Masis Reuben Panos‎I am a descendant of a survivor of the Armenian Genocide! 9 hrs · Edited ·

In September 2001 I managed to get a week (5th-12th) of unpaid leave from work to go with my Dad to see the Village he was born in. Its original name was "Magargyugh". Today, like almost of Anatolia and Western Armenia, the name has been changed. It is now called "Şerefoğlu". It is in the Yozgat province. In 1915 his Grandmother managed to evade being caught by the Ottoman "soldiers" by walking into the wild, remote uplands and hiding with her two children (Flora and Stepan). My Aunty has informed me that my Great Grandfather was "killed at Gallipoli". He and his wife had originally lived to the west of Yozgat at a town called "Saray". After the Genocide their home came to be taken over by Kurds. My Grandfather (Stepan) attempted to meet the new occupiers of his home when he was a young man but I am told (understandably) the "new occupants" did not want to know. Their home in Magargyugh fell into ruin, as did the Vine Yards. One of the photos below shows my Dad beside a desecrated grave of an Armenian resident of Magargyugh (when we visited the village from 7th-9th September 2001). We asked one of the old men, of "Muhaji" (Muslim immigrant from Balkans/Caucasus) origin about the smashed grave. He said it was "children who did it" then he scurried away. Evidently he knew more than he was letting on. On the morning on the 11th, back in Samatya, Istanbul at my Grandmothers home, my Dad shouted to me to come to the main room and look at the TV. I could not believe what I was seeing. Alas, Islamism has many ways of manifesting itself.