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.

Lasha Bakradze is a historian and philologist, Director of Georgian Museum of Literature. For “100 seconds” project he reads an extract from Armenian Genocide survivor Davit Farmanian’s testimony.

National Archives of Armenia

Collection of Documents

Testimony of survivor Davit Farmanian the massacre at the Village of Khachan in Berkri district of Van province

First they stripped the priest of our village Ter Mesrob and said: “If you convert to Islam, you are free, if not , we’ll kill you”. Of course, the priest refused, and they started plucking his beard, then with a yataghan cut off his limbs one by one and at the end they cut his head and threw him into the water.

In the same way tortured and killed our village head Avetis and the church wardens Hakob, Grigor and Avag. Their fate was shared by the Nazarove villagers Asatur Hovsepian, Hakob Petrosian und Baghdasar Galoyan.

My turn came. I was stripped like the others. The butchers were standing like angels of death waiting for the order. The sun had already set down. I slipped away from them and jumped into water. They started shooting. I swam with my powerless arms and made it to the other bank. Only two villagers from Nazarove followed my example.

Producer: Ara Tadevosyan

Filming: Alexander Alimov

Post Production: Tumo LLC

The source of Davit Farmanian’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.