Speaking to One Another - The International Raoul Wallenberg ...

“Thanks Great God, Thay my Baby Died Pure,She Died Innocent, No Turk Made Use of Her”“My mother in law had a daughter, her name was Satik. When a Turk tried to take her away she was 14 yearsold, a small girl, the big guy was dragging her, mother was resisting, saying don`t touch he, she is too small, havepity on her. This girl was trembling from fear, felt down, got up, she was so small that she felt down and couldn`tmove. She was so frightened that she died after a week. We always go to the cemetery to put some flowers, but theold woman would say: “Thanks great God that my baby died pure, died innocent, no Turk made use of her” (fromthe story of Arpik Shahinyan).It sounds cruel but this expression was often heard, and we can still hear that today. It was very painfulfor Armenians that their girls were “taken away.” And that as it seems happened quite often. Evenamong our respondents’ families there is almost no case were a girl from the family was not taken or atleast attempted to be taken away. The girls, probably, were taken for different reasons, but when parentsor brothers or sisters speak about that they usually mention that the girl was very beautiful and takenfor a marriage. The family always took it hard when Turks or Kurds took girls away. The girls were“taken away” not only during massacres, but also before that, and there were many occasions of conversionto Islam. Armenian women helped many of their compatriots. Anyway, many girls were taken duringmassacres, married young woman were taken too, and the attitude that for a girl it would be betterto die rather than become a Turkish or Kurdish wife was dominant. This approach was so rooted thateven the mothers preferred their daughters` death to their marriage with a Kurd or a Turk. It is hard tosay how true it is, but, sometimes stories were told about fathers that killed their daughters. Less knownis how “taken away” girls felt in their new families. Our respondents recall only few such stories, thatthey have learnt from Armenian women that had fled from their Turkish husband and returned to theArmenian community. Aida Topuzyan became aware of one of these stories only in 1975, when Ms. Aida’sfather found her lost aunt in the USA: Knarik Janikyan. Knarik was born in 1900 in Adabazar, andshe was sixteen years old when they were fleeing and she disappeared. Survived relatives looked forKnarik long after she disappeared on the escape route. In 1975, Hovhannes Topuzyan, father of Ms. Aida,who was in Washington for some business, heard from the local priest that a woman, whose nameis Knarik Janikyan assists the Armenian church greatly. Onik, of course, got very intrigued, met her andfound out that she was the lost aunt.. Knarik Janikyan was married and had two sons, Poghos and Richi.Hovhannes Topuzyan invited her to Armenia where she told the story of her disappearance, it left an indelibleimpression on all listeners, including Aida Topuzyan. The very common and widespread thinghappened on the escape road; one of the Turkish soldiers in the convoy accompanying Armenian refugeessold the sixteen year old girl to a rich Turk. She became his seventh wife. Despite the fact that herhusband treated her with love and kindness she secretly decided to flee. She gave birth to two children108