Haunted By Memory

[MosJan]

Haunted by Memory: Genocide leaves its mark on boy who lost 30 members of his family

 

By Marianna Grigoryan

ArmeniaNow Reporter

 

“So many Armenians were killed and tortured by the Turks that the Kars canyon was full of corpses. We walked through the corpses, on the corpses. Bodies were everywhere. And the Turkish bullets and shells poured like rain on those still alive.”

 

The terrifying memories of his childhood stir pain in the memory and heart of 93-year-old Baghdasar Hakobyan. He no longer sees well but the visions of his past come hurtling back through the decades like the “Turkish bullet” of memory.

 

For “grandpa” Baghdasar, the Armenian massacres and his escape are an indelible history that deprived him of relatives, parents and childhood.

 

30 members of Baghdasar’s family were massacred during the genocide

30 members of Baghdasar’s family were massacred during the genocide

He was born in the village of Ziraklu near Kars, where he lived with his parents, three brothers and a large extended family before the killings. As a five-year-old boy at the time, he says, he does not remember everything, but some scenes have haunted him ever since.

 

“Before we fled from Ziraklu, the Turks called my father and my elder brother and killed both of them,” he remembers. “Then our lives turned into long years of refuge with terrifying stories.”

 

Grandpa Baghdasar says there were almost 30 in his big family, living together in a big house in the traditional way for that time. The sad page of their history began in 1918.

 

“When the slaughter began some of us somehow escaped, the rest were either missing or dead from illness or the Turkish bullet,” he says.

 

“When the Turks began the massacre, we left our native village and fled. First, we escaped to Kars. They used to catch people and push them into the hay stores and burn them alive. The smoke spread into the world.”

 

After the murder of his father and eldest brother, responsibility for the family fell on Baghdasar’s mother Antaram. Baghdasar remembers her with a smile, trying to revive her beauty in his mind.

 

The old man says the Turks would take away the beautiful Armenian women, which is why his mother always covered her face with a veil and spread soot over her beautiful features.

 

“The road was terrible; we understood later what deprivations our mother suffered to keep us alive,” tells Baghdasar. “For three years she passed broken hearted and exhausted through the Turk’s fire, against starvation and illness, with my two brothers by her side and me in a bag.”

 

“People endured hardships, many of them were unable to stand. Besides the difficulties on the road, the Turks would frequently attack and torture Armenians, throw them into rivers, or have them shot, killed and burned.”

 

He adds: “They were horrifying times. We walked slowly at the back of someone’s carriage, we were hungry and homeless.”

 

Eventually, Baghdasar arrived on foot in Armenia with his mother and one of his brothers.

 

“On the road a terrible illness hit the refugees and it took my other brother’s life away,” he says in explanation.

 

Baghdasar’s mother also died soon after reaching Armenia, totally worn down by the hardship and illness during the journey.

 

“I remember very well it was spring when we came to Armenia, but there was snow. Since we were orphans, we were immediately taken to the Gyumri orphanage where there were many children like us,” he recalls.

 

“Those were years of hunger and disease and people lived hard. Many children died, unable to stand the conditions.”

 

Baghdasar grew at the orphanage and at age 10 he began tending cattle in the village of Getashen in Hoktemberyan region to be able to earn his piece of bread.

 

“I had nobody to care for me, to send to school to get educated. There was nobody to look after me so I tried to somehow look after myself.”

 

Later, as an adult, Baghdasar began working in construction. In the 1930s, he built his house in Yerevan with his own hands and in 1937 he married Satenik.

 

“Then the Patriotic War began and I lost my last kin, my only brother who had survived. I was badly wounded in the battlefield and sent back to Armenia.”

 

At home, Baghdasar and Satenik raised six children. Baghdasar became a respected specialist at the oil and soap factory, tended his garden and enjoyed his children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren. He has 29 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

 

“Only I remained from our family” – regularly sitting by his house or under the trees, Baghdasar recounts his story to his old friend and neighbor Stepan, 80.

 

The talks of the two friends on the past days are very different: the escape, the Patriotic War, the USSR years, the present government, Kocharyan and politics…

 

Baghdasar has grown apricots, apples, and grapes for many years. Glancing over to one corner of his garden, he smiles and says: “The crop in my garden seems good this year. It’s a pity I don’t see well any more and my health has worsened, otherwise I would cultivate the garden again and see the trees bloom every spring.”