Armenia and the WarHacobian, A. P. (Avetoon Pesak)
History
Armenia and the War
Hacobian, A. P. (Avetoon Pesak)
Armenian question; World War, 1914-1918 -- Armenia
"Sirpouhi and Santukht, two young women of Ketcheurd, a village east of
Sivas, who were being led off to the harem, by Turks, threw themselves
into the river Halys, and were drowned with their infants in their arms.
Mlle. Sirpouhi, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Garabed Tufenjjian of
Herag, a graduate of the American College of Marsovan, was offered the
choice of saving herself by embracing Islam and marrying a Turk.
Sirpouhi retorted that it was an outrage to murder her father and then
make her a proposal of marriage. She would have nothing to do with a
godless and a murderous people; whereupon she, and seventeen other
Armenian girls who had refused conversion, were shamefully ill-treated
and afterwards killed near Tchamli-Bel gorge" (p. 325).
"Many began to doubt even the existence of God. Under the severe strain
many individuals became demented, some of them permanently. There were
also some examples of the greatest heroism and faith, and some started
out on the journey courageously and calmly, saying in farewell: 'Pray
for us. We shall not see you again in this world, but some time we shall
meet again'" (p. 335).
"'No, I cannot see what you see, and I cannot accept what I cannot
understand.' So the ox-carts came to the door and took the family away.
The wife was a delicate lady and the two beautiful daughters well
educated. They were offered homes in harems, but said: 'No, we cannot
deny our Lord. We will go with our father'" (p. 354).
"In a mountain village there was a girl who made herself famous. Here,
as everywhere else, the men were taken out at night and pitifully
killed. Then the women and children were sent in a crowd, but a large
number of young girls and brides were kept behind. This girl, who had
been a pupil in the school at X., was sent before the Governor, the
Judge, and the Council together, and they said to her: 'Your father is
dead, your brothers are dead, and all your other relatives are gone, but
we have kept you because we do not wish to make you suffer. Now just be
a good Turkish girl and you shall be married to a Turkish officer and be
comfortable and happy.' It is said that she looked quietly into their
faces and replied: 'My father is not dead, my brothers are not dead; it
is true you have killed them, but they live in Heaven. I shall live
with them. I can never do this if I am unfaithful to my conscience. As
for marrying, I have been taught that a woman must never marry a man
unless she loves him. This is a part of our religion. How can I love a
man who comes from a nation that has so recently killed my friends? I
should neither be a good Christian girl nor a good Turkish girl if I did
so. Do with me what you wish.' They sent her away, with the few other
brave ones, into the hopeless land. Stories of this kind can also be
duplicated" (p. 355).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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