Ler Kamsar on the Bolshevik Atrocities in Armenia

Writer Ler Kamsar about the atrocities of the Bolsheviks after the Kemal-Bolshevik occupation:

“The Bolsheviks entered Armenia with a satanic smile on their face. They were very hungry because they came from communist Russia.

Overnight, all provisions were taken away from the people – butter, meat, flour, sugar, dry fruits, salt, pepper. They took absolutely everything. They ate, fed, cleaned their mustaches, checked the sharpness of the axes, and began to build socialism in the country.

First of all, they collected and filled prisons with all intelligent, honest people, those who were respected by the entire nation. But since the prisons of Armenia were not built for a large number of criminals, they could not imprison all the people in them.

For this reason, it was ordered to destroy part of the collected “criminals” in order to make room for new ones. And they were killed and then fit like a herring in a barrel and then buried in a bottomless grave.

Later, after the Bolsheviks left, I saw it in person. Hundreds of elite Armenians with their hands tied behind their backs and their heads split in half were lying on each other, squashed in blood.”

Ler Kamsar (Aram Tovmaghian, October 24, 1888, Van – November 22, 1965, Yerevan) was a famous Armenian satirist accused of anti-Soviet activities and persecuted by the Soviet authorities.

His works were banned and many of them destroyed. The renowned satirist’s feuilletons were published in many newspapers of both his native Van and Yerevan.

Armenian writer and publicist Gurgen Mahari, also a native of Van, called Ler Kamsar the last Mohican of the brilliant star triad of Armenian satire, a worthy and weary follower of Paronyan and Otyan.

In the period from 1921 to 1935, Kamsar led a humorous column in the newspaper “Sovetskaya Armenia”. He was distinguished by free-thinking, for which he would suffer – he would be accused of anti-Soviet activities and persecuted by the authorities. He was convicted in 1935 but amnestied in 1955.

David Fidanyan