The Armenian Genocide Museum

Genocide memorial.
It was apparently erected only after the Armenian republic at the time of Russian control made a huge demand for recognition of the genocide. The Russian rule eventually gave in but to hide it from society the Russians built an amphitheatre four times the size directly in front of the only possible view point. I believe it was built at the very same time. The monument is twelve stone slabs that jet out from a platform with a space needle looking thing beside it. One is to pay respect to the 12 Armenian districts that were over taken and killed; the needle represents Armenian determination or hope for the nation to stay whole (something like that).
In the entrance are the declarations of all the nations and political leaders that have recognized the genocide publicly all carved into stone slabs encircling a cross.. By the by, America is not on that list. In the first hall is the breakdown of how many existing schools, people and churches we in each of the 12 districts, along with family portraits and town pictures. Erzram where my grandmother was from was one of the largest districts assimilated.
The entire rest of the museum I can’t convey. An artist named jean jansem painted around 12 abstract depictions of the slow death met by close to a million Armenian woman, though the very first you see is an interpretation of the slaughter brought on by death riding a pale horse. It softens the blow in contrast to the actual photographs. Though what I found out there about the photographs taken during the time completely blows my mind. This German cat named Wegner was working in the polish army as a nurse in route through turkey at the time of the mass murder. Wegner after viewing the slaughter started taking pictures against his superior’s orders. After Turkish demand he was forced to give up all his photo’s and was thrown in jail, but like a magician snuck some of the negatives in his belt and mailed them to Woodrow Wilson before his incarceration. Wilson then started to collect aid. After being released he returned to Germany again to find himself front and center for the Jewish holocaust. He was the only person to write a letter directly to Adolf Hitler giving him notice that his regime was unacceptable. As I recall he was also quite fervent in his public display of nazi rebellion. He was then sent to incarceration camp in Italy (I think) that he escaped from before the war was over.
Near the end was a diary of a missionary and the testimony of a travelling Arabian man and were absolutely awful in their detail but entirely necessary. I was glad to finally see a first person testimony of what actually happened to all these countless families, because despite all our pressure we just could never get our grandfather to dig up the memories. (There needs to be a word for glad that doesn’t mean happy)
The museum somewhat concluded our day except the cab ride home that consisted of sitting in traffic for 25 minutes to get about 6 blocks while watching a group of riled up locals partially assault a police officer.