Yozgat 1912: (l to r) Cousin Badrig Papazian, Grandmother Sasede Berberian, Badrig Arakelian sole survivor in photo, Grandfather Roupen Berberian, Cousin Garabed Berberian.
Belmont 1978: (l to r) Edward Kazanjian, Mary Ann Kazanjian, Karen Kazanjian, Badrig Arakelian, Krista Kazanjian, Elizabeth Arakelian
I, Mary Ann Kazanjian, am the daughter and only child of Badrig Arakelian, survivor of the 1915 Genocide of the Armenians in Turkey. Badrig, the eldest son of Arakel and Shnorig (Berberian) Arakelian, was born in Yozgat, Turkey in 1909. Yozgat, a rich and vast forest area, was located in central Turkey near the present day capital of Ankara. It was first established by the Armenian Capanoglu family of the “Tekke" tribe in the early 1700s who came from Yerevan in the East to escape Turkish and Kurdish atrocities. The Capanoglu family surname derived from the meaning “Shepherd’s Son” and the land was named Yozgat, heavily inhabited by Armenians and Greeks. The Greek name for Yozgat was Bozouki.
Architect Simon (Sinan) from Yerevan was commissioned to build the grand palace for the Capanoglus and a mosque in 1779, twin to the magjificent Mosque Suleymaniye in Istanbul. Simon’s son, Haci Arslan (meaning lion), was the first usage of the Arslanian name.
Simon’s grandson was Ohan Chorbaji Arslanian (1784-1874), and together with Simon they were the major benefactors and developers of Yozgat in the 1800s, building schools, bridges, bazaars and the Sourp Asdvadzadzin Church.
Badrig was a seventh generation direct descendant of the wealthy Yozgat Arslanian family. He was the great, great grandson of Hovhannes or Ohan Chorbaji Arslanian on his maternal side. His legacy has now continued three additional generations with his daughter, Mary Ann, son-in-law Edward Kazanjian, his two granddaughters Krista and Karen Kazanjian Lilla and husband Paul, and his two great grandchildren Marianna and Damian Lilla.
Badrig’s family lived on a street named Rue Tekke in Yozgat. He had a younger sister, Armenouhi, and an even younger brother, Haroutiun. His father and paternal grandfather had a comfortable living in the importing and exporting business in partnership with a Greek family.
In 1912, Badrig’s family moved North to Samson on the Black Sea and expanded their wholesale business with this Greek family in a huge warehouse on the waterfront. They dealt again in dry goods such as walnuts, soaps and dry fruit. Badrig, being the oldest, spent a lot of time with his father Arakel at this warehouse. Samson was a warmer semi-tropical climate and the Armenians, Greeks, and Turkish people lived cooperatively among each other. His Arakelian grandparents parents, Boghos and Turvanda, joined his family in Samson along with his father Arakel’s youngest sister, Zarouhi. Shortly thereafter both grandparents passed away before the Armenian Genocide began in 1915. The family lived in a comfortable hillside two story home with a view of the sea next to an Armenian church and graveyard. There was a new military building across the street built in 1911 where his father reported, dressed in a Turkish uniform, paid required fees and served in the National Guard.
There were mansions of wealthier Armenians on the hillside. Badrig befriended an Armenian boy whom he referred to as very rich because he had a tricycle and would treat Badrig to Hershey chocolate bars. This family had a tobacco factory manufacturing cigarettes. Badrig’s family took refuge in this friend’s huge cellar and watched the allied Russian and American ships during WW1 bombardments, while the elders opened their Bibles and prayed.
In 1918, Badrig’s father, Arakel, was taken away from his home by soldiers. The family was told that he was now serving in the military but he never returned. Two weeks later a notice was posted at the bazaar that all Armenians were ordered by the government to leave Samson within the week. His mother said she had an inkling of where his father was and decided to hire a wagon and go look for him with her two younger children in tow. Promising that she would return, she left both Badrig under the charge of his Aunt Zarouhi, age 19, who was still living with them, in the safety of the Greek partner’s home. His Mother also left all her jewelry to sell in order to care for Badrig and Zarouhi. Since all the Armenians had left, the Turks assumed Badrig was Greek, attending a Greek school. After six months, word was out that the Armenians could reclaim their houses so Badrig and his Aunt Zarouhi returned. The house was ransacked and all valuables were gone. For three months they sold off furnishings and what was left to survive. It was later reported to the extended family that Badrig’s mother, sister and brother had all perished on the forced march to the desert.
There was word of a Turkish orphanage in neighboring Marsovan, in what was once Anatolia College. His Aunt Zarouhi hired a wagon and took them there where Badrig stayed and she served as a nurse’s aide. They slept in filthy conditions on the earth floor with no coverings and given a quarter of a loaf of bread each day along with eating grass to survive. Badrig scratched his hands and faked a skin disease in order to go to the infirmary to see his aunt and get more food. Unfortunately he contacted a disease all over his body there, which took over a month to heal.
There was a maternal Uncle Roupen Berberian in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) that heard through a Marsovan Armenian family that Badrig was still alive. The family urged him to escape the orphanage, come to their home, where a covered wagon was waiting with a hired Turkish driver to take him to Samson. It was an overnight trip where they encountered a German soldier who spoke Armenian and asked “Hye es?” and escorted him the rest of the way. The next morning he boarded a fishing boat with only an orange and an apple in his hand answering to his name, Badrig. It was another overnight trip to Constantinople where he met his uncle. He lived with him there in Kadikoy on the Asian side in a very comfortable home for about six months attending Armenian school. He was in awe of first seeing trolley cars and the famous Galata Bridge. There was no hint of danger or fear there. His Aunt Zarouhi also arrived from the Marsovan orphanage and they were sent tickets by two other uncles who heard they were alive. These two uncles, Vahan Berberian and Levon Arakelian, had already come to America before 1915 to study and work and send money back to the Yozgat families. They organized and actively supported the Yozgat Union in Philadelphia to support schools and families in Yozgat.
In February 1920, Badrig and Zarouhi traveled to Greece where they boarded the ship S.S. President Wilson traveling in first class luxury to Ellis Island, New York. He was unable to enjoy the beautiful food since the voyage was very rough and he was always seasick. Due to being an orphan, it took two days of processing his entrance into America. They then went from Penn Station to Philadelphia where they met up with both the uncles who Badrig recalled bought him his first toy, a windup automobile. He lived with the Arakelians there and started first grade at nine years old, not knowing a word of English and being made fun of and physically bullied by non-Armenians.
At age 16 he quit school in grade six and worked with his Uncle Levon, whom he loved and respected, in the dry cleaning/tailor business. At age 18 he opened his own dry cleaning business but lost it in the Depression. In 1934 he moved to Massachusetts to help his father’s brother, Charles Arakelian, in Roslindale, with his bleaching business. Working for his uncle proved to be a very difficult situation, so Badrig then returned to Philadelphia and to High School. But he was summoned again by his Uncle Charles in MA who needed help again because he had broken his leg.
His uncle desperately needed his help back in Massachusetts and made many promises to him if he’d return again to Watertown, MA. Once again it was a difficult situation working together. So Badrig went out on his own renting a room for $3.00 a week on Dexter Ave., Watertown, MA. His landlord operated an Armenian Restaurant on the site of the former Kay’s Market on Mt. Auburn St., Watertown, MA. He also secured a job earning $6.00 a week pressing clothes (even though he was promised $12.00 a week).
Badrig met Elizabeth Boyajian in 1944 from Belmont, MA. His cousin Harry Arslanian spotted her in the window of her father’s Belmont Provision Market on Belmont St. and suggested to Badrig to ask her out on a blind date. They married on Jan. 21, 1945 at St. James Armenian Church in Watertown. I was born the following year on Jan. 29, 1946 and was their only child. They lived at 40 Alma Ave. in Belmont and Badrig and Elizabeth were proprietors of Belmont Cleaners on Belmont St. Belmont. His one week a year vacation consisted of motoring to Atlantic City, NJ to enjoy the beautiful beach and exciting boardwalk attractions and of course visiting the extended family in Philadelphia and New Jersey. They later moved to 123 Winter St. Belmont and then to Barnard Road, Belmont.
Badrig and Elizabeth were active members of the community and St. James Armenian Church where Badrig first organized the Men’s Club, Bingo and the first New Year’s Eve party.
He served on the St. James Parish Council and was a member of the Belmont Beaver Masonic Lodge. Elizabeth was the first organist at St. James and served for fifty years along with being a charter member of the St. James Women’s Guild. They were both recognized as Parishioners of the Year in 1986. Just two years later, Badrig died in 1988.
Badrig always strove to be a good, proud citizen of the United States. Although an orphan and enduring a loss of great magnitude, he built a new family and reunited and enjoyed the many cousins and relatives of his and Elizabeth’s extended family in the United States. He was never bitter or angry with what happened in Turkey and wanted to look forward not behind. He supported the April 24 observances of the Armenian Genocide but also was concerned that politicizing would jeopardize the safety of the many Armenians still living in Istanbul.
Fast forward to 2009 and 2010 when my husband, Edward Kazanjian, and I made two pilgrimages, covering 3000 miles and 100 historic Armenian villages. As part of these journeys, we visited Yozgat, Samson, Marsovan and Istanbul,Turkey following in Badrig’s footsteps.
Badrig’s maternal Uncle Vahan Berberian had painted, after his arrival in America, a Yozgat landscape scene. I brought a copy with me and amazingly found the same location as the painting depicted.
We also found the beautifully renovated historic Arslanian home which was now a museum, furnished as it was in the early 1900s. But also on the doorstep was the original tombstone with dates honoring Ohan Chorbaji Arslanian!
We also found Rue Tekke, the street where the Arakelian family lived. I was one of the 12 leading plaintiffs of the N.Y. Life Insurance Co. lawsuit that was settled in 2005, since I had my grandfather Arakel’s original policy invoices with his address.
We went on to Samson where we discovered the newly built 1911 military building and the Armenian hillside homes. We also went to Marsovan where we located the Turkish orphanage. We walked the streets of Kadikoy, Istanbul, passing several Armenian churches and neighborhoods.
It was very emotional and rewarding to walk the streets of all our grandparents’ ancestral villages. We also brought back soil to share with family and friends. It provided a physical connection to.the homeland. Also,making many public presentations and DVDs was our gift to the community. We wonder what our parents and grandparents would have thought of us making such a journey and to have come full circle. We experienced the beauty of the land, the familiar food and music, breathed the same air, drank the same water and connected with them spiritually. Badrig, along with many survivors, never wanted to return, feeling it was in the past and there was nothing there. But we now know “There is Something There”!