[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 106 (Monday, July 19, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1353]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             A GENOCIDE SURVIVOR STORY: HAROUTIOUN ANDONIAN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 19, 2010

  Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a 
courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian 
Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted 
in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the 
U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau documented at 
the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.''
  The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated 
by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult 
if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the 
genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is 
imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide 
Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories 
of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help 
educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity 
of recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
  This is one of those stories:

   (Submitted by Nareg Krumian, the grandson of Haroutioun Andonian)

       ``Haroutioun Andonian was born in Gurun, Turkey in 1909 and 
     grew up with his father, mother, grandmother and younger 
     sister. At the age of 6, his father and mother were separated 
     from him, his sister and his grandmother. His father was 
     arrested by Turkish soldiers and his mother was taken away. 
     He still remembers a line of people bound to each other at 
     their wrists and being marched away from his village. Among 
     them was Haroutioun's father, whom he never saw afterwards. 
     He never saw his mother again either. He was rounded up with 
     his sister, grandmother and other neighbors by another group 
     of soldiers and taken away to various cities and villages. By 
     the time they reached Aintab (presently called Gaziantep), 
     his sister and grandmother were too weak from hunger and the 
     forced marches that they lost their lives as well.
       ``In Aintab, various Armenian, American and European aid 
     workers tried to contain the situation of children left 
     without family. The orphans were disbursed to various 
     Armenian and Turkish homes throughout the villages of Aintab. 
     Haroutioun remembers the name of Balaban Khoja, a teacher, 
     who was instrumental in placing the orphans with families who 
     wanted children. After going through several homes, 
     Haroutioun lived with a lady who would later become his 
     mother-in-law.
       ``Around the time he was 10 years old, American and Danish 
     missionaries began taking the children to orphanages in 
     Lebanon and the U.S. Haroutioun was sent to Jbeil, a city in 
     northern Lebanon, where he stayed until around 1925 when he 
     was sent to France through the aid of the American charity 
     Near East Relief. For a few years, he worked on a farm and 
     later went to Paris to work at the Renault factory where he 
     was responsible for chroming metal components.
       ``In the early 1930s, Haroutioun found out that the lady 
     who had cared for him last as a child in Aintab had herself 
     been forced to evacuate her village with her family and was 
     living in Aleppo, Syria. He went to Syria, began working in 
     various fields such as trading in cloth and yarn, and 
     managing Turkish baths that were still prevalent during that 
     period. He also married his host mother's daughter, Marie, 
     with whom he had one daughter, Alice.
       ``Haroutioun and Marie left Syria for the last time in 1987 
     and came to Los Angeles to join their daughter and her 
     family. In 2002, he became a U.S. citizen and shared a letter 
     with the judge presiding over the procedure that he had kept 
     for over 70 years. The letter was from the Near East Relief 
     thanking Haroutioun for paying back funds he had borrowed 
     during his journey to France. Though not obligated to do so, 
     Haroutioun had felt that re-paying into the fund would allow 
     other unfortunate people with the opportunity to rebuild 
     their lives. To this day, he maintains that the government of 
     Turkey and its soldiers took away his ability to know what it 
     was to have a family but that today, living in the United 
     Stated at the age of 101 amid his two grandchildren and six 
     great grandchildren, he has become a king who has 
     everything.''

                          ____________________