Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan: An Armenian Boy's Memoir of Survival: 1915-1919

by Aram Haigaz, Iris Haigaz Chekenian (Translator)

Originally published in Armenian in 1972.

Armenian Aram Haigaz was only 15 when he lost his father, brothers, many relatives and neighbors, all killed or dead of starvation when enemy soldiers surrounded their village. He and his mother were put into a forced march and deportation of Armenians into the Turkish desert, part of the systematic destruction of the largely Christian Armenian population in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire. His mother urged Aram to convert to Islam in order to survive, and on the fourth day of the march, a Turk agreed to take this young convert into his household. Aram spent four long years living as a slave, servant and shepherd among Kurdish tribes, slowly gaining his captors trust. He grew from a boy to a man in these years and his narrative offers readers a remarkable coming of age story as well as a valuable eyewitness to history. Haigaz was able to escape to the United States in 1921."

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, History, Biography Memoir, Historical, Biography

349 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir is not directly about the Armenian genocide, but rather his narrative account as an Armenian converted Islam living under a Turk. If you are looking for information about the atrocities committed against the Armenians, this book will be of little help. If you are looking for information regarding the sociological construct during WWI in this region, then this book is for you.

This first chapter starts when he and his family are deported. Aram, briefly goes into their plight and does describe some of the horror he saw on his way. On page 39, which is chapter 2, the main focus of the book begins and he is living as a slave under a Turk. As a slave, he works with Kurds to serve the Turkish family. From chapter 2 until the end, his narrative account does a great job describing the social interactions between the Kurds, Armenians, and Turks. Frequently, he will show the reader how cruel and barbaric the Turks he worked for could be, while on the other hand feeling grateful to them for keeping him alive. His internal struggle is truly unique and his account provides insight into Armenian thoughts during this time.

It is worth the read and is not very long.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This narrative of a survivor of the Armenian genocide gives a close up portrait of life in rural areas under the control of the Ottoman Empire.

After their town was razed and survivors put on an endless march, the author’s mother told him to do whatever he needed to survive. He may have to renounce his Christian faith and be a (temporary) Muslim, but he should do whatever.

At age 15, Aram became a servant to a reasonably kind bey. He serves this family under two patriarchs. He learns about shepherding, the local administration of justice, tax collecting and a host of other skills. Never forgetting that his Turkish hosts are part of the political structure that took his family from him, he becomes sensitive to family jealousies, blaming tendencies and who has the ability to coax or move the bey when needed.

Through these stores of daily life, you can see the pecking order of Turks, Kurds and Armenians and the parallel pecking order for women based on youth, beauty and class. While the author can be summoned any time day or night, he is free to swim and has enough mobility to understand the geography of the areas and meet other Armenian survivors.

As to the lifestyle, it is hard to understand the author’s level of comfort. How does he get his second pair of shoes? He writes of his threadbare existence, but does he go through the winter without a coat? Where is he sleeping? He seems to get enough bread, but what else is available to him (besides stolen meat and melons)?

Both the Beys he serves, while brutal, have some enlightenment. This might be expected, since they do take on this Armenian orphan and work with Kurds. They are not as exploitative of women as is the culture around them. Both drink a considerable amount of alcohol and neither are said to pray. Ramadan is not mentioned for this family. Neither has a problem with severely beating someone for small offenses, both understand how to and how not to take a bribe.

The narrative leaves a lot to the imagination. A map showing the author’s journey would have been more helpful than the map of “Kurdistan”. I didn’t check the Glossary until the middle of the book, but should have consulted it earlier since it has a lot of useful information.

This book will be of interest to those with interest in the Armenian genocide/survival and life in the rural areas of the Ottoman Empire before its dissolution with the end of WWI.

[Maryam · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب همونیه که جلدش می‌گه، زندگی‌نگاره‌ی پسرک جان به‌دربرده از قتل عام ارمنیان. پسرک ١۵ ساله که همون نويسنده‌ی امروزه. نویسنده‌ای که شیفته‌ی جزئیاته. از قتل عام نجات پیدا می‌کنه و پس از اون هر کاری می‌کنه تا زنده بمونه، کوچکترینش همراهی با دشمنانشه و بزرگترینش تظاهر به تغییر دین برای بیشتر زنده موندن. در میانه‌ی همه‌ی این آوارگی‌ها اما چشمش از دیدن زیبایی‌ها دور نمی‌مونه و هر بار که چشماش رو می‌بنده تا بخوابه بیشتر از رنجی که متحمل می‌شه از طبیعت و زیبایی‌های اون لحظه می‌گه. پسرکی که هرچقدر هم سختی بکشه باز در آستانه‌ی بلوغه و این هیجان روی تمام خاطراتش سایه انداخته و همیشه پررنگ‌تر از حوادث تاریخی اطرافشه. گاهی چنان غرق عشقه که انگار نه انگار بزرگترین رنج‌های جهان رو تجربه می‌کنه. چنان در بحبوحه‌ی جنگی که تمام دنیا رو گرفته صدای آرام طبیعت رو می‌شنوه که غبطه می‌خوری به این اصالت زیست.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down. An amazing memoir of an Armenian boy who survived the Armenian genocide.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aram Haigaz's memoir of the years (1915-1919) during and immediately after the Armenian genocide is a beautifully wrought account of his experiences and resilience of the human spirit. Aram was 15 when his village fell to the Turks and he watched all of the town's men - including all of the men in his family - be killed before being forced into a caravan with the surviving women and children, including his mother.

At his mother's urging, Aram renounces his faith, finds a protector of sorts, and escapes the caravan - and his fate - by spending the next four years as a servant-slave to one and then another of the clannish, ruling beys. The stories he tells of his time with the beys is remarkable. Quick-witted and intelligent, he is frequently in and out of jams, and it is clear that the bey comes to rely on him as much more than a lowly servant. Aram's penchant for morphing with his surroundings and doing what needed to be done to survive brought to mind the flight of a contemporary, Lev (Leo) Nussinbaum, from the Bolsheviks just a few years later. And, in fact, Haigaz's longed-for and beloved Armenia and Nussinbaum's native Azerbaijan were both absorbed by the Soviets in 1920.

Haigaz's memoir serves not only as a reminder of the Armenian genocide, but as a window into the last days of the Ottoman Empire, and how World War I looked and felt from the forgotten corners of this vast territory. In the descriptions of fugitives and warlords, of double dealing and bribes and shifting sands of alliance, one finds the seeds of trouble in the modern Middle East.

Beyond the personal story and geo-political history, Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan lends a depth and poignancy to the Armenian genocide that Sandcastle Girls, by dint of being a fictional account, could not quite achieve. This is a fascinating memoir, the tale of a penniless and stateless refugee, one that has been experienced far too many times in the past 100 years, but rarely put to paper so well.

[Alesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fascinating memoir of an Armenian teenager who survived the genocide in Turkey in 1915. He was given as a slave to a Turkish official by his mother, to save his life. He describes life in the official's house, his relations with women in the harem, and life in general during the period.

You might expect rage, bitterness or horror, given the topic. However, Haigaz gives us an insightful and compassionate insider's view into living conditions in the mountains of Kurdish Turkey during and immediately after WWI. The Turks were on top. Next came the Kurds, whom the Turks considered to be thieves and liars. At the bottom were the Armenians, or rather the few who managed to escape the death marches and massacres. Life was tough. People were hungry, and often cut off from the outside world by winter snows, for long periods. Political intrigue was a fact of life. The author describes these hardships, but also the kindnesses shown him by people of all social levels. He revels in the coming of spring. His heart soars with the friendship of a pretty girl, and with the companionship of a thoroughbred horse. He reasons that yes, he was a slave for four years. But the fact that the official took him in as a slave saved his life.

I read this book because of my interest in all things Kurdish and Armenia. I ended up enjoying every page for the personalized sociology the author provided, plus the reassurance he gave that you can find both good and bad people anywhere, in any era.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story, i'm only dinging it because there were a bunch of instances where the writing was slipshod. It reads more like an oral history transcription of conversations the translator had with her father than 'writing'. There are parts where he/she is referred to and it's hard to understand who they're talking about or what's actually happening. There are individuals who drop out of the narrative with no explanation. There was obviously too much life and story to get in one book, and it seems like a lot was cut (unfortunately not in the most clarfiying way). There is an excerpt in the back of my copy of one of the writer's other memoirs (with a professional translation) that reads more clearly.

[Faith Aldrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan by Aram Haigaz was an inspirational memoir about a young Armenian boy life during and after the Armenian genocide. Aram recounts his experiences as a servant under the kind but demanding Turkish Beys. The grueling work he must complete daily, the fear of being killed by the military looking for escaped Armenians, and experiencing his teenage years are all things young Aram must go through. He also faces forbidden love, searches for Armenian brothers and sisters, and tries to remember his Christian heritage and his deceased family. This book is important to read because many people do not know much about the Armenian genocide, it is both educational and entertaining. There are also many important themes here that we can learn a lot from.

[Frank Deschain · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Aram Haigaz tells his tale of survival during the Armenian genocides perpetuated by the Ottoman Turks. He survives by pretending to convert to Islam. His name is changed to Muselim and for four years he is a servant to Muslim captives. They essentially treat him as less than human, even after "converting."

He eventually escapes when the Allied Forces win and he meets up with some Armenian relatives. I was looking to learn more about the genocides. It explains a little, but I'm still going to find a few more books on the subject.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

A disincentive to reading a book with a title like this is the fear that such a story, set in the middle of genocide and world war, will be only ghastly, unrelieved horror. In fact, this episodic narrative is something of a coming-of-age tale, poetically told, one that draws the reader into an unfamiliar time and place through the full range of human emotion and experience—humor and kindness as well as hatred and depravity.

[Elana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me absolutely engrossed from the moment I picked it up. When a first-hand account dealing with atrocities and crimes against humanity manages to be somehow be beautifully written, that is impressive style. The book was initially written in Armenian and subsequently translated into English by the author’s daughter. It manages to be historically enlightening and also reads like a personal adventure story at the same time.

[Claire Santangelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir is a beautifully written account of one boy's experience during the Armenian Genocide. I think that the descriptions and imagery was done very well. The book is an appropriate length for a memoir. The author used pieces of his narrative to convey information, instead of just writing facts. This book is amazing, and the author's story of survival is inspiring.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A startlingly authentic memoir of the Armenian genocide in the early 1900s and how one teen boy escapes death through professed conversion to Islam and four years of slavery.

[Miriam Downey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read my full review here: http://mimi-cyberlibrarian.blogspot.c...

This year is the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, when the Turks of the Ottoman Empire forcibly removed Armenian Christians from their villages. In all 1.5 million Armenians were killed.

Yesterday, for the first time, a German president acknowledged Germany's role in the 1915 genocide. Turkey, on the other hand protests any government that calls the killing a genocide. They say that Armenians died during fighting in a civil war in which they were aided by the Russians.

A memoir by Aram Haigaz, a survivor of that genocide, was recently published after having been translated from Armenian by his daughter Iris Chekenian. Haigaz wrote the memoir in Armenian in the 1970s. Aram was taken by the Turks as a boy of 15 and was convinced by his mother to convert to Islam in order to survive. He lived as a servant in a Turkish family for four years. The only member of the household staff who could read, he also was able to take care of the animals of the family. Very smart and articulate, Aram had the skills necessary to survive, and in the early 1920s was able to come to the United States where he lived until he died in 1986. He became an author in the Armenian language, and continued to tell the stories of his people. His first book, The Fall of the Aerie, is one of the only first-hand accounts of the genocide in his small village.

Lovingly translated, this is a masterful memoir of the inhumanity of the genocide that continues to haunt the world 100 years later. One reviewer calls the book "a richly detailed testimony to a young man's courage in the face of unspeakable horror."

Several events are planned in connection to the centenary, including events in Pasadena, the home of the largest Armenian community in the United States.
Here is a review in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
A review in the EKurd Daily.

[Leroy Erickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is based on the true story of a young boy who is able to survive the Armenian genocide by volunteering to become a servant of a Turkish family. In doing this, he is abandoning his mother and sisters who continue in the death march to the Syrian desert, but his mother insists that he do it so that he, at least, will be saved. He then spends four years living with that family as they move to multiple locations in the Kurdish mountains. The author provides views of how the Turks, Armenians and Kurds view each other and how they interact. We find out that some Armenians survived the genocide because they were considered to have a critical skill in the village where they lived (the only carpenter, for example). We see the superior attitude that the Turks had toward the Kurds, which seems to still exist today. The book is well written.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating, well-written memoir of an Armenian boy who escaped a death march during the Armenian genocide and became a favored slave in a powerful Kurdish family in the highlands of rural Anatolia.

[Paulette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

I read a lot of genocide books. This one I found to be a refreshing change as it accounts the life of a survivor who had to convert to stay alive. He is able to escape after 1919 and join Armenians again.