Krikor Balakian

Krikor Balakian (Armenian _hy. Գրիգորիս Պալագեան) 1875 – 8 October 1934), was an Armenian bishop, eyewitness to the genocide and witness at the trial in Berlin against Soghomon Tehlirian, the murderer of Talât Pasha. Krikor Balakian is the great-uncle of Peter Balakian, the US-American writer and poet.

Life

Krikor Balakian was born in Tokat (Turkey), and graduated from the Sanasarian College in Erzurum. He had been studying architecture in Germany for two years and got a degree in civil engineering. He became a celibate priest. On 24 April 1915 he was among the famous group of 250 leading Armenian figures of Constantinople who were arrested and deported.

One group was deported to Ayaş. Balakian was deported to Çankırı, north-east of Ankara with the rest of the 190 other deportees from the capital. Only 16 of them would survive. He marched with 48 deportees from Çankırı in direction of Deir ez-Zor in the Syrian desert. On the way Krikor Balakian won the confidence of captain of constabulary Shukri Bey and learned about the extermination plan of the whole Armenian population. Balakian was able to flee near Islahie. He joined a group of workers of the Bagdad-railway where Turkish deserters served along with Armenian refugees in forced labor. While Armenian workers between Marash and Bartche were being slain, Balakian fled away to another construction site of the Bagdad railway. He was helped by German engineers and finally succeeded – disguised as Mr. Bernstein – in escaping over Constantinople to Paris.

At the process 1921 in Berlin against Soghomon Tehlirian, the murderer of Talât Pasha, Balakian appeared as witness to the defendant together with Johannes Lepsius. The German judge was deeply moved by the reports about the genocide in the Ottoman empire, the interior minister Talât Pasha, one of the main culprits, had planned. Soghomon Tehlirian was acquitted.

Krikor Balakian became prelate of Manchester, London and finally bishop of Marseille. Two churches were built under his guidance in Marseille and Nice (St. Mary, 1928) as well as a number of chapels and schools. He died in Marseille.

Achievements

Balakian’s memoirs "The Armenian Golgotha" are an important source for the genocide. He describes his experiences during the deportation. Krikor Balakian was one of the few surviving leaders of the Armenian genocide who gave an account of the deportation.

Komitas Vartapet belonged to the same group of detainees as Balakian. Balakian’s information about the traumatization of the famous composer and founder of the classical Armenian music are of eminent importance. Komitas evaded further persecution upon intervention of a powerful Turkish friend. His psychological situation deteriorated rapidly following deportation and massacres. He died in Paris in 1935 in an asylum.

Currently Balakian’s grandnephew, US-American author Peter Balakian, is working on an English edition of this book.

Works

*Հայ Գողգոթան [The Armenian Golgotha; Armenian original] , vol. 1, Mekhitarist-Congregation, Vienna 1922, Vol. 2, Imprimerie Araxes, Paris 1959. (a French translation was published recently : "Le Golgotha arménien", Le cercle d'écrits caucasiens, La Ferté-Sous-Jouarre 2002 (vol. 1) ISBN 2-913564-08-9, 2004 (vol. 2) ISBN 2-913564-13-5
*"Churches of Ani"

ee also

*Armenian notables deported from the Ottoman capital in 1915

ources

*Rita Soulahian Kuyumjian "Archeology of Madness. Komitas. Portrait of an Armenian Icon" 2001 (p. 116) ISBN 0-9535191-7-1
*Wolfgang Gust "Der Völkermord an den Armeniern 1915/16. Dokumente aus dem Politischen Archiv des deutschen Auswärtigen Amts" Verlag zu Klampen, 2005, ISBN 3-934920-59-4
*Peter Balakian "Black Dog of Fate" 1997, ISBN 0-7679-0254-8,
*Grigoris Palakjan "Das armenische Golgatha" German article translated from the original Armenian text in "Pogrom" May 1980.