Welcome! Բարի գալուստ! Καλώς ήρθατε! Hoşgeldin! Bi xêr hatî! ܒܫܝܢܐ ܘܫܠܡܐ!

Remember, commemorate, learn, reconcile and prevent future genocides:

The Association for the Promotion of an Ecumenical Memorial to Genocide Victims in The   (FÖGG) is committed to these challenging tasks. In the years 2012 to 2018, the Association established a memorial in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg to commemorate the more than three million Ottoman and Iranian Christians who were murdered during the last decade of Ottoman rule: by destroying their intellectual and spiritual elites, breaking up their families, during death marches, forced labor and massacres. Armenians, Greeks in Eastern Thrace, Asia Minor and Pontos and Syriacs of various denominations also deplore the extensive destruction of their material cultural heritage, which in its uniqueness represents a universal human heritage: Churches, monasteries, cemeteries were deliberately destroyed or abandoned, not only during but also for decades after the genocide.

Our website complements this analogue genocide memorial in Berlin-Charlottenburg. It reconstructs the life of Christian communities before their annihilation, paying particular tribute to their contribution to the culture and economy of the Ottoman Empire. At the same time we want to document the annihilation of these communities, both in textual, photo or video documents. This focus on genocide studies, as well as our inclusive ecumenical approach, distinguishes us from similar projects of textual and photographic reconstruction on national or regional levels.

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS PROJECT:

Such a project cannot be carried out by a few individuals, but depends on the support of colleagues and the related Armenian, Greek and Syriac communities concerned. We therefore ask for your support: Please provide suitable texts (preferably in English or with English translation) or photo documents for the Virtual Memorial, from private property or from your work and research context. Videos of the present state of the former Armenian, Syriac or Greek buildings and settlements are also welcome, as are videos and photos that give an impression of the landscape in which Armenians, Arameans and Greeks lived a hundred years ago.

Greek Refugees from Asia Minor_c925-27
Greek Refugees from Asia Minor (1915-27)

How to use the sites of the Virtual Genocide Memorial:

The searchable websites of the Virtual Genocide Memorial are structured hierarchically, following the administrative division of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century.

Administrative Division of the Ottoman Empire

A reform of the administrative division of the Ottoman Empire, which had become very unclear in the 19th century, had already been planned in the Hatt-ı hümâyûn, the Imperial (Reform) Edict of 1856 (also called Hatt-ı Şerif; Islâhat Fermânı). The subsequent Provincial Law (Vilâyet Nizamnâmesi) of 1864 provided for the following reorganization: Each province (vilayet) was divided into judicial districts (sancak), these in turn into counties (kaza), the counties into boroughs (nahiye) and these into local communities (kariye). The local communities were headed by a mukhtar, the municipalities by a mayor (müdir), the cantons by a kaymakam, the judicial districts by a mutassarıf and the provinces by a governor (vali):

“Armenian peasant woman”, 1862 Source: New york Public Library, http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/)

Province (vilayet)

Sancak (judicial district) or Mutassarıfat (a district headed by a mutassarıf)

Kaza (county, canton)

Nahiye (borough, municipality; group of villages)

Kariye (local community, parish)

Ottoman Greeks_Johannes Lewenklau_1586
Ottoman Greeks (Painter: Johannes Lewenklau: Johannes Lewenklau: Bilder türkischer Herrscher, Soldaten, Hofleute, Städte u. a., 1586; Austrian National Library, Cod. 8615, Fol. 96v)

Further Reading

Links:

Association Working Group Recognition – Against Genocide, for International Understanding: http://www.aga-online.org/aboutus/index.php?locale=en 

The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute: www.genocide-museum.am 

Visual History Archive (VHA) online, containing the Armenian Film Foundation and the Hovannisian Oral History collection: http://vhaonline.usc.edu/Search

100 Lives – Aurora Prize:  https://auroraprize.com/en/home

Index Anatolicus (Sevan Nişanyan):https://nisanyanmap.com/

Houshamadyan – a project to reconstruct Ottoman Armenian town and village life: https://www.houshamadyan.org/home.html

Search on Armenian Architecture Foundation: http://www.raa-am.com/raa/public/raa.php?clear=1&mid=7

Virtual Ani: http://www.virtualani.org/

OVENK – Armenian pictures, Armenian images, Armenian photos and videos: https://ovenk.com/

The Armenian genocide during the First World War: Documents from State Archives: http://www.armenocide.de/

Raymond Kévorkian: The Extermination of Ottoman Armenians by the Young Turk Regime (1915/1916), June 2008. In: Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence. Ed. Jacques Semelin. https://de.scribd.com/document/21309060/The-Extermiantion-of-Ottoman-Armenians-by-the-Young-Turk-Regime

Bantuhd: https://bantuhd.blogspot.com/?view=timeslide

Greek Genocide Resource Center: http://www.greek-genocide.net/index.php

Center for Asia Minor Studies: http://en.kms.org.gr/TheCentre.aspx

Pontos World: https://pontosworld.com/

Pontic Greeks: http://www.karalahana.com/

Efxinos Pontos: http://www.efxinospontos.org/

The Byzantine Legacy: https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/about

The Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center: https://hellenicresearchcenter.org/

Assyrian Genocide Research Center: http://www.seyfocenter.com/

Stiftung Aramäisches Kulturerbe – 100. Jahrestag: http://jahrestag.stiftung-aramaeisches-kulturerbe.de/

Armenian men_Ottoman Empire_ca. 1875_Pascal J. Sebah
J. Pascal Sébah: Armenian Men (ca. 1875; source: Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute (96.R.14, Box 77), https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/armenians-and-armenian-photographers-in-the-ottoman-empire)