Yevnigue Salibian
Yevnigue Salibian 
| |
|---|---|
| Birthplace | Aintab |
| Languages | Armenian |
| Ethnicities | Armenian |
| Dialects | Western Armenian |
| Ancestral villages | Aintab |
Armenian Genocide commemoration, awareness a cross-generational affair
By Adam Poulisse, Los Angeles Daily News
Posted: 04/23/14, 7:53 PM PDT | Updated: 13 hrs ago
Yevnigue Salibian has the mental and physical scars to prove what the country of Turkey won’t acknowledge.
The 100-year-old resident of Ararat Home, a Mission Hills nursing facility for Southern California Armenians, stayed in the Turkish city of Aintab with her family until 1921, after six years of seeing thousands of Armenians being forced out or killed at the end of the Ottoman empire. The Salibians were allowed to stay because the family was on good terms with the local mayor, but neighborhood children were hustled out, right by their home, screaming for food and water, Salibian recalled.
Finally the Salibians too had to leave in 1921 after the Turkish-Franco War ended because the French were no longer going to be around to help protect Armenians. While fleeing she was in a horse carriage wreck that left the young girl badly bruised and killed another woman.
Today marks the 99th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide, and the Republic of Turkey still hasn’t acknowledged it.
“Let them come and see the scar on my knee,” Salibian said, with a caregiver translating. “That’s my reminder every day.”
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