RAFAEL DE NOGALES MENDES AND WE
By Yuri Khachatrian

Moscow publishing-house 'Russki vestnik' has recently published a new
book concerning our biggest national tragedy -The Armenian Genocide. The
book called 'Four years under the crescent' is written by a Venezuelan
writer, service man and political figure Rafael de Nogales Mendes. This
book is one of the first worldwide echoes of the Armenian Genocide, which
has had a hard and peculiar destiny.
Rafael de Nogales Mendes was born in 1879, in San Christobal, Tachira
state, Venezuela. He got higher education in Europe - studying at High
Military Colleges of Germany, Belgium and Spain. He was fluent not only
in Arabic and Chinese, but also in Spanish, English, French and German.
He took part in many military actions and had a stormy life full of
events: in 1898 he struggled with Spanish against USA in Cuba, in 1902 he
took part in the next Latin- American revolution in Venezuela, in 1904 he
appeared in China and took part in Chinese-Japanese war, in 1908 he
returned to his motherland but because of the new dictator Chuan Vicente
Gomes he had to leave for Europe. Soon he became an officer of the
Turkish expeditionary forces in Iran, and after this took part in the
evacuation and genocide of the Armenian people of West Armenia as an
officer of the Ottoman Empery military forces. So he became one of the
eyewitnesses of the First Genocide in the world.
He is a bearer of the Iron Cross Order, which he received at the hands of
Wilhelm 2nd for the services in the World War I.
Then he took part in the revolution of Nicaragua. After that he was a
military leader of the Palestinian right-bank region. After the war he
appeared in Alaska as a gold searcher and soon he became a cowboy in
Arizona.
Rafael de Nogales took part also in the Mexican revolution being with
Madero side-by-side after the revolution.
He wrote several books about his stormy and rough life - 'Memories of
General Rafael de Nogales', 'The plundering of Nicaragua', 'Four years
under the crescent', etc.
The book 'Four years under the crescent' ('Cuatro anos bajo la Media
luna') is very important and significant for Armenian people as it is
about the Armenian Genocide. The acknowledgement of his guilt and the
pangs of conscience made him to speak and tell the world about the first
genocide and the most nasty and horrible tragedy in the world.
The book was published in 1920, in Venezuela. The writer was pursued and
even an attempt was made upon him, and all the print run of the book was
bought and destroyed. The second edition published in the Caracas City by
the 'Casa de Especialidades' publishing-house had the same fate. At that
time Nogales lived in Panama. He died in 1936 from tuberculosis.
Even today its very difficult and even impossible to find this book in
the libraries of the world. Only an example of this edition was preserved
by an eyewitness of the Armenian Genocide, our compatriot Mihran Kehyan,
who had been evacuated from the West Armenia and settled in Venezuela.
The mentioned example has been placed at the disposal of the
publishing-house in Moscow.
The book has a nice preface. The parts about Armenia and Armenians have
detailed footnotes. The book has also a wonderful design and two maps -
one is the map of the historical Armenia and the second one is the map of
the regions where the genocide has been committed. There are also several
photographs in the book that have historical and documentary value. The
print run of the book is ten thousand.
Our people must know about Rafael de Nogales and his life. This book is
translated and published into English and French languages. It would be
great if the book was translated into Armenian and presented to the
Armenian reader.



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