82 year-old Hayk Khamoyan pulls out a slip of paper from his vest pocket.

He’s recently returned from visiting his family roots in western Armenia and the paper lists the names of the places he saw along the way.

“I have trouble remembering all the names, so I had my son jot them down. When my neighbours ask me where I went, I give them the paper to read. Everyone is curious. Just this morning I showed the list to some people here,” says Mr. Khamoyan.

Grandpa Hayk examines the paper and turns to his son Radik, “Hey, you forget to put down Aghtamar. I got on the boat and went to the island. I lit a candle at the church.”

Hayk Khamoyan is the first of the descendants of those who fled the Aghbi village of Sassoun during the Genocide, and made their way to Verin Bazmaberd in Aragatzotn Marz, to return to the ancestral home of Gyalarash, a neighbourhood of Aghbi. The various neighbourhoods of the Aghbi are miles apart from each other, nestled in the mountains and valley of Sassoun.

“I really wanted to take my father and uncle there; the place of their roots. God granted me the pleasure to go myself and see their native home. I had always dreamt of going to western Armenia with them,” says Hayk’s son Radik.

L to R: Aghtamar, Holy Cross Church - Hayk Khamoyan, Radik Khamoyan, Hamayak Vardanyan

Radik is the secretary of the Sassoun-Taron Patriotic Union and has sung in the Akounk, Zvartounk and Maratouk groups. He’s also taught traditional dance.

Hayk Khamoyan’s father was the only member of the extended clan who made it out alive.   Some forty members of the clan died during the Genocide, many during self-defence battles in the mountains.

There a woman named Shoushan in Verin Bazmaberd who also made the trek from Aghbi. She was an eye witness to how the village was raided and plundered and how Hayk’s relatives, except his father, were killed. She has related all this to Hayk.

Hayk’s father made his way to eastern Armenia and the village of Verin Bazmaberd where he married and tried to make a new life.

Grandpa Hayk says the family story goes that they wanted to remain close to the border in order to return to western Armenia one day. “They always preserved that longing to go back but it never happened. Would the Soviet Union allow anyone to cross the border?”

Radik Khamoyan

“I also remember that old woman Shoushan,” says Radik. “They came here and died here. But they always talked about their home and village back over there. Over the years, I heard so many stories about the place that I could actually picture it all.”

The Soviets exiled Hayk’s father as a subversive in 1942 to Siberia where he died or was killed. Nobody can say for sure. He left eight children in Bazmaberd and a widow.

“Exile, massacres, the KGB, WWII, eight fatherless children, etc. Talk about fate. And now one of those eight kids makes the journey back to his father’s native land,” says Radik.

Hayk’s mother, who hailed from Basin, was also the only member of her family to survive the Genocide. When she passed in 1996, the family had 156 grand and great grandchildren. Hayk has since given up counting. “But my sister’s husband is a teacher and he’s kept a list of the extended family and all the births.”

Radik is preparing to publish the family tree and history. According to his research, the family can trace their roots to Sassoun as far back as the 1600s.

97 Years of Longing: Finding the House Built by His Grandfather

Sassoun, Aghbi Village, Gyalarash neighbourhood: Hayk Khamoyan stands next to walnut tree planted by his grandfather Khmo

Grandpa Hayk was able to locate the Gyalarash neighbourhood of Aghbi village and even his father’s house. The old man was persistent and asked anyone willing to talk.

He had also learnt Kurdish over the years from the Yeminis living in the village of Matador near Bazmaberd. His knowledge of the language came in handy during his travels in western Armenia.

Hayk had been told by his father that there was a big walnut tree by their house in the “old country” and a spring nearby. The house was built by Hay’s grandfather, Khmu. The tree had been planted by him as well. Khmo had also built a basin to collect the water following from the mountains.

Hayk’s father had six brothers that lived side by side in four homes. When Hayk visited only his father’s house and another were left.

“I told the Kurds They Can Stay”

Grandpa Hayk in the garden of his father’s house talking to one of the current Kurdish occupants

Hayk approached his father’s house and asked the current Kurdish residents who the house belonged to. They said they didn’t know. When Hayk said it was the home of Khmo, one of the Kurds, in amazement, said. Yes.

The new residents haven’t renovated the house at all. It has the same roof and inner beams.

“I told that Kurd that these are the beams built by my grandfather. He said, yes. The guy hasn’t changes a thing other than taking down the nearby tonratoun (clay pit for baking and cooking).”

Without being invited inside, Hayk opened the door, entered the house and made a tour. The Kurds did nothing to stop him.

“It was like I was entering my own home. I didn’t feel like a stranger at all. Not for one minute. I was on my ancestral land and it all seemed so familiar and intimate,” Hayk recounts.

Inside, the only furniture was an old sofa. There was a Kurd lying on it.

Inside the house. Seated on the sofa – Hayk & Radik Khamoyan, Hamayak Vardanyan

When Hayk entered the man got up, somewhat startled. “I told him this is the house of my grandfather but don’t worry, I haven’t come to put you out. Upon hearing this he smiled a bit and confessed that, yes, this is the home of Khmo,” says Hayk.

Hayk says the water from the spring is still following. The Kurds had chopped down most of the walnut tree, saying that it had gotten too big and the branches had covered the nearby garden. Hayk says they cut it down for its wood.

The Kurds then invited the visiting Armenians in for refreshments and even called in a singer to entertain them. One of the Kurds living in the house had been given a Kalashnikov by the government. The man was working as a village patrol member for the government, a kind of eyes and ears to monitor the movements of Kurdish separatists.

Hayk says that there are 3-4 houses occupied in each of the neighbourhoods of Aghbi, but there are no stores or medical clinics. Many of the Kurds have left the mountainous areas and moved down into the valley.

“I felt right at home in Sassoun”

Kurds welcome their Armenian guests inside the house

“Only the very strong have remained in the mountains. It’s an 8 kilometre climb. Imagine going up and down with baggage? No road existed here in the past but they’ve built one now,” Hayk says.

Hayk brought back stones from his father’s house and water from the spring. He also brought back a stone polished from years of spring water running over it.

He scattered the soil he brought back from western Armenia over the graves of Sassoun descendants and others now buried in Verin Bazmaberd.

The 82 year-old was the eldest in the group of 15 that made the trip to western Armenia. But he was one of the most indefatigable.

“I felt no tiredness there, just happiness. I extracted strength from Sassoun and its mountains. And we made our way to all the mountains even though the roads were in terrible shape and quite scary.”

Hayk shows off stones he brought back from his father’s house

Hayk has returned but now he feels the same longing for western Armenia and Sassoun in particular that his forbearers had after being exiled.

“I sit and remember what I have seen and where I have been. My longing hasn’t been quenched. Western Armenia is just like the old folk described it, a paradise. Our Sassoun folk are mountain people but down in Moush it’s a Garden of Eden. Everything grows there,” Hayk recounts.

The Vardanyans of Moush: A Father’s Terrible Choice

Hayk Khamoyan and son Radik standing outside the ancestral home in Aghbi. Kurdish occupants stand alongside.

Hamayak Vardanyan, Hayk’s brother-in-law who also made the trip, says that Moush alone could feed all of Armenia.

“It’s all fertile land. Moush, Erzeroum, Bitlis, Basen, Sarikamish. Just go and see what I mean. We go as visitors with heavy hearts, see all that, and come back here.”

Hamayak Vadanyan lives in the village of Kakavadzor in Aragatzotn Marz. It’s his first trip to western Armenia. He too found his ancestral home in the Verin Marnik village of Moush.

The house and most of the village is in ruins. There are only 10 or so occupied house in the village. He says there isn’t even a paved road leading to the Msho Arakelots Vank of lore.

Hamayak Vardanyan

Hamayak’s father was the only sibling who survived the Genocide. On the road of exile from Moush, his father took his baby boy from his wife’s hand, wrapped it up and left the child in a wheat field. The father collected the children of is two brothers instead and brought them to Kakavadzor to keep the family tree alive.

All of the members of the brothers’ family died in the Genocide. If Hamayak’s father hadn’t saved the children, the family would have disappeared without a trace.

“When they arrived at this place there was a terrible hailstorm that destroyed the crop. My mother would cry and say that God was punishing us for leaving that baby behind. My father replied by saying that ‘God knows what I did. I left my baby behind in order to save the children of my two brothers,” Hamayak recounts.

The family of the brothers survived. One of the descendants was the physician Vahe Baghdasaryan who fought and died in the Artskah War.

Photos: Hakob Poghosyan