Mediamax presents 100 Seconds project devoted to Armenian Genocide Centennial. The project is based on testimonies of Genocide survivors published by the National Archive of Armenia.

Mitya Aleshkovskiy is a photographer and civic activist, he heads Nuzhnapomosh.ru Charitable Foundation.

For 100 seconds project Mitya Aleshkovskiy reads an extract from Armenian Genocide survivor Dilbar Mkrtchian's testimony.

National Archives of Armenia

Collection of Documents

Testimony of survivor Dilbar Mkrtchian on the Massacre at the village of Kortsot in Berkri district of Van Province    

[1916]

Baku

Shapuh’s son, a young 20-year-old boy, was hiding in the village oil-mill. They surrounded the oil-mill and told him to come out and surrender but he wouldn’t. They started shooting. He was fighting against the Kurds and killed 10 of them. When he ran out of cartridges, he came out of the oil-mill and tried to escape.

They caught him near the spring, brought him near us and gouged out his eyes in front of us, then cut off his arms, then his legs and only at the end his head .

They brought the other men, stripped them all, then called the women, made them stand in front of their husbands, ordered the men to dance in front of their wives and started shooting at them.

No one was spared; they massacred everybody. Only one managed to escape but in order not to get into hands of the Turks, he threw himself into a well and drowned there. All the corpses were thrown into the wells. We had hidden the priest among the women, dressed in women’s clothes. They found him and holding him by his beard cut his throat.

Producers: Ara Tadevosyan

Filming: Anna Aleshkovskaya

Post Production: Tumo LLC

The source of Dilbar Mkrtchian's testimony: National Archives of Armenia, Armenian Genocide by Ottoman Turkey, 1915, Testimony of survivors, Collection of documents, Yerevan-2013.

VivaCell-MTS is the general partner of 100 seconds project.