Wolfgang Kunz's Photographic Collection – Syria – 1985

Armenier – Woher/Wohin [Armenians – Whence/Whither]. This was the title of Wolfgang Kunz’s photo book, which he authored in 1985-1986. The renowned photographer traveled to Soviet Armenia in 1983 and again in 1985; then visited Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and Soviet Armenia again, taking hundreds of photographs in numerous cities and locales.

The connection between Wolfgang Kunz and Armenians (and their history) was forged in the 1970s, when during a holiday in Tbilisi, Kunz spent a few days in Soviet Armenia. In 1984, he traveled to Turkey to work on an article about Armenians for the German periodical GEO. Kunz was only the photographer for this article, which was written by someone else. When this article appeared in the February-March 1986 issue of GEO, it created an uproar in the German-Armenian community, as the author had promoted the Turkish government’s denialist arguments about the Armenian Genocide. The Armenians of Hamburg – the city in which Kunz lived and worked at the time – organized a small demonstration against the writer of the article. This prompted Kunz to investigate Armenians and their history more closely. Later, the French version of GEO published a different article on Armenians, written by Claude Mutafian but still using Kunz’s photographs. This time, Armenians had no reason to protest. On the contrary, this second article was a victory against the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

In November or December 1984, in Hamburg, Kunz met the Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, Karekin II Sarkissian (1932-1999), who was in Germany on an official visit. The Catholicos suggested that Kunz visit Lebanon and Syria the following April, to better acquaint himself with Armenians and to personally attend commemorations of the Genocide. The prospect appealed to Kunz. That same year, in Hamburg, he met shoe manufacturer and trader Gerard Barsoumian, a Lebanese-Armenian who had traveled to Hamburg to purchase a tachometer for his Porsche car. Barsoumian, too, encouraged the photographer to visit Lebanon, and even expressed a willingness to help with this plan.

On April 18, 1985, Kunz traveled from the airport of Berlin to Beirut aboard an East German Interflug airplane, at a time when Lebanon was still in the throes of its civil war. During this same trip, Kunz also visited Syria.

Once all the photographs for the book were ready, Kunz began working on the preparation of the various chapters. In this process, he collaborated with German academic Tessa Hofmann. Kunz divided his book into three chapters – Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria. To supplement these sections, Tessa Hofmann wrote chapters on the history of the Armenian Genocide and of Soviet Armenia. The Catholicosate of the Holy See of Cilicia in Antelias expressed a desire to translate the book from German into English and to participate in the publication process.

The central theme of the book was the Armenian Genocide. Only one of the chapters, written by Tessa Hofmann, directly presented the history of the Genocide. The other chapters, especially those concerning the photographer’s journey through Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey, were more akin to a travel chronicle at first glance. But in reality, the Genocide of 1915 was a constant presence even in those sections of the book. Kunz endeavored to examine Armenian community life via the lens of the Genocide and of the memory thereof.

It is no coincidence that his visit to Syria and Lebanon in 1985 took place in the month of April. On the 24th of that same month, Armenian communities commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Genocide. In Syria, Kunz visited Deir ez-Zor, where the foundations of an Armenians church were being laid. The book is rich with the testimonies of Genocide survivors. Kunz’s journey also coincided with attacks on Turkish targets across Europe by armed Armenian organizations. Kunz was absorbed by the lives and history of Armenians. In his writing, we see that he felt the same pain, joy, pride, sorrow, and rebellion that an Armenian would feel. He expressed himself just as an Armenian from the 1980s would. It is as if he had been adopted by the Armenian nation, and had himself adopted the Armenian nation as his own.

Given this warm relationship with the Armenian community, one would assume that Kunz’s book project would proceed smoothly and conclude successfully. Unfortunately, this was not the case. In Kunz’s archives there is correspondence involving multiple individuals, which shows that at the initial stages, efforts to publish the book proceeded smoothly, but eventually, progress stalled, and the book was never published. The main correspondents were author/photographer Kunz, the chancellor of the Catholicosate of the Holy See of Cilicia in Antelias, and the New York Prelacy of the Holy See of Cilicia. On the instructions of Catholicos Karekin II, the New York Prelacy was tasked with translating the book into English. Michael Papazian translated the entire book, as well as the captions of all photographs, from German into English. The book consisted of 220 pages and contained 228 photographs. After reading the English translation of the book, Catholicos Karekin II, via the chancellor of the Catholicosate, expressed certain reservations on some of the sections of text, suggesting that they be removed or edited. Kunz agreed. The correspondence leaves the impression that the book was to be published in both Germany and the United States, and that the Catholicosate was willing to assist with the costs of publication.

This correspondence dates from 1986 to 1991. During this time, Leninakan (Gyumri) experienced a catastrophic earthquake, popular protests erupted in Yerevan, and the crisis of Nagorno Karabakh began. We presume that it was due to these upheavals in both Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora that Kunz’s book was first neglected, then forgotten.

In 2024, in view of his advanced age, Wolfgang Kunz decided to donate his rich photographic collection – including his photographs on Armenian themes – to the Berlin Public Library (bpk Fotoarchiv, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz). One of this institution’s employees and a friend of Houshamadyan, Meliné Pehlivanian, suggested that Kunz publish some of his photographs of Armenian life on the pages of our website. Kunz agreed, and thus began our collaboration with the renowned photographer.

After attending commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Lebanon, German photograph Wolfgang Kunz traveled to Syria overland on 27 April 1985. His first and most important stop was the city of Aleppo. With him, he brought a letter of introduction from Catholicos Karekin II of the Holy See of Cilicia, which he presented to the Armenian prelate of Aleppo, Archbishop Souren Kataroyan. Thanks to this letter of introduction, he was welcomed as an official guest of the Armenian Apostolic community of Aleppo.

In Syria, as in Lebanon, most of Kunz’s visits and meetings revolved around the topic of the Armenian Genocide. He photographed locations emblematic of the Genocide and collected testimonies from survivors. The most important event that he attended during his sojourn in Syria – as we will see – took place in Deir ez-Zur, to which the Catholicosate of Cilicia had organized a pilgrimage, and where the foundations of a new Armenian church would be laid. All of this occurred at a time when Syria was ruled by the dictatorial regime of Hafez al-Assad and the Baath Party that he led. Syrian-Turkish relations were tense, which meant that the Syrian authorities had a relatively tolerant attitude towards commemorations of the Armenian Genocide.

In Aleppo, the German photographer stayed at Hotel Baron. Accompanied by Jirayr Reyisian, the principal of the local national/parochial Sahagian School, he visited the city’s old and new Armenian neighborhoods. He also visited Jdeydeh, Salibiyeh, Suleymanieh, Sheikh Maqsood, Sebil, and Meydan (al-Midan or Nor Kyugh). In the photographs he took on these visits, the national/parochial Sahagian School of Nor Kyugh, founded in 1927, features prominently. Next to this school was the widows’ shelter/orphanage founded by Danish missionary Karen Jeppe in 1922, which held historic significance for the Armenian community of Syria. In 1922, Jeppe served as the League of Nations Commissioner for the Protection of Women and Girls in the Near East. Thanks to Jeppe’s efforts, many Armenian women who were forced to live with Arab and Kurdish tribes in the Syrian desert throughout the years of the Genocide were brought to Aleppo and lived in the shelter she had founded. Later, this widows’ shelter/orphanage was shuttered, and in 1947, the Karen Jeppe National Lyceum opened at the same site. A small section of the shelter was preserved within the lyceum compound as a reminder of the shelter, as can be seen in Kunz’s photographs.

Among the schools that the German photographer visited was the national/parochial Haygazian School in the Jdeydeh neighborhood. In 1985, this school was housed in a palace built in the 17th century by the Ghazaleh family. Until 1918, this was the site of the German school of Aleppo. Kunz also visited the Armenian nursing home in the Bostan Pasha neighborhood (the director of this institution was Krikor Shahinian), where he met survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

On April 29, Kunz met with Dr. Adolphe Pokhe, who was born in Aleppo and was a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the time, he was 90 years old and served as the honorary consul of Belgium in Aleppo. Kunz recorded Dr. Pokhe’s testimony of the Armenian Genocide. After the First World War, the doctor was part of a health mission in Aleppo, which had led the efforts to eradicate the epidemics that had spread in the city, particularly among the Armenian refugees.

On May 1, Kunz took a taxi to Kessab, accompanied by chemistry student and native of Kessab, Garo Mandjigian, who was a graduate of the Karen Jeppe Lyceum. In this Armenian-populated town, Kunz met Garo’s grandmother, Victoria Mandjigian, who had been born in 1907 and had been deported to Maskanah in 1915. She provided a testimony of her survival of the extreme conditions she faced, then her life in the home of an Arab sheikh until her family found her and rescued her by paying the sheikh four donkeys in exchange for her freedom.

After spending a night in Kessab, Kunz returned to Aleppo in a taxi, where he met another survivor of the Genocide, Boghos Karakashian. This Armenian from Yerzenga/Erzincan had been deported at a very young age and had eventually reached Syria, where he had been rescued by an Arab tribe. Later, in Ras al-Ayn, he had married an Armenian woman who, like him, had converted to Islam. The couple had six children. In 1940, they had settled down in Aleppo, where they had renewed their marriage vows in an Armenian church and all six of their children had been baptized.

Kunz also visited the national shelter in the Salibiyeh neighborhood, which was an orphanage that cared for children and youths.

On May 3, with Mgo Minassian and Hagop Tavitian, Kunz headed into the Syrian desert in a car. They stopped in Maskanah, then in Raqqah. The next day, they headed to Deir ez-Zur. They visited the Armenian chapel there, which was slated to be demolished, and where a new Armenian church was to be built. From Deir ez-Zur, Kunz proceeded to the villages of Suwar and Shaddadah. These two villages, located in the valley of the Khabur River, have great importance in the history of the Armenian Genocide, as they were the scene of mass massacres of Armenian deportees. Kunz’s collection includes many photographs that feature a giant cavity in a hill in Shaddadah. According to witness testimonies, many thousands of Armenians were forcibly thrown into this pit, then doused with fuel and set alight.

After returning to Deir ez-Zur, on May 5, Kunz met 77-year-old Abdullah, dressed in Bedouin attire, who was an Islamized Armenian with the baptismal name of Garabed. He lived in Hatla, near the city of Deir ez-Zur. After the massacres of Markada, Garabed had remained alive under the corpses of his compatriots for two days. Bedouins had found him, cared for him, and dubbed him Abdullah. He had married twice, both times to women who had been Islamized like him. Kunz took several photographs of Abdullah and his family. Many of these photographs feature Adbullah’s 18-year-old granddaughter, Iman.

Also in Hatla, Kunz met an 84-year-old woman, Srpouhi Papazian, who had survived the Genocide. Kunz’s collection includes many photographs of her. Srpouhi was from Rodosto/ Tekirdağ. She had attended the Armenian school of the Holy Cross neighborhood. In 1915, she was deported alongside her family and forced to march from distant Tekirdağ to Deir ez-Zur. She had survived the terrible massacre of Shaddadah and had found shelter with a local Arab tribe. She was married off to a local Arab. When Kunz met Srpouhi, she was living with her third Arab husband (the previous two had died), who was on his deathbed in the one room of their house. Srpouhi’s Arab family consisted of 105 members. The sister of the Fabrikatorian brothers, the well-known silk makers and merchants from Mamuret ul-Aziz (present-day Elâzığ), was probably married to Srpouhi’s uncle. On the wall of her home in Hatla hung the photographs of the five Fabrikatorian brothers. Srpouhi still remembered Armenian songs well. At the request of Mgo Minassian, she sang a song dedicated to General Andranik.

This was the last stop of Kunz’s first trip into the Syrian desert. The group’s car headed north, towards Ras al-Ayn. Along the way, they stopped in the village of Shaddadah on the banks of the Khabur River. From Ras al-Ayn, Kunz returned to Aleppo.

On May 9, a procession led by Catholicos Karekin II of the Holy See of Cilicia arrived in Aleppo from Beirut. The Catholicos was accompanied by Archbishop Nerses Pakhdigian, Archimandrite Varoujan Hergelian, Father Sebouh Sarkisian, Father Arshavir Kapoudjian, and deacons Nazaret Sarkisian (later Archbishop Shahan Sarkisian) and Sarkis Apelian. The Armenian community of Aleppo welcomed them at the Holy Mother-of-God and Forty Holy Martyrs churches of Aleppo, where services were held in the presence of large crowds. On Saturday morning, the Catholicos visited the Karen Jeppe Lyceum, where the bust of Catholicos Zareh I stood in the courtyard. Wolfgang Kunz accompanied Karekin II on these visits and photographed memorable moments.

The pilgrimage from Aleppo to Deir ez-Zur began on May 12, at 5:30 in the morning. The procession consisted of a large number of cars. Among the many Armenians who joined the procession were the prelate of Aleppo, Archbishop Souren Kataroyan; and member of the Syrian parliament, Attorney Krikor Eblighatian. Among the pilgrims was also Wolfgang Kunz, who, thanks to his photographic lens, was able to chronicle this historic event through many photographs.

Many thousands of Armenians gathered in Deir ez-Zur. They came from Aleppo, Qamishli, Ras al-Ayn, Raqqah, Hasakah, Latakia, and elsewhere. Karekin II first visited the city’s old Armenian chapel, Saint Hripsime. When he reached the vicinity of the chapel, he went down to his knees and crawled to the entrance. Divine Liturgy was held at the chapel, officiated by the interim prelate of Jezire, Father Norayr Ashekian. Then a requiem service was held, after which Karekin II addressed the crowds and inaugurated the new church. The Catholicos had brought with him a handful of soil and a rock from Armenia, as well as a handful of soil from beside the Armenian Genocide Chapel-Memorial in Antilias. He mixed these with the cement of the foundation of the new church and blessed it. After the blessing, the priests distributed Holy Communion to the crowd.

It was this old chapel of Deir ez-Zur that would be demolished and replaced with a new church, which would be officially consecrated in 1991. The new church was called the Deir ez-Zur Armenian Genocide Martyr’s Memorial (architect: Sarkis Balmanougian, an Armenian from Aleppo). The church was destroyed during the recent Syrian war.

After blessing the foundation of the new church, Karekin II and the pilgrims headed to a site in the desert, about 15 kilometers from the city. There, too, a requiem service was held. Then, Genocide survivor Archbishop Nerses Pakhdigian addressed the crowd, providing a testimony of his experiences as a deportee and survivor of the massacres. Thereafter, the crowd went down to their knees and sang Der Voghormya [Lord, Have Mercy]. Karekin II and Archbishop Souren Kataroyan addressed the pilgrims. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the crowd sang the songs Cilicia and Sartarabad.

The pilgrimage had ended. Kunz took a taxi back to Lebanon, and a few days later, he returned to Hamburg via Berlin. He did not have a six-month visa to visit Syria and was unaware that staying in Syria for more than 15 days required him to present himself to the police and report his location. When he reached the Lebanese border, he had been in Syria for 17 days. Syrian border guards detained him. Here, his driver intervened and freed him by paying a bribe.

A site in the desert, 15 kilometers from the city of Deir ez-Zur. A collective requiem service. Archbishop Nerses Pakhdigian addressed the crowd during this ceremony, providing a personal testimony of his experiences as a deportee and an orphan.

In 1966, Kunz bought a Leica camera, secured a grant to travel to London, and spent a whole year photographing the revolutionary youth culture of the British capital (Swinging London). After returning to Hamburg, he joined the editorial team of the Stern photographic periodical. After working for Stern for three years, he began working for the Zeit periodical. Ultimately, he preferred working as a freelancer and refrained from accepting permanent positions. With his camera, he traveled to various corners of the globe from Hamburg. He often photographed locations in crisis, such as North and South Vietnam, Northern Ireland, and Namibia; in addition to Turkey, Soviet Armenia, Lebanon, and Syria.

In 1983, with 14 partners, Wolfgang Kunz founded the Bilderberg photographic agency in Hamburg. After the reunification of Germany, from 1995 to 1999, he taught photography at the Weißensee Academy of Art in Berlin. Since then, he has lived in Berlin.