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

she didn’t tell it to me. In the morning they came, took Paytsar and buried her. Her brother was youngerthan my mother, he was ten years old; [one day] he said “Haykanush, please go, beg for this much honey,bring it for me to eat” /showed the measure of honey on his little finger/. My mother said she knewthat Kurdish children used to hound dogs on us. She said “I didn’t go, I stayed outside for quite sometime, then I came back and said “I couldn’t get it, my dear Serob”. Her brother died from hunger on thatvery day. They took and buried him next to Paytsar.My mother said there was a small Kurdish village uphill. She said, “One Kurd came, that Saro, ChristlessSaro came, pointed at me, wanted to take me as his wife.” She tells, they put me on his horse, he tookme to his house. He had five wives. So they laid her in bed with this Kurd on that very day. That Kurd feltpity for my mother. My mother got away at night, she ran away but then she came back to this Kurd’shouse. Kurd’s wives had well beaten her up, but the Kurd felt pity about her, so he put my mother on hishorse and he brought her back to her relatives in Tapi.Then our people decided to go to Moush; the Russian army was there, so they wanted to get close to theRussian army. They got up at night to move to Armenia. There in Tapi there was a woman, she had aneight year old son, and his name was Murad. My mother used to tell “Almast, it was such a beautifulchild.” His mother died, so ours decided to take him with them. On the way my mother and this Muradweren’t able to walk anymore. My mother said to them “Please leave us at this gate.” They didn’t knowwhether this was an Armenian or Turkish village, but she said “You go your way.” My mother said “Thefingers [on my feet] were wounded from pebbles, I couldn’t walk.” The same happened to this poor Murad.So, they sat at that gate.At dawn a huge Turkish woman opened the gate. “So, you are Armenians? You survived? Where did youcome from?” She took us in, we didn’t speak Turkish, I said to her in Kurdish “They killed everyone, wewalked and reached here, and this is my brother.” This woman said “I have no children, if I take you tothe minaret, change your names would you like it if I make you my boy and my girl?” I told her “Yes.”For one month she was keeping us well, she was bathing us. I too, was waking up early, I was doing allthe house work, washing the dishes, sweeping the rooms. One day, at dawn, she took a large stick in herhand and started to beat us severely while we were still asleep... She heard that Andranik pasha wascoming with his volunteers... The whole village fled, got away, they didn’t tell her, she just found it out...She brought us to the bank of Murad River. Everyone whom they had stolen – beautiful young girls, theybrought and threw them in this river. I told her “dear ana [Turk. mother], we do not know Andranik, wehave never seen him, we didn’t betray you, please, don’t through us into the river.” She first threw Murad;shouting, Murad was drafting down this Batmana River... I fell on my knees, kissing her feet, I said toher “My dear ana, do not kill me, I was a good daughter to you.” My mother tells, “She pushed me downinto the water, too. I could swim a little, but as soon as I was putting my foot on the ground, I was fallingagain.” Finally, my mother somehow managed to get to the shore and lost her consciousness. [At thattime] Andranik pasha sent some people to check the shores of the river... They went there and foundmy mother. That part was told to me by my uncle – my mother’s cousin. He doesn’t know the name of139