ABOUT MY GRANDFATHER, WHO WAS BOUGHT BY THE OTTOMAN GOLD COIN

Each of us is the heir to the sad and painful pages of our history, and Lebanon has its share of these pages.

Many centuries ago, the Armenian King Tigran conquered Lebanon, but after centuries, the people of that great king set foot on this soil as a migrant, survivor of torture and persecution. However, they never asked for alms and with their work rose to their feet, became loved and respected by the local population. Thousands of orphans, too, have found shelter in this land, in Dzhibile in an orphanage “Bird’s Nest” of Danish missionary Maria Yakubson, in other orphanages.

And here I am in Lebanon, in the house where my grandfather and her cousin, Sarah Khatun, lived, whose word was a law both for the relatives, and the residential quarter. When she was 16-18 years old, she had already felt the pain of losing her husband and child, she lost her entire family, only she and her two cousins – Mariam and Tamam were saved. Through the Dehr-Zor they reached Syria. There Sarah Khatun was looking for his brother, 10-year-old Sarkis – the sole survivor of his five brothers who died. Finally, she finds him at the Kurds and buys him, the sole heir of the family, by one-Ottoman gold coin and takes care of him like a mother.

Soon Sarah marries Nazar Agha, and has two daughters – Marie and Trvanda. So they told me the whole story. Sarkis married and had three daughters and a son, Harutyun, my father, who was the resurrection of all the family.

However, the year of 1946 came. Sargis decides to move to Soviet Armenia with his whole family. My father was 12 years old, and several times he escapes to his aunt Sarah, he doesn’t want to leave, but she says, “Go, my son, there is nothing sweeter than motherland!”

ANAHIT QIRAJYAN