Andonian was born in
Constantinople and was ethnic
Armenian. There he edited the Armenian journals
Luys (
Light) and
Dzaghik (
Flower) and the newspaper
Surhandak (
Herald). Andonian then went on to serve in the department of military censorship of the
Ottoman Empire. He was arrested by order of interior minister
Talat Pasha of the Ottoman Empire on the eve of 24 April 1915, and joined the large number of
Armenian notables who were deported from the Ottoman capital. Andonian was deported to
Chankiri, then, halfway there, returned to
Ankara and was deported again to the camps in the
Ra's al-'Ayn and Meskene. However, Andonian survived in Aleppo in the underground. When British forces occupied
Aleppo, a lower-level Turkish official, Naim Bey collaborated with Aram Andonian in publishing his memoirs, an account of the deportation of the Armenians.
The Memoirs of Naim Bey were published in 1920, and are sometimes referred to as the "Andonian Telegrams" or the "Talat Pasha Telegrams." The telegrams are purported to constitute direct evidence that the
Armenian genocide of 1915–1917 was state policy of the Ottoman Empire. They were introduced as evidence in the
trial of Soghomon Tehlirian. According to
Robert Melson, Andonian's report on post-1915 deportations and killings of Armenians are crucial for the research of that period. From 1928 to 1951 Andonian directed the
Nubarian Library in Paris, and succeeded in hiding and saving most of the collection during the German occupation of Paris. He also worked to collect eyewitness testimonies of the genocide. He is the author of a
Complete Illustrated History of the Balkan War (Vol. 1–5, 1912–1913), published originally in Armenian. == Works ==