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

that person whether I could take a few nuts I said, “is this Toro’s tree?” He first said “yes” without hesitation,then I asked him again, I said “Is this certainly Toro’s tree?” He said “it seems to me, I don’t know,indeed”... That tree, it has some history attached to it... Simply, they killed Toro on that tree... that tree...Toro was ninety something years old, it was near their house, and the tree was near our house. Is thistree still there? ... I don’t know, was it that very tree on which they killed him? It was a large nut tree...We approached the tree , two of us; we picked a few nuts from that tree... but it wasn’t ripe then... Finally,I got this too... So, I already did everything as ordered, seems, I didn’t have any problems, becauseI had only this in my memory, everything else I did not remember. That I had to go to the church; thatI took incense and candles – everything was erased completely. I only remembered at some point that,when I come back, everyone else would be asking “what about our house?”... I only remembered this. SoI was asking randomly about this one’s house, and that one’s. For example, suppose “Iricok’s house, thehouse of the chaplain, their house”, or Avushokn’s... house – where is it? ... So I asked this all, and therewas no response. But it seems that someone said, this is Avushokn’s house, perhaps. I went to go there,I saw, at the door... there were two women standing there. When I came close, they simply ran away.They ran away into the house, there was no one left around, so I didn’t enter... Then one of them cameto me, asking “are you hungry?” ... in Armenian. I said, yes... by that time, it was already one week... Ihad lost probably some 10 kilograms at least... because I wasn’t able to eat anything, I was only drinkingtea. The tension was huge; it was terrible, very tense. I said “yes”, and went. I went back to the car,then I saw that they all gathered there, they brought something, some food – gatah, a bread loaf, yogurt,sugar, tea, there was something else – “chechil” cheese (a sort of cheese). That was it, perhaps... I cameclose, there was some conversation; this is all on the film, these conversations. It is interesting that I...I was talking calmly already; I was really very calm... I was talking, telling that the river is coming fromthat side, telling things like that. I managed to film this; this is all on film. And then I thought – do thesepeople speak Armenian, or not? I asked “who speaks Armenian here?” No one responded. That person,who came to me, they pushed him to me, telling “talk in Armenian”. I asked “do you speak Armenian?”He didn’t. Then, I don’t know where from, there came a soldier, with automatic gun on his shoulder. Hewas in military dress. Just out of fun, or what, I don’t know why, I asked him “Do you speak Armenian?You speak Armenian?” This has been filmed. He stood straight, that thing... weapon – he took it andstood still, didn’t say anything (pauses four seconds) Well, leave this... So, we come back...HKh – So, these people, weren’t they interested to know who you were, where you came from?VT – I am telling you, there was so much material for discussion, but I already did what I told, what Iwanted. Because everything else was erased, only this was left [in my memory]... I did this, everythingelse was erased completely. So, we were coming back... we came back... We were to come to Meydan, so Icould pick up my documents. We came, reached Meydan, it was dark already. So I see that they changed– the soldiers changed. These were a little older and, as far as I could tell it, they were higher in rank.They took us there, asking “who are you, what are you doing?” ... Yes, always, by the way, I would liketo point out the following: whenever we entered anywhere, it was hot, they always offered us some water,tea, both of them, they were offering... Finally he spoke, asked questions, and I was trying to explain163