“Pages From My Diary” represents Archpriest Der Nerses Babayan’s experiences and subsequent survival during the Armenian Genocide. Fr. Babayan, who was born in Aintab in 1887 and ordained a priest of the Armenian Church in 1913, was arrested and imprisoned on May 16, 1915 by Turkish authorities. A survivor of the deportations during the genocide, Fr. Babayan kept day to day records of the atrocities he and his family – along with thousands of others deportees – faced. His memoirs also depict the daily life of the deportees when they spent fifteen months in the refugee camp in Port Said, Egypt. Fr. Babayan also writes about his return to Aintab in 1919 and the eventual evacuation of the Aintab Armenians and their escape to Aleppo, Syria. Please click here to read the digitized version of “Pages From My Diary.”

The Zohrab Center’s library collection contains over 20,000 books and resources ranging from Armenian literature, history and religion to Armenian newspapers, journals and periodicals. Each week, one of the center’s holdings will be highlighted to familiarize the general public about the contents of the Zohrab Center.