I am Armenian, I am Fundijaktsiner, we are revolutionaries. We helped light the spark that started a great fire.
My grandfather was born in 1881, he lived in a small mountain village called Fundejak in Turkey, which is near the city of Marash. He spent is early years raising grapes and wheat.
In 1865, and later in 1895, the Turks attacked a nearby village of Zeytun, where my grandmother and her family was from, because the Zeytuntsiner were harboring the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, which called for a revolution in Turkey. In both instances the Armenians of Zeytun held off the Turks, until France and the other major European nations intervened and negotiated a peace, thereby ending the resistance.
Still, life was not good for Armenians in Turkey, and many families sought to leave Turkey for other countries. My grandfather was one of them, leaving for California in 1913. His wife and three children stayed behind in Zeytun with her family.
With the start of WWI, and the rise of the Young Turks, who overthrew the Sultan, the Turks set out for revenge against the Armenians, particularly in Zeytun. The Zeytuntsiner fought a battle against overwhelming odds, finally abandoning their stronghold and taking refuge in Fundejak. On July 26, 1915 the Turks attacked Fundejak and were surprised, overwhelmed, and captured by the Armenian resistance. The next day, the Fundejak and Zeytun fighters executed the prisoners and burned six neighboring villages which housed Turkish settlers brought into the region after the 1895 revolt.
Soon after, the Turks brought in over 8,000 regular troops, along with numerous mountain guns. They massacred the resistance, and sent the women and children off into the Syrian desert to die.
My grandmother escaped with her brother, but lost all of her children. Girls were raped, put into harems or forced into servitude, and boys that weren't circumcised were stabbed and left to die. She made it to Beirut, where she lived for a number of years. Her brother joined the French foreign legion serving in Morocco. Once he obtained his citizenship, they moved to Marseille.
My grandfather, helpless to do anything, enlisted in the US army. Once he was discharged, he moved to Porterville, CA and started a grape orchard. He was reunited with my grandmother in 1928 They had two more children together, one being my father, who was born in 1931
This is our story. I tell it because those who survived it were humiliated and crushed by what happened to them. They wont talk about it.
I encourage you all to go see the movie "The Promise", out in theatres today.
