Grigoris Balakian ( hy, Գրիգորիս Պալագեան) 1875 – 8 October 1934), was a bishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church, in addition to being a survivor and memoirist of the Armenian genocide.

Life

Grigoris Balakian was born in

Tokat Tokat is the capital city of Tokat Province of Turkey in the mid-Black Sea region of Anatolia. It is located at the confluence of the Tokat River (Tokat Suyu) with the Yeşilırmak. In the 2018 census, the city of Tokat had a population of 155,00 ...

in the Ottoman Empire, 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 ordained under the monastic name Grigoris Balakian. On 24 April 1915 he was among the 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 the direction of Deir ez-Zor in the Syrian desert. On the way Balakian won the confidence of captain of constabulary Shukri Bey and learned about the Ottoman government's plan to exterminate the whole Armenian population. Balakian was able to flee toward Islahie. He joined a group of workers on the Bagdad-railway where Turkish deserters did forced labor alongside Armenian refugees. While Armenian workers between Marash and Bartche were being slain, Balakian fled to another construction site on the Bagdad railway. He was helped by German engineers and finally succeeded – disguised as Herr Bernstein – in escaping from Constantinople to Paris. At the 1921 trial in Berlin against

Soghomon Tehlirian Soghomon Tehlirian ( hy, Սողոմոն Թեհլիրեան; April 2, 1896 – May 23, 1960) was an Armenian revolutionary and soldier who assassinated Talaat Pasha, the former Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, in Berlin on March 15, 1921. He ...

, the murderer of

Talât Pasha Mehmed Talaat (1 September 187415 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha,; tr, Talat Paşa, links=no was an Ottoman politician and convicted war criminal of the late Ottoman Empire who served as its leader from 1913 t ...

, Balakian appeared as a witness for the defendant together with

Johannes Lepsius Johannes Lepsius (15 December 1858, Potsdam, Germany – 3 February 1926, Meran, Italy) was a German Protestant missionary, Orientalist, and humanist with a special interest in trying to prevent the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. He ini ...

. Soghomon Tehlirian was ultimately acquitted. 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. Balakian is the granduncle of literary critics

Anna Balakian Anna Balakian (14 July 1915 – 12 August 1997) was the former chair of the Department of Comparative Literature at New York University. She served as president of the American Comparative Literature Association from 1977 to 1980 and was a longtim ...

(an expert on symbolism and surrealism who chaired New York University's Department of Comparative Literature) and Nona Balakian (an editor at the

New York Times Sunday Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

and a founder of the National Book Critics Circle) as well as the great-granduncle of

Peter Balakian Peter Balakian, born June 13, 1951, is an American poet, prose writer, and scholar. He is the author of many books including the 2016 Pulitzer prize winning book of poems ''Ozone Journal'', the memoir ''Black Dog of Fate'', winner of the PEN/Alb ...

, an Armenian-American writer and winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Achievements

Balakian's memoirs in '' Armenian Golgotha'' are an important eyewitness account of the genocide. He describes his experiences during the deportation. Balakian was one of the few surviving leaders of the Armenian community who gave an account of the deportation. Komitas Vartapet belonged to the same group of detainees as Balakian. His information about the traumatization of the famous composer and founder of modern Armenian

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

are of eminent importance.

Works

*''Նկարագրութիւն Անիի ավերակներուն'' (Description of the Ruins of Ani). Constantinople, 1910. *''Հայ Գողգոթան'' Armenian Golgotha; Armenian original], vol. 1, Mechitarists, Mekhitarist-Congregation, Vienna 1922; Vol. 2, Imprimerie Araxes, Paris 1959; French translation : ''Le Golgotha arménien'', Le cercle d'écrits caucasiens, La Ferté-Sous-Jouarre 2002 (vol. 1) , 2004 (vol. 2) ; English trans.

(his grandnephew) and Aris Sevag. ''Armenian Golgotha''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. .

Notes

References

Sources

*Rita Soulahian Kuyumjian ''Archeology of Madness. Komitas. Portrait of an Armenian Icon'' 2001 (p. 116) *Wolfgang Gust ''Der Völkermord an den Armeniern 1915/16. Dokumente aus dem Politischen Archiv des deutschen Auswärtigen Amts'' Verlag zu Klampen, 2005, *