Hranush Kharatyan gives harsh answer to Andranik Kocharyan, who  wanted to compile lists of victims of Armenian Genocide

ArmInfo. Ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan gave harsh answer to Chairman of the Standing Parliamentary  Commttee on Defense and Security, MP from the ruling Civil Contract party Andranik Kocharyan, who today stated that it is necessary to clarify and record the names of all victims of the Armenian Genocide  in the Ottoman Empire.  "In the end, you need to have a list of all the victims. What if there are more or less than 1.5 million, as is commonly believed," Kocharyan explained, assuring that this initiative is also important for building relations with Turkey.

"Andranik Kocharyan is looking for and does not find the names of the  victims of the genocide, or does he really want to know the number of  victims of the genocide, saying: "If indeed one and a half million  people were victims of genocide, can you list their names?"

However,  the last words of his sentence leave no doubt, he says: "so  that we can accept." That is, from Kocharyan's words, one can come to  the conclusion that "recognition or non-recognition" is hampered by  the lack of lists or not knowing their names," the Armenian  ethnographer was indignant. In this vein, she called for a start to  figure out who the MP from the ruling force means , using the phrase  "we" and how many "we" there are.

The ethnographer suggested to Kocharyan to visit to the villages of  Talin, Shirak, Echmiadzin, and ask the people living there the names  of their grandfathers, grandmothers, children who died in the family,  they keep these names sacredly.

"Just Mr. Kocharyan, take a thick notebook with you to write down  these names. Of course, you won't get one and a half million, for  that you have to travel to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and only  after that, to other distant countries, where those who escaped from  the genocide fled.  You can also leave for Turkiye. Armenians live  there, and 30-40 people in their families were killed. I'll give you  the addresses if you need them. Go ahead, Mr. Kocharyan, this is no  more difficult task than the life of several generations of people  who have been haunted by the memories of these names for more than a  hundred years, which you destroy with one sentence.

But I am ready to make your work easier, Mr. Kocharyan. These names  are not in the archives; they probably existed in the parish books of  Armenian churches, which, unfortunately, were not preserved in  Turkish archives and among the current residents of former Armenian  villages. They weren't kept at all.  They were burned like the  corpses of Armenians," added Kharatyan. In this vein, the  ethnographer drew the attention of the MP from the ruling force to  the fact that in 1915, the person responsible for getting rid of the  corpses of Armenians was appointed and his name was Truto Aras.   "Then he made a diplomatic proposal to get rid of the corpses of  Armenians by burning people alive, drowning them, throwing them into  the water, and only when there was a need for a massacre, they  gathered them in caves and carried out a massacre there. There are  many sources about cases of burning Armenians in barns and churches.  Do you need their names, Mr. Kocharyan? If so, tell me, don't worry,  I will send them.

Mr. Trutto Aras was a "genius", a pure work - burn, no trace. But it  turned out that the proposal to drown in water was not a very good  decision. Murat and the Euphrates were so filled with corpses that  the water became dangerous. Cases of poisoning have become more  frequent. This was before July, the massacre was just beginning, and  there was still so much massacre ahead. On July 1, 1915, Talyat and  Dzhemal Pasha ordered by telegram to bury the corpses and not throw  them into the rivers. On July 3, 1915, in response to this telegram,  the governor of Diyarbakir telegraphed Taliat: "The Euphrates is not  very close to our vilayet. It is likely that the bodies sailed along  the Euphrates from the vilayets of Erzurum and Kharput.  Here the  dying are thrown into deep pits, but more often, burned. They rarely  have to be buried." In other words, he justified himself: "It's not  us who throw the corpses of Armenians into the river, it's others who  obediently burn them."

Burying so many people was no easy task, and who would do it? We  couldn't even find anyone who would pay for it. And the stench of  rotting corpses on the roads was unbearable and dangerous. I don't  want to offend your tender soul by describing these cruel scenes, Mr.  Kocharyan, they are truly inhumane. There were people who every day  selected groups of 500 Armenians gathered in the deserts of Der-Zor,  took them to the "death camp" and hacked them to death with axes.  Every day, for many days, months. There are witnesses. They even  wrote the names of some of them. Can you count the names of those who  were killed in the deserts? In monthly terms, the average is 15  thousand. You want 1.5 million names. And if, for example, it is  1,300,000 thousand, will it be suitable? What if it's 1,700,000  thousand? You know these are intolerable facts. If If you are reading  these lines, then I sympathize with you. If I were not sorry, I would  send you materials.

But Truto Aras survived and the path to the post of Minister of  Foreign Affairs in the government of Mustafa Kemal opened before him.  It is possible to apply the diplomatic decision to get rid of the  corpses in the matter of renouncing the memory of the corpses. As you  can see, he succeeds in this too. Empires have extensive experience  in internal and external memory-shaping policies. Although not  everyone's memory is "washed". Sorry, Mr. Kocharyan, it seems to me  that you are using the wrong words.  Sometimes words have meaning,  don't they," asked Kharatyan in conclusion.