Orphaned by the Genocide
Mesrob Kloian provides us with a glimpse into the extent of the atrocities committed by the Turks against the Armenians during this time. One can not believe that humans would do such a thing to other humans until they have no choice but to. Mesrob’s testimony claims that he will forever be haunted by what he has seen, and by sharing it with the public, he is able to spread awareness of what happened to his family and hundreds of others during the Armenian genocide.
Right before the deportation of the Armenians in his home village of Darman began, the leaders of Mesrob’s village were seized and taken away, never to be seen again. When the Turks came back they forbid the Armenian people from carrying any weapons and were escorted out of their villages.
“We walked all day and were led through desolate areas where there wasn’t even a drop of water then we camped at night" One morning before leaving their encampment, a massacre began when Turkish bandits with guns surrounded the Armenians.
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“At the shot of a rifle the massacre began. The ground was covered with bodies everywhere...My sisters, brothers, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew were killed or carried off. I saw my father try in vain to save my mother as two Turks carried her off”
The Turks took belongings from the remaining people before ruthlessly killing them. Mesrob’s father was subjected to this fate for a Turk stabbed a dagger into his stomach and shot him, thus he died in the arms of his eldest son, Zakar.
“After taking everything they had, including their clothes, they cut them down with swords or axes, killing them right where they stood” Mesrob managed to escape to an abandoned stable and awoke the next morning to a gruesome scene. Hundreds of motherless babies were piled up by the Turks, who proceeded to play a game in which involved them seeing who could kill the babies most efficiently.
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“What I saw there that day and in the narrow canyon has haunted me all my life”
Hundreds of innocent people in Mesrob’s village were killed for no good cause. Families were split up, and babies separated from mothers. It was hard to escape your fate as an Armenian when the Turks were so heavily armed with both weapons and malicious intents. Every life matters, and all of those lost in the massacre of the Darman village as well as any other during the Armenian genocide shows the massive human rights violation executed by the Turks.
(Kloain)