The people were separated into two groups one,
some families had to go to Damascus because they needed us.
And my brother Garo put some kind of a trade on every life certificate and the others went
Supposed to go to Deir Zor. I
saw with my own eyes a poor neighbor of ours from Bandirma [Balikesir, Turkey],
she couldn't walk anymore and
they took hold of her and
throw her into the burning fire.
And
my father's first cousin, Hagop Der Hagopian
lost his mind in front of us.
Then we were supposed to be the fortunate ones then we went they put us on train again
towards the Syrian desert.
My baby sister died on the train there. She was only four years old and my parents just buried her
by the
railroad tracks there.
From there on we had to walk again
and
by this time of course the spotted
typhus was,
everybody got it you know.
And we were in the desert, I don't know how we lost each other.
Had been five months since we left our homes in Bandirma [Balikesir, Turkey]
Now we were on top of the mountain
and the people from the horizon as
much as the eyes could see this column of human beings walked,
behind the same thing and
nobody said anything
they knew they were going to die soon, and
they envy with the ones that were dead already.