Niagara Falls Reporter
March 01, 2005

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LED TO FALLS IMMIGRATION
By Bob Kostoff

An Armenian from the Detroit area who has close ties to Niagara Falls has
written of the incredible hardship he faced as a youngster fleeing from the
Turkish mass murder of the first part of the 20th century.
Souren Aprahamian, a retired engineer and businessman, tells the tale in his
autobiography. He met his late wife, Arminuhe Amirian, in Niagara Falls, and
still has relatives here, including a cousin, retired Niagara Falls Police
Captain Aris Ohanessian.
The story of his younger years growing up in Turkish Armenia is full of
danger and fear. He and his family were at death’s door many times and, in
fact, much of his family was wiped out.
To understand the current upheaval in the Middle East and the undying
animosity between Christians and Muslims there, one must go back to the
brutal Ottoman Empire of the Turkish nation. The Turks ruled that area with
an unforgiving iron fist for more than 500 years.
While many conquered Christian countries, including Bulgaria, Greece and
parts of the old Yugoslavia, suffered under this yoke of oppression, the
Armenians probably experienced the most casualties.
The first genocide of the 20th century, occurring in the era of World War I,
resulted in the deaths of between 300,000 and 1.5 million Armenians.
Aprahamian’s family numbered 50 in 1915 and there were only 15 alive in
1921, when six of them arrived in America.
Aprahamian was born in 1907 in the village of Lezk, just north of Van, in
Armenian Turkey.
His father had gone to America and graduated from high school in Providence,
R.I., before returning to his family in Lezk. I
n the months leading up to World War I, unrest was rife in that area.
Aprahamian writes, “Armenians were fair game for any Turk or Kurd. These
merciless roamers could rob, plunder, kidnap or kill Armenians without
having to answer to anyone.”
This, along with forced conscription into the Turkish army in April of 1915,
caused terror among the villagers.
Aprahamian writes that “fear, danger and horror were always in the air.”
His father had built the largest home in the village. It became a target for
the military, which needed to quarter about 15 soldiers.
He writes, “Mother thought it prudent for our family to abandon the house to
the military and move into the ancestral home with our grandmother and
uncles and aunts.”
Battles raged near Van between the Turks and Armenians, aided by Russian
troops. The Turks were routed, but then the Russians pulled out and the
Armenians had little hope left. The population was directed to retreat to
the Caucases and Russian Armenia.
There was a mass exodus, in which Aprahamian took part at the age of 8.
He writes, “There was much weeping and wailing, commotion, chaos and turmoil
as caravan after caravan streamed out from every village and hamlet.”
The family of seven took turns walking and riding in a cart pulled by a
donkey and filled with whatever possessions they could bring. A group of
about 10,000 refugees was attacked by Turkish and Kurdish troops, with only
2,000 Armenians surviving.
Aprahamian and his family were among the survivors and made it to the
village of Aghta, north of Yerevan in Armenia.
But the exhausting trip, poor food and unhealthy water led to an outbreak of
disease. Many were buried in mass graves. His father succumbed to the
cholera epidemic.
A return home, another exodus, another return home, and still another flight
for survival will be recounted next.

Bob Kostoff has been reporting on the Niagara Frontier for four decades. He
is a recognized authority on local history and is the author of several
books. E-mail him at RKost1@aol.com.
Niagara Falls Reporterwww.niagarafallsreporter.comMarch 1 2005