Postcard #51
Name/Title
Postcard #51Description
Postcard issued by the Committee for the April 11 Commemoration (Ապրիլ 11ի Սգահանդէսի Յանձնախումբ), Constantinople, 1919, depicting a purported memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. The same image appeared on the cover of Teotig’s Monument to April 11 (Hushartsan), and the reverse bears the committee’s stamp reading «Ապրիլ 11ի Սգահանդէսի Յանձնախումբ Կ. Պոլիս 1919» (“Committee for the April 11 Commemoration, Constantinople, 1919”). The image was long believed to depict the first monument dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide, supposedly erected in 1919 on the grounds of the Pangaltı Armenian Cemetery in Constantinople. However, subsequent research has demonstrated that no evidence exists that such a monument was ever constructed. Instead, the photograph was identified as the Rice and Isenberg Monument, a funerary sculpture unveiled in 1911 at Lihue Cemetery on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The Committee for the April 11 Commemoration nevertheless adopted the image for its postcards and for the cover of Teotig’s Hushartsan, likely because of its powerful symbolism of mourning and loss. The committee itself was established in 1919 to organize commemorative events honoring the victims of the Armenian Genocide.Category
Postcards