On the table in his kitchen, in Yerevan, Armenia, Vartan Gazinian spread a map of the region of Van (eastern Turkey) and family photo while allowing room for a bottle of house wine, some zakutski to wedge the appetite and an ashtray that fills up as Vartan tells the story of his family. “We come from Van. My grandfather fought in the war with the Turks in 1915 while my grandmother and my father fled to Echmiadzin [seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Armenia today]. “
Vartan was born in 1932 in Soviet Armenia, but for generations, his family lived in one of the six vilayets (regions) predominantly populated by Armenians of the Ottoman Empire. His grandmother raised him in the hope of one day returning home, “she told me every evening of life in the arid mountains around Van as one would tell a story to a child, remembers-t he moved.
Vartan is a veritable encyclopedia of his home region. He knows the rhythm of the seasons, wildlife, flora, customs, monuments, “I know every corner but never went there.” Because his family is never returned, like most of the survivors of the Armenian genocide. Her grandmother also told him this: the exodus, hunger and fear “when the Turks invaded Armenia in 1918,” he said.
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Jean Eckian © armenews.com