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

Ritualization of Past MemoriesIt is hard to estimate the exact number of Armenians comprising 97 percent of the population of the Republicof Armenia who are directly related to Western Armenia and have family or personal memoriesrelated to Turkey and Turks. In addition to Armenians (mostly from Van, Kars, Sasoun, Moush and Bitlis)that survived massacres led by Young Turks and moved to Eastern Armenia, which was under Russianrule, some Armenian refugees who previously escaped to other countries (Iraq, Lebanon, Syria,Egypt, Iran, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, France, Argentine etc.) later on in the twenties, forties and sixties,settled in Armenia in several waves, bringing with them particular stories of their families. Thesewere survivors and their descendants from Western and Southern Turkey, particularly from Adana, Sebastia,Marash, Kesaria etc. They were not only the bearers of memories of massacres that took place inTurkey, but they were also breeding the environment for those memories and feelings.The family stories of those who managed to escape the massacres have penetrated into the families representingthe native population of Eastern Armenia, currently the Republic of Armenia. The ways of “penetration”were various. First of all, most of the initial survivors who managed to escape to Eastern Armenia livedin the houses of locals or in constructions adjacent to them thus making their hosts witness their grief,their sorrow, their feelings and memories. Second, these stories “penetrated” through marriages, as wellas through neighborly and work relationships between the survivors’ descendants and locals. Actually,there are few people in the Republic of Armenia that would not be able to tell a specific story aboutthe events of 1915-1922: “Of the entire family of my daughter-in-law’s grandfather, he was the only oneto survive” (and then follows the story of rescue). “The aunt of my uncle’s granddaughter’s husband escapedfrom the harem of one of the Turkish Beks...”. “The neighbor of our neighbor’s grandfather threwhim over his shoulder and carried him home....”; “My co-worker’s grandfather was raised in an Americanorphanage and until the end of his life he could not forget how his parents were slaughtered in front ofhim”... Stories starting with such introductions could be found everywhere.Similar memories have the descendants of those Yezidis and their families who together with Armenianssurvived the Turkish massacres in1915-20 . . It is safe to say that the majority of Armenia’s currentpopulation is the bearer of such “memories”.In addition to this, there are regions in the Republic of Armenia, which are densely populated with peoplebearing and living with such family memories: there are entire villages and urban districts, wheresurvivors and those who moved to Armenia after extended wandering live together. Current villages insome regions of the Republic of Armenia such as Talin, Kotayk, Armavir, Vardenis and many villages of91