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

A wedding and a curse:How did this village end up like this?Salih is born into a village where “Armenians, Greeks and Turks were united.” When he was born, therewere only traces of this “unity” left. These include the stories told by grandparents to grandson, the remainsof old stone houses, and the “last” Armenian neighbor left.Salih tells the story of his grandparents’ wedding to depict life before the deportation and population exchangeremoved Armenians and Greeks from the village:“My grandfather worked a lot with Greeks and Armenians, for he was a butcher. And he had an apprentice.‘Take this and give it to Agop, my boy.’ ‘The apprentice,’ he says, ‘would shake his ass out of pleasure,I mean he’d shake his hips, swing, cheer up.’ Because when he gets there, the Christian tips him.‘That’s why the apprentice,’ he says, ‘waits at the threshold to take meat to the Armenians and Greeks.’Since Armenians and Greeks had very good relationships with my grandfather, they participated in thewedding ceremony. ‘And,’ he says, ‘they all brought baklava [pastry].’ They used to bring huge trays ofbaklava as wedding gifts. People said, ‘Put those brought by the rich in a different pot, for they are made47