99 - all you should know about the Genocide April, 2014 | Page 59

Aharon Manukian | 20.03.1914, birthplace – Van My grandfather was a clergyman in Van. We were very rich, we used to live in the courtyard of the church. My mother had fond memories of the apple and tilapia fish. She would say that each apple weighed a kilo – their taste and aroma was impossible to describe, the fragrance would fill the whole orchard and spread to the neighboring houses. I was only a year old when my family was forced to migrate. My mother hid her valuables in Van, at her father’s grave, and started the journey to Etchmiatzin on foot. My father was fighting in Andranik’s army. He died during the self-defense of Van. My mother carried me as she walked the whole distance – my two brothers, Melikseth and Vahram, were hanging by the edges of her skirt. When they had to cross the river, they saw that it was red, and the water carried corpses downstream. My mother was later forced to beg, in order to feed us. But that ended up not being enough and she gave us over to the orphanage at Alexandropol. The orphanage belonged to an American couple. They were very kind people. They had lost their only son and dedicated all their love to the orphanage. They gave us milk, sweetbread, halva and dried fruits. It was a true paradise for children who had ended up there after a period of starvation. When the orphanage was closing, the American lady wanted to take me and one of my brothers to the US, but my mother would not allow it. The lady approached my mother once and offered 40 pieces of gold in exchange for me. She said that I reminded her of the son she had lost. If my mother had allowed it, I would be rich now – they said they had a number of offices in America. We moved to Yerevan. They gave us an apartment near the circus, on the street that is now called Arshakunyats. My mother worked at a laundromat as a technical manager. She made sure that all of us got a higher education. One of my brothers became a doctor, the other an agriculturist. I graduated from the History Department at Yerevan State University. A photograph of Aharon Manukyan’s mother, 1907.