Customer Reviews

Days of Tragedy in Armenia: Personal Experiences in Harpoot, 1915-1917 (Armenian Genocide Documentation Series, 1)

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This book, besides being an invaluable first-hand account of the Armenian Genocide, is actually quite readable and entertaining. Written by an American missionary living in Turkey in 1915, it is an insightful chronology of the events that unfolded in his town, Harpoot. The great thing is, Riggs is an American and quite unbiased. Turks and Armenians alike in many ways annoy and befuddle him. But he knows the country well, and describes that it was quite obvious that there was a centrally-planned massacre going on. The book is written in so much detail--of how the deportations and massacres unfolded--that it is hard to believe that there are some who question the existence of the Armenian Genocide. This is probably the best primary account of the Armenian Genocide out there, because it's not told through the eyes of one survivor, but through the eyes of someone who saw all of the events unfolding before him. This book is must read for historians and experts on the subject and is certainly a "thorn in the side" for revisionists who claim that the wholesale massacre of Armenians didn't take place.

I hate to say this about a book that deals with massacres, but this is a funny, sad book. The author has no love for Armenians or Turks. He just tells it like he sees it. I had to laugh when the Turkish officer beat up the Kurdish conscript for defecating on the street, and the Kurd snapped to attention, saluted and resumed the squatting position. Turns out that he didn't speak a word of Turkish. Turks are from Mars and Kurds are from Venus?

On a more serious note, this is great storytelling. We get to know the people Rev. Riggs knew. We get to learn their terrible fate with him. We see him desparately trying to get the bigshots he plays cards with to spare the lives of the condemned race. I've read quite a few memoirs, and this is definitely the best.

The book is apparently taken from an archive that includes numerous other reports about the Armenian massacres. The rest of the reports are shorter, and they are compiled in James Barton, "Turkish Atrocities."

I am a Turkish who comes from Harpoot roots. I ordered that book to learn the story of old daily life of Harpoot.
I am so happy to read the book honestly. But there are some points to share with all of you:
- The book name is written politically.. Ok let us say Harpoot was located at LITTLE ARMENIA but cant be told as Armenia. Little Armenia is called as a name for the whole land but armenia is a country name which noone can accept it inside Turkish borders. Can we say Texas is Mexica?
- Riggs has written from his side only, he has not written from the real way which means to listen both sides and write from the centre position. He would be the best guy to do that to help us understand eachother.. but if you only read his book you will never understand the Turkish side. He is one sided person here....
- I got many nice details about my studies about Harpoot by that book but i would love him to add some photographes to show us the daily life of those days. We know that themisionaries had taken many photos to show their efforst an sucess to their supporters in USA but Riggs has not put any pictures...

I continue my study about the Harpoot history and anyway i got many nice details of the city from that book...

I'd recommend reading this book, but also reading the ones written by second and third parties.

The editor of the book is armanian, and therefore he is presenting the facts in the biased way. Moreoer, only 3 % of the information in the book is true. The rest is a well-known armenian way of complaining to the world and lying about the facts. It is easy to lie about the history, and present fake facts, isn't it? When the actual politicians involved in the whole thing do not exist, and therefore, canno protect themselves. Wyy didn't armenians call for genocides years ago, when it just happened? Because the whole world knew what actually happened- it was just another war in the history, when people from the both sides died.

Interesting fact is, that the same kind of lie armenians are trying to spread around Azerbaijan-Armenian conflict, but in this case this is more difficult task for armenians, since the events happened not so much far back in history, and there were internaitonal observers to the conflict. Otherwise, armanians would happily call to the "second armenian genocide". Or may be they'll try to, centuries from now. Who knows?