"Nor Haratch" – The presentation of Gaya Guerian’s book, published in October of 2015 by XO Publishing House (page 269), took place on Monday, June 20, 2016, at the Armenian Cultural Centre of Paris. The event was organized by the Hamazkayin Society.
"I was born in a Genocide survivor family, which had witnessed evil and bloody massacres. I was born in Armenia, but my dearest Homeland was the one, which had been ruined and lost. In my childhood in Paris, it often seemed to me that I could hear the echoes of the slaughtered Armenian people from far away. My grandmother Ashkhen with my mother Azat had been there, among the millions of beaten, sold, raped and deported women and strangled to death children condemned to death. However, they miraculously survived. Over the years, I wrote down and revived the story of their life," says the author.
She, describing the incredible story of her mother and grandmother, exposes the terrible cruelty of the Armenian Genocide, at the same time believing that despite the heavy burden of the past, one can cling to life. Three years after her mother's death in 2004, she started writing the story of her mother and grandmother, as it had become a vital necessity for her, so that the tragedy of the genocide would never be erased from our memory.
The event was opened by Ms. Shirvanian. She told about the years spent together (with the author) at Armenian Dbrotsaser Women's School. "It is about the fate of 80-100 Armenian orphans, which eventually found asylum and settled in a suburb of Marseill, thanks to the efforts of Ms. Boyajian".
She presented a few episodes from the book. "The story begins in the summer of 1915, in Trabzon, where the author's mother was born ... As is known, men had been executed and women with elderly people were exiled, and 300 children were strangled. On the way to exile, her grandmother gave birth to a boy. The Turkish soldiers heard the boy’s first cry and forced her to bury the child alive ... her own child. After this terrible incident, she managed to escape on foot and reached Constantinople. There, the three-year-old girl was snatched from mother and was thrown into the children's caravan moving to the harbour. A dozen ships were waiting for them".
"She was a warm-blooded person, and would always inspire the people surrounding her, hiding the painful wounds of the past ... ", said the author in her turn. In her speech, she also spoke about the school years, and especially, focused on Greece.
"The soldiers put the children into the sacks, loaded them on ships, and then, they threw the sacks into the sea ... One of those soldiers recognized the author’s mother, as in the past, he had worked for their family. He decided to hide her. Later, mother and daughter miraculously found each other".
The author learnt about the genocide-related events at Armenian Dbrotsaser Women's School, and, much later, she started to read and study the testimonies of survivors, and the tragic stories. She found her parents’ old photos, showing their dwelling places, according to which she could draw the map of their tragic trip.
We can state that through this book and through the odyssey of her family, the author re-valuates the women and their struggle: "Despite all evil that many of these women went through, they never retreated and conveyed the command of " never to forget " to next generations."
Gaya Guerian loves the France of Jean Jaurès that accepted the exiled Armenians with open arms and gave them asylum. She hopes that her stories will give a little hope to all those who unfortunately have to leave their homesteads now and wander in the world as immigrants.
After the Q&A part, Guerian signed the volumes of her book.
