INDIA AND EGYPT

EGYPT

Dennis: WW2 Experience

Denis was born in Alexandria, Egypt. The Second World War, and later the Arab–Israeli conflict, prompted multiple relocations, first from Alexandria to Cairo, then Haifa, Israel, and Jerusalem. In 1947, the British mandate ordered them to evacuate once more. Story of their escape to England by troop ship. 

Maral: Genocide memory

Maral’s maternal great-grandfather was from Thrace. His three brothers went to Cairo, Egypt before the First World War. Her great-grandfather was deported and escaped from the Armenian genocide in Cilicia, present-day Turkey. He chanced upon a construction site of the Berlin-Baghdad railway, in which he was taken on as a skilled worker for three years, eventually going back to Tekirdağ, Turkey, his home town in Thrace. He got married and had children. After the 1922 Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey) fire, his family moved to Egypt. Maral’s great-grandmother had been deported in 1918, as the new governor wanted to make up for not having participated in the 1915 genocide events, and sent her family across the Sea of Marmara. Story of their boat trip, ending in Haydarpaşa, Turkey. They were helped and sent back to their hometown, where their houses had been taken over. The grandchildren grew up in Egypt and Maral keeps connections with those relatives. These stories are not spoken about in the family.

Richard: Armenians’ reputation in the ME

About the Armenian community in Egypt: a lovely community, established before the genocide, creative, well-to-do. His connection to the Armenian community in Cairo as an American-Armenian study-abroad student. Going to the Gulf states as an American-Armenian: positive reputation of Armenians there. Genocide descendants who stayed in the Middle East and gravitated to the Gulf to flee conflicts. Never a threat to the political establishment, hard workers. 

Richard: Armenians in Cairo

Discusses his choice of Cairo, Egypt, as a study-abroad destination. Armenians integrated there pre-genocide. From Egypt’s first Prime Minister, Nubar Pasha in the 19th century (an Armenian-Egyptian), to Nasser in the 1960s.

INDIA

Eddie: Grandparents' history

Eddie was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Mentions not fully identifying as Armenian due to mixed cultural background. Description of Armenian paternal grandmother, born Adana, present-day Turkey, in 1900, from well-off background. She kept parts of past private, migrated to Baghdad, Iraq, around 1915. Story about grandfather, Indian, trader who supplied British Indian army during 1915 invasion of Iraq. Eddie never met him. Mentions his father, born Baghdad, 1925, grandparents’ marriage around 1924. Story about Armenian community in Bombay and Christian tradition.

Michael: Parents’ origin

Micahel describes his father's early life, born in 1906 in Isfahan, New Julfa, Persia (present-day Iran); at 14, he was sent to Armenian College in Kolkata, India; 1930s to 1947, ran a general store business. Story about how Michael's parents met in Paris and then moved back to India, where they had three children, and then moved back to Paris for two more years while Michael’s father was selling his business in India. Description of the family moving to Wimbledon, UK, in 1947-1948 and Michael’s parents opening a delicatessen named Armenico that operated from 1955 to 1965. 

Siranoush: Father’s Arrival in Kolkata and Education

Maternal grandparents had fled from the Ottomans, and settled in Burma since several generations. Her father was born in Persia, youngest of 10 children. Story about father travelling across Persia on a donkey and meeting friendly Armenians along the way, to go to a free Armenian school in Kolkata, on “Free School Street,” bringing Armenian boys with him. Got to Bombay, now Mumbai, India, then Kolkata where he was put into an orphanage and learned English, before there was space at the school. Only then learned Armenian. All those boys eventually got jobs in insurance in Rangoon, Burma. 

Siranoush: From Rangoon to Kolkata

As the Japanese attacked the British Embassy in Rangoon, Burma in 1942, Armenians were called to evacuate alongside the British. Burmese people had fled, leaving all services deserted. British passports were then given to Armenians. Those who had British passports could board a Red Cross boat to evacuate to India. Siranoush’s father did not come with them on the boat but walked north to India instead. Siranoush, her mother, brother, aunt and cousin were taken to Kolkata via Madras. Emotional mention of her aunt having a breakdown. Four and a half months later, they still had no news from her father, who was walking alongside others through the Burmese “Valley of Death,” by the Himalaya mountains. The group finally arrived safely in Kolkata by train through Howrah station. Amazement at them making it alive, though ill and injured. Emotional story of reunion with her father.