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ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SURVIVORS TELL THEIR STORY
17:53 09.04.2014
Armenian Genocide
On April 5, the New York Armenian Home held its annual meeting at
which two Armenian Genocide survivors spoke with the media to tell
their story about the annihilation of the Armenian people almost 100
years ago, the Western Queens Gazette reports.
The interviews were given in conjunction with the upcoming 99th
anniversary commemorating the Armenian Genocide that resulted in more
than 1.5 million Armenians murdered by the Ottoman Empire during a
deliberate and planned slaughter of men, women and children, because
of their ethnicity.
"The Armenian Genocide, carried out by the leaders of the Ottoman
Empire and continued by the Young Turks, was a motivation for Adolf
Hitler and the German Third Reich to murder more than six million
Jews and more than 11 million in total throughout Europe," the
author reminds.
The New York Armenian Home in Flushing is a senior nursing home like
no other. Started in 1948, around the same time as the start of the
United Nations, it provided a home for Armenian Genocide survivors
who could no longer take care of themselves. At its height it served
more than 90 survivors. Today there are about 45 residents of Armenian
descent. The home receives no governmental funding. All support comes
from private fundraising projects and the generosity of the survivors
and their descendants.
One hundred and four year old Perouze Kalousdian and 99 year old
Azniv Guiragossian told their harrowing stories with the assistance
of translators. Both women have seen their share of atrocities against
their families, as well as against the Armenian people. The atrocities
included persecution, arrests, exile from their homes, confiscation
of their homes and personal property, false arrests and ultimately
death at the hands of Turkish death squads.
Both survivors were very young when chaos broke out around them.
They were both forced to leave their homes and were separated from
their families. Kalousdian was six when she witnessed some of the
atrocities during the Armenian Genocide. She reported that the Turks
took males over the age of 15, including her two uncles, tied them up
two by two and threw them from a bridge into the Euphrates River. She
and her mother were forced to become servants for Turkish leaders.
Many of her fellow Armenian women were also forced to work without pay
for the Turks. Many were raped, tortured and ultimately killed. Her
grandfather smuggled her father out of the country. He fled to the
United States and later returned to find her and her mother before
bringing the family to America.
Guiragossian, born in Urfa, Turkey was made an orphan during
the Armenian Genocide. Her daughter, Arpi Nardone and son Shahen
Guiragossian, who accompanied their mother for the interview, explained
that when they were growing up their mother constantly spoke about her
childhood and feeling hungry, and cold after being separated from her
parents. Their mother told them that she lived with a Turkish family
after the death of her parents. She witnessed her mother giving birth
to a child who died in the Syrian desert and the death of her mother,
two months later. Guiragossian was sent to an Armenian orphanage,
where she later met her husband and was married at age 16 in an
arranged marriage, to a man twice her age (32).
Armenians worldwide will commemorate the 99th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide on Sunday, April 27. In New York City thousands of
Armenians will gather in Times Square from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. to remember
and tell the stories to the world about what happened to their people
beginning Apr. 24, 1915. The genocide lasted from1915-1923, when 1.5
million Armenians were killed and more than 500,000 were exiled from
the Ottoman Empire.
By the conclusion of 1923, the entire Armenian population of Anatolia
and Western Armenia had been either killed, deported or became refugees
in other countries.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/04/09/armenian-genocide-survivors-tell-their-story/
17:53 09.04.2014
Armenian Genocide
On April 5, the New York Armenian Home held its annual meeting at
which two Armenian Genocide survivors spoke with the media to tell
their story about the annihilation of the Armenian people almost 100
years ago, the Western Queens Gazette reports.
The interviews were given in conjunction with the upcoming 99th
anniversary commemorating the Armenian Genocide that resulted in more
than 1.5 million Armenians murdered by the Ottoman Empire during a
deliberate and planned slaughter of men, women and children, because
of their ethnicity.
"The Armenian Genocide, carried out by the leaders of the Ottoman
Empire and continued by the Young Turks, was a motivation for Adolf
Hitler and the German Third Reich to murder more than six million
Jews and more than 11 million in total throughout Europe," the
author reminds.
The New York Armenian Home in Flushing is a senior nursing home like
no other. Started in 1948, around the same time as the start of the
United Nations, it provided a home for Armenian Genocide survivors
who could no longer take care of themselves. At its height it served
more than 90 survivors. Today there are about 45 residents of Armenian
descent. The home receives no governmental funding. All support comes
from private fundraising projects and the generosity of the survivors
and their descendants.
One hundred and four year old Perouze Kalousdian and 99 year old
Azniv Guiragossian told their harrowing stories with the assistance
of translators. Both women have seen their share of atrocities against
their families, as well as against the Armenian people. The atrocities
included persecution, arrests, exile from their homes, confiscation
of their homes and personal property, false arrests and ultimately
death at the hands of Turkish death squads.
Both survivors were very young when chaos broke out around them.
They were both forced to leave their homes and were separated from
their families. Kalousdian was six when she witnessed some of the
atrocities during the Armenian Genocide. She reported that the Turks
took males over the age of 15, including her two uncles, tied them up
two by two and threw them from a bridge into the Euphrates River. She
and her mother were forced to become servants for Turkish leaders.
Many of her fellow Armenian women were also forced to work without pay
for the Turks. Many were raped, tortured and ultimately killed. Her
grandfather smuggled her father out of the country. He fled to the
United States and later returned to find her and her mother before
bringing the family to America.
Guiragossian, born in Urfa, Turkey was made an orphan during
the Armenian Genocide. Her daughter, Arpi Nardone and son Shahen
Guiragossian, who accompanied their mother for the interview, explained
that when they were growing up their mother constantly spoke about her
childhood and feeling hungry, and cold after being separated from her
parents. Their mother told them that she lived with a Turkish family
after the death of her parents. She witnessed her mother giving birth
to a child who died in the Syrian desert and the death of her mother,
two months later. Guiragossian was sent to an Armenian orphanage,
where she later met her husband and was married at age 16 in an
arranged marriage, to a man twice her age (32).
Armenians worldwide will commemorate the 99th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide on Sunday, April 27. In New York City thousands of
Armenians will gather in Times Square from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. to remember
and tell the stories to the world about what happened to their people
beginning Apr. 24, 1915. The genocide lasted from1915-1923, when 1.5
million Armenians were killed and more than 500,000 were exiled from
the Ottoman Empire.
By the conclusion of 1923, the entire Armenian population of Anatolia
and Western Armenia had been either killed, deported or became refugees
in other countries.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/04/09/armenian-genocide-survivors-tell-their-story/