Armenian Genocide

Interviewer: Anahit Nargizyan

Interviewee: Sonya Dzhaytyan

    Sonya Dzhaytyan is a forty-five year old survivor from the big Armenian earthquake.  She lives happy knowing how fortunate she had been to survive the harsh event.  She tries to delete the frightful memory from her brain but it is not easy.  She is not able to forget about the awful day.   

    My name is Sonya Dzhaytyan, and I am forty‑five years old.  During the earthquake I was thirty-four years old with three kids.  During the 1988 earthquake in Armenia, I was living in a city called Leninakan.  Now, the city has changed its name to Gumry.  I was living there with my family, my husband and my three kids.  During the earthquake, my daughter was ten years old, my middle son was nine years old and my youngest son was seven years old.  That was the first year my youngest son started school.  Also, Leninakan was the main part where the earthquake hit in Armenia.  Most of the people and places were damaged in Leninakan more than any other part of Armenia.        

    The earthquake was hit twice.  The first time it hit, it lasted a very long time.  It lasted forty‑one seconds.  The actual one hit with a magnitude of nine.  However, the second time it hit was weighed seven on the magnitude.  The newscast reported that it was only hit with a magnitude of seven, and that was the hardest it hit.  The people did not believe that because the first time the news broadcast it was said nine, then they changed it to seven.  That is how people knew that they were lying and they did not want to scare them.     

    The earthquake occurred on December 7,1988, approximately 11:40 a.m.  I remember the time well because my husband had come to lunch at 11:30 a.m. and I was preparing lunch for him.  I was setting the table for my husband to have lunch when the earthquake hit.  All three of my kids were in school, and I was worried about them.  I could not stop thinking about them.  I did not know what to do.  My husband and I went under the table until the earthquake stopped.   Finally, when it stopped, we ran out and we ran to school to see how the kids were.  When we got to school, other parents were there too.  They were waiting for their kids.  The children were running around the school and I saw that many had died from the earthquake.  The ceilings had collapsed and the windows were broken.  That was the worst day of my life.

    My family was one of the most fortunate families in Leninakan who survived the earthquake.  None of my family members were hurt or severely damaged.  Nothing happened to my husband and me.  My kids too, were also all right except for my middle son, whose hand started aching.  The good thing was that the hand was not broken.  Both my neighbors died and I saw the kids surviving.  The kids were going to be sent to an orphanage.  It was also the other way around, the children died in the hands of their parents.  It was an awful day.  

    During the earthquake, seventy-five thousand people died.  However, the news reported only twenty‑five thousand had died.  We do not know why the news lied, but I guess it was because they did not want to scare the people.  They might have thought that the people would lose their pride in their country.  I am not quite sure why the news reported falsely.  

    The earthquake had a big affect on my family and me.  The earthquake destroyed our house, and we were left without a house.  That day, my family and I got into the car and drove to Yerevan.  We went to my mother’s house.  We stayed at my mother’s for almost two weeks.  The earthquake was also the main reason why my family and I came to the United States.  We did not have anything there, and the earthquake destroyed our house so we decided to come to America.  It was a very big change for us.  Until the earthquake, we did not even mention America. 

    If the earthquake had not occurred, we would not have moved.  I am one of those people who love and support their country.  I would have rather stayed in Armenia and raised our kids there.  Even though we are in one of the best countries in the world, I for one would have still want to raise my children in Armenia.       

    I lost so many possessions that are non-replaceable.  For example, we lost all of our pictures and much voluble jewelry.  I also lost one thing that was very voluble to me and that was my great grandmother’s necklace, which was a gift to me.  I was my great grandmother’s favorite and that it why she gave me the necklace and told me to give it to my granddaughter.  Unfortunately, I lost the necklace at home during the earthquake.  We lost a lot of money too.  Since we were not used to keeping our money in the bank, we lost a lot of money right from our home.  But it’s in the past, and I guess it’s all right again.  Now we are back on our feet again and maybe even better than we used to be.

    I would never be able to delete this from my memory.  Regardless of how much I try to forget the gruesome events that happened that day, I will not be able to delete it.  I still remember it as though it happened yesterday.