A Family's Story From the "Forgotten Genocide"

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This is the Enokian family. This story is from Teriz Enokian who lived from 1900 to 1984 and Nevart Janigian who lived from 1904-2000. This family lived through out this genocide surprisingly and was able to share their amazing story. They only shared what they could and wanted to remember of course. They remembered being at a very young age when the Armenian genocide had begun. They weren't even full adults yet. They remember Turkish soldiers invading their village, beating the people, and destroying a lot of shops and homes. They took everyone's belongings from homes, shops, and off of them as individuals. Then they started going to homes to make more valuable items from the poor, innocent Armenians. The Armenians wanted to fight back, but they couldn't because they stood no chance against the strong, armed Turkish soldiers. They could do nothing but watch and let the soldiers do as they wished. They would be robbed of their valuables, kicked out of their homes, and arrested which made them the soldier's prisoners. The prisoners were forced to march to the army barracks where they would soon be stripped and robbed of their money and jewels. The men and women were separated as soon as possible after this point. The men would be sent to labor camps and be overworked and they would soon die of starvation or because of some disease or sickness. They could have also been beaten to death or just shot and killed. The women would obviously be raped and overworked as well. Once the soldiers thought they were all used up and worthless they would kill the women as if they were not human. Being caught was a very big deal. The women were so scared of being captives and just tried to find any way of committing suicide. Some even jumped off cliffs to die instead of becoming prisoners. Some girls were to be servants of the soldier's at their homes or even forced to become their wives. Somehow, these Armenians survived and were able to gain back their freedom. They were once again freed and everything was, miraculously, all over.

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