Armenian Genocide: My Story: Women and War : Heroes, Victims and Survivors

Happy Mother's Day!

On the occasion of Mother's Day let's remember women heroes of wars and women victims of wars some of whom had no chance to become a mother.

Turkish Poet Nazım Hikmet wrote the following lines for women in his The Epic of the War of Independence and Human Landscapes from My Country (1941):

The ox carts moved under the moon.

'The ox carts moved beyond Akşehir towards Afyon.

The earth seemed so endless,

the mountains so far in the distance,

it seemed they would
never reach any destination.

The ox carts advanced on solid oak wheels.
And they were

the first wheels that ever turned under the moon.

Under the moon,
the oxen looked as if belonging to a world in miniature,

tiny and dwarfed,

and there were twinkles on their sickly broken horns,

and what flowed under their feet was ,
the earth,
the earth,

and the earth.

The night was bright and hot, _

and in their wooden beds on the ox carts

the dark blue grenades were stark naked.

And women

hid their glances from each other

as they eyed the dead oxen

and wheels from earlier convoys.

And women,
our women:

with their awesome blessed hands,

fine small chins, and large eyes,

our mothers, our wives, our beloveds ...

For further lines of the Epic in a different version please visit

Nazım Hikmet Culture and Art Foundation web site

Mairam Chilingirian

Mariam Chilingirian participated in the Armenian revolution, [uprising for Turks] of Urfa, in 1915 as a group leader. Gemchian, Mirzayan and Tuptupyan were members of her group. They were dressed as man and were armed. Mariam was part of good bomber group. Mariam was arrested during a fight, and she was first sentenced to death, then the sentence was changed to 101 years of prison. During the armistice of 1918, she was set free.

http://www.jdemirdjian.com/Armenians/Armenian_Heroes/Mariam_Chilingirian.htm

Fatma Seher Erden (Erzurum, 1888 - Istanbul, 1955) She was known as Kara Fatma. She got married to army officer Suat Derviş, and first joined the Balkan War (1912-13), then fought at Caucasus Front in the First World War, during the Turkish National War of Independence (1919 - 1922) she was on the Western Front leading her own unit.

http://www.kimkimdir.gen.tr/kimkimdir.php?id=5015

During the Turco-Russian War 1877-78 Nene Hatun was the legendary heroine of Aziziye Fort defense (Erzurum). Her son Yusuf was killed in Gallipoli Battle (1915–1918). In March 1918 she was reported to be seen chasing the Armenian bandits who massacred many Turkish civilians of Erzurum and burnt down the city while they retreated before the advancing Turkish army.

http://www.balikdostlari.com/forum/showthread.php/kahraman-turk-kadini-14538.html?s=57b9095d02a9e3e1fcab79c3f35c549a&

Izmir 1922

Izmir was occupied on 15 May 1919. A team of some 30 Greek soldiers went to Kuzuluk village. A girl of fifteen years old named Fatma attracted their attention and they started chasing her. She escaped entering into a house and was able to close the door. They said if we set the house on fire she will have to come out. And so they did. The house burnt down but Fatma, Fatma only in her 15 yet, did not come out.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/19386906.asp

Eastern Anatolian Armenian women who lost the battle against epidemics, hunger and attacks of bandits during deportation of 1915 [relocation alleged as genocide by Armenians] and Turkish women who were subject to atrocities, massacres during Armenian uprisings which started in 1890, Ottoman - Russian Wars, 1877-78 and 1914-1918 (The Caucasus Front, WWI) and Armenian -Turkish War (1919-1921), particularly in the years of 1917-18 from withdrawal of Russians until Turks were able to get the region under control again.