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

e discussed when the kids were around after they grew up. Because I’m in Turkey. My friends, whomI love very much, are Muslims.”Vera said she felt sad upon reading Fethiye Çetin’s book, My Grandmother, as the book reminded her ofher mother-in-law’s experience: “My mother-in-law lived it. An ağa from Diyarbakır came along whenthey were taking her grandmother, mother and father in Tokat. He took my mother-in-law on to hishorse. Her name is Silva, he renamed her Zeynep. They had always called her ‘Gavur girl, gavur girl, gavurgirl.’ She couldn’t bear this word. One day she had the cross in her pocket, the crucifix. The crossfell when she was taking the key out. The lady of the house said, ‘Gavur girl, are you still carrying this?’Then she ran away. She went to the house of my husband’s uncle, found shelter there. Their father hadescaped to Aleppo at the time of the massacre. My father-in-law came from there and saw my motherin-law.They got married, had children.”I the gavur, wet the chestnutsVera tells an interesting anecdote about a conversation she had with Turkish women with whom shewas friends. She overheard one friend telling another that she had done right to move out of her apartment:“‘You did the right thing by renting that house,’ she said, ‘there were gavurs in the lower floor.’ Istared at her. The most civilized, most cultivated of them says ‘gavur’. Previously she had told me to wetthe chestnuts. When she asked about it, I said ‘the Muslim asked me to, and I, the gavur, wet them.’ ‘Areyou talking to me?’ she said. ‘No,’ I said, ‘You are not Zehra. I am talking to another Zehra.’ ‘But,’ shesaid, ‘you said they killed your grandfather.’ I said ‘I stand behind my words. They did kill him. MaybeArmenians did too, but we know about what they went through. I am not the Ottoman’s child. I am theRepublic’s child. I have closed that book.’”Vera remembers the discrimination her elder sister experienced in high school, and how it affected herlife choices: “My father can’t go to the high school to get my sister enrolled. Our tenant Mehmet says,‘I’ll do it but there are only two Christians in the entire school. Let’s not call her Naira, but Lale. Let theirfriends call her Lale.’ My sister was very successful at school. One of the teachers asked, ‘Lale, do youhave another name?’ ‘Arat’s daughter Naira.’ ‘Ok’ she says, ‘are you proud of saying I am a Christian or Iam a Turk?’ Then my sister graduated with an average degree. Mehmet went to see the supervisor, whosaid, ‘Arat’s daughter Naira, what does it matter if her degree is average or high?’ Then my sister didn’tgo to school. After she married a Greek, they called her children ‘Makarios’ children.’ [President of Republicof Cyprus who fought for union with Greece]. That’s why my sister left.”63