Survivors Of Armenian Genocide Speak Out
BY DAN MILLER

(L. to r.): Hingeni Evernsel, age 100, Perouz Kalousdian, age 98, Charlotte Kechejian, age 95, and Helen Hajinian, age 100, all faced death but survived to help document the atrocities committed against them by the Turks.

On Sunday March 30, five women who live at the New York Armenian Home for the Aged in Flushing and whose ages ranged from 98 to 103, spoke in broken English or with the assistance of translators about the atrocities that they and their families faced during World War I at the hands of the Young Turks. On hand were some college students and family members of the survivors who gathered in the first floor meeting room to hear their stories. All of the stories were similar. The survivors remembered that when they were little girls their families were attacked by Turks, who took the men in their families away and murdered them. In some cases, the survivors actually witnessed the killings of their parents, grandparents and other relatives.

Dr. Dennis Papazian, Chairman of the Board of the Knights of Vartan, Mid- Atlantic Lodges, in his opening remarks detailed the atrocities that the Turks committed against the Armenian people. April 24, the annual worldwide commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, marks the beginning of an organized campaign by the government of the Young Turks to eliminate the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire. On Apr. 24, 1915, more than 200 Armenian religious, political and intellectual leaders were arrested in Constantinople, (Istanbul) taken to the interior of Turkey and systematically murdered. The incident was part of a pattern of persecution that began in 1894 and lasted until 1923. From 1894 through 1896, 300,000 Armenians were massacred during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Abduyl Hamid II. In 1909, Armenians were massacred in the area of Cilicia. From 1915 to 1923, 1,500,000 Armenians were killed and more than 500,000 were exiled from the Ottoman Empire. The current Turkish Parliament denies that these atrocities ever took place, very much like those who deny that Nazi Germany's extermination of European Jews never took place. The book The Armenian Genocide, News Accounts From the American Press (1915-1922) by Richard D. Kloian, which Papazian displayed, is one refutation of those who would deny the Genocide. Another is the accounts of the survivors.

Onorik Eminian, age 95, was the first to speak. "Are there any Turks among us?" she asked. At her left is Adriyan Bagciyan, 98.

Introduced by Aghavni Ellian, New York Armenian Home executive director, the Genocide survivors who reside at the home then told their stories.

Dr. Dennis Papazian, board chairman, Knights of Vartan, Mid-Atlantic Lodges, displays a copy of The Armenian Genocide, News Accounts From the American Press (1915-1922) by Richard D. Kloian as Armenian Home Executive Director Aghavni Ellian (r.) and translators look on.

Onorik Eminian, born in Izmir on May 5, 1913, now age 95, was the first to speak. The first words she spoke- in Armenian- were, "Are there any Turks among us?" Her terror was still evident, although she finally calmed down after beginning to feel comfortable with her visitors.

In 1915 she was playing ball when the Turkish officers came on horses and she saw the Armenians running away trying to escape from them. She said, "The dogs [referring to the Turks] were sitting on their horses, throwing knives at the men." Her grandmother came out and shouted at her to come into the house. She and her grandmother ran to a neighbor's house and climbed a stepladder to get to the roof to get away from the oncoming Turks.

The Turks returned and came to her house, looking for her father. They pulled her hair but her mother stood up to them and told them to leave her alone, "She is only a little girl," her mother said to the Turks. When her father came home he was grabbed by the Turks and taken upstairs where he was beaten, Eminian said. The Turks later took him away and returned with his bloodsoaked jacket and pants, telling the women that he was dead. She never saw her father again. Eminian's mother protested and was shot along with Eminian's baby brother and grandmother. Eminian was then hit with the butt of a rifle and began to bleed. She escaped to her next-door neighbor who put salt on the wound to stop the bleeding.

Adriyan Bagciyan, age 98, was born Nov. 27, 1909 in Adabazar. Bagciyan was a little girl when the Turks came to her house and murdered her father, grandfather and grandmother by hitting them with their rifle butts in front of her before she fled to the Northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

Three more survivors who live on the second floor of the Home shared their stories of horror. Perouz Kalousdian, now 98, was born in Palu on Dec. 23, 1909 and was six years old when she witnessed the genocide in her hometown. She said, "The Turks came and took all of the males over 15 [including her uncle] from [her] home, tied them up two by two and threw them over the bridge into the Yeprad (Euphrates) River." She was one of the lucky ones. Her grandmother had sent her father and another uncle to the United States before the Turks came. Her father brought her mother and her to America. With tears in her eyes she concluded, "I have suffered a lot."

One-hundred-year-old Hingeni Evernsel was born in Ordu on Mar. 15, 1908. "The Turks came and took my family," she said. She survived to remember the nightmare that is still with her more than 90 years later.

Helen Hajinian, another centenarian, was born in Smyrna Feb. 24, 1908. Hajinian was five years old when the Turks took the professional men in her town from their homes with their hands in chains. "They lined them up in [the] garden, my uncle, my father and they killed them," she said. Hajinian speaks to school groups that visit the home. The first thing she tells the Armenian children is: "You have to marry an Armenian."

Charlotte Kechejian, now age 95, was born in Nikhda on July 12, 1912. "I never got to get acquainted with [my father]," Kechejian said. She remembered that her mother took her on a long journey, walking in the desert to escape from her hometown and from the murderous Turks. As they walked in the hot desert she asked for water but was told by her mother, " My dear little daughter, just a little more, a little more."

"I lived because they sent my shirt to Jerusalem to be blessed," she said. Her story has a happier ending. Kechejian was 10 years old and her mother 33 when they finally came to America. They settled in The Bronx. "I had a wonderful life. I had four children. I sent them all to college. I feel I am in the right place. I thank America for it," she said.

The visit to the Armenian Home for the Aged was scheduled to highlight the upcoming Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, which will take place in Times Square in Manhattan on Sunday afternoon, April 27 at 2 p.m. All Americans as well as Armenian-Americans, are invited. Information on free busses is available at 718-352-2587, 718-631-2247, 718-316- 3430, 718-445-6474 or 718-891-8486.