Stella Martirosyan

When Anahit Harutyunyan mentions the name of "the old country", her mute mother, Khanum Hakopyan, gets very excited. For thirteen years now, Anahit has been her mother's tongue and ears, her book of memories. Only two people in the village of Bazmaberd inthe Talin region talk about the village of Artzik in Sassun today. Grandmother Khanum is the elder of the two, and since she cannot speak, her relatives speak for her.

Grandmother Mariam is her cousin; they shared one home and broke bread together everyday back in the old country. She remembers very clearly how the Turks came and killed Khanum's father, Mkrtich, in cold blood. A Turk named Chele Yano fired at him from behind seven times and he dropped dead in their front doorway. Then there was the difficult journey on foot.

Anahit Mkrtchyan has remembered her mother's words ever since she was a child.

"Our elders have seen terrible hardships," Anahit said. "During the marches, the Turks would rip the babies out of pregnant women and throw them on the ground - skin them alive and kill them. Five members of their family managed to stay alive - they made it to Armenia . Here, in Talin, Mariam and Khanum are neighbors again."

The village of Bazmaberd is full of Sassuntsis. Although only Mariam and Khanum were born in the old country, all their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren consider themselves Sassuntsis. Grandmother Khanum's grandson, for instance, 50-year- old Norik, considers it his duty to climb one of the nearby hills with his fellow villagers every April 24th and light a bonfire, so that everyone knows that 'We remember our forefathers.'

And although her great-granddaughter, 9-year old Astghik Petrosyan, has never lit a bonfire, or been to Yerevan's Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial, Khanum is sure that the massacre of the Armenians will never be forgotten.

"It's a matter of honor," said Norik. "They have to recognize the Armenian Genocide."

Honor is honor, but the sad fact today is that there are no official documents to prove Grandmother Khanum's story. Mariam is her only witness. As the years go by, memories fade, and soon only bits and pieces remain, along with one word that says it all - Genocide.