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

AH – Turks always killed to get into possession.They possessed all the Armenianwealth.HKh – So they massacred, to get the possessionof Armenian wealth?AH – They took possession of land and ofwealth. One of my father’s brothers... he was18 years old... his name was Parman... He alsogot away, survived, my father didn’t knowabout this. There was our neighbor Zavenhere ... together with his father. His fathercame to our house, he told us. I was a seventhyear schoolgirl then. He told this to myfather, he said “Parman and I, we [worked]for a Turkish ‘agha’. I was weaving canvas,and Parman was tailoring packsaddles forthe mules”. He said, one day he told me “uncleKarapet, I know where our gold is hidden.If we tell this to our ‘agha’, we can go andget it, we will give half of it to him and willtake the other half for me and for you”. Hesaid “I will tell him tomorrow”. He said, whenhe told this, he did not let Parman work anymore,he took Parman and they went. Hetook out the gold but only gave two goldcoins to my uncle. Then he told another Turk“go kill him, then you can take that two goldcoins for yourself”. So then they killed himfor this gold.Almast’s mother Haykanush from Grasira village of Batmana field.Turks got into possession of ou land, of our wealth. Listen, I will tell you another story. Where I workedas a school teacher, there was one woman; her name was Satik, she was very smart. One day she toldme, the massacres had started already, and she said, her mother took their ghee, it was in leather bags,she took it on her shoulders, going to through it into the river. She thought, when the massacres areover, they would go and take it out . She said “So, my mother went with my brothers, my father and hisbrother were ill, lying on the ground, I was standing and the hearth was burning high. I saw how a groupof Turks came in and said “get up, give us your gold”. My father said “We have no gold. We have manysheep and cows, take them all”. “No, get up and bring the gold, or I will kill your brother in your pres-143