COMING TO AMERICA
Kayseri to Toledo
The journey of
Haig Hagop Kazazian
1914 to 1924
by Linda Rittenhouse Kazazian
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INTRODUCTION:
This record of Haig Hagop Kazazian's journey from Kayseri, Turkey to Toledo, Ohio is dedicated to the Kazazian family members and to the memory of a man who overcame tremendous adversity and was an inspirational model for those of us who knew and loved him.
In 1977 I tape recorded Haig's story about his experiences during the Turkish massacre of the Armenians; his escape(s) from the concentration camp at Ras el'Ain; and his subsequent efforts to legally enter the United States.
In addition to his vivid recollection of the events from those days and years, Haig Hagop saved a small Diary and an Address Book/diary from 1922/1923, his passport and a number of documents and papers which have made it possible to reconstruct a basic timeline of the period from early 1915 until February 25, 1924 when he landed at Ellis Island. This book is his story of those years.
I have included the genealogical information about Haig Hagop's grandparents, Megerdich Sahag and his wife Acabi Beylerian; Haig Hagop's parents, Hagop Megerdich and Anoushig (Zambakian); Haig Hagop and his siblings; and the family of Haig Hagop and Hermine (Papelian) Kazazian.
Also included in this book are a few photographs which survived the massacre. Haig Hagop's mother, Anoushig Zambakian's three brothers, Y. K., A.K., and V.K. left Turkey after the first massacre in 1895. They were the source of several of the pre-1915 photos. Beginning in 1919 when Haig made it to Damascus, he and his sister, Haigouhi took many photos of themselves. A photograph proves one was alive.
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Born on December 1, 1900, Haigaz Agop Kazazian was 14 years old when the massacre began. Except for his sister, Haigouhi, who also survived the massacre, he lost all other members of his family. He was 17 years old when he escaped the concentration camp in Ras el’Ain. He was 23 years old when he finally made it to the United States. He changed his name to Haig Hagop when he became a U.S. citizen in 1929.
Haig Hagop died on Oct. 1, 1992. He was proud to be an Armenian, and was very appreciative of what he had. He was dedicated and devoted to his family and community and he shared what he had with others all over the world.
He was a gentle, generous, kind and grateful man. He cared deeply for life and the people around him. He was a living example of his beliefs in the value of honesty, patience, cooperation, education and working smart.
Haig was not a vengeful person and never spoke with bitterness about his experiences. He did not feel the world owed him anything.
What mattered to him was his family and how he lived his life. He was a courageous and determined man who wanted to give whatever he could to the world and to help promote peace among mankind.
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I've Cried It All
by Avedis Aharonian
Sleep, my child, go back to sleep.
You don't have to cry now.
No need to weep.
I have cried enough tears for us both,
go back to sleep.
The wild, blind geese that fly the black skies
toward home have cried.
They could not see the mountain tops to cross.
You don't have to cry. You never need to cry.
The wind moaned in the trees
for our unburied dead.
You don't need to cry, we've cried it all.
The caravan that passed, so sad, so slow,
camped in the darkest forest. It will not go.
It was named Calamity. It was called Woe.
You don't need to mourn.
I've cried enough.
onto the first page of his 1922 Diary.
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page 5
"My father was an import-export merchant and a commission merchant in Kayseri. We used to buy and sell furs, raw wool, angora, apricot pits, walnuts and opium which was legal then.”
“My grandmother Zambakian, my older brother and I were supposed to come to America in 1912-1913. We dilly-dallied and then World War I started and we couldn’t come.”
The Turks first disarmed the entire Armenian population and issued orders to provincial governors to arrest and kill the Armenian leaders and intellectuals, and then proceeded to round up all Armenians and deport them.
During long overland marches, deportees were killed, or died. An estimated 2 million Armenians were killed, while as few as 500,000 survived the deportation to Syria and Iraq.
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The Family of 1 Megerdich Sahag and Acabi ( Beylerian) Kazazian
The name Kazazian means silk merchant or weaver.
1- Megerdich Sahag and 1-spouse Acabi were Haig Hagop's paternal grandparents. Haig Hagop’s father: Hagop Megerdich Kazazian’s siblings:
5 brothers and 3 sisters:
1-A. Garabed-a tradesman, not too successful.
1-B. Hagop Megerdich (GPP’s father
(b. 1870 d. in deportation 1915). Married Anoushig Zambakian b. 1878 d. 1915 (Ras el'Ain). Anoushig was the sister of the three uncles who sponsored Haig Hagop in America. Hagop Megerdich was partner in business as merchants with his brother Setrak.
1-C. Setrak. Wife Rajona. Setrak’s daughter, Valentine, lived in Leninagon. Her sister lived
in Bulgaria. Setrak and Hagop were deported together in 1915 and died near Ma’an Jordan.
1-D. Missak-went to Romania. died in 1940’s.Wife, Fulig. 4 children:
dtr. 1-D-1 Victoria died of TB
son, 1-D-2- Nazaret, born Nov 20, 1902 Wife, Hermine. Went to Romania. d. Feb 17, 2007 in L.A.
Nazaret’s daughter, 1-D-2-A Meline (b .10-6-1937 Bazargic Romania) was married to Kerope Bagdasarian and lived in New York. When he died, Meline returned to CA. 1-D-2-A -1, Son Carrey, who is engaged to be married to Elizabeth in May 2008
Nazaret's son, 1-D-2-B Navasart, (b. 10-4-1944 in Brailla Romania) is a dentist in LA. Navasart married Maral Mardirossian on 08/10/1974 in L.A.
1_D-2-B spouse, Maral Mardirossian (b..8/1/1951 in Aleppo Syria). Navasart & Maral have 2 sons-both doctors-one internist, other family practice
1-D-2-B-1 Shant b. 11-18-1976 Los Angeles CA
1-D-2-B-1 spouse, Nassim Bogsara on March 9 2007
1-D-2-B-2 Raffi b. 4-19-1978 Los Angeles CA
second son: 1-D-3 Jivan (b. 5/10/1914. d. 4/22/1992. 1-D-3-spouse Seta Sarouny (b. 2/08/1920) 2 daughters:
1-D-3-A Sona (b 3/23/1945. married Eduard Dudukgian (b. 1/06/1940.) (4 children: 3 sons 1 dtr.
1-D-3-A-1 Goriune (b. 5/20/1975, attorney) ,
1-D-3-A-2 Haig (b. 3/22/1977, M.D.),
1-D-3-A-3 Vahag (b.1/24/1980, engineer), and
1-D-3-A-4 Rehn (b.12/28/1981, MBA) in France. )
1-D-3-B Alice (b. 12/30/1955) married Vine H. Smith (b. 3/26/1942 d. 4/20/2002) (2 dtrs)
1-D-3-B-1 Talena Lydia (b. 4/16/1992)
1-D-3-B-2 Hannah Sosi (b. 9/30/1993
second dtr., 1-D-4 Shake Etmakjian-has two boys.
Hagop and Garbis
1-E. Sahag – (b. Mar 5 1885 died Mar 1975 left Romania with the help of ANCHA (Armenian National Committee to Aid Homeless Armenians) His wife, Marie, and son, 1-E-1 Onic (wife Mary, children Ara and Luiza Cazazian), and daughter, Zabel Kalpak are all in LA.
Missak and Sahag were also business partners.
Hagop Megerdich’s three sisters: 1-F Mayreni, 1-G Gulhatin and 1-H Horem. Don’t have information about them. One sister's son was Megerdich Selvian, the printer Haig Hagop saw in Aleppo.
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The Family of 1-B Hagop Megerdich and Anoushig (Zambakian) Kazazian
Haig Hagop's parents
1-B-3 Haig Hagop Kazazian (aka. Grandypapa (GPP)) celebrated his birthday on Dec. 1, 1900 (His Uncle Vahan Zambakian always said Haig was born Dec. 1, 1899). Haig was born in Kayseri, Turkey to Armenian parents, Hagop Megerdich Kazazian
(b. 1870; d. 1915-age 45) and Anoushig (Zambakian) Kazazian (b. 1878; d. 1915 in Ras el’Ain -age 37).
Haig Hagop had three brothers and two sisters:
1-B-1 Haroutine (b. 1895 d. 1915 in Ras el’Ain-age 20)
1-B-2. Haigouhi (sister) b. 1897; m. 1911 Haroutune Dilsizian lived in Damascus, Syria.
d. March 3, 1987-age 89). No children.
1-B-3. *Haigaz Agop (Haig Hagop) (b. Dec. 1, 1899 or 1900; d. Oct. 1, 1992-age 92). Haig Hagop's family tree is at the back of this book.
1-B-4. Avedis (b. @1902 d. 1916 in Ras el’Ain -age 14)
1-B-5. Onic Kapriel (b. @1909 disappeared 1916 in Ras el’Ain -age 7)
1-B-6. Baby sister (b. 1914 d. 1915 on the way to Aleppo-age infant)
Anoushig Zambakian, Haig Hagop’s mother, was born in 1878. She was the sister of his three uncles who came to the U.S. in the early 1900s. The three uncles had the same middle name, Kapriel, which was their father’s first name.
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The family of Hagop Megerdich Kazazian lived in Kayseri, Turkey.
Kayseri was known as Caesarea in Roman times.
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"My father was an import-export merchant and a commission merchant in Kayseri. We used to buy and sell furs, raw wool, angora, apricot pits, walnuts and opium which was legal then.”
“Our house in Kayseri…if you can imagine Haigouhi’s house in Damascus…. it was on that order. Room by room, but open. Not every room had a door. Our house was new. It was a stone house with a flat roof. “
“We were pretty well off. There were four of us. Our expenses were $300.00 a year, but they used to make probably $500.00 to $600.00 a year. Maybe they made even a little more. But $300.00 I remember, because this one time they were figuring and I was there. My father used to say he paid about $2.50 a year for our tuition. My uncle, Setrak and my father were partners. Their letterhead said: Hagop, Setrak Kazazian: Brothers.”
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“My grandmother Zambakian, my older brother and I were supposed to come to America in 1912-1913. We dilly-dallied and then World War I started and we couldn’t come.”
“I went to school until I was fourteen. I finished high school; I took physics, geometry, French, English. We went to school from 8:00 to 5:00, on Saturday, too. Our education was done when we were fourteen, unless you went to college.”
“The war came. I didn’t go to college there. I went to Toledo University for several seasons. I studied psychology at nights. First I studied English at Woodward High which used to be where the Library is now. Then I went to T.U. and studied psychology because I love salesmanship. You know, when you know people, you can sell. That’s why I am a good salesman. I went three or four years at night, twice a week. I went to school in the twenties before I got married."
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A BIT OF ARMENIAN HISTORY:
Armenia is located in the extreme east of Asia Minor, south of the Caucasus and the Black Sea. On the map, it lies to the right of the Y of Turkey.
The Armenians are one of the oldest races in history. They are as ancient as the Babylonians, Jews and Greeks. Today they number about 9 million, 3 million of whom live in the Commonwealth of Armenia which used to be one of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Another 1 to 2 million are scattered in various former Soviet Republics; 1 million + live in the United States and Canada; and 1 to 2 million live in the countries of the Middle East and Europe.
Armenia was once known as the cradle of civilization and was the first nation to accept Christianity as its national religion in 301 A.D.
Traditionally Armenians have been recognized as God-loving, hard working and law–abiding people. They are industrious and persistent artisans, merchants, and entrepreneurs. Their tenacity and intense attachment to family and church have enabled them to survive centuries of persecution and discrimination.
Due to its strategic geographical location in ancient times (sitting astride the great trade routes), Armenia has been sought as a prize by powerful nations throughout its long history. It was frequently under foreign domination, and its people were often forced to flee to escape persecution.
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The greatest destruction and dispersion occurred during the last decade of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. This culminated in the attempted genocide of the Armenian people beginning in 1915, when the Ottoman Turks brutally slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians.
After a group of “Young Turks” seized full control of the Turkish government in 1913, Christian Armenians, representing about 10% of the population were branded as infidels (non-believers in Islam).
Mount Ararat, where Noah’s Ark is believed
to have landed, is still considered the symbol
of the Armenian homeland
by millions of Armenians throughout the world.
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The climax came when virtually the entire remaining population of Armenians was forced by the Turkish government to leave their homeland. As history will later show, this “forgotten genocide” would serve as part of Hitler’s rationale to undertake the holocaust of the Jews and others before and during World War II.
"Go! Kill without Mercy! Who today remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Adolf Hitler to his generals on the eve of sending his Death Head’s units into Poland.
ARMENIA TODAY:
The eastern area of Armenia was ceded by the Ottomans to Russia in 1828.
By 1918, an Armenian resistance emerged that resulted in establishing the independent Republic of Armenia.
In 1920, the short-lived republic was conquered by the Soviet Red Army.
In 1922, along with Georgia and Azerbijan, Armenia was annexed by Bolshevik Russia.
In 1936 Armenia became one of the fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics.
In 1991, the Soviet Union broke apart and Armenia re-established its independence.
Today, the region remains a focus for conflict involving Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh.
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The above four photos are from various internet sites related to the Armenian Genocide.
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Kayseri to Ras el 'Ain
THE MASSACRE:
"In April 1915, the Turks rounded up all the men, all the merchants and well-known Armenians on the same night.”
“You could hear their footsteps in the street. There were maybe half a dozen men or something like that. They would go from door to door and questioned/interrogated the men, accusing them of belonging to the Dashnaks, an Armenian political organization of revolutionaries. They beat them! They hung several of them. They picked them up and took them to the government houses, the jail. Then two days later they left on a forced march for Ma’an. Jordan. We never saw my father again.”
(Why didn’t they try and leave Kayseri?) “They couldn’t leave. They couldn’t go anywhere. That’s it… The Turks knocked at the door, picked him up, and we never saw him again. We did hear from him. We got several letters from him. Some of the cards he sent from Ma’an, Jordan, to Uncle. Ma’an is south of Jerusalem, a desolate place. That’s where he died. He wasn’t killed, the way I understand it. Of course, I don’t know."
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"That’s why I wanted to see that area when we were in Jerusalem, but they said, “No use, no bother, no marker.” My whole family had no markers: my mother, my grandmother, my aunt and uncle, my brothers, my baby sister: no markers.......”
“After my father was gone, maybe six months or so later, in August, 1915, they announced in church that all the Armenians are going to leave the town: on a forced march to Syria. My grandmother started a movement to find some way of appealing to the Sultan that at least the women and children should stay.”
“I was about 15 years old then, and I used to go with her to the government offices to write telegrams to the Sultan. We went there many times. It didn’t do any good.”
“On August 15, the gendarmes took us with all the force they could give and the remaining Armenians were forced out of Kayseri. Everyone was forced out; no volunteer business.”
“Everybody emptied their houses and hired transportation like donkeys and mules. “
“We put a few things on the animals and started out. There were nine of us: my grandmother, my mother, my aunt and her husband, Haroutine, me, Avedis (means good news),Onic Kapriel and my baby sister.”
“We did take some bedding and so forth, but nothing else. We couldn’t carry those things. We had to pay these people for the use of the mules in advance. And you know…one night they all escaped with their mules. You know, those men would go from one group to another group, collecting the money and then sneaking off in the night with the mules they had rented…."
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"I think we got only two mules and we were riding and taking turns. Everyone was there then: my mother, grandmother, my three brothers, my baby sister, my aunt, and her husband.”
“We walked and rode and finally, late one night, we came to Tarsus. We had no tents or anything. We had a very thin sheet. We had never known anything like that…. Everything was sopped with water.”
“From Tarsus they put us on a train like in Dr. Zhivago, and they sent us to Aleppo .There was a sign on those wagons in French: 40 men and 12 horses.”
“Everybody was still alive until we got on the train to Aleppo and then everybody started getting sick with typhus and typhoid. “
“We were told they would leave us alone in Aleppo. In Aleppo we were smart. We moved into some homes, but finally they decided to take us from there and send us to Der-el-Zor. I tried to bribe a gendarme and he gave me a smackaroo. Oh…. I never felt anything as bad as that. I still feel it; it was so hard.”
“The Turks called the Armenians Gavours-infidel-dogs. We were in Aleppo about a week or so.”
“We didn’t go to Der-el-Zor. We had no control where we were going. They just took us there to Ras el'Ain."
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"We went on the train to Ras el’Ain. There were 80,000 Armenians in the concentration camp. By the time we got there, one by one started dropping. My uncle and baby sister had died on the way from Kayseri to Aleppo.”
“My grandmother died on the train to the concentration camp at Ras el’Ain. I had typhus twice.”
“We crossed the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. After we got to Ras el’Ain, my mother got sick. In the beginning we were in a small house, a mud hut. Mother died there. Auntie died there. My older brother, Haroutine, died there.”
“We were three of us together: the boy, Onic Kapriel, my grandfather’s namesake; Avedis, and me. The three of us were left in Ras el’Ain in a mud hut.”
“Avedis got sick. He was getting along all right, I thought, and then one night I put my hand on him and he was gone. He was about three years younger than I. (12-13). Then only Onic Kapriel was with me.”
“This was about 1916. He was about six…seven…eight years old. We were hiding here and there because they were picking people up again to take to Der-el-Zor to kill. Of 80,000 people, there were at this time maybe only 5,000 left. Group by group they were taken. I can’t judge right now how long a period this was. But I think it was about a year’s time."
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"Onic and I were hiding from the men on the street. I peaked around a hut to see if it was safe to go on and when I turned to bring him with me…he was gone. “
“I lost him. You know…. I lost him.......”
“The Arabs took a lot of young Armenian boys and girls. They didn’t remember their names. They grew up Arab. After the War, a lot of Armenians went to those places and found the Armenian children and put them in Armenian orphanages. Haigouhi and I looked around at many orphanages and tried to find Onic. Nothing came up."
(How did you get out of the concentration camp?) "I escaped from Ras el’Ain twice to Aleppo, by train. I wasn’t the only one who escaped. There were other boys who hid. “
“You know what? I had five liras—gold pieces. I don’t know how. My mother and so forth, you know what they did? They put the gold inside a ball of yarn. We had old clothes and they sewed the money in there. The new clothes would get taken away. I had my new ones underneath and I put the old ones on top-pants, coat, and jacket. They took the new ones and left the old. That’s what saved me. I played a trick….Gosh, I should sit down and remember it all.”
“Oh, I forgot. When I was in Ras el’Ain I was alone. I used to write Turkish. There was a Turkish hospital there and they were looking for people to do some work. In a place like that there was every kind of people. “
“They were all Turks. I was frightened."
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"I was a clerk. Not only that. I was given quite a responsible job. In the morning there were hundreds of soldiers coming. I used to report how many there were so they could give them bread and other rations. There was a chavoush—a captain—who used to say, “There are a hundred, write two hundred.” so we would get extra rations to sell.”
“I stayed there quite a while. You see, the worst sick people, soldiers, used to be transferred to Aleppo which was an overnight trip by train There was an Armenian doctor, Dr. Boghosian, who worked there at the hospital, too. I said to him, “Dr. Boghosian, how about writing me a Halebji to go to Aleppo- (a pass stating I was among the worst sick.) He said, “All right, I think so. It can be done.” So he did.”
ESCAPE #1:
“I was not sick, but I got into the same wagon with the sick people one night. When I got to Aleppo I was really sick… I had typhus.”
“Rajona, you’ve heard of her in Romania. She used to send money to me. She was my Uncle Setrak’s wife. Her husband was deported with my father. Their daughter, Valentine, and her two daughters moved to Leninagon.”
“So I got real sick. This man, Rajona’s brother, used to be quite a popular man in Aleppo. He sent a German doctor. They saved me."
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CAUGHT:
"Then two or three weeks later, the Turks caught me and sent me back again to Ras el’Ain. No more hospital. This time we went to a small town and I was a camel herder.”
ESCAPE # 2:
“I used to pick up the dung from the fields and bring it to a lady. Then one day, this was later, too, there was another young man from Anoush’s town, Hadjin, and the two of us together escaped from there to another town. We walked—just left. If it weren’t for the railway line, we wouldn’t know where to go because it is all openness."
“We found the man from Kayseri, the one I told you about who was a traitor. He said, “O.K., come in.” A few days later, he disappeared.”
“I don’t know what happened to him. I went to the village master’s wife to look for him.”
“This was a Chechen town. Do you know what I found there? There was a doctor in Kayseri who used to be quite rich. This woman was putting French certificates, bonds, on the shelf, using them as shelf paper. I said, “Madam, this is money."
“At the same time, a Turk came to the village. He apparently knew what was going on. He wanted to collect the certificates because the people didn’t know things like that. He was telling me not to say anything. Well, this lady saved my life. I can’t do anything else but be loyal to her. So, anyway, we were saved by that.”
“There were stories the Chechen boys used to tell. There were these Chechen boys (Chechen was the name of the tribe there.) who used to go and take the groups and burn them to get the gold they had swallowed. They burned them and from the ashes they would pick up the gold. These were Kurdish people."
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"I heard this when I was in that village where I found the bonds. The boys used to come and we used to sit outside and talk, They were not much older than I was.”
“So, we took off again, this young boy, about my age, and I. We escaped from there and walked all night and then, in the morning before the sun was up, we started hiding because we didn’t know where they were going to look. Then we got to a town, a railroad station, and there were Germans there. We got some bread there.”
“I remember they used to make the loaves just like the rolls here. Then we got a job. This was in Ar Raqqah, Syria. We worked on the train supplying wood for the engine. This was along the Baghdad line which went from Ras el’Ain to Aleppo. “
“One night, after we finished supplying the wood and the water, I went down and I heard some people speaking Armenian. They were horse grooms for German captains. I asked what was going on.”
“They were going to Aleppo which was 100 miles to the west. I said, “How about taking me?” They said, “You have any money?” Everyone asks that. I said I had a lira (gold) that I would give them. The Armenian didn’t ask for himself, he asked for his boss, the Chavoush. You see these were not all Armenians. They were working for the Germans. He took it. “Come on,” he said. “
“They put me under a bale of horses’ feed bags. The other boy got on, too. When we got out from the station we got up. We used to stand up so the horses’ feet and our feet were together. They wouldn’t notice us. We did that at every station when the soldiers would come to inspect the wagons."
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"Finally we came to Aleppo. The guy said he needed more money, so I gave him another lira. There were five of them left. I want to go to Aleppo. People are there like my uncle’s wife’s daughter, Valentine and her sister, so I want to go to them. I can’t go to Haigouhi because she was in Damascus.”
“When the train came to a junction, it stopped to change the line. I jumped. I was right outside of Aleppo. I walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and I got there. I don’t think it was far but it seemed very far. I was afraid somebody would catch me.”
“I walked in there. There is a big plaza where all the people who are working pass through. Valentine was working, I thought. Then again, maybe she wasn’t. I was looking for some known figure there, somebody I know. Finally Valentine came by. She was going from her work to her home, I said, ”Oh, my gosh.”
Valentine and her two daughters
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"So she took me home. But I had an old suit—full of lice….this big, everywhere. They took everything. I don’t know what they did with it. I got my lira. I don’t know when I had had a bath. Where was I going to get a bath?”
“That was the last place, in Aleppo. I used to make dough and sell bread. I lived with Valentine. My father and her father were brothers. We were first cousins. I wasn’t in Aleppo very long. Then I started for Damascus.”
“The last time in Aleppo I saw Megerdich there. Megerdich Selvian. He was a printer. He used to print the Turkish News Agency news there. He is my cousin—my father’s sister’s son. He and his sister, Haigouhi, and another brother were in an orphanage. This was in 1919 spring, or 1918 fall. “
“I was selling bread and I was in money exchange—buying and selling. Not much money, maybe five lira or so. I also used to buy bread from German soldiers and then sell it to anyone for a price. “
“The German bread was very valuable then. They used to eat good bread. There wasn’t enough bread to go around. “
“Living there with Jona, my expenses weren’t too high. But the girls, Valentine and her sister, Ashagouhi, were working in Turkish factories making war materials. She has another sister, now living in Bulgaria."
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TO DAMASCUS: 1919
"There was a doctor again who was a captain in the Army. I asked him if he would take me as an orderly to Damascus. He was an Armenian in the Turkish Army. At one time it was legal for Armenians to be in the Army. Then during the war, they were disbanded. But they needed the doctors and dentists because the Turks didn’t have them. He said, “All right. Dress up.” So he found a uniform and I gave the rest of the money to him. He took me out of Aleppo and took me to Damascus as his orderly. This was in 1919.”
“I was in Damascus from 1919 to 1921 or 22. I lived with Haigouhi and her husband, Haroutoun Dilsizian. I was selling shoes in my brother-in-law’s shoe store. Then I started my money exchange business. The uncles sent me some money from here, the U.S. The War was over. It wasn’t very much, but it was enough for that. I used to….listen, honey,-- from Turkish Army they used to sell old money and so forth. When I bid, one of the colonels said to me, “My gosh! At your age you are doing this? “ So don’t think you’ve got a…. I was smart enough."
Haigouhi & Haroutoun Dilsizian Haigaz Agop Kazazian
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"After Haroutoun Dilsizian's first wife, Khosrovoohi died of T.B., Haigouhi married her husband. Khosrovoohi was Haigouhi’s and my aunt, my mother’s sister (Zambakian). When Khosrovoohi died, the family liked him so well they didn’t want him to marry a strange girl, Although Haigouhi was so young, not the marrying age, they married her. She didn't want it. I was ten; she was around thirteen or fourteen. I can’t remember exact dates.”
“Haigouhi and Haroutoun were not deported—oh, they were deported, but they had no massacre. Haigouhi's marriage saved her. She was married and they left Kayseri and went to Eregli, a small town about fifty miles or a hundred miles away at the most. It took three days by horse carriage.”
“We were deported from Kayseri; she was deported from Eregli. They were in Aleppo when we got there. We talked. Then one night they took them to Damascus. We were sent on the train to the concentration camp at Ras el’Ain. She had the necklace She had the necklace we gave to Linda and Lilli when they were married. She had a broche, too. What happened to that?..........."
Haigouhi & Haroutoun Dilsizian
page 27
Haig’s sister, Haigouhi and her husband, Haroutoun Dilsizian lived in Damascus. After Haig escaped the concentration camp at Ras el'Ain, he made his way to Damascus and stayed with Haigouhi and Haroutoun for over a year. Haigouhi and Haroutoun had no children of their own. After Haroutoun died, Haigouhi lived with the Sanossian Family in Damascus.
Haigouhi and Haig were in continual contact throught their lives. Haigouhi came to America several times and Haig saw her each time he went to Europe
Haigouhi died March 3, 1987
1919 Haikaz Agop Kazazian 1921 Damascus, Syria
page 29
July 23, 1919
Contact is made with Uncle Yervant Zambakian in Toledo, Ohio.
page 30
"After the War, I decided I would come to America. I wrote Uncles Y.K., V.K. and A.K. and they said, “All right, come along.” Y.K. sponsored me. I was the only one left, practically. Haigouhi and Haroutoun had made it to Damascus.”
“I was a young man. I was the only nephew that the uncles had then. Irving and Alfred (A.K.’s sons) were just born then and were little boys. Don’t you think there was a family obligation? Y.K. would have sponsored me whether he was well off or not. They do it. Armenians are like that."
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