Journey through Genocide

April 9, 2018
Journalist Boudjikanian’s travelogue of his time spent in war-scarred nations is a slim book that nevertheless gets distracted on the way to the heart of its subject. Haunted by his family’s experience in the 1915 Armenian genocide, Boudjikanian visits nations that have experienced similar traumas, hoping to address questions about collective guilt, the prospects of forgiveness, and the dynamics of post-conflict reconciliation. His digressions about petty bureaucrats, shopping challenges in the developing world, and the quirks of substandard hotels seem out of place alongside stories from refugee camps housing survivors of Darfur’s killing fields and the Rwandan genocide. It’s only when the author flies to the land of his ancestors that the story truly comes alive. There, Boudjikanian confronts his fears as an Armenian walking the streets of Turkey, where mere mention of the genocide can result in arrest. As he reckons with his family’s history—his great-grandfather’s torture and murder and the family’s exile—he documents Turkey’s disturbing efforts to disappear evidence of Armenian existence. He also considers, by comparison, Germany’s honest and open approach to its shameful past. While this personal exploration of genocide asks important questions, it doesn’t devote the necessary space to fully answer them.

April 1, 2018
Canadian journalist Boudjikanian was born in Beirut, the result of his family's flight from Turkey during the Armenian genocide. Here he focuses on genocides in historic Armenia, Darfur, and Rwanda, telling his ancestors' refugee story to reveal and explain commonalities. He speaks about the atrocities of the Sudanese-backed militia with Darfuri survivors, children and adults, in Chadian refugee camps as well as aid workers. In Rwanda, in a poignant exchange, a young woman recounts her witnessing the decimation of her large family and her narrow escapes with her older brother. Boudjikanian also interviews the lead attorney for the government's genocide fugitive tracking unit, a role that the Rwandan solemnly administers. Finally, he travels to his ancestral homeland, eastern Turkey, to the town where his great-grandfather's blood was spilled. While the Turkish government refuses to acknowledge crimes of ethnic cleansing, Boudjikanian finds hopeful signs that attitudes are changing there. The final chapter notes that what appear to be genocides in Syria, South Sudan, and Myanmar continue to unfold.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)