causing bodily harm. In the spring of 1993, my mother-in-law and father-in-law were beaten on the street (Grozny).”

V. Bochkareva:

“The Dudayevites took the director of the school hostage. Kalinovskaya Belyaev V., his deputy Plotnikov V.I., chairman of the Kalinovsky collective farm Erina. They demanded a ransom of 12 million rubles. Having not received the ransom, they killed the hostages.

Y. Nefedova:

“On January 13, 1993, my husband and I were subjected to a robbery by Chechens in our apartment (Grozny) - they took away all our valuables, including earrings.”

V. Malashin, born in 1963

“On January 9, 1995, three armed Chechens burst into the apartment of T. (Grozny), where my wife and I came to visit, robbed us, and two raped my wife, T., and E. (born 1979) who was in the apartment .)

Yu. Usachev, F. Usachev:

E. Kolganova:

“My Armenian neighbors were attacked by Chechens, their 15-year-old daughter was raped. In 1993, E.P. Prokhorova’s family was subjected to robbery.

A. Plotnikova:

In the winter of 1992, the Chechens took away warrants for apartments from me and my neighbors and, threatening them with machine guns, ordered us to evict. I left my apartment, garage and dacha in Grozny. My son and daughter witnessed the murder of neighbor B. by the Chechens - he was shot with a machine gun.”

V. Mazharin, born in 1959:

“On November 19, 1994, Chechens committed a robbery attack on my family. They threatened me with a machine gun and threw my wife and children out of the car. Everyone was kicked and their ribs were broken. The wife was raped. They took away a GAZ-24 car and property.”

M. Vasilyeva:

“In September 1994, two Chechen fighters raped my 19-year-old daughter.”

A. Fedorov:

“In 1993, Chechens robbed my apartment. In 1994, my car was stolen. I contacted the police. When I saw my car, in which there were armed Chechens, I also reported this to the police. They told me to forget about this car. The Chechens threatened and told me to leave Chechnya.”

N. Kovrizhkin:

“In October 1992, Dudayev announced the mobilization of militants aged 15 to 20 years. While working on the railway, the Russians, including me, were guarded by the Chechens like prisoners. At the Gudermes station, I saw Chechens shoot a man I didn’t know with machine guns. The Chechens said that they killed a bloodline.”

A. Burmurzaev:

“On November 26, 1994, I witnessed how Chechen militants burned 6 opposition tanks along with their crews.”

M. Panteleeva:

“In 1991, Dudayev’s militants stormed the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic, killing police officers, a colonel, and wounding a police major. In Grozny, the rector of the oil institute was kidnapped and the vice-rector was killed. Armed militants, three in masks, burst into my parents’ apartment. One - in a police uniform, at gunpoint and torture with a hot iron, they took away 750 thousand rubles and stole a car.

E. Dudina, born 1954:

“In the summer of 1994, Chechens beat me up on the street for no reason. They beat me, my son and my husband. The son's watch was taken off. Then they dragged me into the entrance and performed sexual intercourse in a perverted form. One woman I know told me that when she was traveling to Krasnodar in 1993, the train was stopped, armed Chechens entered and took away money and valuables. A young girl was raped in the vestibule and thrown out of the carriage (already at full speed).

I. Udalova:

“On August 2, 1994, at night two Chechens burst into my house (Gudermes), my mother was cut in the neck, we managed to fight back, I recognized one of the attackers as a schoolmate. I filed a statement with the police, after which they began to persecute me and threaten my son’s life. I sent my relatives to the Stavropol region, then I left myself. My pursuers blew up my house on November 21, 1994.”

V. Fedorova:

“In mid-April 1993, my friend’s daughter was dragged into a car (Grozny) and taken away. Some time later she was found murdered and raped. A friend of mine from home, whom a Chechen tried to rape while visiting, was caught that same evening on the way home by the Chechens and raped her all night. On May 15-17, 1993, two young Chechens tried to rape me at the entrance to my house. The next door neighbor, an elderly Chechen, fought me off. In September 1993, when I was driving to the station with an acquaintance, my acquaintance was pulled out of the car, kicked, and then one of the Chechen attackers kicked me in the face.”

S. Grigoryants:

“During Dudayev’s reign, Aunt Sarkis’s husband was killed, the car was taken away, then my grandmother’s sister and her granddaughter disappeared.”

N. Zyuzina:

“On August 7, 1994, work colleague Sh. Yu. L. and his wife were captured by armed bandits. On August 9, his wife was released, she said that they were beaten, tortured, they demanded a ransom, she was released to get money. On September 5, 1994, Sh.’s mutilated corpse was found in the area of ​​the chemical plant.”

“In October 1993, our employee A.S. (born 1955), a train dispatcher, was raped for about 18 hours right at the station and beaten by several people. At the same time, a dispatcher named Sveta (born 1964) was raped. The police spoke to the criminals in Chechen and released them.

V. Rozvanov:

“Three times the Chechens tried to kidnap their daughter Vika, twice she ran away, and the third time she was rescued. Son Sasha was robbed and beaten. In September 1993, they robbed me and took my watch. A hat. In December 1994, 3 Chechens searched the apartment, broke the TV, and ate. They drank and left.

A. Vitkov:

“In 1992, T.V., born in 1960, the mother of three young children, was raped and shot. They tortured neighbors, an elderly husband and wife, because the children sent things (a container) to Russia. The Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to look for the criminals.

O. Shepetilo, born 1961:

“She lived in Grozny until the end of April 1994. She worked in the station. Kalinovskaya, Naursky district, director of a music school. At the end of 1993, I was returning from work from St. Kalinovskaya in Grozny. There was no bus, so I walked into town. A Zhiguli car drove up to me. A Chechen with a Kalashnikov assault rifle got out of it and, threatening to kill me, pushed me into the car, drove me to the field, where he mocked me for a long time, raped and beat me.”

Y. Yunusova:

“Son Zair was taken hostage in June 1993 and was held for 3 weeks, released after paying 1.5 million rubles.”

M. Portnykh:

“In the spring of 1992 in Grozny on the street. Dyakov's wine and vodka store was completely looted. A live grenade was thrown into the apartment of the manager of this store, as a result of which her husband was killed and her leg was amputated.

I. Chekulina, born in 1949:

“I left Grozny in March 1993. My son was robbed 5 times and his outer clothes were taken off. On the way to the institute, the Chechens severely beat my son, broke his head, and threatened him with a knife. I was personally beaten and raped only because I am Russian. The dean of the faculty of the institute where my son studied was killed. Before we left, they killed my son, Maxim.”

V. Minkoeva, born 1978:

In 1992, in Grozny, a nearby school was attacked. The children (seventh grade) were taken hostage and held for 24 hours. The entire class and three teachers were gang raped. In 1993, my classmate M. was kidnapped. In the summer of 1993, on the platform of the railway station, before my eyes, there were Chechens...”

B. Yaroshenko:

“Repeatedly during 1992, Chechens in Grozny beat me, robbed my apartment, and smashed my car because I refused to take part in hostilities with the opposition on the side of the Dudayevites.”

V. Osipova:

“I left because of harassment. She worked at a factory in Grozny. In 1991, armed Chechens came to the plant and forcibly drove the Russians out to vote. Then unbearable conditions were created for the Russians, general robberies began, garages were blown up and cars were taken. In May 1994, my son, Osipov V.E., was leaving Grozny; armed Chechens did not allow me to load my things. Then the same thing happened to me, all things were declared “the property of the republic.”

K. Deniskina:

“I was forced to leave in October 1994 due to the situation: constant shooting, armed robberies, murders. On November 22, 1992, Dudayev Hussein tried to rape my daughter, beat me, and threatened to kill me.”

A. Rodionova:

At the beginning of 1993, warehouses with weapons were destroyed in Grozny and they were arming themselves. It got to the point where children went to school with weapons, institutions and schools were closed. In mid-March 1993, three armed Chechens broke into the apartment of their Armenian neighbors and took away valuables. She was an eyewitness in October 1993 to the murder of a young guy whose stomach was cut open during the day.

N. Berezina:

“We lived in the village of Assinovsky. My son was constantly beaten at school and was forced not to go there. At my husband’s work (local state farm), Russians were removed from leadership positions.”

L. Gostinina:

“In August 1993 in Grozny, when I was walking down the street with my daughter, in broad daylight a Chechen grabbed my daughter (born in 1980), hit me, dragged her into his car and took her away. She returned home two hours later, she said. That she was raped. Russians were humiliated in every way. In particular, in Grozny there was a poster hanging near the press house: “Russians, don’t leave, we need slaves!”

The Turks are not limited to denying the fact of genocide - they would like to erase the very memory of the Armenians in modern Turkey.

Behind the Turks’ desire to deny everything and everyone there are, first of all, fears that world public opinion may demand that Turkey compensate for material damage or return territories to Armenia. Indeed, according to the UN Convention “On the Inapplicability of the Statute of Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity” (November 26, 1968), genocide is a crime for which the period of liability does not expire, no matter how much time has passed since the events occurred.

GENOCIDE. RACHEL CRIPS FOR HER CHILDREN AND DOES NOT WANT TO BE CONSOLIDATED, FOR THEY ARE NOT... (Matt. 2:18)

However, the Turkish government passed a law in 1927 prohibiting the entry into Turkey of Armenian survivors of deportation, and since then has always officially denied genocide survivors and their descendants the right to return to their lands and retake possession of their property or receive appropriate compensation.

GENOCIDE. ARMENIAN CHILDREN. AHEAD OF THEM IS DEATH BY HUNGER OR BY THE TURKISH SABER

The Armenian genocide was the first in a series of similar crimes; it was undoubtedly the longest. But its main difference from the Holocaust is that Mets Yeghern took place in the historical homeland of the persecuted people, in Western Armenia, where Armenians lived for more than three thousand years. (Before the invasion of Poland, on August 22, 1939, Hitler told the leaders of the Third Reich: “Our strength lies in speed and cruelty. Genghis Khan deliberately and with a light heart sent thousands of women and children to their deaths. And history sees in him only the great founder of the state. (...) I gave the order to the special SS units to send to death, without regret or compassion, men, women and children of Polish origin and speaking the Polish language.Only in this way can we get the vital space we need.Who today still remembers the extermination of the Armenians? ") One of the results of the genocide, in addition to the extermination of the population, was the loss of approximately nine-tenths of Armenia's lands, as well as the forced dispersion of the few survivors throughout the world.

ANI IS THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF ARMENIA. Cathedral of Our Lady

Western Armenia is the cradle of the ancient Armenian civilization and has always been its homeland; Here rises Mount Ararat, under the shadow of which it arose, here the ancient capitals of Tushpa, Van, Tigranakert, Ani flourished. This means that the Armenian people were not only almost completely destroyed, but also forced to leave the land on which they had always lived for centuries.

The genocide uprooted and trampled on the three-thousand-year-old culture of Armenia. The disappearance of Armenians from their historical homeland also meant the disappearance of their cities, churches, schools, libraries, monasteries, and universities. The genocide caused enormous damage to Armenian and world literature: during the robberies and fires that followed the deportation, the most ancient and unique manuscripts were destroyed.

ANI - ANCIENT CAPITAL OF ARMENIA

Thanks to the reverent attitude of the Armenians to their writing, only a small part of the ancient books was saved: sometimes the deportees secretly buried them deep in the sand, moving along their terrible path in the desert.

Since 1920, Turkey has converted hundreds of Armenian churches and monasteries into mosques and destroyed or allowed centuries-old monuments of Armenian culture to be turned into ruins. By the time the Ottoman Empire entered the war in 1914, the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople had 210 monasteries, 700 cathedrals and 1,639 parish churches. According to statistics from 1974, out of 913 Armenian churches still known in Turkey, 464 were completely destroyed, 252 were turned into ruins and only 197 were left in relatively good condition. In the following decades, many other monuments of Armenian art that remained on Turkish territory were destroyed.

Türkiye is afraid of the silent testimony of the masterpieces of Armenian architecture. So she created areas closed to tourists. Since the 20s of the last century, the study of Armenian architectural monuments on Turkish territory has been practically prohibited or greatly hampered. The Turkish authorities are still consistently destroying traces of the presence of Armenians on the territory of Western Armenia. Churches are turned into mosques or completely destroyed, khachkars are reduced to rubble. Local historians and art critics resort to shameless lies, attributing to the Turkish people the authorship of even the world-famous masterpieces of Armenian architecture.

So, the Armenian genocide at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries not only barbarously took the lives of two million people, forced them to endure unimaginable suffering, scattered survivors throughout the world, deprived the people of nine-tenths of the territory of their historical homeland, but also caused enormous damage to Armenian and world culture. And therefore, it should also be regarded as a crime against all humanity.

Finally, in addition to the death of a huge part of the Armenian intelligentsia of Constantinople in April 1915, these terrible events also had more distant consequences. Thus, in 1935, the Armenian composer Komitas, who had lost his mind from the horrors he saw during the genocide, died in Paris. After many years, he became another victim of the crime; and who knows how many people unknown to historians suffered a similar fate...

MONUMENT TO KOMITAS IN ST. PETERSBURG

The Armenian Church is considering the issue of canonization of the composer Komitas. “The people have long canonized him, but church canonization procedures, especially for individuals, are much longer and more complex,” Archbishop Nathan Hovhannisyan, chairman of the commission for organizing the canonization ceremony, said in an interview.

The soul doesn't want anything
And without opening my eyes,
Looks at the sky and mutters,
How crazy, Komitas.

The luminaries are moving slowly
In a spiral above,
As if she spoke to them
The power sleeping within me.

My shirt is all covered in blood,
Because me too
The wind of fear blows
An ancient massacre.

And again Hagia Sophia
The stone walks in front of me
And the ground is bare feet
Burns me with ash.

Lazarus came out of the tomb,
And he doesn't care
What flies into his eye sockets
White apple blossom.

Until the morning there is air in the larynx
It flakes off like mica
And stands in the crimson stars
Falsehood of the Last Judgment.

(Arseny Tarkovsky; 1959)

In connection with the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, in the summer of 2015 a monument to the great Armenian composer Komitas will be erected in the cultural capital of Russia. The monument will be erected on the initiative of Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan, who personally visited Levon Bebutyan’s workshop in St. Petersburg and got acquainted with the process of creating the monument.
The three-meter monument will be installed in the central square of the Vasileostrovsky administrative district, which will be renamed Yerevan Square. By the way, Armenian khachkars have already been installed in the park, and the monument to Komitas will complement the Armenian corner of the Northern capital.

EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY OF THE EVENTS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN TURKEY

ARMIN WEGNER IS A JUNIOR LIEUTENANT IN THE GERMAN ARMY MEDICAL SERVICE. 1915

The photographs published in the collection were taken by a young Prussian officer of the German Red Cross - a witness to the Armenian genocide, Armin Wegner (1886-1978) in 1915-1916. Photographs from his archive, letters and diaries will forever remain in history as a convincing document revealing the events of that terrible time.

“Armin Wegner understood the responsibility that lay with him as a witness from the very beginning of his stay in the Middle East, while still in Mesopotamia. This is how he writes about it: “The spectacle of massacres against the backdrop of the pale horizon of a scorched desert involuntarily gave birth to a desire in me to at least partially tell about what was tormenting me, to tell not only my close friends, but also a wider, invisible circle of people...”

ARMIN WEGNER (1886 - 1978) - DOCTOR OF LAW, WRITER, POET

The moral duty of any eyewitness to violence requires testimony, but when the testimony concerns the fate of an entire people who became victims of genocide, we are already talking about a duty to the entire human history. The purpose of testimony is not only to ensure that such atrocities do not happen again. By testifying, the witness of violence gives victims the opportunity to speak through his or her mouth; without forgetting what he once saw, he allows them to live in his memory.

During his long life, he will empathize with his whole being with those unfortunate people with whom he communicated and could not help, against whom monstrous atrocities were committed, and he was powerless to stop them” (Giovanni Guita).

In his poem "The Old Man" Armin Wegner wrote:

My conscience calls me to witness
I am the voice of the exiled, crying out in the wilderness...

In 1968, Catholicos of All Armenians Vazgen I awarded Wegner the Order of St. Gregory, Enlightener of Armenia, in the Armenian capital Yerevan, where one of the city streets bears Wegner's name.

Armin Wegner died in Rome at the age of 92 on May 17, 1978. In 1996, part of his ashes were transferred to Armenia and buried near Yerevan in Tsitsernakaberd, in the wall of the Memorial dedicated to the victims of the genocide.

The Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide and the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the NAS RA recommended, and the Gitutyun publishing house published the study of Doctor of Philology Verzhine Svazlyan “The Armenian Genocide: Eyewitness Testimonies” (scientific editor - Corresponding Member of the NAS RA Sargis Harutyunyan) in Armenian and English languages. The voluminous volumes (each over 800 pages) contain enormous historical and factual material drawn from the testimony of 700 sources. The book will be published in Turkish in the very near future in Istanbul by the Belge publishing house of prominent human rights activist Ragip Zarakolu.

THESE VOLUME ARE THE RESULT OF THE AUTHOR'S 55 YEARS OF TIRELESS WORK. Amazingly, back in 1955, when any mention of the Genocide was banned, Verzhin Svazlyan, while still a student, realizing the importance of eyewitness testimony as reliable factual material, on her own initiative began collecting testimonies from survivors of the Genocide. Since 1960, she continued the same work in Greece, France, Italy, Germany, USA, Canada, Syria. Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, already as an employee of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, and then of the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

In 2000, the first edition of the book under the same title was published. It included the testimony of 600 eyewitnesses. Not satisfied with what had been done, V. Svazlyan continued searching and collecting materials. Participation in international conferences, visits to nursing homes, places of compact residence of Armenians, communication with descendants of Genocide victims around the world allowed her to increase the number of reliable sources to 700. Let us note not only the wealth of material covered, but also its genre diversity: for example, recordings of historical songs on Armenian and Turkish languages ​​are generally unique in the literature about the Genocide.

The introduction to the book has independent scientific value. Its first section - “Historical and philological research”, in turn, is divided into two lengthy subsections: “Genre and typological features of historical evidence reported by surviving eyewitnesses” and “The process of the Armenian Genocide according to eyewitness accounts”, in which the author reveals in detail the identified topic headings.

In the second section - "Historical Primary Sources" - 700 testimonies about the Genocide are distributed into the following extensive subsections: "Memories", "Historical Songs". The last subsection also contains notated songs.

V. SVAZLYAN HERSELF SPEAKS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE EVIDENCE HER COLLECTED ABOUT THE GENOCIDE: “Just as when solving any crime, eyewitness testimony is of decisive importance, so in this case, each testimony has, from a legal point of view, evidentiary value for a fair solution to the Armenian question and recognition of the Armenian Genocide.” “That is why,” the author concludes, “it is so important to publish and introduce into scientific use the factual documentary folk testimonies of eyewitnesses collected in this work about the entire historical process of the Armenian Genocide, about the innocent victims and the captured Country, since genocide is a mass political crime and it should not go unpunished, it must be revealed, including on the basis of the testimonies of survivors. And the most important witness is the people who, painfully reliving what happened again and again, told and continues to tell, testifying to their tragic past. The past, which is and the past of the entire Armenian people, their history, their common historical memory, which must be presented to the fair judgment of the world and humanity."

The work is accompanied by a summary in 6 languages ​​(including Russian), a dictionary of difficult to explain and foreign words, and detailed comments on historical events and persons. A special table provides information about eyewitnesses (name, surname, year and place of birth) and their materials, the nature of the material (manuscript, audio or video recording), number of the archival fund, original language, place and time of recording of the material. In the section of indexes - thematic, personal names, toponyms and ethnonyms - for the first time in genocide studies, a thematic analysis of the originals was carried out, which allows researchers to delve deeper into the diverse topics covered in the originals (description of the region, life, resettlement, deportation, pogrom, massacre, abduction, circumcision , Islamization, methods of torture, intrigues of the great powers, etc.). Of exceptional value are the photographs (288 photographs) of witnesses who survived the Genocide, located in the last section of the book, as well as a map of those carried out in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923. deportation and the Armenian Genocide.

ALSO INCLUDED IN ARMENIAN AND ENGLISH EDITIONS documentary video film "Credo of the Svazlyan clan", dedicated to the patriotic activities of three generations of the Svazlyan clan in the 20th century. The film uses the most valuable archival materials and living testimonies of eyewitnesses of the Genocide.

There is no doubt that eyewitness accounts, historical and political documents, saved from oblivion and presented to the world in three languages ​​(the author hopes that with the support of sponsors, publication in Russian will also be carried out) will certainly become an irrefutable and significant contribution to the fair resolution of the Armenian question.

I look out the round window (of the helicopter) and literally recoil from the incredibly scary picture. On the yellow grass of the foothills, where gray patches of snow and remnants of winter snowdrifts are still melting in the shadows, there are dead people. This entire huge area, up to the near horizon, is strewn with the corpses of women, old men, old women, boys and girls of all ages, from infants to teenagers... The eye pulls out two figures from the mess of bodies - a grandmother and a little girl. The grandmother, with her gray head uncovered, lies face down next to a tiny girl in a blue jacket with a hood. For some reason, their legs are tied with barbed wire, and the grandmother’s hands are also tied. Both were shot in the head. With her last gesture, the little girl, about four years old, stretches out her hands to her murdered grandmother. Stunned, I don’t even immediately remember about the camera...

Russian TV reporter Yuri Romanov

Refugees say that hundreds died during the Armenian attack... Of the seven corpses we saw here today, two were children and three were women, one of the bodies had a wound in the chest, apparently at close range. Many of the 120 refugees being treated at the Aghdam hospital have multiple stab wounds.

Thomas Goltz Washington Post

Two groups, apparently two families, were killed together - children engulfed in the hands of women. Some of them, including a little girl, had terrible head wounds: in fact, only the face remained. The survivors said that the Armenians shot them at point-blank range while they were already lying on the ground.

Anatol Lieven "The Times"

Near Agdam, on the border of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to Reuters photographer Frederica Langaigne, she saw two trucks filled with the corpses of Azerbaijanis. “I counted 35 in the first truck, and it looked like there were the same number in the second,” she said. “Some had their heads cut off, many were burned. All of them were men, but only a few were in protective uniforms.”

The New York Times

“From time to time, the bodies of their dead are brought to Agdam, exchanged for living hostages. But even in a nightmare you wouldn’t see something like this: gouged out eyes, cut off ears, scalped heads, severed heads. Bundles of several corpses, which were dragged along the ground for a long time on ropes behind an armored personnel carrier. There is no limit to bullying."

Correspondent of the newspaper “Izvestia” V. Belykh.

He also cites the testimony of a Russian Air Force helicopter pilot, Major Leonid Kravets:

“On February 26, I took the wounded out of Stepanakert and returned back through the Askeran Gate. Some bright spots on the ground caught my eye. I descended, and then my flight mechanic shouted: “Look, there are women and children there.” Yes, I myself have already seen about two hundred dead, scattered along the slope, among whom people with weapons wandered. Then we flew to pick up the corpses. A local police captain was with us. He saw his four-year-old son there with a crushed skull and lost his mind. Another child, whom we managed to pick up before they started shelling us, had his head cut off. I saw the mutilated bodies of women, children and old people everywhere.”

According to the American magazine "Newsweek", many were killed at close range while trying to escape, some had their faces disfigured.

According to Time magazine columnist Jill Smolow,

The simple explanation given by the attacking Armenians, who insist that innocent people were not killed on purpose, is not at all believable.

Russian cameraman Yuri Romanov describes a six-year-old Khojaly girl whose eyes were burned out by cigarette butts.

When I arrived in Agdam on Tuesday evening, I saw 75 fresh graves in one of the cemeteries and four mutilated corpses in the mosque. In the field hospital, set up in cars at the railway station, I also saw women and children with bullet wounds.

Helen Womack, journalist for the British newspaper The Independent