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

was, indeed, covered with trees, forests. Our village was beautifully covered... but... now, from far, thatKurd or the person that was accompanying us, the one they attached to us, he said that ... perhaps Imentioned the Angen Astvatsatsin church during conversation, he said – “There, there”. When we wereentering the village, from far, he said “here is Angen Astvatsatsin church...” It was on the other bank ofthe gorge, about two kilometers away, it was a building... a typical Armenian church... It was far, so Iwasn’t able to take... pictures. About one kilometer from the village, the graveyard is also there, and Iwas going to visit it... Anyway, I took some photos from far, as much as I could... I tried to use the videocamera from far. Zoomed in as much as possible, to make it visible... We reached the village... when wegot out of the car I saw that there were two rivers. One, as I make it now, was coming from the directionof mount Maruta; the other was coming from the south, a small one. There was a drought that time, andboth rivers were small, yes. There was very little water in them... When they stopped, I went out of thecar... I left them there and ran, climbed there; I told them I was going to the village...I was hardly able tocontrol myself... but the village... it seemed, there was no vehicle road there. I found some bridge, ranover it, and then climbed a higher place... What I can remember of my later actions – I tried to film something,told some things into the camera... Then I went up, now I was trying to remember where ourhouse should be... I... could not see these roads... I did not see any streets as such. I didn’t see what mygranddad told me... Yes (coughs from overwhelming emotions. 40 minutes have passed since the beginningof our conversation. He asks his wife to fetch some warm water, drinks it slowly, like he wants togain time)... Very... (pauses for four seconds)... Every time... I told this story thousand times, certainly,and even the thousandth time... (pauses)... Then, I was looking from the high place, didn’t know whereI should go... Suddenly I saw – below, some people were working, building a house. I shouted to them,asking, where is the spring? ... Well, I needed the spring as my landmark... I asked them “where is thespring?” They stopped working, down there, one woman turned to me, inquiring “what are you saying?”... already in our dialect ... I said “I am saying, where is the spring here? tell me quickly...” It was quitelate already, because that person did namaz many times on the way, so it was already evening , it wasseven, or eight in the evening... I was standing near a small stream, their response was in our dialect; itsounded like this: “ed arun pirni kini, khasnis”, which means, “go along the stream, you will get to thespring”... So I went along this stream, to get to the spring. Indeed, it took me there. It was an interestingspring; it was coming out of a rock, like from a cave, sort of... (pauses for six seconds, drinks water)...Then, at the spring, they had made something like a small barrage there... a small lake... and they putlots of stuff there – milk, yogurt – in bottles... they were using it instead of a refrigerator. Later I understoodwhat was happening. There, naturally... I was looking at this water, I was thinking the following:for a single drop of this water, what they would give ... those who aren’t with us anymore... our people.But now you came, the spring is in front of you, drink as much as you want, you can wash for everyone,if you want, do whatever you want... That is it... Either you drink it, or you wash... You do not understandwhat are you doing (pauses for three seconds). Then, at some point, I saw it... when I climbed there, ithappened so that my video camera was left hanging on my shoulder, just the camera, nothing else. So,I saw this just because the camera was going to fall into the water. I took the camera, I felt as it I had alreadycalmed down a little, and now I was looking for this mndrveni tree. There were lots of huge nuttrees; the village was covered with nut trees; you couldn’t see the village behind them. So I was filming,160