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

the village but it was a Turkish village on the banks of the Batmana Murad River. My mother said “Theybrought me to Mush, and then handed me to an American orphanage there.” Well, my mother sufferedso much; she tells “I was weeping day and night.” Housemother was asking her “Dear Haykanush, whydo you cry? We will go to Armenia, we will take you with us.” So, my mother stayed there. [In the meanwhile]our people came, they also reached Moush. They also brought my two younger uncles, my mother’scousins, to this same orphanage. They brought them to this asylum and they saw that my motherwas there too. My mother was the elder, she was 13, and these were younger. She said, after one monththey came, took these children, so that they were going to Armenia, on foot. Whatever way my motherasked them, her uncles did not take her. They didn’t take her, because they took her once on foot andshe couldn’t walk, so they had to leave her at a foreign village, near some gate. That is why they didn’ttake her. She said, “I cried so much, housemother came, she said do not cry, we will go there on a cart,while they had to go on foot. We will take you right to Armenia.” So, my mother stayed at the asylum,and then they brought them in carts. They first came to Leninakan, then from Leninakan to Yerevan,and from Yerevan they brought her to the Ashtarak asylum.Now about my father. They were five sisters and three brothers. His sisters were already married. Theyall have been murdered along with their families, none survived. None of the sisters survived. Neitherhis sisters, nor their children. My father was married in Ergir 1 , he had a daughter. During the massacresthey killed his wife, his daughter, his parents – everyone. If not for one kind Turkmy father would havebeen killed in the watermill too.My father worked as miller, at the water mill ... Ashe-Alodina - there is a Turkish village near Tigranakert.‘Ashe’ means water mill, Alodina was the name of the owner of the mill. So, a few Turks worked there.His father – my father’s father – had placed all their golden coins in a pitcher. He gave fifty golden coinsto each of his children, then he buried the pitcher under the fireplace slab; he said “Whoever survives,he may come and take the pitcher.” One of the brothers, too, was a miller at a Turkish water mill, hehad three sons. My father’s younger brother also survived, but my father didn’t know this, up to the end.So my father was at the mill, then a kind Turkish man came and told him “run away if you can. They arecoming now, they will kill you”. My father immediately [went away], there were some small trees and[he hid] there. He said, “I hadn’t gone even hundred meters, some horsemen came, stopped at the milldoor. So, my father got away, he came to the village Asi. This was a Kurdish village. There were goodKurds in the Sheko house, they rescued many Armenians. He came to their house, he saw there werequite many Armenians there...This Kurd’s wife was a large woman; she was baking glgili bread on saj[Arab. iron dome-shaped pan]. So, she was baking it, giving it to our Armenians, the same. She was sucha good woman. They were good people. There was a [boy] named Poghos, he was from the Hazo town...He was such a brave boy, Turks were not able to take him over. Turks had put a price that his head wasworth 100 gold coins. Those who would kill Poghos, bring over his head, would get 100 gold coins. So, the1 In this context the word Ergir denotes homeland.140