HAKOB KYUNTSLER – THE SWISS FATHER OF ARMENIANS
AZG Armenian Daily
26/04/2007
Armenian Genocide’s Witness
"The nation in slaughterhouse" – it’s the title of Ralf Hug’s article
published in Swiss "Tagblatt" that is about the witness of the
Armenian Genocide, Swiss Hakob Kyuntsler (1871-1949), who was born
in Apentsel, Switzerland. He is a witness of slaughters committed
in South Anatolia. He raised his voice about this in Switzerland,
but there was no response.
In 1914 Kyuntsler was in Baghdad when he heard the speech of the leader
Nefis Bey. ‘We, Turkish people, must either annihilate or make to
emigrate the Armenians without exception. It’s inadmissible to live
in the same country together with them". It became true in summer
and autumn of 1915, when thousands of Armenians, women, children,
old people, were killed in the deserts of Syria. ‘According to the
historians the number of victims is over one million and it’s the
first genocide of 20th century’, the article says. At that time,
Hakob Kyuntsler worked as a doctor in the hospital of Urfa. Urfa
was a town, where different nations lived: Turkish, Armenian, Greek,
Syrian, Kurdish. In 1895 two thousand Armenians were fired with petrol.
In 1915 he wrote in his notes: ‘Turkish people of the town threatened
Armenians every day. What is the reason? They suspect that Armenians
cooperate with Russians. On May, 1915 the first Armenian families were
sent to prison, tortured, fired. Hakob Kyuntsler raised the alarm to
the international diplomats, but the world was busy with the World
War I.
Genocide was committed under the shadow of World War I. The way of
expelled Armenians crossed Urfa, and Kyuntsler could see the lines
of hundred thousands of Armenians, sometimes even stark naked, who
were driven away to the deserts and killed. It was a ‘concentration
camp of emigrants’.
Kyuntsler was sure that the whole nation was slaughtered according
to a plan.
His notes were first published in 1921, titled ‘In the country of blood
and tear’. The book (‘In the country of blood and tear. Experiences
of World War I in Mesopotamia) was republished in 1999 as a tool
against the denial of the Armenian Genocide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
