INTRODUCTION

(Armenian Manuscript Pages 1 and 2)

 

[This is a Complete Translation.  J.T.]

 

Perkenik is one of more than 63 villages of Sebastia populated by Armenians.  No study of her history has yet been undertaken. The present work is an effort to subject to detailed examination not only the history of Perkenik, but anything that can be known about her, from old and new.  --  that is, her topography and population, her trades and other fields of endeavor, her educational activities and cultural life, her family life-styles and customs, her language and ethnography, her sufferings during the events of 1895 and 1915 as told in the live accounts[1], where and when her people migrated, lists of names of her survivors, etc.  [For the scope of this work, see the Table of Contents.]  Toward the achievement of this goal, we have used the following as principal sources:

 

           [1][2]   The Chronicles of Krikor Taraghetsi.

           [2]   Three memoirs from the 17th century.

           [3]   A lyric poem form the first quarter of the 18th century.

           [4]   Chamchian, History

           [5]   A Manuscript written by the Catholic Patriarch, Gregory Peter VIII and             Sahag V. Hajian published in "Hayastani Gochnak" of 1960.

           [6]   Injijian, Hayastan.

           [7]   Carl Bitter, Die Erdkunde [In German]

           [8]   Archives of the Vienna Mechitharist Library (for the years 1840 and                      1842)

           [9]   A manuscript from the Vienna Mechitharist Library,  dated 1858.

         [10]   Fr. Nerses Sarkisian, Topography, 1864.

         [11]   A report dated 1877 by Paul V. Na?anian.

         [12]   Karekin V. Srvantsdiants, Toros Aghpar.

         [13]   The Armenian Press from 1860 to 1922.

         [14]   Very Rev. Fr. Hagop Kossian, Kerezmanadun Gatoghige Hayots

 

For more recent times we have had as invaluable primary sources the following

 

two natives of Perkenik, to whom we are indebted and grateful:

         [15]   Mr. Stepan Balabanian (Istanbul) and

         [16]   Mr. Joseph Reissian (Meudon, France).

 

 

 

 



[1]The live accounts of those who survived the massacres, deportations, and desert marches. [JT]

[2] I will use the bold-faced square brackets with numbers inside as an abbreviation of these source documents. The author identifies his sources exactly as I've shown here. Perhaps a more formal bibliography listing can be made for these and any subsequent reference we may find or even add ourselves.  I'll keep those of the author clearly identified. [JT]




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