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102-year-old Armenian Genocide survivor hurries home after surgery

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  • 102-year-old Armenian Genocide survivor hurries home after surgery

    102-year-old Armenian Genocide survivor hurries home after surgery

    07/02/2015 13:47:00
    Oratert News

    The witness of the Mount Musa Battle and the traditional Harissa
    creation, Silvard Atajyan is waiting for her 103rd anniversary in
    April impatiently. The Armenian Genocide witness, notwithstanding the
    respectable age, has overcome a serious surgery, which was successful.
    At first sight it is unbelievable though fact that even at this age
    the woman managed to overcome such a serious health problem and get
    well with the help of the doctors. At the hospital ward she does not
    feel lack of visitors. Surrounded with the love and care of the
    members of her family, Silvard Atajyan is waiting for the soonest
    recovery and for the return home.

    "Grandma is really strong. Five years ago she got an injury in the
    left leg, in which a metal structure was placed and the whole weight
    of the body fell on her right leg, which in fact did not endure and
    was broken years later", - told the grandson of the Genocide survivor,
    Arshavir Atajyan to Armenpress correspondent.

    Earlier Armenpress presented the story of the Armenian Genocide
    witness, which is as follows:

    The Armenian Genocide initiated in the Ottoman Empire during the World
    War I in the beginning of the previous century is one of the biggest
    crimes against humanity. Advancing the 100th anniversary of the
    Armenian Genocide the new project introduced by Armenpress news agency
    is dedicated to the story of the eyewitnesses and survivors of the
    calamity to prove the world one more time that our demand for the
    recognition of the Armenian Genocide is fair and justified. This time
    the project is dedicated to the story of 101-year old Silvard Atajyan.

    MAY 14, 101-year old Silvard Atajyan living in Armenia is one of the
    few witnesses of the events described in renowned novel "The Forty
    Days of Musa Dagh" by Austrian author Franz Werfel.

    Her family, which comes from Suedia region of Cilicia, was among those
    Armenians, which participated in the heroic struggle against the
    Turkish slaughterers in 1915. When the local authorities tried to
    realize the order to force the Armenians to leave their homes, the
    Armenians had made decision to resist and they climbed up the Mount
    Musa, where they organized struggle for their self-defense and managed
    to throw back the attacks of the Turkish troops 53 days.

    Among other things Silvard Atajyan noted: "I climbed up the Mount Musa
    along with my sister, mother, and grandmother in 1911. I was three
    years old at that time. My father and uncle were soldiers. My father
    ordered the mother to take us and climb up the mountain."

    After the 53 days of resistance the family reached Egypt due to a French vessel.

    Silvard remembers how a part of the women was at the side of their
    husbands and the other part supplied food and arms to the fighters.

    "In the evening women usually brought figs, grapes and bread for the
    fighters. But little by little our forces expired...", - the 101-yer-old
    woman said with excitement and tears in her eyes. In the memory of
    Silvard, notwithstanding her little age, come out the images of the
    French ships, bringing assistance to the Armenians. After the 53 days
    of resistance the family reached Egypt due to a French vessel.

    Harissa has got a historic past for Musa Dagh people

    "During the fights my uncle died, who was thrown into the river. That
    was the reason my aunts did not eat fish for years after that", - says
    the witness.

    After living for five years in Egypt, in 1919 the family of Silvard
    returned to the motherland. Then in 1939 they moved to Aleppo and
    later, in 1947 - to Yerevan.

    "We grew up in Aleppo, where I got married with Hovsep, born in 1911,
    who was a colonel. We got a house and came back to Yerevan, from where
    we were exiled to Vardenis", - remembers Silvard, who worked there as
    a carpet weaver.

    In 1953 the Atajyan family moved from Vardenis to Yerevan and got a
    land in the Malatia-Sebastia administrative district, where they have
    lived up to now.

    The hero of our story states that Harissa is one of the traditional
    Musa Dagh dishes and has a historic past. It is mainly prepared for
    happy or sad ceremonies. And that is the reason it is made after it is
    blessed by a priest and necessarily from sacrificed lamb meat.

    Years after touching upon the recognition of the Armenian Genocide,
    the 101-year-old Silvard says that she does not lose hope, as living
    with hope is characteristic of an Armenian. "I often watch news
    programs and tell everybody to watch it too, so that they know what is
    happening in the world. I am not educated but my brain works", -
    states the hero of the story half-seriously and half-jokingly, adding
    that according to the forecast, she will live for 5 years more.

    She is fond of the flowers, which she has planted and cares with her own hands.

    "When I got ill, in the hospital I even told my son not to dry my
    flowers", - emphasized the Genocide-atrocities-survived Silvard, who,
    using her walking device, showed us all her flowers in the house yard,
    the care of which she does not trust anybody.

    Today Silvard has 3 sons, one daughter, 7 grandchildren, and 12 great grandsons.

    http://www.oratert.com/news/armenia/armenian-diaspora/80280.html


    From: Baghdasarian
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