Q&A: WORDS FILLED WITH PAIN; DAUGHTER KEEPS FATHER’S MEMOIRS ALIVE FOR FUTURE ARMENIAN GENERATIONS
By Phyllis Sides
Journal Times Online, WI
Nov 20 2006
Copies of "Destiny of the Dzidzernag" are available at Amazon.com or
St. Mesrob Armenian Church’s gift shop, 4605 Erie St.
The first genocide of the 20th century started in Turkey in April
1915. Racine resident Mariam Sahakian has a first-hand account in
her father’s memoirs. Sahakian’s father, Varteres Mikael Garougian,
survived the killing and recorded his experiences for posterity.
Armenians say that Turkish authorities executed 1.5 million people
between 1915-1923, accusing them of helping the invading Russian
Army during World War I. Turkey rejects the genocide claim, saying
Armenians were killed in civil unrest during the collapse of the
Ottoman Turk Empire.
However, Henry Morgenthau, the United States ambassador to Ottoman
Turkey between 1913 and 1916, wrote of the mistreatment and killings
of the Armenians in "Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story," a memoir of his
years in Turkey. Because the past is important, Sahakian translated
her father’s memoirs into English.
This is part one of a two-part interview. The second installment will
appear in Tuesday’s paper.
Tell me about your father: Varteres Mikael Garougian was born the
eldest of three sons on Sept. 14, 1892 in Khoulakyough village in
the province of Kharpert, located in Turkish Armenia.
In 1911, to avoid being taken at 19 years of life into the much
feared and dreaded Turkish military, his parents paid a bedel –
temporary exemption fee – as well as bribes to Turkish authorities.
They arranged for him to go to America temporarily to work in safety
and earn money, hopefully for a short time.
In departing, Varteres left behind everything he loved – his wife
Manan, his parents, two brothers and his village. When those horrible
times began in 1915 in Armenia, which the then Turkish government
referred to as "deportations" but were actually massacres and death
marches, he and other similarly displaced young Armenian men in
Racine were shocked, helpless and disturbed, bitterly questioning
among themselves why they were spared while their loved ones in
Armenia were not.
Seeking a possible means of returning to his homeland to search for
his loved ones who might have survived, in 1917 Varteres left safety
in America to join the Legion Armenienne (French Foreign Legion)
or Legion d"Orient in New York. While in Armenia, as a Legionnaire
soldier Varteres sought information about his family, corresponding
with a considerable number of persons. In so doing he became well known
as an intermediary for many survivors who desperately needed help.
In 1920, it was finally through missionaries that he found injured
Manan and later his young brother Krikor. Everyone else he knew in
Armenia had perished or been lost. After getting his wife to safety
with missionaries and other survivor friends, Varteres was captured
by Turkish authorities and taken away to face certain death. It was
only through his cleverness and a miraculous reprieve that he was
placed instead in the Turkish military in 1921.
Eventually he returned to Kharpert to help his young brother get
settled and after several perilous attempts, found his way, again,
back to Manan. By 1923 he realized that only by again leaving Manan
to return to America to get his U.S. citizenship would he and Manan
be able to live safely in America.
For many years "Baron Varteres" – as the students called him – was
director and an instructor of the Armenian night school in the State
Street Saint Mesrob Church, which was attended by a large number of
Armenian children.
Why did your father write his memoirs? First, my father wanted his
children and future grandchildren to know of, and to be proud of,
their ancestors, whom they were never privileged to see, unfortunately,
because most of their ancestors were killed or perished during the
1915-1923 death marches/massacres which the then Turkish government
called "deportations."
Also, because he felt many other immigrant Armenians were being lured
by the freedom, ease of life, and busy lives they had in America
which enticed them to forget their important past lives as well as
their terrible experiences during the deportations, he felt he must
write. In fact, he hoped and eagerly anticipated that others would
write of their experiences as well, but apparently not many did. By
1957-58, Varteres had almost completed his Armenian manuscript and
was contacting people to get it published in Armenian before he died
suddenly in 1958.
Why are your father’s memoirs important? Between 1911 through 1930,
keeping notes of his experiences, even through the most difficult
times whenever he was able to jot things down, helped him to keep
his sanity. Later on, being a perfectionist, compiling these notes
into a narrative was of great importance to him.
He felt pride in being an Armenian, knowing his ancestors, language,
history, and his culture. Because of all that was forbidden and
wrenched away by the happenings in 1915-23 by the Ottoman Turkish
government of those days, he felt he must keep alive what he could of
his background upon immigrating a second time to this free, wonderful
land of hope – America.
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