Aysha Along Euphrates on Horseback at the Age of Twelve

Last weekend we had a nice family gathering. Readers of this blog  may remember that my grandma Nazire was through a forced emigration which took her to Istanbul. She was my father's mother. My maternal grandmother Aysha had gone to Malatya. I have assumed that she went there with her family similarly. But during this gathering I discovered that this was not the case. Aysha, her elder sister Aliye and their brother Osman were in their teens while Alime was only six yet. Their father was in charge of Land Registry and Cadastre Agency in Erzurum. The government decided to take teenagers of those who worked in public service to Malatya while younger children were to stay back with their families.

My guess is that teenagers were thought to be more vulnerable and therefore more in need of protection. Some children were put on carts, some were given horses, and some donkeys. Aysha's horse wanted to lead the herd and was difficult to control. As they moved along Euphrates River the horse suddenly speeded up, and if one of the escorts didn't catch it by the leash at the last moment, twelve years old Aysha could have fallen and get drowned in the river. They were probably put into an orphanage and were taken back to Erzurum as soon as Ottoman Army took the control over in the province. In 1920 Aysha got married with my grandpa Kemal who had come back from Batum where he fought against Russia in the Ottoman Army as a lieutenant.

Alime who had stayed behind with her parents witnessed  boys of her age ripped along the abdomen and left to die by Armenians, while they were playing together in front of their houses. She would not help shuddering when the word Armenian was uttered until her death in the mid '50s. Alime's son who is 82 years old today, still remembers a mosque, which although restored could not be used for years because the absorbed burned human fat on the walls could not be cleaned completely. A more thorough second restoration had to be made years later so that it would be possible to use the mosque for prayers again. 

All these were told upon my inquiry rather quickly and then my dear mum, aunt and uncle returned to their happy talk about their children and grandchildren. Our elderlies did not feed us with hatred and our children do not know what their ancestors lived through. This approach has brought us to where unfortunately some young people, even if few in number, have come to the point of believing in genocide allegations. This situation obliges Eastern Anatolian people to remember and remind the rebellions, joinings to enemy lines, the shootings at the back, the brutal occupation, ethnic cleansing;  in summary all that have been encountered over almost hundred years later. I wish this weren't the case. My cousin has lovely flowers on her window sill which I admired. My pots are still empty because I am too preoccupied with  this blog. Rather than reading about historical events and sharing my findings here, I could have planted lovely flowers in my balcony and take care of them; I could have cooked for homeless dogs and feed them; I could keep myself busy with tons of more enjoyable leisure time activities! But I will continue writing, hoping that one day it will be understood that the story of a dear friend or relative who had suffered is just a small piece of a much larger picture and more stories need to be listened to, to come closer to the full picture. I wholeheartedly believe that facts can not be overlooked and concealed eternally. I also believe that hatred cannot be eternal either, and it will come to an end too.

Alime in the middle of second row, Aysha behind her with their families and it's me at the right end

Photos:
Map: Political World Atlas http://www.sitesatlas.com/Atlas/PolAtlas/C10.htm
Euphrates: Sehirler.Net http://www.sehirler.net/resim-malatya-resimleri-36-firat-664.htm
Lala Paşa Camii (1562) : Since I don't know which mosque it was, I just pictured a historical Erzurum  mosque.  http://turkgeonews.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/erzurum_lala_mustafa_pasa_camii_31.jpg
The last two are from family albums


Armenian Holocaust:My Story blog by Selma Aslan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Gayriticari-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.