My Century Home Page

Broadcast on Tuesday 21st December 1999

ROSA KHEDIRIAN

My name is Rosa Khedirian. Khedirian is my married name. My first surname was Romillay. My mother was Greek. Only my father was Armenian. I was born in 1912. I am 87 years old at present - 87. I was born in Adana. And we had cotton fields in Adana, in Turkey. And my father was the director of all the cotton fields. In 1915, the Turks came. And they committed genocide against the Armenians in 1915. First of all, they killed my father and my mother. Because they wanted to take our fields and everything. My father and mother were very rich. They killed them. And then they put my hand into the fire. Here it is. They thought, instead of killing me, they would make me so that "she can't do anything". But thank God, with two fingers I can knit, I can write, I can do everything. With two fingers, God gave me life.

After they had done that to me, I was taken to the orphanage. This was an Armenian orphanage. And there I was brought up. I have a Bible they gave me as a present. Still I've got the Bible with me. Because I carry it wherever I go - the Bible that was given to me. When I was eight or nine years old, the French came. And at night they took us all - all the orphans - and put us in armoured cars. It was the French army. They took all the Armenian orphans and all the orphanage people, at night, in lorries. One night, we slept outside, under the sky, in the armoured cars. Then they brought us to Shimlon, in Lebanon. And my orphanage was there, in Shimlon. And we stayed there. And now I think it is still there, because they took it for the British soldiers to go there and learn Arabic.

Oh, we suffered very much. I was small. I feel I can't say anything because it is done and finished. What can I do? What can we do? Because the Turks are all the time ignoring it. And they say: "We didn't do it. Our ancestors did it." What is the good of being angry? God forgive them. God punish them. I can't say anything. God says; "Vengeance is mine. I shall punish them." So we orphans - what can we do? But God gave me sense. This happened to me and I must live with this. But God helped me. God gave me sense. That is it.

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