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

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A page from MihranHovhannisyan’smanuscript “The storyof our house”.er they met each other in Lebanon and got married. Aida was born in Beirut; there were many survivorsthere and she, of course, was well aware of the Genocide from first hand witnesses. However, herparents avoided talking about this. Aida has only seen one of her grandmothers and she does not knowany details about this period of her family history. After finding her relative Knarik Janikyan in 1975 andfinding out her life story, all the emotions and feelings of the narrators and listeners of such stories werea revelation for her. “Only once she spoke about this, only once; she told and... kept silent forever. It wasa great agony for her to talk about this. Although it was clear that she was suffering all the time”.132
“I don’t Know...”Why did this great tragedy happen to us? How is it possible to resolve it? In fact our 35 respondents do notanswer this question. I believe, we can assert that their answer can be summed up as one indefinite statement:“I don’t know.” Many people replied just like that – “I don’t know.” Of course, there are also simplisticanswers, like “Turks did not like Armenians”, “Turks and Armenians do not like each other” (Gyozal Hovhannisyan);“Turks always massacred to get into possession of our wealth, our land” (Almast Harutyunyan);“Because Turks are cruel” (Eleonora Ghazaryan); “Because we are Christians - Turks said, you shouldchange your religion, adopt Turkish religion, but we didn’t want to change our beliefs”, “Turks didn’t wantArmenians to live” (Tamar Poghosyan); “Because Turks are enemies to Armenians” (many respondents),etc. This uncertainty and these answers are very noteworthy. They are at least evidence of one thing – that,despite discussion of various hypotheses of the causes of Genocide, mainly of geopolitical nature, in Armenia’spresent socioeconomic life, in essence, these do not affect the thinking of common citizens. Simple,sensual reasons are more understandable to survivors of massacres, at least to most of our respondents.And, along with this, there is perhaps the desire to refuse comprehending the incomprehensible. How toexplain, how to understand, why something, which cannot be explained by any logic, happened?These questions require answers. In the quest of our respondents around these questions Garegin Chugaszyan’spursuits come to the lack of common sense concerning the notion of “Genocide”: “To say it frankly, Ispoke to numerous people, trying to understand that tragedy... But this is even not a tragedy. A tragedy mustmake sense; when something makes no sense, this is not a tragedy already, it is something else... I tried tofind the sense of the Genocide in literature, in the stories told by people... Me myself, I made an electronicdisk, I looked through an enormous amount of material... Among Chukaszians, the son of my grandfather’sbrother has written a book in America, numerous articles... He described their way of escape through the DerZor desert, which he went along with our relatives; when only he survived... Only he was left alive among ourrelatives, along with another child... Two kids... For a long period of time my father was inviting survivors toour home, he was talking to them, he was recording hours of their conversations. You name it - what thesepeople haven’t told. But I can factually tell it today that I did not understand the essence of this notion...What I was able to understand, is that it wasn’t a simple tragedy... This is a much more complicated problem,it simply... trying to find some sense in it, to see some sense in it all... I don’t know what sense could bethere... what sense can be in it... What for? For the sake of what this sacrifice was made? The bright idea offraternity between Armenians and Turks was on the table, just a few years before this, and it has been sacrificed...To what? ... Who had won? ... What has he won? ... I don’t think that it is only us who lost. It is notonly us, who lost... I do not know how they would evaluate their losses but their... basic grounds were lost...They lost their basic grounds... Turks, Turks have lost their basic grounds... If you look back at the murder of133
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Published by:Institut für Internat
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ContentsForeword...................
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ForewordThe project “Adult Educat
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Aras, Yasin Aras, Welat Ay, Cenk Ce
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The main audience of this book is o
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“Wish they hadn’t left”:The B
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ed by 1915 and where memories of Ar
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1915 tends to be represented by int
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Yet to a large extent, Turkish inte
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this, we can’t. It’s impossible
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een very advanced in trade and craf
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How to Come to Terms with Phantom P
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It is always you who has to be nice
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to the way he was raised: “They f
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empathize with Armenians: “My aun
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Adil is not the only one marked by
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ness may be an attempt to overcome
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dernity and the oral transmission o
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A soup pot with spoons around itAt
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What if My Mother is Armenian?Ruhi
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If I were younger I’d get baptize
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with butter. We’ll serve the impo
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The time Salih and Gavrik are worki
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Turkey’s changing context is refr
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‘It was to be expected.’ And my
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against one another. The feet of th
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Fear of Losing a CityZübeyde was b
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half for me.’ But what do our Mus
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e discussed when the kids were arou
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possible by the difference in relig
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The Charm of AraratMehmet is a 62-y
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dogs protected the sheep against wo
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The Story of the “Night People”
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“I don’t know why, but my grand
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Research in Armenia:“Whom to Forg
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and can generally be located in Tur
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“Whom to Forgive? What to Forgive
Page 82 and 83: “Private Stories”After the esta
Page 84 and 85: Recalling MemoriesOral history diff
Page 86 and 87: In the village of Ujan, where the v
Page 88 and 89: The home-museum of Gevork Chaush in
Page 90 and 91: Memorial in the Ashnak village dedi
Page 92 and 93: other regions are entirely populate
Page 94 and 95: sources and materials for their mem
Page 96 and 97: Ergir’s Soil is Strong, Ergir’s
Page 98: Tatevik, the granddaughterof Mihran
Page 101 and 102: eral meanings in Armenian -”whole
Page 103 and 104: The Gospel with Golden Binding of S
Page 105 and 106: keeps a copper chalice that was bro
Page 107 and 108: In some families the passports of t
Page 109 and 110: at that time, Mustafa and Jamal, wh
Page 111 and 112: People were so frightened to lose g
Page 113 and 114: naked, they were decapitating every
Page 115 and 116: Water, Fire, Desert“There was an
Page 117 and 118: his mother dragged him behind her,
Page 119 and 120: Many of our narrators mention the R
Page 121 and 122: In the word-stock of the survivors
Page 123 and 124: in Kurdish villages, and helping th
Page 125 and 126: “Well, They Are Human Too”Even
Page 127 and 128: member this well, they said, the el
Page 129 and 130: speak to each other. Questioned by
Page 131: Hamze Ptshuk, survived from Hosnut
Page 135 and 136: “My Dear Almast, Write it Down, W
Page 137 and 138: took his rifle and ran. The dog fel
Page 139 and 140: she didn’t tell it to me. In the
Page 141 and 142: elder guy in this house died and hi
Page 143 and 144: AH - Turks always killed to get int
Page 145 and 146: “My Father used to Tell us at Hom
Page 147 and 148: person... I have never seen him, bu
Page 149 and 150: gotten what you knew”. So, out of
Page 151 and 152: a paid Adult Residential Facility,
Page 153 and 154: It was probably after 60s... My fat
Page 155 and 156: the Vardevar 1 day . Even if we mak
Page 157 and 158: that this wasn’t a dream... and..
Page 159 and 160: was our historical village. Nich, I
Page 161 and 162: just filming around myself with no
Page 163 and 164: that person whether I could take a
Page 165: [Turk. wife]”. In the morning I t
Page 168 and 169: 4 Albert Mamikonyan,1953, in Kirova
Page 170 and 171: 11 Almast Harutyunyan,1920, Ujan vi
Page 172 and 173: 18 Eleonora Ghazaryan.1949, Ashnak
Page 174 and 175: 26 Nairi Tajiryan,1936, Egypt (Cair
Page 176: 33 Vazgen Ghukasyan,1933, Ashnak vi
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