Armenian Ambassador to Italy Hands Over Exclusive Archival Documents Related to Hamidian Massacres to Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute

YEREVAN (ARMENPRESS) — Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Italy, Tsovinar Hambardzumyan, handed over newly discovered archival documents to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. These documents contain detailed information on the persecution and massacres of Armenians and other Christians in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th century. Most of them are originals and present in detail the entire reality of the period.

In an interview with Armenpress, Ambassador Hambardzumyan and Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Edita Gzoyan discussed the content of the newly discovered archival documents and their significant importance.

Director Edita Gzoyan, noted that the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute is preparing to publish these archival documents in cooperation with another Italian researcher.

“This is the second time that Armenia’s Ambassador to Italy, Tsovinar Hambardzumyan, has donated archival materials to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute,” said Edita Gzoyan. “Taking this opportunity, I would like to thank our Ambassador representing Armenia in Italy, who keeps both our museum-institute and these materials related to the Armenian Genocide under special attention. It is the second time we have received such a large and important donation from her,” said the director of the museum-institute.

Ambassador Tsovinar Hambardzumyan, while presenting the archival documents transferred to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, noted: “I had just started my diplomatic mission in Italy when an Arab journalist named Talal Khrais, a great friend of Armenia and the Armenian people, came to me from Lebanon. Talal Khrais is a war journalist and is now a representative of the Lebanese National Agency based in Rome, the capital of Italy. He is also the secretary of the Arab-Italian association ‘Assadakah.’ He handed me this archive.”

“He is a resident of Oriolo Romano, a small town in Lazio, Italy. A bricklayer named Salvatore Gargano from that town discovered a bag inside the wall of a monastery he was repairing, which contained these documents. They belonged to the Franciscan priest, Father Salvatore Lilli,” Tsovinar Hambardzumyan said. She informed that Father Salvatore was sent to Asia Minor at the end of the 19th century and was in the Ottoman Empire, in the city of Marash, where he witnessed the Armenian pogroms.

The Ambassador detailed that Father Salvatore left many interesting testimonies about the persecutions and massacres of Armenians and Christians in general during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid of the Ottoman Empire in 1894-1895.

“Father Salvatore was martyred in 1895, along with seven other Armenian monks who did not want to change their faith and did not want to leave Father Salvatore alone. Unfortunately, together with him, everyone was tortured to death,” the Ambassador said, stressing that the documents in his possession consist of two copies, most of which are originals.

Shushan Khachatryan, senior researcher at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, noted that the newly discovered documents should be studied in detail because they are of great importance and contain significant information about the Hamidian pogroms.