Krikor Zohrab
Encyclopedia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n writer, politician, lawyer and philanthropist, living in Constantinople
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. He was ordered to appear a martial court in Diyarbakir, en-route he was murdered by the [well-known] band of brigands led by Cherkes Ahmet, Halil and Nazım, at a locality called Karaköprü or Şeytanderesi in the outskirts of Urfa, some time between 15 July and 20 July 1915.
Life
Zohrab was born into a wealthy family in BeşiktaşBesiktas
Beşiktaş is a municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and on the east by the Bosphorus...
, Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
in 1861. His early education was completed at a local Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
Armenian school. He received a civil engineering degree from Galatasaray Institute, but did not work in that field. Instead, he enrolled in a newly opened law school, the Imperial University of Jurisprudence, and received his law degree in 1882. He was a revered lawyer in the courts of the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
Empire. He became a professor at the university, teaching law. At the age of 27, he married Clara Yazejian, and fathered two daughters and two sons.
Krikor Zohrab defended successfully many Armenians charged with a variety of political and criminal offenses between 1895-96. As a result of his defense of a Bulgarian revolutionary in the course of which he accused a Turkish official of torture, he was disbarred and forced to live abroad.
In 1908, following the revolution of the Young Turks, he became a member of parliament in the Ottoman Council, and also served his community as an Armenian councilor.
The Man
Zohrab was a great intellectual that lived a very busy life. He had to balance his professional life with his personal life. He had a rich personality along with a generous heart. He loved life and its pleasures. Although he usually was open to progressive ideas he was steadfastly conservative to women’s role in society. He believed that women should keep their traditional roles and not venture further.Political activity
Ever since he was a teenager, Zohrab showed great interest in national work and contributed heavily to his community. At the age of 30 he was chosen to be part of the national council of Constantinople and served on the council until his death.From 1908 onwards, Zohrab was a member of parliament and known for his eloquent speeches. He vehemently defended Armenian interests and rights inside the council and at all levels of the government. In 1909 during the Adana massacre
Adana massacre
The Adana massacre occurred in Adana Province, in the Ottoman Empire, in April 1909. An massacre of Armenian Christians in the city of Adana amidst governmental upheaval resulted in a series of anti-Armenian pogroms throughout the district...
, he strongly criticized the Turkish authorities for their actions and demanded that those responsible be brought to justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
. Soon after the start of the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
on April 24, 1915, he personally pleaded to Talat Pasha for the immediate cessation of the massacres, but to no avail.
To serve the Armenian cause, he wrote an influential paper in French called “La question arménienne à la lumière des documents” (French for “The Armenian question in light of the documents.”) In 1913, the paper was published in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and dealt with many aspects of the hardships endured by the Armenian populace and denounced the government’s inaction.
Publications
Zohrab wrote many articles in daily newspapers such as Masis (Armenian: Մասիս), Fatherland (Armenian: Հայրենիք), and East (Armenian: Արեւելք). One of his famous articles was entitled “Broom” (Armenian: Աւել) in which he criticized Armenian nationals and works saying they needed some “sweeping” to bring them back to order.One of his characteristics was that he would regularly express himself in a provocative fashion with disregard to the Turkish state's repressive authority. He had condemned the state on countless occasions for their many shortcomings.
Works
Some of his published writings:- A Vanished Generation (Anhedatsadz seroont me, Armenian: Անհետացած սերունդ մը) is one of his works. Considered a great piece of realist writing.
- Familiar Faces (Dzanot temkner, Armenian: Ծանօթ դէմքեր), a piece where he draws portraits of prominent figures of his time.
- From the Journeyman’s Diary (Ooghevori orakren, Armenian: Ուղեւորի oրագրէն), a book about European travels and the impressions it left on him.
Writing Style
Zohrab can be said to be the master of the Armenian novel. Despite being influenced by the romantic writers as a youngster, he quickly joined the FrenchFrench people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
realism
Literary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
movement propelled by such writers as Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents....
, Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...
and Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
. He is probably the best Armenian writer of the genre.
He lived and wrote about what he lived through. He said that writing was an exhilarating activity into which could delve himself and forget the pains of everyday life. He had a very sharp eye for human characteristics, both physical and psychological. Descriptions of the human persona were one of his stronger points. He was able to accurately portray faces and gestures in a vivid way. In short, dense, but highly expressive lines, he was able to clearly illustrate a tragedy or a character’s qualities.
Arrest and murder
Ordered to appear before a court martial in Diyarbakır, together with Vartkes Hovhannes Serengülyan, both went to Aleppoby train, escorted by one gendarme, remained in Aleppo for a few weeks, waited the results of infructuous attempts by the Ottoman governor of the city to have them sent back to the capital (some sources mention Cemal Pasha himself intervening for their return, but Talat Pasha insisting on them to sent to the court martial), and then dispatched to Urfa and remained there for some time in the house of a Turkish deputy friend, taken under police escort and led to Diyarbakır by car -allegedly accompanied on a voluntary basis by some notable Urfa Armenians, and with many sources confirming, they were murdered by the [well-known] band of brigands led by Cherkes Ahmet, Halil and Nazım, at a locality called Karaköprü or Şeytanderesi in the outskirts of Urfa, some time between 15 July and 20 July 1915. The murderers were tried and executed in Damascus by Cemal Pasha in September 1915, and the assassinations became the subject of a 1916 investigation by the Ottoman Parliament led by Artin Boshgezenian, the deputy for Aleppo.During the mass arrests and execution that would signal the start of the Armenian Genocide in and around April 24, 1915, Zohrab was feverously working to try to stop the atrocities. As a member of Parliament he was, trying to contact the Turkish authorities and to plea for the immediate cessation of the hostilities. He even contacted his supposed friend Talat Pasha to protest and he demanded redress, but all in vain. Zohrab told Talat that one day he would demand an explanation for these terrible actions. This would be the last time the two would meet. Some in his immediate circle strongly encouraged him to leave the country, but he refused.
The following day, on May 21, 1915, Zohrab was arrested by the Turks, and executed without trial.
See also
- Armenian GenocideArmenian GenocideThe Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
- Armenian notables deported from the Ottoman capital in 1915Armenian notables deported from the Ottoman capital in 1915The deportation of Armenian notables, also known as the Red Sunday refers to the night when leaders of the Armenian community of the Ottoman capital, Constantinople, and later other centers were arrested and moved to two holding centers near Ankara by the Minister of the Interior Mehmed Talaat Bey...