WESTERN QUEENS GAZETTE PRESENTS THE STORIES OF FOUR WOMEN, SURVIVORS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
armradio.am
28.03.2012 18:24
Thousands of Armenians, Jews and other supporters will gather in Times
Square on April 22, to commemorate the first genocide of the 20th
century, the Armenian Genocide as well as Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“The event will pay tribute to the almost two million Armenians who
were massacred by the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire
and to the six million Jews who were annihilated by the Nazi regime
during World War II,” Western Queens Gazette writes.
In anticipation of the 97th anniversary of the tragedy which occurred
during World War I, four survivors of the Armenian Genocide, known
as Medz Yeghern, remembered their horrific moments of sorrow, pain
and survival during a special question and answer session at the New
York Armenian Home in Flushing.
The Western Queens Gazette presents the stories of four women, all a
century or older and representing some of the few remaining survivors
of the genocide, told their stories.
“Each year there are fewer survivors to talk to,” said Dr. Dennis R.
Papazian, founding director of the Armenian Research Center at the
University of Michigan-Dearborn. “The fact that they still remember,
at their age, the events that happened to them are an indication of
how traumatic the whole experience was.”
The first was Perouz Kalousdinian, born in Harput (Kharpert), Turkey
in 1909. She was six years old when she witnessed The Turks take
all the males in her family, more than 15 of them, including her
uncles from their homes, tie them up two by two and throw them over
the side of a bridge into the River Euphrates. When she asked her
mother what they were doing with all the men, she started crying and
told her that they’re not coming back. Later on Kalousdinian and her
mother were taken as slaves by the wife of one of the Turkish leaders
called Ibrahim “Bey” to work as maids in their home. About five years
later they fled to Aleppo, Syria, where they remained for about three
years before leaving for America, where her father who fled from the
genocide was waiting for them.
“I hope that one day all the Armenians will gather and take revenge on
the Turks,” Kalousdinian said in her native tongue. “They’re Liars,
they were liars, they are liars and they will always be liars. God
was not with us in those days, but there will come a day when justice
will be served by God and all the Turks will regret what they did to
the Armenians.”
Next came Arsalos Dadir, born August 15, 1913 in Shabin Karahisar,
Turkey. Dadir shared that her father was killed by the Young Turks
when he was only 25 leaving behind herself and her mother who was only
20 when he was killed. Her uncle, a doctor, was one of 300 martyrs
killed on April 14, 1915 when Armenian leaders, including members of
the Turkish Parliament, were murdered. She remembered how the Young
Turks took 10 people from the village, tired them up, and shot them
all. She remembers hundreds of bodies piled on top of each other.
“The Turks massacred us,” she exclaimed. “No one survived who stood
in their way.”
Coming from a wealthy family, her mother, grandmother and
great-grandmother found safety with a wealthy Turkish family. Her
family lost all of their money and land and the family eventually
moved to Constantinople, where Dadir married and raised two children,
before moving to the U.S. later in life.
The third was Charlotte Kechejian, born in Nikhda, Turkey on October
21, 1912.
Kechejian told how she walked with her mother for miles through
the desert to escape persecution by the ruling Turks. She recounted
feeling tired, thirsty and hungry and sleeping in the desert. Her
mother kept promising her that if she would hold on a little while
longer, she would have comfort and happiness and plenty of food to
eat. This, of course, was not so.
“It was awful,” she said. “It’s something I hope you never see.”
Finally, came Azniv Guiragossian, a new resident at the home.
Guiragossian was born on December 30, 1910 in Urfa, Turkey. Her
whole family was killed when she was only six years old and, like
most children who survived the genocide, she was sent to live in
an orphanage.
The event was hosted by New York Armenian Home Executive Director
Aghavni Ellian, Papazian, Case Manager and translator Karine Barsoumian
and Linda Millman Guller of Marketing and Communications LLC.
Accoridng to the paper, “The Armenian Genocide served as a lesson for
other tyrannical regimes. Adolph Hitler, when asked by his general
staff on the eve of the invasion of Poland what the world would think
and how they would be judged by history, replied, “It doesn’t matter.
After all, who today remembers the extermination of the Armenians?”
“Only one Turkish government, under Damad Ferit Pasha, has ever
recognized the Armenian Genocide. His administration held war crime
trials and condemned most of the instigators to the massacre. Every
other Turkish government has continued to deny the genocide,” the
paper concludes.