Don't March Me Through the Syrian Desert

David Shakhramanov

Regarding the picture the artist says:  Hello from Florida. This is an oil painting I’ve been working on for the past two months to commemorate and raise awareness for the Armenian Genocide. It is called “Don’t March Me Through the Syrian Desert.” The whole piece was created using Red, Blue and Orange and there are exactly 100 footsteps in the sand for every year of our suffering. My grandfather was a survivor of the 1920 Shusha massacre, and although it was not part of the Ottoman genocide per-se, it was still supported by Ottoman forces and occurred within the same time frame, so I always felt like my family were descendants of the survivors.

My family came from Cilicia - now Eastern Turkey.  This song below from Maria Cozette is a commemoration of the massacres that happened there in 1909.  Beautifully sung with Armenian instruments in the background.  I hope you listen to it.

1915 was not the beginning of the atrocities happening to the Armenians.

The Cilician Massacres led to the death of 30,000 Armenians in Cilicia. In the city of Adana alone about 4,500 Armenian homes were burnt down to the ground. By the end of the massacres 15,000 Armenians were left homeless in Adana and 10,000 in Tarson (Tarsus). As a result of the massacres 40,000 Armenians fled to the US, 10,000 to Bulgaria, 5,000 to France, and 5,000 to other nations of Europe.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfwDhvJT7BU