From the Desk of Jeff King

Adana

High-ranking officials in the Armenian government gave Christian singer-songwriter Daniel Decker a standing ovation during an April 23 concert in the former Soviet republic. Decker, a New York native, joined the Armenian Opera Orchestra in performing the song "Adana," commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. About 1.5 million Armenian Christians were slaughtered by the Ottoman Turks in World War I when they refused to renounce faith in Jesus Christ.

Decker's voice choked with emotion from the weight of the lyrics:

Ruthlessly they came, with one deadly aim
Kill all who believed in Jesus' name
As they knelt before the warrior's blade – singing
To the great I AM, worthy is the Lamb
To Him who sits upon the throne we bow before You
Holy is the One, God's Almighty Son
Glory to the Christ, Our risen King

"Everyone in the entire concert hall was crying by the end of the song, even government officials," says Decker, who co-wrote the song with Armenian composer Ara Gevorgian. "The whole experience was beyond description. God is doing an incredible thing through this song." The performance, televised nationally, has transformed "Adana," pronounced AH-dah-nah, into an immediate hit; it is played on Armenian radio and TV, as well as at the Genocide Memorial in the capital city Yerevan. Adana is the name of the city in present-day Turkey where one of the first massacres occurred.

Decker's song has been translated into 17 languages and recorded by singers in 14 nations, including Turkey, whose government refuses to acknowledge the Ottoman atrocities. "This is probably the most difficult set of lyrics I have ever written," Decker says. "I wrestled with these words for almost a full year before they finally came together. I set out to tell the story of a forgotten, yet significant event in Christian history." The song opens with a sobering narrative of the crimes committed against the innocent: "The people of Armenia were forced into starvation, torture and extermination. Armenian homes were burned to the ground as women were raped and tortured, children were bought and sold and men were killed before their very eyes. Often entire families were wiped out. They were accused, convicted and sentenced to die because they dared to call themselves Christians, their crime was in believing in Jesus Christ who died for their sins."

Henry Morgenthau, a U.S. ambassador at Constantinople from 1913-1916, lamented, "I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode at this." Little did he know that the Armenian Genocide would be eclipsed a few decades later by the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

Addendum – Armenia, which borders Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Azerbaijan, was the first nation in history to adopt Christianity as its official religion more than 1,700 years ago. Its civilization dates back to the days of Noah. Yerevan is one of the world's oldest cities, founded in 783 BC, several years before the founding of Rome. Decker's CD "My Offering," which includes Adana, is available at his website, where you also can listen to samples of his music. Testimonies of Armenian Genocide survivors can be found here.

Information compiled from ASSIST News Service, other Internet sources and personal email.

Posted by Jeff King at June 3, 2005 09:46 AM