Armenians, Jews in New York to commemorate Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - Thousands of Armenians, Jews and other supporters will gather in Times Square, NYC, on April 21, to commemorate the first genocide of the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide, The Queens Gazette reports.

The event, held on what is also Holocaust Remembrance Day, will pay tribute to one and a half million of Armenians who were massacred by the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire and to the six million Jews who were annihilated by the Nazi regime during World War II.

In anticipation of the 98th anniversary of the tragedy, which occurred during World War I, two survivors of the Armenian Genocide, also known as Medz Yeghern, remembered their horrific moments of sorrow, pain and survival during a special question and answer session at the New York Armenian Home in Flushing.

Held on March 19, two women residents of the New York Armenian Home, both a century old or more, representing some of the few remaining survivors of the genocide, told their stories.

“Each year there are fewer survivors left,” said Armenian Home Executive Director Aghavni “Aggie” Ellia. “The fact that they still remember, at their age, the events that happened to them are an indication of how traumatic the whole experience was.”

The first survivor was Arsalos Dadir, born Aug. 15, 1913 in Shabin Karahisar, Turkey. Dadir shared that her father was killed by the Young Turks when he was only 25, leaving behind herself and her mother who was only 20 when he was killed. Her uncle, a doctor, was one of 300 martyrs killed on Apr. 14, 1915 when Armenian leaders, including members of the Turkish Parliament, were murdered. She remembered how the Young Turks took 10 people from the village, tired them up, and shot them all. She remembers hundreds of bodies piled on top of each other.

Coming from a wealthy family, her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother found safety with a wealthy Turkish family. Her family lost all of their money and land and the family eventually moved to Constantinople, where Dadir married and raised two children, before moving to the U.S. later in life.

The next was Charlotte Kechejian, born in Nikhda, Turkey on Oct 21, 1912.

Kechejian told how she walked with her mother for miles through the desert to escape persecution by the ruling Turks. She recounted feeling tired, thirsty and hungry and sleeping in the desert. Her mother kept promising her that if she would hold on a little while longer, she would have comfort and happiness and plenty of food to eat. This, of course, was not so.

“It was awful,” she said. “It was the most awful time of my life.”