102-year-old Armenian Genocide survivor hurries home after surgery
07/02/2015 13:47:00
Oratert News
The witness of the Mount Musa Battle and the traditional Harissa
creation, Silvard Atajyan is waiting for her 103rd anniversary in
April impatiently. The Armenian Genocide witness, notwithstanding the
respectable age, has overcome a serious surgery, which was successful.
At first sight it is unbelievable though fact that even at this age
the woman managed to overcome such a serious health problem and get
well with the help of the doctors. At the hospital ward she does not
feel lack of visitors. Surrounded with the love and care of the
members of her family, Silvard Atajyan is waiting for the soonest
recovery and for the return home.
“Grandma is really strong. Five years ago she got an injury in the
left leg, in which a metal structure was placed and the whole weight
of the body fell on her right leg, which in fact did not endure and
was broken years later”, – told the grandson of the Genocide survivor,
Arshavir Atajyan to Armenpress correspondent.
Earlier Armenpress presented the story of the Armenian Genocide
witness, which is as follows:
The Armenian Genocide initiated in the Ottoman Empire during the World
War I in the beginning of the previous century is one of the biggest
crimes against humanity. Advancing the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide the new project introduced by Armenpress news agency
is dedicated to the story of the eyewitnesses and survivors of the
calamity to prove the world one more time that our demand for the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide is fair and justified. This time
the project is dedicated to the story of 101-year old Silvard Atajyan.
MAY 14, 101-year old Silvard Atajyan living in Armenia is one of the
few witnesses of the events described in renowned novel “The Forty
Days of Musa Dagh” by Austrian author Franz Werfel.
Her family, which comes from Suedia region of Cilicia, was among those
Armenians, which participated in the heroic struggle against the
Turkish slaughterers in 1915. When the local authorities tried to
realize the order to force the Armenians to leave their homes, the
Armenians had made decision to resist and they climbed up the Mount
Musa, where they organized struggle for their self-defense and managed
to throw back the attacks of the Turkish troops 53 days.
Among other things Silvard Atajyan noted: “I climbed up the Mount Musa
along with my sister, mother, and grandmother in 1911. I was three
years old at that time. My father and uncle were soldiers. My father
ordered the mother to take us and climb up the mountain.”
After the 53 days of resistance the family reached Egypt due to a French vessel.
Silvard remembers how a part of the women was at the side of their
husbands and the other part supplied food and arms to the fighters.
“In the evening women usually brought figs, grapes and bread for the
fighters. But little by little our forces expired…”, – the 101-yer-old
woman said with excitement and tears in her eyes. In the memory of
Silvard, notwithstanding her little age, come out the images of the
French ships, bringing assistance to the Armenians. After the 53 days
of resistance the family reached Egypt due to a French vessel.
Harissa has got a historic past for Musa Dagh people
“During the fights my uncle died, who was thrown into the river. That
was the reason my aunts did not eat fish for years after that”, – says
the witness.
After living for five years in Egypt, in 1919 the family of Silvard
returned to the motherland. Then in 1939 they moved to Aleppo and
later, in 1947 – to Yerevan.
“We grew up in Aleppo, where I got married with Hovsep, born in 1911,
who was a colonel. We got a house and came back to Yerevan, from where
we were exiled to Vardenis”, – remembers Silvard, who worked there as
a carpet weaver.
In 1953 the Atajyan family moved from Vardenis to Yerevan and got a
land in the Malatia-Sebastia administrative district, where they have
lived up to now.
The hero of our story states that Harissa is one of the traditional
Musa Dagh dishes and has a historic past. It is mainly prepared for
happy or sad ceremonies. And that is the reason it is made after it is
blessed by a priest and necessarily from sacrificed lamb meat.
Years after touching upon the recognition of the Armenian Genocide,
the 101-year-old Silvard says that she does not lose hope, as living
with hope is characteristic of an Armenian. “I often watch news
programs and tell everybody to watch it too, so that they know what is
happening in the world. I am not educated but my brain works”, –
states the hero of the story half-seriously and half-jokingly, adding
that according to the forecast, she will live for 5 years more.
She is fond of the flowers, which she has planted and cares with her own hands.
“When I got ill, in the hospital I even told my son not to dry my
flowers”, – emphasized the Genocide-atrocities-survived Silvard, who,
using her walking device, showed us all her flowers in the house yard,
the care of which she does not trust anybody.
Today Silvard has 3 sons, one daughter, 7 grandchildren, and 12 great grandsons.
From: Baghdasarian