The National, UAE
June 29 2009

Armenia memories burn bright

Daniel Bardsley, Correspondent
Last Updated: June 28. 2009 9:44PM UAE / June 28. 2009 5:44PM GMT

ASHNAK, ARMENIA // Nearly a century after her family fled what was
then Western Armenia, Haykanush Manukyan does not have any good words
to say about Turks.

The 75-year-old great-grandmother, who lives in this village 70km from
the Armenian capital, Yerevan, describes them as `traitors’.

`I think only bad things about Turks,’ she said through an
interpreter. `They killed us, they committed genocide.’

Her comments indicate how charged emotions are in Armenia regarding
Turkey, even though the government has held talks with its neighbour
about establishing diplomatic relations and opening their shared
border.

Armenia, however, said it would establish diplomatic relations with
Turkey even without the latter recognising the Ottoman-era massacre as
`genocide’.

Mrs Manukyan, a widow, said her own grandparents died amid the killing
of Armenians under the Ottomans during the First World War.

`Only my father and uncle [escaped],’ she said. `My father was only
three years old and he managed to end up here. My uncle ended up in
Syria or Lebanon.’

Many of the other residents of Ashnak are also descended from
residents of Sason or Sasun as it used to be known, a district of what
was then Western Armenia. This area, which is now in eastern Turkey,
south-west of Lake Van, contained dozens of Armenian villages.

Every year on April 24, the date on which Armenians remember what they
describe as a genocide, the people of Ashnak light a fire on the top
of a hill near the village.

In another indicator of the attachment villagers have to what they
call their homeland, upstairs in the village church is a museum to
Gevorg Chaush, a celebrated former Sason resident who led the
resistance to the Ottoman authorities and was killed in 1907. There
are countless paintings of the mustachioed fighter, in some of which
he is posing with his rifle.

Among the many in the village who admire the resistance of Chaush is
Ghazaryan Husik, 51, a gardener. He said his grandparents `escaped the
massacres’ and eventually ended up in Ashnak.

`We speak a lot about it,’ he said, referring to the genocide, which
has been recognised as such by more than a dozen countries, although
not by Turkey, much to the disquiet of Armenians.

`Every day we speak about it. Armenians suffered like Jews, but our
case is more difficult because we lost our historical homeland.’
Another villager keen to visit the former Western Armenia is Aharon
Ghukasyan, 32, also the descendant of a former Sason resident. His
feelings about the possible opening of the border are mixed, though.

`Armenia maybe wants this border reopened because of economic
conditions, only for this reason.’

`Also, many people want the border to open so they can see the country
of their grandparents.’

If Turkey and Armenia do strike a deal, Mr Ghukasyan said he would
definitely `go to see the country of my grandparents. But I don’t know
how I would feel if I got there and saw Turks around me.’

In the nearby village of Davtashen, Rafik Sargsyon, 61, said `it will
be good’ if the blockade, which dates to 1993, is lifted. `If they
recognise the genocide and we have the opportunity to go and look
after our lands, it’s something,’ he said, speaking in the front room
of his spartan home. `It will moderate my feelings.’

Living where they are now is harder than it would have been in the
former Western Armenia, Mr Sargsyon said, because the land is less
fertile than he was told it was there.

`We heard from our grandparents the land was very good there. They
missed the land there. They would say: `we wish we could just drink
the water of our country and die’.’ The family, like most of those
around them, are poor and their houses simple.

While some descendants of those who fled what is now eastern Turkey
are keen for the border to open so they can visit the area, others are
angrily opposed to any rapprochement with Turkey.

Among them is Mrs Manukyan in Ashnak. She fears the consequences if
more Turkish people visit Armenia.

`No question, I don’t want the border to open. Whatever bad things
they have will come here.’

dbardsley@thenational.ae
ional.ae/article/20090629/FOREIGN/706289886/1002