306) Armenian Crimes Testified By An Old Armenian Lady

Another Ottoman-Armenian Nurse Story


In the early sixties, I had personally met an old Armenian lady in Lebanon who, as she told me, was an Ottoman nurse in the First World War in Damascus; she originally came from south-southeastern Anatolia, I do not remember exactly, but I think it was Marash. Here is the part of our conversation that passed between us: -- Son, I was a young Armenian girl working as an Ottoman nurse in a hospital in Damascus, and used to attend the wounded Turkish soldiers. After the war (1st World War) I returned to Marash which was under the French occupation. When the French wanted to leave Marash for Syria, they asked the Armenians whether they would stay in Marash or go with them to Syria or Lebanon.. Our priests and leaders decided to go with the French. During the two or three days before we left Marash, our people started to kill the Turkish people. They had cauldrens full of yoghurt and they were pouring them onto the streets so that the Turks could slip and not be able to run fast to escape.

-- My dear lady, I hope you are not making up this yoghurt story in order to soften the alleged crimes that we Turks have committed against the Armenians. -- No my son, I saw it with my own eyes. If I am lying let my God blind both of my eyes. And if the Turks have killed the Armenians, surely Armenians deserved it.

Dr. M. Selahi Diker


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