Return of the Dove

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I’m Stephen Rith-Najarian. In his memoir, Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan, my great-uncle Aram Haigaz (Chekenian) tells of his passage from youth in the town of Shabin-Karahisar to young adulthood, having survived the Armenian Genocide as a slave in Kurdistan. Drawing upon the love he had received from his family and his Armenian faith, he embraced the goodness of life wherever he was placed. We are inspired to do the same.

My great-grandmother Agavni Chekenian also appears in Aram’s story. After the massacre at Shabin-Karahisar, she gathered her surviving children and niece and journeyed to Constantinople, where the young children lived in an orphanage and she worked as a seamstress.

Agavni, or “dove,” refers to the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, which landed on the “mountains of Ararat” in the Armenian highlands. After the rains had subsided, the dove left the Ark and returned with an olive branch, a sign of dry land and hope.

When the waters of war had stilled, my great-grandmother, true to her namesake, returned home to search for family. She found Aram, the sole survivor, in a Red Cross hospital, and brought him back to Constantinople. Although Aram was determined to pull his own weight and work as an apprentice to a shoemaker, Agavni insisted that he finish his education, and her word was final.

Compete his education he did, a writer he became, and now we read his words. We are encouraged by love and nurture to fulfill our dreams.