JEAN AICARD’S PROTEST AGAINST THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915
Armenian State Pedagogical University
after Khachatur Abovyan
In 1917 a small book entitled Armenia, the Lamentation of Armenia was published at the printing house of the Mekhitarists’ Congregation of Saint-Lazarus Island of Venice . The epigraph of this book is “Armenia will revive her sweet and pacific days, under the shade of vineyards and olive woods of her martyred ancestors”. The author of the book is Jean Aicard (1848-1921), poet, member of the French Academy .
The small poem Armenia of Jean Aicard has a short, but eloquent preface. He writes that the cry of pain of a criminally exterminated nation attracted the attention of numerous people all over the world, including poets who wished that the whole world could hear the voice of truth muffled in the throat of tortured Armenia. No nation suffered as Armenians did. Their houses were destructed, their roofs came down and their hearths died out, but they never stopped hoping peace and freedom. Jean Aicard believes that Armenia will revive from ashes and ruins, like the legendary Phoenix, to be more glorious and more powerful.
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