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Time in Yerevan: 11:07,   29 March 2024

The Eyewitness: 102-years old Armenian Genocide survivor's memories and behest

The Eyewitness: 102-years old Armenian Genocide survivor's memories and behest

The Armenian Genocide initiated in the Ottoman Empire during the World War I in the beginning of the previous century is one of the biggest crimes against humanity. Advancing the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide the project introduced by "Armenpress" news agency is dedicated to the story of the eyewitnesses and survivors of the calamity to prove the world one more time that our demand for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is fair and justified. This time the project is dedicated to the story of the 102-year old Hersik Matevosyan.

INNER PTGHNI, MARCH 4, ARMENPRESS. This time our agency’s creative group paid a visit to the sole Armenian Genocide survivor from Armenia’s Inner Ptghni village. We appeared in an odd, but unique house belonging to Hersik Matevosyan. Hersik was born in Igdir in 1913.

The 102-year old woman moved to this house 10 years ago along with her son Armen from capital Yerevan. “My mother was but 2 years old during the massacres of 1915. Her parents placed her in a saddlebag attached to a donkey and so they migrated. Probably they crossed not the Araks river, but by the bridge,” Hersik’s son noted.

Hersik migrated together with her mother Tigranuhi and younger brother Gourgen. Armen doesn’t exclude that they could have other relatives as well, but they had no information about his grandfather.

Although, Armen didn’t possess lots of information on how her mother migrated to Eastern Armenia, but he jokingly said that maybe his mother felt free and secure in that saddlebag, more than anybody else.

Among other things, the 102-year old survivor stated: “I want the word war to vanish and stop existing anymore. I want all the countries to unite, so that there would be no other word, but peace. I want the youth and elders like us to never see war and peace to be all over the world. The leaders of the states must finally realize that the youths are the dearest wealth in this world, who create good in the world; the rest is of no importance.”

The fact of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman government has been documented, recognized, and affirmed in the form of media and eyewitness reports, laws, resolutions, and statements by many states and international organizations. The complete catalogue of all documents categorizing the 1915 wholesale massacre of the Armenian population in Ottoman Empire as a premeditated and thoroughly executed act of genocide, is extensive. Uruguay was the first country to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide in 1965. The massacres of the Armenian people were officially condemned and recognized as genocide in accordance with the international law by France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Canada, Vatican and Australia.

Article by Tatevik Grigoryan and Ani Nazaryan

Photos by Edward Sepetchyan




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