Souren Vetsigian

We were left free in the park, but could not go out. Turkish women as usual brought food to sell. But we had no money, it was with our grandmother, thinking the separation is temporary. So we were left with the loaf of bread, which the government was giving us every day. It was black bread made of half burnt flour, but hungry as we were, we would eat it.

Soon I fell sick. For days I lay on the bare ground under the shadow of a tree, with no one to take care of me, except my poor brother. He was sitting by me all the time, not that he could help me, but because he had no one else on earth. I had fever and lay unconscious most of the time. Of course I could not eat the bread, but nothing else was given. How long have I remained in that condition, I can not tell, but when I regained consciousness, though not perfectly recovered, great changes had taken place around us.

While I have been lying in unconscious condition, gendarmes have come and gathering the boys, have taken them away. Probably I was left there as dead or near dying. Few others had hidden themselves in bushes or on trees and had remained.

My cousin had gone with the rest.

Had we known the purpose of their being taken away, we might envy them.

Years later I learned, that the Turks, having desire to bring up a new generation of “jenicharies”, or professional soldiers brought up from childhood, have chosen the children of Shabin Karahissar as fitted for such a life, judging from the conduct of their parents. They have been taken first to Enderes and put in an orphanage. But because of the inadequate care for them, some have died. Others, like my cousin, have run away. The remaining have eventually been taken to an orphanage in Sivas, which was called “Officer’s Training School”, where from small age they had began to receive military training. My sickness destined me, with others, to another kind of life.

One day we saw a large caravan of deported Armenians halted at the park.

They were from the seaport town of Trebolu. The gendarmes gathered us, the remaining children, and included us in this caravan. We were surprised very much, that there were men in the caravan. They were yet fresh on the way and did not have such miserable looks.

In spite of the fact, that we were mostly orphans, helpless children, these Armenians received us very unkindly. They thought our resistance on the fortress was the cause of their calamity. Of course, then neither they, nor we could know that all were suffering according to a general treacherous plan. So we had a very hostile reception and we, who needed so much comfort, were being tortured even more.

The caravan took the southeastern route, the one that joined the main highway from Sivas to Erzerum. There was evidence that our people also had passed that way, because all along we could see unburied corpses on the waysides.

The first night we halted on a meadow. Before darkness the caravan was attacked by a Turkish band. I recognized some of them. They were among the volunteers from Shabin Karahissar, who unable to defeat the Armenian fighters with arms, now had come to take their revenge from these unarmed people. The gendarmes offered no resistance. So they entered among the people and robbed them of their jewelry or money. I saw with my own eyes how they cut the arm of a woman to get off her bracelets. Panic had struck everybody. Shrieking, weeping, cursing was heard from all sides. I was quite indifferent, I had nothing to lose. After they had gathered enough booty, they left us.

Thenceforth the caravan was every day subjected to some kind of robbery by Turkish peasants. Kidnapping young women was common. Several old women