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My
brother-in-law was American Consul Davis' body guard in
Mezre and the consul himself saved my father's life. There
was a Turkish gendarme by the name of Shadhe who wanted to
kill my father. Consul Davis came all the way to our door in
Pazmashen. My father was hiding in the back, in the wood
shed. He came on his horse and took my father back with him
to the consulate.
When the
deportations began, I went to Mezre to say goodbye to my
father. He cried. The consul saw him and told me to stay.
Later, my mother escaped from the deportation and also came
to the consulate. We were in the American consulate during
the deportations. Consul Davis saved us. Everybody else, my
sisters, my maternal aunt—all of them, all of them—were
deported. Our whole village was wiped out.
We lived in the consulate
until 1922. On September 7, 1922, our family left Kharpert
along with 250 Armenian orphans on horses and wagons. My
father was asked by the Near East Relief to oversee the
transportation of these orphans from Kharpert to Aleppo.
From Aleppo we went to
Beirut, then to Marseille and then by ship we came to
Providence, Rhode Island. |
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