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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what year was the term genocide coined?

2. In what year were Turkish government archives from the genocide period first opened?

3. What was the Black Arrow?

4. How long had Syria occupied Lebanon when Balakian visited?

5. When was the Umayyad Mosque built?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Der Zor considered the Armenian equivalent of Auschwitz?

2. Why did Aunt Anna likely embrace surrealism rather than realism in literature?

3. What were the Young Turks like in terms of personality and education?

4. How does genocide denial affect the survivors and their descendants?

5. What was the deeper significance of the way in which Dovey's father was killed?

6. What was significant about the murder of 250 Armenian intellectuals on the eve of the genocide and what was significant about Bishop Balakian's survival?

7. How did American Ambassador Morgenthau attempt to help the Armenians?

8. Why did Balakian question his failure to ask questions as a child when he saw the names of the dead listed on his grandmother's compensation documents?

9. How did the Turks use the geography of the land to make it easier to kill Armenians?

10. What was Nafina's reaction to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Armenians in the United States--including Balakian's family--generally attempted to assimilate into American culture. How did this assimilation impact their ability to thrive after the genocide? Did assimilation mean an abandonment of Armenian culture? Or did they maintain traditions that could no longer be maintained in their wiped out homeland? Did assimilation make it easier for the survivors and their descendants to deal with the fact of genocide?

Essay Topic 2

Balakian did not learn about the Armenian genocide or his own family's experiences until he sought out that information as an adult. Even then, some family members questioned what he was doing. Did his family do him a disservice by hiding the truth from him for so many years? Would knowing the past have enabled him to have a different, deeper understanding of the ways his family members lived their lives in America? Or did keeping the truth from him enable him to have a normal American childhood before delving into the past on his own? Did his family's "protection" of him give him a solid ground on which to stand while confronting the horrific events of the past?

Essay Topic 3

Turkish government officials and their supporters have claimed that the denial of the genocide is a form of protected free speech. Do you believe that? Can speech that denies a central historical truth be protected under free speech statutes? Does this denial make it more difficult for Armenians to exercise their own freedom of speech to publicize the genocide? Does the granting of free speech rights mean that all positions must be treated as legitimate sides in a debate?

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