Four Years In the Mountains of Kurdistan 1915-1919 (An Armenian Boy's Memoir of Survival)

365 Pages·17.561 MB·English

by  Aram Haigaz

"This memoir of exile and loss proves that hope and wisdom
can be found in the most unlikely places."
-CAROLINE STOESSINGER, author of A Century of Wisdom
~~~
FOUR YEARS
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MOUNTAINS
KURDISTAN
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1915-1919
AN ARMENIAN BOY'S MEMOIR OF
SURVIVAL
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$26.95
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A rare and inspiring first-person account
of a tragic chapter in history, called
"A richly detailed testimony to a young
man's courage," by Kirkus Reviews
•
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Four Years in tl~t MountaiiJS of Kurdistan by Ararn
Haigaz is an extraordinary coming-of-age story
and survival story- of an Armenian teenager
forced to live in a tribal culture among Kurdish
peasants and Turkish beys. He rose from "infidel"
servant to trusted secretary and escaped captivity,
the only person in his adoptive rribe who could .llR AM H .llI G .llZ
was the pen name of
read and write.
Aram Chekenian, an Armenian-American writer
Armenian Aram Haigaz was only 15 when he
who was born the town of Shahin
tn
lost his father, brothers, relatives and fellow towns·
Karahisar, Turkey. Although he lived in America for
people in a month-long attack by the military
most of his life, he preferred to write in Armenian
forces of the Ottoman Turkish government. He
and published ten books as well as articles and
and his mother were put on a forced march toward
essays.
the Syrian desert without food, water or shelter,
Translated by his daughter, Iris Haigaz
-as part of the systematic plan to annihilate the
Chekenian, Fot4r Years i11 tht Mou11taim ofK urdista11
Christian Armenian population ofTurkey in 1915.
His mother urged Aram to convert to Islam in is a rich and compelling narrative of life within a
order to survive, after which a Turkish bey agreed little known ancient society and tribal culture far
to take the young convert into his household. Aram removed from the advances of urban life of rhe early
spent four long years living as a Muslim servant 20th century.
and shepherd among Kurdish tribes in the rugged
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mountain terrain, slowly gaining his captors' trust.
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He grew from a boy to a man in these years, and his
narrative offers readers a fascinating story of resil·
ience and a unique eyewirness to history. Haigaz
ultimately escaped and came to the United States
in 1921.
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~~~
FOUR YEARS
ltv~
i
MOUNTAINS
KURDISTAN
~ ~
1915-1919
AN ARMENIAN BOY'S MEMOIR OF
SURVIVAL
Copyright© 2014 by Iris H. Chekenian
Chekenian, Iris
Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan/ by Aram Haiga:;:
ISBN 978-1-940210-06-3
1. Armenian genocide -memoir 2. World War I -memoir 3. Coming of age
memoir 4. History of Turkey-memoir 5. Kurdish history-memoir 6. Ottoman
empire-memoir 7. Tales of survival-memoir
Title, jacket and interior design by Laura Klynstra
First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 54 3 2 1
Publisher's Note:
All rights reserved. Originally published in Armenian in 1972, English translation
by Iris H. Chekenian.
The Armenian language edition of this book was the recipient of the Kevork Melidi
netsi Literary Award, Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia, Antelias, Lebanon.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
the written permission of the Publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
For information contact: Maiden Lane Press, 811 Palmer Road, Suite AA, Bronx
ville, NY 10708 www.maidenlanepress.com
For information on bulk purchases, please contact:
[email protected]
Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or
encourage the illegal electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the
author's rights is appreciated.
Distributed by Ingram Publisher Services
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
1919: Aram Haiga:~: at nineteen as a Boy Scout in Constantinople,
Turkey. Two years later he sailed to the United States and arrived at
Ellis Island in May 1921 wearing this uniform.

CONTENTS
'OG
Translations from Armenian 9
Introduction 11
Characters 14
Our Cross, 1915 19
cHAPTER 1:
My First Master 39
cHAPTER 2:
Life as a Shepherd 67
cHAPTER 3:
cHAPTER<~.: A New Home, 1916 135
s: Crime and Punishment 165
cHAPTER
A Hero Falls, 1917 191
cHAPTER 6:
To Bey Punar, 1918 217
cHAPTER 7:
The Last Year, 1918-1919 259
cHAPTERs:
About the Author 333
Brief Facts about Armenia 337
Turkey in World War I 339
Acknowledgments 340
Glossary and Definitions 343
An Excerpt from Aram Haigaz's
The Fall of the Aerie 351
Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan
by Aram Haigaz
A publication of the Kevork Melidinetsi Literary Award
Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia
Antelias, Lebanon
Published in Armenian in 1972
TRANSLATIONS}"'~~
ARMENIAN
'OG
Although he knew English well, my father Aram Haigaz wrote only in
Armenian throughout his life. Four Years in the Mountains ofK urdistan
contains various episodes that he published earlier, in slightly different
versions, in his short story collections. Three stories appeared in
English translation in The Armenian Review during the 1950s and in
1969. He had always hoped to gather the experiences of his Kurdistan
years into one volume, and he accomplished that in 1972 with this
book. To date, it has not been published in other languages.
His first book was The Fall of the Aerie, translated into English
by H. Baghdoian and published in 1935. It describes the massacre
that demolished his family and the inhabitants of his town of Shabin
Karahisar in 1915, leaving him one of a handful of survivors. It is a
day-by-day eyewitness account of the Armenian genocide.
In 2006, Armen K. Gollii sent me his verbatim translation of Four
Years in the Mountains of Kurd is tan, which proved to be an invaluable
reference for my own research and translation of the Armenian text. I
am deeply grateful for his work, and I especially appreciate his knowl
edge of difficult idioms and his explanations of Kurdish and Turkish
words and expressions that are beyond my scope .
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