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

In the word-stock of the survivors the word “slaughter” is probably a translation of Turkish word “kesmek”.In the Armenian language the word “slaughter” is rarely used to indicate the killing of humans –this word is used exclusively in descriptions of the events of the genocide period. Notably, probably it isfrom here that this word entered the vocabulary of children. From her father’s memories Anahit Bardakchyantells: “my father said, “we were wandering through the pastures, there was a hill around there, we weregoing to climb it.” He tells, “I had a cousin named Helineh, and my aunt’s name was Elmast.” I have seen her picture.She was a young girl, her picture is still in front of my eyes – she had blue eyes , there are others with blueeyes in my father’s family line, with blond hair, up to here . “My father was holding Helineh’shand and we, children of two sisters, were climbing, she was wearing a white dress with beautiful volants.” Suddenly,he tells, this Helineh said “Oh my, Haroutyun, the Turks are coming.” He tells, “I held Helineh’s hand anddragged her, dragged her, but Helineh dropped my hand and tumbled, while I ran. I ran, hiding in the grass behindtrees, watching”. Helineh having lost her tongue from fear, she said “Do not slaughter me, do not slaughter”but, he tells, “They already took out the knife and I ran away, I didn’t want to see what would happen next”. SameAnahit Bardakchyan says “we also fought against them... they slaughtered our [people] but ours didn’t slaughteranyone, we just fought them like an enemy – if you fight, I have to fight too, right?” It is clear from these sentencesthat in Anahit’s perception words “fight”, “enemy” are attached to different notions, in which theword “slaughter” doesn’t fit.From the way the words “yeghern”, “genocide” are used in the narrations it is clear that they were compiledat a later period. “My father was born in 1917 and my mother in 1920; after the yeghern their familiesmoved to Armenia...” (Aida Topuzyan).The words “massacres”, “stampede”, “genocide”, “deportation” and “yeghern” are sometimes used interchangeably,or even repeated in the same sentence: “Turks were massacring Armenians, they didn’t want Armeniansto live, it was a yeghern, whatever it was, Turks did it” (Tamara Poghosyan). When telling about herrelative Silva from Gymri, who was deported from Kars, she tells “They were deported from Kars and cameto Ghoukasyan... after 1915, after the yeghern”.Sometimes, in some stories, you can see the diversified perception of the words “exile” and “genocide”:“....There was no much genocide in Dardanel, since this was a large city, the genocide was more in the villages”,“They were deporting people from Dardanel ... to waste lands, deserts...” (From Hayrapet Yazrjian’s story). It isevident that here the narrator uses the word “genocide” as an equivalent to the words “massacre”, “murder”.It is noteworthy that among our narrators the word “aqsor” [Arm. deportation, expulsion, exile]was only used by Avetis Keshishyan and Hayrapet Yazirjyan, both coming from Turkish-speaking Armenianfamilies. They both didn’t speak Armenian at a young age. They learned the language at a laterstage and apparently, their childhood memories maintained the official Turkish term, “sürgün”. Thereforethey are still using the Armenian literary equivalent - “aqsor”. None of our respondents used theterm “deportation” in Armenian while referring to Yeghern.121