PREVIOUSLY we left Daniel with a new pair of shoes every night

FROM DANIEL’S DIARY

30- ‘Dangers of being late to start the daily journey’

‘Walking all day and sometimes at night, with very little food, exhausted us so completely that once we put our heads down on the earth we fell sound asleep. On one occasion mother woke me up and both of us were dismayed to see that the caravan had moved on and could be seen on a distant hill being driven relentlessly forward towards an unknown destination. We scrambled and hurried up to catch up the crowd. Even when you are marching to your death, you feel less worried when you are with a large group.

The important point in this episode is the fact that usually those who did not have the strength to keep up with the face of the caravan or for another reason were left behind and beaten to death.

So, mother and I knew what to expect. Two local gendarmes were around and soon as they saw us one of them started hitting mother with a whip, while I ran to a safe distance, begging him not to kill my mother, every time she stood up to walk to the caravan (she did not have enough strength to run), she was knocked down by gendarmes whip. This was repeated several times while I screamed for mercy. Finally the second Turk, a civilian, who was watching us said: “Let the bitch alone! She is not worth killing”.

At last I was pulling mother after me to join the caravan.

This episode illustrates again the indifference of a victim toward the other victim. We had been sleeping on the mountain-side, in the middle of the caravan but when the order to move on came nobody around us took the trouble to wake us up knowing that it might result in our being beaten to death. We were all brutalized. All people were interested in was to live a day longer’.

31- ‘A thousand people were terrorized by 3 gendarmes.’

‘One thing Europeans have not been able to understand is the fact that during the deportations (1915-1918) sometimes a thousand Armenians would be driven to their death journey by say three mounted gendarmes and there would be no attempt at resistance, why?

First, normally the crowd consisted of women and children, (the men had been taken away, at the start, and massacred).
Second, the Armenians were hungry, sick, exhausted and completely demoralized.
Third, they were driven through hostile territory, thru Turkish villages and tribal areas where the people were encouraged to harass, rob and kill.
Fourth, as I have mentioned in several occasions, there was no esprit de corps, no feeling of togetherness, the general spirit was “sauve qui peut”, there was no concern for the group or the individual neighbor.’

32- Hoping against hope.

‘I have mentioned that we have first been driven to Sultanieh near Koniah and on the way quite a few of us perished. Then we were ordered to retrace our steps. We had to be on the move from one end of the vast empire to the other, until we perished of hunger, thirst, exhaustion decease and occasional massacres by “irresponsible elements”.

At Sultanieh we had been told that we were to return home. Nobody could expect anything good of the Turks, and therefore, we could not believe this news, but we hoped against hope that this might be true. Man will always find a ray of hope in the darkest gloom.

The Turks seem to have made this declaration to reduce the need for gendarmes that accompanied the caravan. To drive a thousand women and children it might be necessary to have 10 gendarmes but when were told that we were going home only 4 or 5 of them could be enough.

After almost a years wondering in the wilderness we finally reached again the out shirts of Marash which had been our first station after Zeitun. Right there, before entering the city, we were made to walk to the east toward the Syrian desert rather than to the north where Zeitun was. Of course, this was no real surprise to us, but still made us feel even more disheartened. Now we had to think of something new in life worth living for. At this time the Armenians of Marash had not been deported as yet. We all had friends and relatives among them, so, when they heard of our arrival and of our misery they came out to meet us, bringing food and clothing and medicine. I will never forget that scene on an open field where the Armenians of Marash were trying to reach us but a great number of gendarmes with whips in their hands rushed around and kept the two groups apart, in that no help or comfort to reach us. They were driven back to the city and we were driven to the desert.’

I got very agitated reading these episodes thinking this could never happen today, because what would a 1000 women brought up in the 21st century, with the word ‘empowerment’ embedded in their psyche, do if they were surrounded by 3 men with guns? Would they be submissive or become so disheartened as to have no empathy for their fellow victims? I thought no, this could never happen today. If they found themselves in a similar situation they would find a way to organize and plot an escape. Surely education, emancipation and being bombarded by the media have changed women in the last one hundred years? But then I think of the 200 or so girls captured by Boko Haram in Nigeria and the villagers in Syria captured by IS and I realize that the whole world can be terrorised by just one person (never mind three!). So I ask myself would we really be able to cope differently in a similar situation?

MORE FROM DANIEL’S DIARY

33- Mother suffers from nightblindness.

‘It must have been the lack of food especially of vitamin A that caused night blindness in many deportees. Mother was one of them as we had to march at night over the rough ground of the mountains, I had to get hold of her hand and guide her, while during the day she would urge me to march on and not stay behind, because those who were straggling behind the crowd were knocked down and killed. On different occasions mother was beaten because she could not catch up with the caravan. She was undernourished and sick. I had to drag her on.

The track we were following was strewn with naked bodies, male and female, young and old. I will never forget the swarms of ants moving into the open wound of dead woman. She must have been about 30. A great number of ants were busily moving in and out of her slashed side. Nobody paid any attention to such scenes.’

TO BE CONTINUED..
Menak Parov…See you next Wednesday