June 1, 2013 - 12:23 AMT
“Agony of a People” Genocide survivor book released in France

Hayg Toroyan’s Agony of a People (L'Agonie d'un people) book, written following the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire was released in France, Nouvelles d'Arménie said.

A Genocide survivor, Hayg Toroyan had traveled on the Euphrates all the way down from Jerablus (north of today's Syria) to Bagdad, as the assistant and interpreter of a German officer, Otto Ölmann, from November 1915 to January 1916. Together they had seen one after the other the newly established concentration camps alongside the river. Hayg Toroyan told his story to Zabel Essayan, the most distinguished female writer among Armenians at that time, who had herself escaped from the round-up of intellectuals in Istanbul in April 1915. She transcribed and wrote down Toroyan's narrative. Zabel Essayan spent the years 1916-1918 translating survivors' narratives into French.

Agony of a People is authored by Dr. Marc Nichanian who holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Strasbourg.