A vintage ornate silver frame encasing a black-and-white photo of Perouz Kalusdian on her wedding day hangs on her bedroom wall at the Armenian Home in Flushing, N.Y.
Young, fresh-faced, and draped in a wedding dress reminiscent of old Hollywood glamour, she is holding a rich bouquet of white roses, the lace and ribbon of the arrangement dripping down the length of her dress and sheer veil, which travels down to the floor.
One could easily mistake the striking Kalusdian for a carefree debutante on her wedding day. But the beauty of the Old World photo masks the agony that she continues to carry to this day.
“It was very ugly,” said Kalusdian, now 103 years old, her abundant black hair muted to grey but her youthful spirit remaining intact. She sits with her hands folded on her burgundy armchair, the sun peeking through the window shades behind her. “I hate to talk about it. They didn’t want us to live our lives.”
While she cannot recall every detail of her escape from her birthplace of Harput to New York City when the Young Turk government waged a full-scale genocide against the Armenians in 1915, there is a shade of sorrow on her face that is undeniable. It is the same anguish that has been shared by scores of other survivors around the world. While Kalusdian was able to physically escape the genocide, she is still haunted by the horrific images she witnessed at the tender age of six.
“They came and took my father and two uncles away,” she said. “They tied them up two by two and threw them over the bridge into the Euphrates River.”
For Charlotte Kechejian, 101, a fellow resident at the Armenian Home, it has become increasingly difficult to retrieve memories of her childhood. But she has not forgotten that her father was killed during the onset of the genocide and that she was a victim of the deportations, walking miles through the desert to escape persecution.
“I remember feeling so tired and hungry,” she said in a soft voice. “My mother kept telling me to walk just a little more.”
Kechejian arrived in New York as a 10-year-old with her mother, who supported them as a seamstress. Kechejian earned her high school diploma and worked at various department stores before getting married and having three children.
Unlike millions of other Armenians, Kechejian was able to live a full life, but not without leaving a piece of her heart in her birthplace of Nikhda.
“I miss my father,” she said shaking her head. “I miss him.”
Kalusdian and Kechejian are 2 of the 4 genocide survivors currently living in the Armenian Home, which once housed up to 21 survivors.
“I lost my grandparents in the genocide, so I never had any,” said Aggie Ellian, the executive director of the Armenian Home for the past 17 years. “To me, the survivors here are my parents, grandparents, my children. They’re our children.”
The Armenian Home, nestled in a quiet street 10 miles outside of Manhattan, was founded in 1948 by Sarah Sanossian and is an Armenian-only, private, non-funded home for the elderly. Along with Associate Director Jenny Akopyan and a caring and dedicated staff, it provides around-the-clock care for residents in a culturally rich setting, in particular those who survived the atrocities of the genocide.
“The Armenian Genocide continues to be an ‘alleged’ genocide,” said Ellian. “But the survivors are still here to tell you it happened.”
As the 100th anniversary of the genocide approaches, and the opportunity to hear the survivors’ stories in person is quickly diminishing, it is the duty of the following generations to ensure that the survivors’ voices do not disappear, and that their brave spirits are honored for years to come.
The 98th anniversary commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, sponsored by the Knights and Daughters of Vartan, will be held in Times Square (46th St. and Broadway) on Sun., April 21, from 2-4 p.m.
Taleen Babayan
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God bless all the Arnenians that fled from the Turks. Every family has a tragic story to tell. The survivors today are few, but the history will not stop, we will pass the 1915 massacre on forever. I am proud to be an Armenian.
I will never forget the stories my grandmother told me, and as a child I understood her sadness and somehow she survived …. To try and live on in the country she now could call home. Please never let us forget , I don’t think we can.
God bless all my Armenian friends through out the world. When ever we may meet, we become one. With love, Katherine