We Went to the Cave for Safety - The Story as it Unfolded

The Cave in Aintab -a recently acquired picture

Returning from Exile

Towards the end of WWI, forces were madly fighting in Eastern Turkey (or as Armenians like to say, Western Armenia).  The Ottoman Empire was crumbling and gasping for air.  The British had told the Armenians in exile that they could return to their homes as they thought the war was over and their lands were being given back to them.

 In their last hurrah, however, the Turkish forces under Attaturk made an onslaught against this community in Eastern Turkey named Aintab which was formerly a majority of Armenians and where my mother was born. The attempt was to drive out the Armenians who had returned.  My mother was born in the midst of this tumult in 1919. She nearly perished from lack of food so my grandfather pleaded with the missionary doctor at the time, a Dr. Shepherd, for canned milk for my mother and she was saved because of his efforts.

The Armenians made an attempt to defend their town against the Turkish army with the supposed help of the French and the British. Although at some point everyone was fighting everyone.  My grandfather valiantly, along with the other men of the town, tried to defend the Armenian community.  He is shown in a picture from a book on Aintab with other fighters.

My grandpa, 3rd from the right, with his friend's hand on his shoulder

 About the Cave

The story I was told and which my mother wrote down, was that my grandfather had taken the little family to a cave for safety.  It was in this cave where my grandfather thought he would scout outside to see if it was safe.  Against my grandmother's wishes, he went outside and was hit with shrapnel and had to be taken to the American hospital.

Recently, a picture surfaced, found by a researcher in Aintab, of the cave where the Armenians had gathered for safety. I never in my lifetime thought I would see a picture of this cave, which apparently is now underneath a school or hospital, as nearly all of the presence of the very large Armenian population had been erased. Even the town's name was changed to Gaziantep to celebrate their victory of eliminating the presence of Armenians in their very own city. The above picture was sent to descendants of Aintab by this researcher.

Wilsonian Map of Armenia

Initially, the Armenians thought their perils were over and they could return.  Even President Wilson had planned for this and made a map of the new divisions in Eastern Turkey.

In January of 1922 the French forces retreated.

Unfortunately, the Lausanne treaty would take place in 1923 by the French so that they could have Syria as a mandate and they gave the lands to the Turkish army.  Sadly, my mother and her family had to leave once again.  Every single Armenian who had returned were forced to leave until the last two remaining Armenians who had been two midwife sisters and needed by the Turkish community left.  Thankfully, they kept their journals and much has been learned from their writings.

It was the end of the Armenians in their ancestral lands - now called Eastern Turkey.  So the surfacing of the picture of the cave has monumental meaning for me and my family.  

For further reading on the topic, an excellent dissertation can be found at http://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/expulsion-non-turkish-ethnic-and-religious-groups-turkey-syria-during-1920s-and-early-1930s