Translated by Michèle McKay Aynesworth
Bardig Kouyoumdjian returned to the Syrian desert where hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians found their final destination. During their deportation a few of the young men & women were lucky and survived the ordeal, defeating both starvation and disease; some others even managed to escape the cruel massacres. However the great majority perished. This desert was literally the end of the road; the threshold to the world of the dead. Bardig made an unparalleled journey to the forgotten places, the centersof deportation in Aleppo, Maskene, Rakka and Deir-Zor. He also managed to find the main sites of the massacres at Shaddade, Markade, Ras-ul-Ain or Suwar. These lands carry, ninety years later on, the remains of the dead and the offspring of those who survived. |