Previously in episode 2 we left Daniel’s diary with a rifle found in the family barn by the Ottoman authorities.….As far as I know, we were not held responsible for hiding a gun’

 FROM DANIEL’S DIARY.

10- FIGHTING IN THE MONASTERY

It must have been about March 1915. The Ottoman government had decided to exterminate the Armenian population of the empire, beginning with Zeitun, the town it had failed to subdue for five centuries.

Zeitun decided to submit and comply with orders because:

1-Catholicos and other Armenian leaders told them that otherwise the Armenians in the rest of the empire would suffer dire consequences.

2-Germany was an ally of Turkey and had given its modern weapons very different from those of the old days.

3-The harvest had not yet been gathered and winter provisions were exhausted. On every occasion Zeitun had waited until wheat and grapes other winter provisions were in before they defied the government, while controlled all the fields and vineyards.

4- Zeitun was relatively modernized. There were educated people who read newspapers and thought understood politics. In the old days there were feudal lords, Ishkhans who commanded explicit obedience and who fought oppression without too much thought about consequences.

Zeitoun 1875

The steps by which Zeitun was destroyed:

1-Zeitun was crowded with Turkish troops.
2-Young men of military age were conscripted and taken out of the region to eliminate the fightingmen.
3-Assurances of good and fair treatment were given officially and through Armenian leaders outside Zeitun.

1-   Zeitun’s leaders were induced to surrender their outlaws (éshkhié) about 200 who were promised fair treatment.
2-   All weapons were collected.
3-   All leaders were taken into custody and carried to Marash.
4-   The population, now helpless, was deported.
5-   The town was burned, the Turks had vowed that they would complete by destroy by sew wheat, where the town had been.
6-   In 1921, when the holocaust was over of 30000 Armenians of the region only 3000 had survived.

NY times 1896

There were a handful of youngmen who refused to surrender. About 18 of them  took refuge outside the town in the monastery (Asdvadzadzine) and fought a successful one-day battle against an army of several thousand men with modern weapons. From our roof I watched the fighting and the next day the burning of the monastery. The brave youngmen withdrew to the mountains and kept on fighting for four years and many of them were alive at the end of the war.

Strange as it sounds but reading my grandfather’s diary entries on this blog is like reading them again for the first time.  They inspire a multitude of emotions some of which I have not looked at or questioned in a long long time.  Interestingly enough, I’m not a stranger to gunshots as the first gunshot I ever heard was at my teacher’s wedding on the first day of the Lebanese Civil War. It was  15^th April 1975, a date no Lebanese will ever forget.  Just like no Armenian will ever forget 24^th of April 1915.  That gunshot changed my life just like it changed Daniel’s seventy-five years earlier.  I definitely cannot compare my journey to that of Daniel’s but it makes me think of my six-year-old grandfather’s experience in comparison to my own.  I think that no matter the situation the fear and pain of helplessness in the face of war is the same in Zeitun, in Beirut and today in Damascus or Baghdad.  Whether you are all alone or surrounded by supportive parents, the forced change scars you and transforms you forever. But I also realize that without that turning point I would not be the person I am today.  I would not have studied in the States, worked in England, risen to the top of my career and the advice I have for my own kids would perhaps have been tempered differently if not for that gunshot. Every person has an inflection point in their lives which shapes who they will become and though I wish less dramatic ones for my kids I cannot help but think that the one which Daniel experienced has resonated down the years to all his descendants in one way or another.

Saatchi & Saatchi advertising

Lebanese war

Boston university

The 1st bullet that started the Lebanese war

And here is Daniel’s Diary to keep you going until next time…

 FROM DANIEL’S DIARY.

11. TORTURES OF NAZARETH CHAVACH

All the éshkhiéh and leaders of Zeitun were tortured and hanged in Marash but worst tortures were reserved for Nazaret Chavach Norashkharian.

His nails were pulled out, His flesh was cut in little pieces causing him terrible suffering for days…..

To be continued..
Menak Parov…See you next time.