ASTRID AGHAJANIAN: SURVIVOR OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WHO NARROWLY ESCAPED DEATH
Thursday 14 June 2012
Astrid Aghajanian was one of the few remaining survivors of the
Armenian genocide and was believed to be the last living in Britain.
In 1915, when the Ottoman rulers began their systematic annihilation of
the Armenians living in Anatolia, Astrid’s father was shot and Astrid,
her mother, grandmother and baby brother were deported and force-
marched into the Deir ez-Zor desert.
On one occasion the Turkish officers asked the Armenian mothers to hand
over their children, claiming they would be taken to an orphanage. Some
mothers parted with their offspring, in the desperate hope they would
be given a chance to survive. Astrid’s mother, however, refused to
let her daughter go. Some time later she and the other deportees
heard terrible screaming; the soldiers were burning the children alive.
By this time, Astrid’s grandmother and brother had perished in the
harsh desert conditions. Determined to keep her daughter and herself
alive, Astrid’s mother decided to try to escape. One night she hid
Astrid and herself under a pile of corpses, staying there until
daylight until she was certain the soldiers had moved on. Mother and
daughter then began to wander the desert alone. Found by a Bedouin
tribesman, who then sold them to another, Astrid and her mother were
taken to a Bedouin camp, where they now had shelter but continued to
live in fear.
Eventual salvation came in the form of a soldier on horseback. A
Turkish officer, he had come looking for survivors of the death
convoys, intending to take them to safety. Fortunately for Astrid and
her mother, he was true to his word and Astrid would always remember
that, although the Turks had destroyed her family, it was thanks to
a Turk that she and her mother were saved.
The officer took Astrid and her mother to the city of Deir ez-Zor, from
where they managed to make their way to Aleppo. Here they had relatives
and could finally begin picking up the pieces of their shattered lives.
Astrid Aghajanian had been born Helen Gaidzakian in 1913, in
Albistan, Turkey. When her mother eventually remarried, Astrid’s new
stepfather changed her name from Helen to Astghig (the Armenian form
of Astrid). The family moved from Aleppo to British Mandate Palastine
in the early 1920s, living first in Haifa, then in Jerusalem, where
Astrid’s stepfather ran a printing press in the Armenian quarter.
Astrid attended Schmidt’s convent school for girls in the city,
before the family returned to Haifa, where she became a teacher.
In 1942 Astrid married Gaspar Aghajanian and the couple had two
daughters. The family moved from Haifa to Tiberias when Gaspar
was appointed a judge and put in charge of the courts of Tiberias
and Safad. In 1948, as fighting broke out between Arabs and Jews,
the Aghajanians found themselves caught in the crossfire and had to
abandon their home. Astrid and her daughters were sent in an armed
convoy to Amman, where they were eventually joined by Gaspar.
Stateless for a year, the family applied for and were granted British
citizenship and in 1949 they moved to Kyrenia, Cyprus. Gaspar found
work at the nearby American monitoring station, while Astrid took care
of the household and carried out volunteer work for the Red Cross. She
also ran a successful kindergarten, nurturing the most timid children
to become happy and confident. Fully intending to spend the rest of
their lives on the island, Astrid and Gaspar had a house built to
their own specifications, around which they created a wonderful garden.
The Turkish invasion of Northern Cyprus in 1974, however, put paid
to their plans for a peaceful retirement. Astrid and Gaspar sought
refuge at the British base in Dhekelia and were eventually taken to
England as refugees by the RAF. They had lost everything.
Now in their sixties, they were forced to start their lives from
scratch once again. Gaspar returned to work and the couple eventually
settled in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, where they lived until
Gaspar’s death in 2007.
The British High Comissioner for Cyprus had asked the Aghajanians
to submit a claim for compensation for the loss of their house and
possessions, which included items saved from the genocide six decades
before. The claim was rejected by the Turkish authorities on the
grounds that the couple were “of Armenian descent”. The Aghajanians
began a lengthy correspondence with Turkish, British and American
authorities in the hope of some justice, but this came to nothing.
In 1997 Astrid was interviewed by Robert Fisk and her story appeared in
an article in The Independent entitled “Shameful echo of a forgotten
holocaust”. This prompted the Imperial War Museum to contact Astrid,
and both she and Gaspar were interviewed and recorded for the Museum’s
archives. Astrid’s story is also mentioned in Fisk’s book The Great War
for Civilisation, and more recently, in 2010, Astrid was interviewed
for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website.
She was immensely proud to do this; she felt she was paying tribute
to her mother, who had struggled so hard to save her.
Astrid was fond of comparing her turbulent life to that of spiders:
“You may destroy the spider’s home, but he will always build it
again.” Astrid will be remembered for her generous hospitality, her
creativity, her indomitable spirit and above all for her incredible
resilience in the face of adversity.
Justine Rapaccioli
Helen (Astghig/Astrid) Gaidzakian: born Albistan, Turkey 28 March
1913; married 1942 Gaspar Aghajanian (died 2007; two daughters);
died Gloucester 11 May 2012.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/astrid-aghajanian-survivor-of-the-armenian-genocide-who-narrowly-escaped-death-7848763.html?origin=internalSearch