From Turkey to Lebanon to the United State

When you see my seventy-five-year-old great aunt you would think she is never sad, because of her energetic personality and her great spirit, but inside she feels sad. She feels sad because she misses her birth place Turkey and Lebanon were she spent more than half her life at. She spends most of her time at home and cooks and cleans for guests who come over, but sometimes when she is alone she thinks about why she came to the United States, she always says why, why did I come to America I had a great life. When the Lebanese civil war broke out she came to the United States , she always thinks about life before the war and she misses it. Now she sits in a chair and thinks about her life before the Americas and tells stories to me and continues to think about life and the choices she made in her life.

 

   I was born in a village in Turkey called Iskandaroun, I was born on January 7, 1935. My village was very poor but their was many great people. My dad worked in a construction group and he built bridges, roads, and rail roads. My dads name was Hagop and my mom’s name was Azadouhi, my mother was a typical house wife. My life in Turkey was a dream because I don’t remember much, my family moved to another country when I was at the age of three. We moved to Lebanon , the French had told the Armenians to move to Lebanon and that the government will pay each family and that it would give each Armenian family a house and a job. They made us move because they thought that there would be another Armenian genocide.

 When we moved to Lebanon we went to the capital of Lebanon , Beirut the best city in Lebanon . My dad continued to work in the construction business and mom was still a house wife. But, now she had to take care of another two children. Their names were Elizabeth and Nshan ( Elizabeth was older than Nshan.) Many years later my mom had another two children their names were Sona and Vartan. After living many years in Beirut , Lebanon my dad decided to retire and go to another city in Lebanon called Bourj Hammoud. Bourj Hammoud was filled with Armenians from other neighboring countries like, Syria , Jordan , Egypt , Jerusalem , and Iraq . My father wanted to retire at Bourj Hammoud he opened up a small convenient store. Many years later a civil war broke out, and me and my small brother came to the United States . We came to visit but we decided to stay. We loved the society in California and we loved the people, we loved the United States because it is ran by law and that it was a free country. Before I came to America I did clothing alterations. When I came to the United States I had the idea to work but I wasn’t allowed to work because I did not have a social security, and if I did I would get caught and sent to jail. When I came to the United States I knew that I was going to have a great life, because things were inexpensive at that time and people were great (neighbors were great.)

 I wasn’t married when I was in Lebanon , when I came to America people encouraged me to get married. One of our relatives that lives in New York kept on telling to meet their neighbor. They wanted me to meet him, because they said that he was a great guy and the problem was that he was once married before and he had three children.

 Overall my life in the United States is Magnificent, I would never go and live in Turkey , but if I have the chance I would go for a trip. If I move to another country I would move back to Lebanon because it is a great country and people are great just like people in the United States .

Interviewed by Sevak Boghossian