The Independent tells about the last survivor of Armenian Genocide

YEREVAN, JULY 11, ARMENPRESS: British famous Independent daily dwells on last survivor of the Armenian Genocide living in Britain.

As Armenpress reports, Astrid Aghajanian was one of the few remaining survivors who escaped Ottoman systematic annihilation.In 1915 Astrid's father was shot and Astrid, her mother, grandmother and baby brother were deported and force- marched into the Deir ez-Zor desert. On one occasion the Turkish officers asked the Armenian mothers to hand over their children, claiming they would be taken to an orphanage. Some mothers parted with their offspring, in the desperate hope they would be given a chance to survive. Astrid's mother, however, refused to let her daughter go. Sometime later she and the other deportees heard terrible screaming; the soldiers were burning the children alive.

Determined to keep her daughter and herself alive, Astrid's mother decided to try to escape and they succeeded, they managed to make their way to Aleppo. Here they had relatives and could finally begin picking up the pieces of their shattered lives. When her mother eventually remarried, Astrid's new stepfather changed her name from Helen to Astghig (the Armenian form of Astrid).

The family moved from Aleppo to British Mandate Palastine in the early 1920s, living first in Haifa, then in Jerusalem, Cyprus and eventually to Great Britain.

Astrid was fond of comparing her turbulent life to that of spiders: "You may destroy the spider's home, but he will always build it again." Astrid will be remembered for her generous hospitality, her creativity, her indomitable spirit and above all for her incredible resilience in the face of adversity.

Born in 1913 Astrid Aghajanian died in 2012 May 11.