Margaret Garabedian's Herstory
Margaret was born around 1907-1909 in the village of Uzunoba located inside the region of Palu in Armenia. She was one of the five daughters of her father, Garabed, and mother, Tarvez. She had two older sisters and two younger sisters, with Margaret being the middle child. Her oldest sister, Shooshan, lived in the village with her family and was married with no children. On the other hand, her second oldest sister Mariam was also married but had a son and lived in a different Armenian village. Margaret's younger sisters were Hripsime, who was three years old at the time of the Armenian Genocide, and Marinos, who was just seven months at that time. The village of Uzunoba was located along the Eastern Euphrates River in a relatively remote location, and so it wasn’t a commonly traveled area. This is the place where Margaret as well as her family’s Armenian Genocide story begins.
At the time of the Genocide, little Margaret was only around 6 years old. Her story begins when she starts to hear some loud commotion and gunshots late in the afternoon one day. This jarring noise ended up being caused by Turkish soldiers, who had been slowly surrounding the village of Uzunoba. These soldiers weren’t only attacking, but also rounding up all of the Armenian men to be killed as well. To hide from the soldiers, Margaret and the rest of the women in her family (other than Mariam, who was in another village) hid in a gully along a nearby vineyard. They lost contact with Margaret’s father, but it turns out that he also hid in another gully along that same vineyard. After surviving the night, Margaret along with her mother and sisters went to the person in charge who was acting as the town leader, known as the Agha (which is a title linked to high status which can be given to Turkish men). The Agha let them stay in his cellar, which they did for about a week or so. Once Margaret’s father hears about his family’s whereabouts, he heads to the Agha’s house with two other Armenian gentlemen, thinking that it is safe for him and his family. This turned out to not be the case though, as the town leader ended up notifying Turkish soldiers, ratting out that Margaret’s father and the other Armenian men were at this house. The soldiers then tied up and took away Margaret’s father and the other Armenian men.
A few days later, Margaret’s mother ended up sending her and her oldest sister, Shooshan, out to the river to find out what had happened - especially to see if their father was among the dead. Once they got to the river bank they ended up finding their father's headless body. This led them to come to the sad conclusion that he had been killed there and was indeed one among the many dead. Heading back to the house, the sisters decided to lie to their mother about seeing their slain father in order to spare her feelings during a time of extreme stress and emotional turmoil.
With her mother concerned for their safety, Margaret and her surviving family members traveled to the main town in the area to find out what was going on.
Once they returned back to Uzunoba, they began to notice soldiers rounding up all of the women and children into a large barn-like structure. Eventually, Margaret, her mother and sisters ended up in this barn as well, and throughout the night witnessed horrible atrocities. They watched as Muslim men came in and took women out, molested and raped them, then returned them to the barn after. After realizing what was happening, Margaret’s mother told her and her younger sisters to lay on top of their oldest sister, Shooshan, to hide her from being taken out of the barn. They laid like this for the whole night, filled with fear and the thought of not knowing if they will survive to see another day.
The next morning, the children in the barn were lined up in a row from youngest to oldest. Muslim families came into the barn and began picking any children they wanted, forcing the children into adoption. Margaret’s mother, oldest sister and youngest sister were sent on the march to the Syrian desert. They were never heard from again. Margaret on the other hand was one of those kids that were chosen, along with her younger sister, Hripsime. They not only were forced into adoption, but were also kidnapped by a Muslim family to work as slaves. Hripsime ended up crying constantly for her mother, leading to the family not wanting to keep her anymore. So, Hripsime was brought to an orphanage, where she eventually died of starvation.
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This left Margaret alone
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She still had no idea what had happened to her other older sister, Mariam, who she knew was living in the other village. Margaret ended up living as a slave to this Muslim family for six years. She cooked for them, cleaned for them, with no shoes and barely any care. She was given nothing. Yet, she survived.
It took six years for Margaret’s sister Mariam to come to rescue Margaret.
Mariam's Story
Years before Margaret got the chance to see her older sister, who was in the other village and had been married and had a young son, Mariam’s husband had run off to the Russian front to escape. He left her behind to fend for herself and her son. Mariam was then forced into marrying a Muslim man, which she did as a way to save her son who was less than two years old. Her effort ended up failing, as they took the son away and threw him into nearby water and kept hitting him with stones until he didn't surface anymore. Despite facing an extraordinary amount of hardships including being abandoned by her husband, then being forced into marriage which was followed by the killing of her son, Mariam ended up surviving and fleeing to the major city in that area, Harput.
Mariam to the Rescue
By 1921, it became relatively safer in the Armenian cities. So as soon as Mariam learned that Margaret was still alive as a slave to a Muslim family back in Uzunoba, she went to go rescue Margaret. The first time Mariam attempted a rescue, Margaret was caught, brought back, and ended up getting beaten by her owner. The second attempt was a success, as Margaret expressed to her owner with great confidence that she would keep trying to escape to find her sister, convincing him to let her go.
It took nearly 2 months for Margaret to fully escape being a slave
After escaping, Margaret went to live with her sister Mariam and ended up working in a nearby bakery.
This is the point in Margaret’s roller coaster of a story where you can take a breath, as from this point forward, Margaret was past her horrific Genocide experience and was heading towards living her post-Genocide life.
During the time when Margaret was living with her sister and working at the bakery, she met her first husband (George’s grandfather, Giragos).
They ended up marrying in 1923, and eventually ended up in the United States where they started their family, jump-starting their Post-Genocide life in Providence, Rhode Island.