Previously we left Daniel and his mother deported from Zeitoun.

FROM DANIEL’S DIARY.

Daniel’s handwritten diary

15- MY FIRST VIEW OF MARASH

As we left Zeitun we were fortunate to secure a donkey on which we loaded a few essentials-food, clothing and bedding, while mother and I walked. In about 10 hours we reached the top of Kiavour Dagh (Mountain of unbelievers that is Christians).

I have a vivid memory of the beautiful view of Marash and its great plain from the top of mountain Kiavour Dagh. I could see a checkered plain of many colors-red, green, brown, black. I could also hear the humming of a great city.

Under the insults of the Turkish mob of Marash, I saw the furtive and frightened looks of the local Armenians from behind closed windows looking at at us. We were marched into a stable in a khan (inn) and must have spent a day or two in that inn, after which we were marched out to an undisclosed destination.

All I could see of Marash was as a captive, being marched out of the town, under the whips of the Turkish Zaptieh.

16- OUR IMMEDIATE DESTINATION

Deported Armenian Women

We had no idea where we were being driven but as we walked we realized where we were going. It seems those of Zeitun were destined for immediate destruction and driven south-east to the Syrian desert. Helpless children, widows and invalids- like mother and I, whose immediate destruction was not considered necessary, were driven in the opposite direction to the west. So we found ourselves passing through Bulanik Bahjeh, Keller, Koniah and finally Sultanieh.

It was the policy of the Turkish government to have the refugee caravans avoid the main road and the great cities which meant walking most of this time through mountain trails and deserted wilderness under the whip of mounted Zaptiehs. The government had two purposes in avoiding the main roads:

1-To prevent foreigners and certain progressive Turks from seeing the suffering inflicted.

2- To make it easier for robbers, bandits and convicts who were ilberated for this specific purpose to feel free to rob, rape and kill.

17- THREE MONTHS IN SUTLANIEH

Sultanieh was three hours walk from Koniah, and that seemed to be our destination for the time being. Personally I have no memory of it whatsoever but mother tells me that what struck her as peculiar to Sultanieh was the extreme filth and abundance of flies. As the women opened the dough to make bread, swarms of flies would hover on it and refuse to budge. Mother said that the women teamed up and as some were busy with the dough, others would be driving the flies away. Mother was surprised how we survived that filth for about three months.

Beirut, during the civil war

After the war

We commemorated the Armenian Genocide a few weeks ago now as well as the Lebanese civil war and so many other wars are commemorated in our world…But what does it really mean to each and every one of us? As I sat my children down the to tell them about this blog, the history of their great grandfather and what happened to the Armenians living under Ottoman rule, my children’s first question was did the genocide happen because we were bad people? I replied that of course we were not bad people. Why then did it happen they asked? How to explain man’s inhumanity to man to a nine and twelve year old? Where to start? The whole conversation was enough to drive me for a drink but it also drove me to think how I feel about ethnic cleansing. Such a dirty term and so hard to believe that it applies to me and my people, when I have not actually experienced such hatred in my life. Our children definitely need to know the facts of history but how do we explain them without transferring hatred…

And here is the cliffhanger

FROM DANIEL’S DIARY.

Daniel’s handwritten diary

18- ‘BACK HOME’

One of those “good days” a herald was sent around to our camp announcing that his majesty the Sultan, in his “great mercy” for his Armenian subjects wished to allow us to return to our home town. We were also told to leave all our belongings, whatever some families had managed to bring as far as Sultanieh and start walking homeward. We were promised that our goods would be dispatched soon by train to us.
We suspected (not me of course, I mean the older people among us) some devilish design in this announcement but there was nothing we could do about it. The people hoped against hope that this might be true.

Soon it became evident that this deception was used to make our movements easier. and lighter. Since we were “going home” it was not necessary to have as many gendarmes to accompany the caravans. We could not expect anything good from the Ottoman government but we did not also realize that this was to be the beginning of a march to death.

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