The 96th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

When I was young, I knew that I, unlike my schoolmates in the Baghdad United Armenian School, used to hear the stories of the Armenian Genocide directly from my deceased father, an eyewitness-survivor of the Armenian Genocide (later I understood that I represent the second generation after the Armenian Genocide). My schoolmates used to hear these stories from their grandfathers and grandmothers or fathers and mothers who had heard those stories from them. This was because my father Sarkis Ashjian (born in the city of Urfa -Etesia- in 1904 and died in Baghdad in 1981) married my mother at the age of 53 and I was born after three years.

Anyway, the most grievous thing to me in my young age was to hear from my father the stories of outraging Armenian children and women during the Armenian Genocide. All my father's family members were martyred during Urfa's self-defense war and then deportation, except his elder brother whom he lost and found after years by newspaper advertisement (!!) when my father was in an orphanage in Lebanon. My father was sold four times to Kurds and his name was changed to Hussein before he could escape and restore his Armenian identity. When I grew up, I began to carry out research to the Armenian Genocide and again became mostly affected by the stories of outraging Armenian children and women during the Genocide.

On April 24, we will commemorate the 96th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, respect the memory of all our victims, pledge to continue our fight against Turkey's denial policy, restore historical justice and gain back our People's rights.