a little something for someone who loves Ataturk

[Thai-Samurai]

Bridges: A survivor remembers a father’s good work and a Turk’s kindness

By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Red and white grapes twist in the old man’s hands, slipping into the bowl. Andranik Tachikyan begins separating the sweet tasted bunches of grape – one to eat, one to make wine.

Memories of a tragic childhood are kept in a pasta package . . .

He was a small child when he used to take bunches into his hands squeezing them and having fun of it.

Andranik’s family was well known in the Turkish city of Tripoli (now in Lebanon).

His parents and ancestors, Andranik says, were wealthy famous people possessing a big garden, a pharmacy, endless fields of wheat and tobacco and a mansion that they lost in one day when the mass extermination of Armenians began.

“My father was Dutch, his name was Pierre Van Moorsel. He was a famous man, a doctor and engineer, who had built several bridges,” tells Andranik, taking his father’s visit card from a pile of papers. “My mother was Armenian, her name – Arshaluys. She was a kind woman, who lost almost everything during the genocide and stood against all the pain and trouble alone.”

“When the bridge was ready all our family used to sit under the brand new bridge and loaded cars used to pass over it,” remembers Andranik, who is now 94. “That was the way and the bridge builder knew that building a bad bridge will first of all threaten the life of his family. But everyone knew about the strong bridges my father used to build. We were confident nothing will happen to us, but neither his fame nor his descent saved him.”

Fixing his eyeglasses Grandpa Andranik brings the military green tie and garment into order and begins bothering with his documents.

The old man who served in the Military Registration and Enlistment Office for 55 years tries to substantiate everything he says, bringing arguments showing the shabby-yellow documents or photographs.

“This is the only picture of the massacre times,” he tells. “This is the only thing that has remained from our wealth, years and life.”

Mother Arshaluys is in the middle, and Andranik and his sister Mariam are on the sides.

The faded photographs are as old as the fading remembrance, the childhood memories and difficulties of genocide times.

“I was small; there are some dates and names I can’t remember, but there are several things I remember very well,” tells Andranik. “The Turks on horses with swords in their hands either killed people or threw them into the river. The scene was horrifying. Although my father was a Dutch, they killed him and my older brother as Armenians. We were shocked and horrified. We did not know where to go and what to do without father. We left home, fame, wealth and took the way of refuge – starving and barefooted.”

Andranik remembers their gardener, a Turk, reached them in a difficult moment and “saved us away from the sword”.

“Our Turkish gardener was very loyal to my father and our family, because we treated all of them very well. As soon as the massacres began, he saved us, endangering his own life. He took my mother, my sister and me under a bridge my father had built,” he says. “Everything went wrong, people could not save their children from the Turks’ swords; we would not survive if it were not for the gardener.”

Andranik remembers the grass was high under the bridge and the gardener kept them there.

“We stayed there for a while. Every day our gardener would secretly bring us sunflower seeds, hazelnut oil cake and we ate it until the Americans entered Tripoli,” he says. “Then the Americans found us and sent us to Greece by sea.”

Andranik says he remembers the orphans and the exhausted people gathered by the ship.

“Everyone cried by the ship, for they couldn’t believe they have been saved at last. My mother would also cry, she would squeeze us to her breast and cry loudly,” he remembers. “Then the ship took us to Greece. We move to Armenia from Greece.”

Andranik says they saw many difficulties in Armenia at the beginning.

“We had a marvelous big house in Tripoli and lived in gorgeous conditions. When we came to Armenia we were allotted an barn in one of the suburban sovkhozes (state farms) of the city.”

And then he adds: “But we were happy we were alive.”

“Although my mother never forgot our house, my father and my brother, however, after many years, life changed and we started everything over again. We worked and had a home; we married and tried to live and to continue our life in the Motherland.”

[Thai-Samurai]

http://armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=1117&lng=eng&IID=1049

The Song Survives: Shmavon and his memories of life in Zrchi
By Mariam Badalyan
ArmeniaNow reporter


Hand-drawn memories

He sings in a low voice, almost whispering, a song about Yaghluja mount. Tears fall from his 93-year old eyes and wash away the present and take Shmavon Sahakyan back to Zrchi, the foothill village of his distant youth.
Shmavon stops singing, and collects his thoughts, to tell his story without confusion.

“I cannot forget our house, our yard, our orchards. I am thinking of them day and night. It may happen that I see them again one day, but I don’t think I will. I wish at least my son Samvel could go there to see it, I don’t know, the whole world is making efforts today for these lands to be returned,” he says.

Samvel is Shmavon’s youngest son. He spreads on the table the map of Zrchi drawn by Shmavon and says: “Everything is drawn in detail. Here was our ancestral house, here was the watermill of the village that again belonged to them. I think that one day I will certainly visit the village to see my father’s birthplace.”.

Zrchi was one of the 859 villages of the Kars province (according to data from 1913). It was situated between the cities of Kars and Kaghzvan and home to about 1,500.

Shmavon, the grandson of Mkrtich and Maro, says with pride that theirs was one of the richest families in the village. He remembers his father, Sahak, and mother, Noyem.

“My mother was very beautiful. They say that when my father brought my mother to the village as a bride on horseback, his fellow-villagers said: ‘Hey, man, what a marvelous woman you have brought!’ To preserve her beauty they even bathed her in milk,” says grandfather Shmavon and continues: “We had a van, carts, many hectares of grain and barley fields.”

Color turns to black and white when the old man’s memory turns to “the stampede”.

The Kars province of Western Armenia was near Eastern Armenia. Its location made it more secure, or so it was supposed. The few such as Shmavon, left to tell of villages like Zrchi, know terribly well that no Armenian territory was safe against Ottoman Turk aggression.

“The massacres had begun long before 1918. News about brutalities was reaching us. Like others my grandfather decided to take his family towards Alexandrapol (today’s Gyumri), which was 50-60 kilometers away from where we lived,” he remembers.

They emigrated in April 1918, when Shmavon was six. There were four brothers, including Shmavon – Hayko, Vagharshak, Vorontsov. They had one sister, Varsik. In conditions of famine and poverty in Armenia the grandfather, grandmother, uncle died.

The “rich” family had lost everything by the time they settled down in Armenia, in the village of Aramus (then later to a village, the name of which Shmavon has forgotten, on the bank of the Akhuryan River).

Poverty became so severe that the father decided to take the family back to Zrchi. There, they found only ruins.

“They plundered everything. We didn’t have anything for our living. I remember how we took the logs of our house, hewed them and put on our backs. This is 1919 year. We were taking them to the mountain, to the Kurds who had their yaylas (tents) and exchanging them for firewood and tan (the popular Armenian drink made of yoghurt, water and salt) to have something to drink. We were so hungry that we ate grass,” he remembers.

Shmavon’s father saw the only salvation for his children in an orphanage.


Songs of the village are part of Shmavon’s recollection

“I feel as if it was yesterday. My father took us in turn on his back to the other bank of the river Akhuryan. We also brought with us the sewing-machine of our mother to sell it so that we could live for a few days,” says Shmavon.

In the autumn of 1919, they were already in Gyumri’s orphanage with four children, as he himself says in “polygons”district. His eldest brother Hayko died still in “that country” (Western Armenia). He had gone to Kaghzvan to bring flour for his starving family. There he contracted cholera and died.

For 10 years, Shmavon lived in the Gyumri orphanage.

In 1935, Shmavon married Anechka Sahakyan, from the village of Azatan, near Gymri.

Six years later, like thousands of other Armenians, Shmavon went to war. After fighting for 5 years, he returned to Gyumri, where he and his wife Anechka raised 4 children. His wife died in 1996. Today Shmavon has 10 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.

With such a vital connection to the present, Shmavon lives more by the past. His memories never betray him: “All of us in the orphanage had the same fate. All of us had pain in our hearts. Many had lost all of their family. We became more courageous as we gave hope to each other.”

The hand-drawn map is Shmavon’s inseparable companion. With shaking hands he shows the school, the steep bank, the church, their house.

“My brightest memory is connected with my grandmother. Every morning she got up, stoked the tonir and prepared a tan soup. Then, she baked lavash. We ate and ran up the Yaghluja hill to play there.”

And again the sounds of a song are on his lips: “Yaghluja is high… Yaghluja was our mountain.”

[Thai-Samurai]

http://armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=1138&lng=eng&I ID=0

Mariam Remembers: Too young to understand; too old to forget
By Zhanna Alexanyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

It is 90 years later:
“I can vividly remember the Turk; his name was Chle.

“He came, went up on our roof. My uncle was sitting there with his child.

“My uncle’s name was Mkrtich. He said, ‘Mkrtich take the child inside, come let us talk a bit.’

“The child was of my age. He brought her inside, and he was just going outside when the Turk shot him to death. My uncle was naïve, and the Turk was prepared.”

Mariam Avoyan, who lives in the village of Nerqin Bazmaberd near Talin, remembers 1915, when she was six. It is when she learned the words “slaughtering and looting”.

She was in Sasoon, in what is now Turkey, until her family was chased out.

Murder leaves a lasting impression, so Mariam says: “I will never forget the massacre”.

Calm and quiet, the thin woman is moved when she talks; her blue eyes go wet.

“I can vividly remember the massacring. It began in the time I was already maturing,” Mariam says. “In those times Armenians and Turks used to live in peace.”

But not anymore. Not since six-year olds became witness to genocide.

“They gathered Armenians in one place – men, women, children and began. The Turkish soldiers surrounded the Armenians. They brought the gazaghi (kerosene in Sasoon dialect), poured all over the people and set them afire. As they set the fire they let loose those who would run, to shoot them.

“Where could they run? The smell of smoke and blood covered the earth, the sky went dark, and people could not see each other. The people including children, women, men, would make thousands. They set the fire…When they saw them fall, they went away,” says Mariam, with more suffering than hatred in her 96-year old face. She is mindful to also talk about the Turks who were kind to the Armenians.

But it is not they for whom the history of these days is written and disputed . . .

“The next morning they came for looting. They turned the corpses and took away the gold ware. My uncle’s wife, Margarit, held her child in her arms. She was not killed, but the child was dead.

“When the Turk turned her over to take away her xxxelry he recognized her and said ‘Margarit, get up. I have eaten bread from your hand. Get up, let me take you home’.”

Mariam’s family – father, mother and seven children – escaped Sasoon toward their eventual refuge.

“The slaughtering then started. Whoever was killed was killed. Those who remained ran away to the mountains, gorges, and forests. We ran to Mush.”

And to Mush, Mariam remembers, came Armenia’s hero from Russia, General Andranik who fought the Turks and helped the Armenians on their way to safety.

But many did not survive the journey, including Mariam’s father, Grigor Avoyan, a man well known in Sassoon.

“On the road in snow, in gorges we suffered hunger and thirst. We were killed also on the road.. My parents came with us to Jghin (a village in “Western Armenia”). I remember Jghin; we were hungry when we got there. My father along with others went to gather herbs for us to eat. The Turks appeared and took my father, three other men and two women…”

Besides taking them away the Turkish soldiers made one of the Armenian men write a list of others’ names. After finishing the assignment they called him.

“When he approached the Turk cut off both his ears, put them into his pocket and went away. The man remained in the field. We stayed there a day in the mountains, then we saw the man again. He said the Turks had taken my father Grigor and killed him. The Turk had told my father ‘I was looking for you with a candle, but found you without one’.”

The journey for Mariam’s family began with seven children. It ended with only two. The rest died of starvation and illnesses.

“My elder brother fell ill on the road. My father was at a loss. He said to the people ‘You go. My child is dying’. But my brother died on the road and my father put a stone over his body. My brother and I reached Gharakilisa (now Vanadzor),” Mariam recalls.

“My sister Soseh was older than me -- 12 years old. In those times the 10-12 year old girls were getting married. A Turk used to say to my father: ‘Grigor, give Soseh to my son and I will protect you till the end of your life’. My father said: ‘I will not disgrace Armenia and the Armenian name’. He didn’t give her, saying ‘I will not betray Armenians; Armenians should remain Armenian’.”

Reaching Armenia the remaining family moved from place to place until they settled in the Talin region, where the majority were also from Sasoon.

“We grew up suffering and weeping,” Mariam says. “I neither ate fully, nor slept, nor dressed, nor laughed.”

In 1926 Mariam got married and her own family includes six children and 56 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Ninety of her 96 years have held memories of horror for which there can be no escape.

“If there was justice on earth, the Armenian genocide would be admitted,” Mariam says.

[chika]

Re: a little something for someone who loves Ataturk

A BIG British transport steamed slowly through the Suez Canal, approaching Port Said. The decks were covered with men in khaki returning from Mesopotamia and along the rails of the lower decks were crowded 586 Armenian refugees from Baghdad. Scarcely a man was to be seen among them and very few middle aged or old women. The majority were young women and children. Here was one of the waves of the war, started upon its course by the tempest of cruelty which raged in Asia Minor, Armenia, Kurdistan and Northern Mesopotamia. The Turkish Government, with calculating malice and brutal effectiveness, had driven southward and eastward into exile hundreds of thousands of the Armenian race. The British forces entering Baghdad and Ramadieh found many fragments of these Armenian people shut up in Arab huts and tents and city houses. Orders were issued to liberate every refugee and gather all in Baghdad. The widows and orphans were placed under the care of Dr. Lavy, American Consul and representative of the American committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. In seven or eight months thousands of the deportees were set free from their humiliating bondage in the plains of Nineveh and Babylon and many found employment in the market of Baghdad or in the camps about the city. "But the girls and young women had been through such an odyssey of suffering, and so many of the little children were orphans, without even a relative to volunteer to care for them, that the British authorities decided to send these 586 down the Tigris and around Arabia to the refugee camp on the sands at Port Said - a name meaning "the Blessed Haven." Scarcely any of these Armenians wish to emigrate to North or South America. From every corner of the provinces of Turkey have these people come and they are intent upon returning to their home towns. This is desire, although they know that their houses have been looted and occupied by the Turks or have been burned to ashes. They look to the British to protect them and have strangely bright and persistent hopes that they will find at least some of their at least some of their men folk men still in the land of the living.

The tragic narratives of these people show what a shame it would be if America and the Allies should compromise with the Turkish Government or deal leniently in the final terms. It is not a question of restricting the Turks. They should not be allowed to maintain any fraction of power, for they do not govern and do not know what government is. The Turks, the Circassians and the Kurds wreck and ruin everything they touch. They are never constructive, but only destructive and their alliance with Germany has made them worse than before. The Arabs, too, have used the dreadful opportunity to violate and steal. Let the Armenian women and girls give their own statements. And I who have seen their scars and have watched their faces and their eyes as they speak, can vouch for the veracity of the witness they bear.

Aghavni came from Solos in the province of Brousa. Aghavni means "Dove" in Armenian. Solos was an entirely Armenian village of more than eight hundred families.

"All of us were driven out in the deportations of the summer of 1915. My husband was drafted and sent to the Dardanelles. Whether he was killed or not I do not know. I have lost him completely. Chazar was his name and he was a stonemason by trade. I was still counted a bride though we had been married three years. My little boy could not stand the marching in the summer heat and he died on the road from sunstroke. My father, mother and sister were ordered to stay for a time in Konia. I was told to move on. Later I heard that my father had died at Masken near Aleppo. My older brother, twenty-two tears of age, died of hunger, and my little brother, a lad of ten, perished from the cold in December in the foothills of the Taurus. My third brother, age eighteen, was seized by the Circassians at Dier Zoar on the Euphrates and cut to pieces. I was made a servant in an Arab hut. From that house I was roughly turned out and taken by another Arab to Ramadieh, far to the southeast. When the British advanced from the direction of Baghdad the Arab locked me up, but I knocked and called and at last they heard me." "What is your idea of the British" I asked.

"God bless them one and all. They saved our lives, and had they come sooner they would have saved thousands more. I can never express to you how very kind they were. They took us to a large comfortable house in Baghdad where each of us was given a bed. The American Consul, Dr. Lavy, took care of us."

"What are the scars on your forehead, your cheeks and your chin?"

"The Arabs had tattooed me with indigo, after the manner of Mohammedan women and when I was set free I felt the shame of these marks so keenly that I persuaded a British doctor to cauterize each spot. I would rather be disfigured than branded as I was before."

The story of Kronik, the wife of Toros Karasarkisian of Bilejik near Brousa is as follows:

"My husband was a carpenter and was sent by the army to work at Kerkuk, near Baghdad. Then our family made the long journey and joined him. My brother-in-law, who was a sergeant in the Kerkuk garrison, was taken to Bitlis. One night he was strangled, then slashed to death, as I know from eye-witnesses who escaped. A telegram was sent to his wife to say that he died in hospital." (Note the craft of sending this telegram to avoid any punishment after the war, if the British should make an enquiry.) "My little girl Anna was scarcely two when the Turkish mounted police came and tied my husband hand and foot and dragged him off to Mosul. They charged him with being a spy. This was utterly false. He always stuck to his trade and never mixed in political affairs. I have never since heard a word from him.

"Beautiful young girls, even some five and six years old, were violated by the Turks, especially the Army officers, and were then passed on to the Arabs, Circassians and Kurds. They dragged the girls by the hair and arms. Every one over eight was violated and they were left to wend their way into the towns to beg for bread. We were tattooed by force, our arms and feet being firmly bound beforehand."

"The English sought out every house in Baghdad and freed the Women and children. They opened an orphanage and Consul Lavy, who was put in charge, cared for us with gifts from America."

Santoukht of Sivas is a most attractive girl, fourteen years of age, with an inexpressible sadness in her face. Her father died of typhus before the deportation. Her brother, twenty-five years of age, was drafted into the Turkish army and has not been seen since. Santoukht and her mother were ordered to take the road to Aleppo. They were driven purposely by waterless routes from Aleppo to Deir Zoar and the mounted police kept them away from the wells so that they were obliged to drink foul water. Her mother became exhausted and was just able to drag herself along. After two days without water they came to a filthy greenish pool, into which a corpse and a camel had been thrown the day before. The mother was so weak and so parched that she bowed herself down and drank of this awful water and soon afterward died in great pain.

Santoukht had a sister with two babies, and on the way to Aleppo the soldiers separated the sisters saying, "Let whoever will have these two." At Kerkuk (near Baghdad) a Turk sent his wife to the bath one day and dragged Santoukht into his house. For nearly a year he kept her secretly as a slave. When the English entered the town she escaped, pregnant, and appealed to an English officer who rescued her and took care of her like a father.

Angele of Akshehir, province of Konia, fourteen years old, is a large plump rosy girl with blue eyes and soft brown hair, a good evidence of Dr. Lavy's generous care during the months of convalescence. She told me this pitiful story:

"My father by paying a ё45 tax according to Turkish law had been let off from military service, so when the deportation orders came my mother and father, my sister eighteen years old, my two brothers and myself all went off together. Most of the Armenians leaving Akshehir had to walk or hire wagons, but by paying one pound each through a brakeman on the railway we managed to board a cattle car as far as xxxanti in Konia province in the Taurus Mountains. Thence we marched to Osmanich and Maskanieh. By paying two pounds each we secured a raft and floated down the Euphrates, for our orders were to proceed to Dier Zoar."

"From there we went on foot to Miadin where the Arabs tortured my father until he died of fever and fear. The Turkish guards now drove us off into the Eastern desert, a fearfully hot waste, with no trees or grass, or inhabitants. The guards picked out all the boys above ten and shot them."

My big brother was also dragged off in this way and put to death. We were withdrawn by the Circassians one hour from the village, to a certain hill, twelve or fourteen were taken at a time, heads cut off and the bodies thrown into a large hewn tank which had served as a reservoir or well.

"When my group was taken the well was full. The Circasians had become tired of the horrid work and they threw me unwounded into the reservoir where I fell in the midst of the bleeding corpses. By and by some Arabs of the worst sort came and dragged out the bodies to steal the clothing. They stripped off my dress and threw me back again. I was too nauseated and too terrified to speak or to resist. The cries of the living were awful. Some were suffocated by bodies thrown in by the Circassians. When I cried for mercy an Arab came and slashed my arm, and as he climbed past me he struck me on the head. Then a Circassian noticed that I was slowly crawling out and he fired, wounding me in the foot.

"For six days I was in that terrible place, without food or drink. My lips became cracked and parched from thirst so that I rubbed blood on them to moisten them. I longed to die and prayed to God mercifully to shorten my agony. After the first day there was an awful stench. The Circassians, looting and reviling, ordered the Arabs to gather brushwood and burn the bodies in the tank. We who still survived dragged out selves to the farthest corner. Brush was thrown in and then splashed with petroleum and set on fire. There were piteous cries as the smoke and flames spread in our direction."

Here the girl broke down and it was some time before she could continue her narrative.

"Finally an Arab came and found me and declared that he would take me to be his wife. An Arab woman standing at the mouth of the tank said, 'Leave her alone. She is smeared with blood and she is deformed by her wounds. She will die anyway.' But the Arab replied, 'If she lives she is ours. If she dies what do we care? I am going to take her.' He carried me to a stream, utterly exhausted and nauseated. Here he brought me some water to wash, and some coarse bread. But I could not eat it that day. For six months I lay sick and wounded, outside the Arab's goats' hair tents. My wounds festered at first but slowly began to heal. An aged Arab took pity and bound them up and changed the rags once in a while. At last I recovered."

"These Arabs migrated and sold me for three lean sheep to people of the town of Ramadieh. A small Armenian boy went and told the British soldiers that a Christian girl named Angele was held as a servant in a certain Arab house in Ramadieh. The British came into the house and gave me medical treatment and set me free, they put me in a lorry and sent me to Baghdad. And now God has given me strength to recover and to make the journey to Port Said."

Seranoush Ghazarian of Tokat is a beautiful girl of thirteen, with clear skin and dark eyes and early brown hair. She bears conspicuous tattoo marks upon her forehead, nose, cheeks, chin and wrists. By nature she is a graceful, gentle girl, and through her experiences an infinite sadness has come into her face. It was with an effort that she controlled her sobs and told of her experience in the deserts. She was nine years old when set out on the march with her mother, aunt and cousins. Her father was bound and carried off to Sivas where he was killed. Her aunt died of thirst in the mountains.

At last they came to a stream and drank and drank. The Turks commanded them all to become Moslems but they refused to deny Christ.

The Turks took the young cousin by force, after beating the mother for objecting. One of the Arab women seized Seranoush by the arm and threw her into the stream, but afterwards dragged her out and made her a slave. She was so ill from exhaustion that she could not eat and was so wasted and thin that the Arabs counted her as good for nothing and abandoned her. Then an Arab from a different tribe found her and an Arab woman took care of the child after a fashion. Later she was given in marriage to a certain Arab who sometimes petted her and again he beat her. He was forty years of age and kept the ten-year-old wife for about fourteen months.

An Armenian steward from Dr. Lavy's orphanage came to buy dates and discovered. Seranoush and several other girls. An Armenian young man was sent from Baghdad on horseback to rescue her, but as she was dressed in ragged Arab clothes and her skin was tanned and tattooed, he did not know that she was an Armenian girl when he passed her in the market-place. As she walked by him a second time she quickly made the sign of the Cross and in a moment he had her with him in the saddle and galloped away. The older girls had Arab babies and for utter shame they dare not go to the home provided by the American Consul. So they remained in Felluja for some time and refused to disclose their identity.

[chika]

Re: a little something for someone who loves Ataturk

CONTINUATION...


Among the 586 survivors who have reached the shelter of the refugee camp at Port Said there are 200 women, five infants, six men, 186 girls and 189 boys. The American Red Cross Commission to Palestine and the Near East maintains a diet kitchen where 1.235 convalescents and young children are provided for daily. A group of industrial shops have been started where embroidery, refugee garments, army shirts, wooden combs, blue cotton cloth, woolen rugs and many other useful things are made. The Red Cross has also provided baths and school tents, and has built a children's ward as part of the camp hospital. In a large tent near the Suez Canal eighty lively children have the happiest kind of a time in their day nursery. The camp is administrated by British officers serving under General Allen by, but much of the actual relief distribution and the employment of more than one thousand of the refugees is entrusted to the American Red Cross. Captain J.A. Brown, formerly of the faculty of the Syrian Protestant College, Beirut, Syria, is the Red Cross officer commanding. He is ably assisted by Lieutenants Loehr and MacQuiston and by Miss Kinney, Miss Putney, Miss Blake and Miss Campion. There is a good team spirit, and America has, through these representatives, won the esteem and affection and fervent gratitude of these eight thousand homeless Armenians.

[mdundar57]

Re: a little something for someone who loves Ataturk

THE REPORT ON EXCAVATION OF THE MASS-GRAVES IN KARS - SUBATAN

One of the excavations of the mass-graves aiming to explore the events happened in Eastern Anatolia betweeen 1915 and 1918 has been done in Kars-Subatan (Figure 1.) The opening of the mass-graves in Subatan village which is situated near Ani Örenyeri, on the boarders of Turkey-Russia, 28 kilometres in the east of Kars was carried out on Governor of Kars, S.Filtekin, the Mayor of Kars, Prof.Dr.Hursit Ertugrul, the president of Atatürk University, Prof.Dr.Ahmet Cakir, the dean of Science and Literature Faculty of the same university and Prof.Dr.Enver Konukcu, Prof.Dr.Azmi Süslü from Ankara University, Prof.Dr.Metin Özbek from Hacettepe University, Prof.Dr.Fahrettin Kirzioglu From Gazi University, Prof.Dr.Metin Tuncel from Istanbul University, Assoc.Prof.Dr.Abdüsselam Ulucam from 100.Yil University and Ali Ercan, the director of Kars museum.

The excavations in Subatan village which has about 20-30 houses of Moslem population today were carried out in accordance with the oral statements of 120 year old Fariz Öztürk and 95 year old Duraga Öztürk who witnessed the events. They were conducted in a 8x10 meter hole which was opened in the barn in Köseogullari district (Figure 2). The first works were started in A1 hole within the field divided into four separate 4-5 meter areas. The excavation which had been realized in a wide surface first was narrowed down to the inner crosspoint of A1 and B1 holes After having removed the 40 centimeter earth, the first skeletons were found. It was observed that most of these skeletons which were found with some personal belongings belong to children between the age groups of 0-1.

Another group of skeletons which was found in 80 centimeters depth in A1 hole displayed quite a shocking scene. These skeletons which were located in the north-south direction must belong to a mother and her daughter. The woman fell onto her right side and embraced the child with her left arm. The two stroke marks found on the head of the woman prove that they were killed with an axe or some other sharp instrument. The first stroke mark is not as deep as the second one. Both the woman and the child were buried in their clothes.

The photograph taken on April 25 th 1918

Another skeleton group was found in the south corner of A1 hole. Only a few of these could be analyzed. As these analyses show, bodies were thrown haphazardly. The rest of the findings were after of a belt, a pair of ear-rings, a number of colored beads of a small necklace; decayed wooden beams and were given to Kars Museum to be displayed in the newly opened Genocide Section for exhibition.

According to the oral statements of the witnesses, Fariz Öztürk and Duraga Öztürk whose statements are supported by the archive documents, the massacre committed by Armenians happened in the following way: The Tashnak-Armenian guerrillas who retreated from Kars and Sarikamis attacked Subatan village where Turkish, Armenian and Greek people lived together were captured wildly without feeling pity. According to the photographs in the archives and findings of the excavations, the women, children and old men who had been killed with axes and bayonets were left in the streets. The archive documents show that a total of 570 people were murdered in the village. After the withdrawal of Armenians, Turkish soldiers came to the district. The soldiers with the help of survivors collected the corpses, which were decayed and eaten by dogs, to an area and put them in a barn. Due to the hard conditions of that time and lack of time, the bodies were buried together. Some other mass-graves were formed by collapsing the roofs of barns. The archive documents and statements of witnesses show that in three separate mass-graves in Subatan, there are a numbers of martyrs buried. In the barn in Köseogullari district , more than 180, in Tiptip street more than 25 and in the barn which is located in the south of the village mosque more than 350 bodies are buried.

[mdundar57]

Re: a little something for someone who loves Ataturk

MUHAMMET RESIT GÜLESER
Father's Name : Abdullah
Mother's name : Habibe
Place of Birth: Van
Date of Birth: 1900

I was a young student at the (Teachers' training college) school, around 15 or 16 years old during the Armenian massacres, and remember what happened quite well. Before the First World War, we had good neighbourly relations with the Armenians (whose population was said to be approximately 17,000).

With the declaration of the constitutional monarchy in 1908, they started to exploit the principles of independence, equality, and justice to their benefit. Their leader in Van, Aram Pasha, was in the delegation that notified Sultan Hamit that he would have to leave his throne. The Armenians set up an underground organization in Van, and dug tunnels which extended from near the Great Mosque (Büyük Camii) all the way to the old section of town. It was even possible to go through these tunnels on horseback. One day some parts of the tunnel collapsed so was discovered by a guard incidentally. Aram Pasha was caught near the Great Mosque upon the intelligence of an Armenian but was released without punishment due to the political sensitivities of the time.

In short, the Armenians organized themselves very well and became rich financially in commerce. After the Armenians and xxxs were permitted to join the military, some groups of Armenians, joined the military with their weapons during the retreat of the Van division. Our soldiers were carrying German-made primitive weapons which could only fire four shots and the fifth one would drop to the gound. According to what we had heard from Mr. Haci Latif and the others who later returned to Van, the Armenians in the Van division were shooting our soldiers in the back. There were also several cases of Armenian doctors and nurses poisoning our wounded soldiers who were treated in the hospitals in Van after returning from the eastern front.

As to the situation in Van, the Russians were approaching from three fronts, Muradiye, Özalp, and Baskale. The Armenians in the city were rebelling and continued an aggressive campaign against the Muslim population for 29 days. We had three barracks, Haci Bekir, Aziziye, and Toprakkale. Ten soldiers would guard each one. They attacked to these barracks and slaughtered the soldiers like sheep by cutting their throats off. Ali Cavus, our neighbour, was also slained there. While our weak militia were digging trenches to trying to fight, the Armenians made holes in the walls and were firing shots with machine guns, pouring cans of kerosene, lighting fires, and escaping through the deep tunnels. This brutal attack lasted 29 days. The decision of retreat was finally made so that the Muslim population would not suffer any more deaths. Those with carts used them; those without them were under desperate conditions, but we all joined the exodus. People left their children on the roads, others died from hunger and disease.

It should be remembered that the Armenians not only committed large massacres in Van, but in the villages as well. The homes in the villages of Timar, Bakale, and Özalp were stuffed with hay and set on fire. Those that tried to escape were killed with bullets and bayonets. The inhabitants of a few villages in Zeve got organized and fought against the Armenians, but almost all of them -from seven different villages- were killed. Mass graves are still being uncovered in these villages and a memorial was built.

Eight of the twelve ships carried the Muslim refugees from Van, four ships carried government employees and their families. All the sailors aboard the vessels were Armenians. The Armenian bandits by the help of these sailors, forced the four government employee boats to dock at the Adir Island, and killed all the passengers. As to the remaining other eight boats they were taken to another island near Tatvan where Armenian bandits were waiting, but they managed to escape with few casualties because they were armed.

When we left Van, we first went to Bitlis, and later to Diyarbakir. We witnessed the Armenian savagery along the way. Finally, I will tell you about what we saw and heard upon returning to Van. The Armenians applied all types of torture to the inhabitants, God bless their souls. They paraded Isa Hodja, who was over 100 years old, on a donkey through the village, raided and looted homes, and gathered women and girls into Mr. Ziya's home where they repeatedly raped them. They threw the bodies of the dead into wells, and even filled the well of our mosque with the bodies of victims.

When General Cevdet entered Van for the first time, he asked the gendarmes to escort 130 women, whose husbands were at the front, to Diyarbakir. They were in bad situation in Van because they did not have any transportation. About 30 of them stayed in our house. They spun wool to survive. They were also given military rations. They told us that there was no end to the torture and cruelties they suffered at the hands of the Armenian bandits. The Armenians skinned the men, castrated them, and raped the women.

We returned to Van four years later. In the beginning we stayed two years, but were forced to flee again when the Russians arrived. This time we went as far as we could go. Finally we arrived to Siirt. When we returned, 200-250 Armenian families were seeking refuge on the Carpanak Island. They were hoping that the Turks would leave, and that they would resettle in Van. Most of them were artisans. A short time later, a new decree was issued, and they were sent to Revan under the protection of the government. However, Van was raided seven times by the enemy, was completely destroyed except for the Armenian quarters. We rebuilt the city afterwards.

[mdundar57]

Re: a little something for someone who loves Ataturk

SEYH CEMAL TALAY
Father's Name : Cimsid
Mother's name : Fatma
Place of Birth: Van
Date of Birth: 1901

The Russians were providing weapons for the Armenian bandits. With military assistance of Russia and encouragement of England, France and the United States -all had consulates in Van- Armenians increased their hostilities in the beginning of 1915. The Russians were secretly providing them weapons hidden in food supplies, which they sent to Russia through the port of Trabzon. Those supplies were transported by caravans to Van. The goods on the caravans were distributed in the centre of the old city, and the hidden ammunition was secretly distributed to the Armenian militants. The leader of the Armenian revolt in Van was Aram Pasha. But I don't remember the name of the Dashnaks’ leader. They all had land claims, especially in Van. The 11th squadron was assigned to Van, but went to Erzurum to be mobilised. The Armenian bandits increased their activities and started their terrorist campaigns against the Muslim inhabitants.

The militants were raiding the Muslim villages and neighbourhoods. The only thing we had to fight them with was a militia led by Imam Osman, composed of those either too old or too young to join the army.

Let me tell you a story which I will never forget. I went to a school located near the government mansion. Armenian children also studied at the same school. Some of the students in the Armenian underground went to get a Muslim student named Rustu from his home with an excuse of studying. They took him to the Isitma bridge near the industrial park. After insulting him, they raped and killed him, leaving his body for his family to find the next day. The family later composed a ballad to honour his memory.

I can remember the beginning of the skirmishes between the Muslims and Armenians. Our militia, which would meet in the Mahmut Aga barracks across the street from the Van State Hospital, was on duty, a day before the war with the Armenians started. The Armenians prepared the night before and positioned themselves. They dug holes in the State Mansion, and when our militia was preparing for morning prayer at a fountain nearby, the Armenians showered them with bullets. Many of our soldiers were killed. The fighting between local Muslims and Armenians began. There was a big confusion in the streets from both sides. Despite this, we got up and went to school. We had two teachers, one from Salonica, one from Edirne. They said "Come on kids, let's all forgive each other, we might not see each other again" and suggested we use the side streets to avoid Armenian bullets. I left school with some friends, but decided to take our regular route. We saw that weapons and ammunition were being distributed in front of a storage area for protection against the Armenians. We then noticed a few Armenians creeping up from behind, and notified the man distributing the weapons. He threw them down in his hand and fired on them, and they ran away.

The war started on April 2 and 3 in 1915. In 1914, the Russians were not able to penetrate the front line, but they surrounded our soldiers from behind by passing Caldiran-Bahcesaray, and established headquarters in the Molla Hasan village.

It was difficult to provide our soldiers with military supplies since the young students and elderly people carrying the equipment could not go further because of the cold weather. Many of them died.

We couldn't go anywhere. But in the spring the Armenians went completely crazy. On May 10, 1915, the Russians were moving towards Van. With Governor Cevdet's orders we evacuated Van, taking with us what we could carry. During the war, Armenian brutality reached a stage that no one, including the old, sick, captive, women or children could escape. The atrocities reached the degree that even the Armenians' main supporters, the Russians, were trying to prohibit their actions.

My grandmother Mihri couldn't flee with us because one of my uncles was paralysed from the waist down. Unable to speak because of the shock of what happened in our absence, she later learned to speak by sign in order to explain what happened. They shaved my uncle's moustache along with his flesh, and then took them to a house which they used as a detention centre and tortured him and the other captives until the Russians arrived.

When we became refugees there were 23 members of our family. We lost most of our family on the road to Bitlis and Urfa. Only two of us returned to Van. Our first stop on the road was Bitlis where we arrived in eleven days, and then went to Siirt, where we had relatives with whom we stayed for a few months. When we heard about the Russian advance, we again fled to Diyarbakir. Our convoy consisted of 250 people. We suffered from hunger and thirst on the way. We went through Kurtalan and Diyarbakir and the village of Kebir, where we did not stay long, and again took the road to return to Van. When we reached Kurtalan, we learned that the Russians had entered Van again and went to Siirt. In the spring of 1916, we went to Baghdad, but fled to Mardin when the English Army advanced. In 1917, we arrived to Urfa. The French who entered Urfa started tormenting the Muslims by bringing the Armenian of Aleppo to the city. This time we fought for twenty-two days.

We left Van in 1915. When we were finally able to return, only two people remained from the 23-membered family. Van was totally destroyed. The Armenians burned and demolished everything except for the Armenian houses. In fact, when the Turkish army entered Van, around 2.000 Armenian artisans, expecting retaliation for their repression of the Turkish population, sought refuge on the island of Adir. The Turkish government instead ensured their safe passage to Revan.

[mdundar57]

Re: a little something for someone who loves Ataturk

SALIH TASCI
Father’s Name: Mirza
Mother’s Name: Hane
Place of Birth: Van
Date of Birth: 1883

The Armenians who revolted by the Russian assistance began to fight against the Muslims though they had lived together for many years. Their intention was to steal our lands and to establish an Armenian state. They had dugouts underground and they were easily hiding in them after they killed the Turks.

They tortured people especially in central Van and in the castle. Their leader was a man called Aram Pasha. We were defeated by them as they had rich ammunitions. Then we decided to migrate to safer places as we did not want to suffer more casualties.

Some people went to Bitlis by way of land and some went by sea. The ones who stayed were all killed. The refugees of Van were spread everywhere in country. From Bitlis to Diyarbakir, Elazig, Nazilli, Burdur... However, the Armenians undertook massacres in the villages of Van.

In those villages the Armenians and the Russians closed the roads. They killed all the men and raped all the women there. Later, Armenian bandits gathered in Van and carried massacres out there too. In short, it was like the doomsday. In Lake Van there were sailing boats. They really tortured so much that they got bored from killing people. They put the people into the boats and threw them in to the lake.

Those Armenians nailed our elders to the walls from their hands and foreheads. We resisted them as much as we could do and fought. We did everything necessary. But, we never touched any Armenian child or women; we just fought against men. Armenians were so cruel. After I returned from the Iranian Front in 1921, I found Van in a ruin. All the Turkish districts were burnt by the Armenians and the Russians; all the Muslim properties were plundered. But, the Armenian houses were still standing out. Van was empty. Later, the Muslims returned one by one. Everybody began to rebuild his house; we have rebuilt the city.

[mdundar57]

Re: a little something for someone who loves Ataturk

BEKIR YÖRÜK
Father's Name : Yusuf
Mother's name : Gülnaz
Place of Birth: Van
Date of Birth: 1900

Q: Can you tell us what you can remember and what the Armenians did in Van and Gevas?

A: We lived in the same neighbourhoods with the Armenians. We were living in Norsin neighbourhood and got along well until the Russians intervention. In those days, the Armenian youth established committees by Russian encouragement, and started causing trouble. They killed the police superintendent and threw him in the park. They killed the postman in Hasbagi. They bombed a building, which is a bath now, and twenty people died in the explosion. When the constitutional monarchy was declared, the mufti and the priest shook hands and declared the brotherhood of Muslims and Christians. The Mufti cried as he shook hands, but events developed against us. The committee members became increasingly out of control and the rebellion began. We fought the Armenians for 29 days in Hasbagi. We had no weapons. When the division went to Erzurum we remained completely defenceless.

The Armenians who joined the army after the establishment of the constitutional monarchy used our weapons to shoot at us, and those who remained in the army shot our soldiers from behind. They also bombed the barracks. The young people and the elderly left in the Muslim neighbourhoods took turns guarding against the Armenians. Meanwhile, the Russians sent gold to Armenians to finance their effort.

This struggle lasted 29 days until the arrival of the Russians. The elderly Armenians didn't approve this fight because they were the wealthiest inhabitants of the area, and feared losing their standard of living. Armenians owned up to 1,000 stores and sold European cloth in the old part of the city of Van. When these events broke out, inhabitants of nearby villages and towns all fled to Van, and those stores disappeared within two days.

Later on, fifty vessels full of people left Van, carried wounded soldiers. Cevdet Pasha saw the passengers off at the pier. We went to Adir Island, where the Armenians were training underground. We stayed on the island for nine days. The waves destroyed some of the ships with wooden sails. The island had wells and two bakeries. No one brought any supplies from Van. We were hungry and perplexed. My elder brother was an officer and came back wounded from Erzurum. My brother realised that the Armenians would cut us off. He convinced his captain, and ten ships left the place but we couldn't go very far. Thank God that we stayed close to the shore. The next day, we reached Tatvan under difficult circumstances. The day we left Van the Armenians set everything ablaze. There were wounded soldiers from all parts of Turkey in Van, and the Armenians set the apartment buildings on fire used as a hospital where they were teken care of. That is why Van is a sacred place with martyrs from 67 provinces (in Turkey).

My uncle, Terren Aga, was very old, and we couldn't take him with us when we left Van. His wife, daughter, and two grandchildren remained with him. Armenian hoodlums beat my uncle and the children with an ax and killed them. His daughter was hiding in an abandoned American school. When the Armenians found her, they killed her by throwing her from the second floor.

We went to Bitlis from Tatvan where we stayed for nearly two months. When the Russians arrived, we set off on the roads again. We then went to Hizan and Diyarbakir. After we left, the Gendarme commander who was crying like a baby- brought my uncle (who was Deputy Governor Omer Bey) a report. A soldier named Mansur was also present in the room. When we asked him to explain what happened, he said that three days after Van was evacuated they went to pick up the bodies. Hundreds of elderly women were impaled on stakes. They still had their scarves on and looked as if they were sitting. When they got closer they saw that they were killed before being impaled. They saw a woman who was split into two parts and her unborn child was placed on her chest.

Muslims who witnessed these thousand of examples of inconceivable brutality tearfully reported the incidents to Omer Bey, who then told Mustafa Kemal. When the Russians finally arrived, they were displeased with the savageness which resulted in the destruction of four-fifths of Van. In addition to those massacred by the Armenians, many people also died as they were fleeing. Many collapsed on the road from hunger and disease. No one was able to take anything with them when they left Van.

When we returned to Van from exile three years later, we found the Muslim neighbourhoods destructed, but the areas owned by Armenians, were left undamaged. When we returned there were about 2,000 Armenians living in Van who fled to the islands when the Turks started returning. Two years later, the government sent them to Revan.

Q: Did you ever participate in the fighting or use a weapon?

A: No. I have never used a weapon. I didn't have a gum, plus they didn't give me one because I was too young and didn't know how to use it. Instead. I would bring food and water to the combatants.

Q: What kind of equipment were the Armenians using?

A: They had the latest equipment which was provided by Russia and England. They gave them weapons and had them fight against us. The Armenians couldn't do anything to us, but when the were armed, the balance was upset.

Q: Did many people die in these and other clashes?

A: Of course, thousands of people died. After fighting for 29 days, the then Governor Cevdet Pasha commanded us to leave Van when he heard that the Russian forces were approaching. Cevdet Pasha was actually a very courageous man, but we had neither guns nor ammunition. while the Russians were armed with top of the line weapons.

Q: Didn't the Ottoman State take any precautions against the Armenians arming themselves to this extent? Didn't a word get around?

A: People knew, and the government knew. Yet the military was on the fighting front, and only a few gendarmes were left in Van. They couldn't do anything about it.. The Armenians first shot Police Lieutenant Nuri Efendi, and blew up the Hamitaga barracks. Many soldiers were killed. Then they placed bombs in the Norsin Mosque and Haci Naci Hodja Mosque. They blew up Hafiz Hodja with his son using granedes. Our women were raped, and our children shot.

Q: How was the evacuation carried out?

A: We left this place on 50 ships. That day the weather was stormy and rainy, as if hell broke loose. The ships ran into each other. They were unable to approach the pier for a long time. The weather was not warm enough-I think it was April. We left before the Russians arrived. There were about 250 people in our group, and 60 died. Some died at the hands of the Armenians bandits, other from cholera, diseases, and hunger.

My uncle, his family and children, were all cut into pieces with a hatchet under a mulberry tree in our neighbourhood. They (Armenians) massacred all those who stayed behind when we left. We lived in Norsin neighbourhood at the time. They burned Van entirely. All was planned by the Armenian committees that treacherously manipulated the Armenian population.

Q: Do, you remember the names of those committees?

A: Dashnak was the most prominent one. There were others as well, but I don’t remember their names now. They received money and gold from Russia and Britain.

Q: Did the Armenians kill a lot of women and children?

A: The elderly didn't bother much, but all the young people were armed. They killed whoever they could catch. They killed them and threw them into the lake or onto the fire. For example, a woman was baking bread in a nearby village, and had her young child was at her side. The Armenians went into her backyard and asked her what she was doing. When she answered that she was baking bread, they insisted she needed a kebab as well, and pierced her child and threw him into the fire and burned him alive.

What else can I tell you? God knows the extent of what went on. During our escape, we took off on the ships, and stayed around the islands for four days. We couldn't sleep at nights because of the wails and screams we heard all night. These were the cries we heard from the surrounding villages: Zeve, Bardakci, Kalac, and Molla Kasim. I hope God ensures that we don't have to get back to those days again, ever.

Q: Where did you go after the islands?

A: From the islands we went to the Dervis village. It took us all day to get there. Ten ships were tied together at the edge of the lake. We were very frightened. In the morning we left toward Tatvan, and finally reached our destination. We were able to rest there, and later left toward Biths.

Q: Do you remember how many people were with you in your convoy?

A: There were between 10 and 20 thousand people in our convoy.

Q: Did many people from your convoy die in the exodus?

A: Of course.

Q: Could you tell us how they died?

A: The women could not take care of their children. Some would leave them in far areas. Hunger and disease were at its peak. For example, Omer Efendi wrapped his child in rags and left him alive under a tree as we approached the Bitlis creek. There were many other children like this thrown into the Bitlis creek or buried, then they died. But, Omer Efendi regretted what he did, and a few days later went to save the child and brought him back alive.

Q: How long were you a refugee?

A: Three years.

Q: What did you find when you returned to Van? How was Van, was there much damage?

A: I saw Van; it was completely destroyed and burned. When we were in Bitlis, the Deputy Governor Ömer Bey was there. He would regularly receive reports on the situation in Van. We would learn about the situation of the Russians there. One day a soldier, Mansur, came to Bitlis. He was from Aleppo and used to live near the Norsin Mosque. He was in tears as he told us the story of how they entered Van, and saw that the women were lined up in a row with their head scarves still on. As they approached, they saw that they were impaled and killed. They removed them and buried them. The soldiers left all their work and buried them. Later, they went to another location where the women had been raped and then killed. There was blood everywhere.

A similar incident occurred in the Amik village which is close here. The inhabitants took refuge in the castle and pulled up the ladder when the Armenians arrived. The Armenians approached and convinced them to let down the ladder because they were now friendly and there was no reason to be afraid of. As soon as they ascended the stairs, they separated the children and men and threw them down the hill. Some of the women threw themselves from the castle, while the others were taken to an unknown location.

Q: Did you hear about similar incidents at the time?

A: Of course I did, but what else can I tell you? Dignity, chastity, and integrity all was gone. We suffered so much, some people even ate flesh like cannibals. But we were so merciful that, when we found Armenians hiding on the island, we didn't do anything to them.

Q: Were they the Armenians who stayed when you fled?

A: No, they were Armenians remaining on the island. During the exodus they brought, many Turks to this island and killed them. The ship captains were Armenians. Many of our, people were maliciously killed in this way on the ships. As I told you earlier, we couldn't sleep because of the wads in those days. When we left, Van was burning, and it was still burning when the soldier Mansur came.

Q: Will you tell us about your situation in Bitlis?

A: When we arrived in Bitlis as refugees, they were angry with us because we abandoned Van. Initially the people of Bitlis were not very kind to us, asking us why we ran away and did not fight against the enemy. We answered that we had no other choice because we did not have guns or ammunition. Not long after, the population of Bitlis had to flee as well, and they understood our position. The heat was extreme. There was no food or water. Cholera and diseases were spreading out. Many people died. One day we saw some vehicles coming from Elazig. The army corps came with Armenian drivers to bring salt to Harput.

Q: Were the drivers Armenian?

A: Yes. Armenian soldiers who were carrying salt. There was a captain leading them and my brother approached him and asked him to stay and send a telegraph to arrange for a truck to carry us. We obtained permission from Mustafa Kemal Pasha and they started to transport us to Divarbakir. There was neither food nor water on the way. Many people died from diseases. At that time, there was a landowner named Mehmet. He later died, but he was a unique person. He gave food to the army and fed their horses as well. He also handed the keys of his stables over to the army. A year later Mustafa Kemal Pasha came, talked to him, and asked how much the government owed him. When he said "for what?", Mustafa Kemal explained that the army had depended on him for a year. He answered that “they are welcomed for the remaining food, as well”. Anyway, when he saw us, he gave the order to set up a feast table right away. Wheat, rice, lentil, and meat were prepared. Everyone ate.

Let me tell you another story. I saw many of the men who had been tortured by the Armenians with my own eyes. In some places they had no meat on their bones. From hunger they ate human flesh. There was a milkman called Faik whose father was carrying a child when we saw him. When I asked him what he was doing, he said if he didn't carry the child away, they would eat him too.

I hope God doesn't make us live through those days again. Hunger and disease left us with nothing. No dignity, chastity, no nothing.