Sarkis Torossian

Sarkis Torossian was a decorated Ottoman Armenian captain who fought in the Gallipoli campaign and, according to his memoirs, was the first person to sink a British battleship. After the Armenian genocide, however, when most of his family was massacred, he switched sides and joined the fight against the Ottoman Empire. He later moved to the United States, where he wrote and published his memoirs, From Dardanelles to Palestine: A True Story of Five Battle Fronts of Turkey. The authenticity and accuracy of his memoirs have been debated by historians. In anticipation of the publication of Torossian's memoirs in Turkey by Ayhan Aktar, Torosian's descendants were discovered by local historian Paul Vartan Sookiasian. From there, Taner Akçam interviewed Torossian's granddaughter, who described her grandfather's life in detail.