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AYSE SEVIMLI
Father's Name : Dervis
Mother's name : Hayriye
Place of Birth: Van-Zeve
Date of Birth : 1897
When the villagers heard that the Armenians were coming, they
took as many precautions as possible. They dug positions in
the hills. The inhabitants of seven villages filled up our
village. There was little room in the village to manoeuvre
around the people and carts. on the day that we heard the
Armenians had almost reached the village, the men ran to take
their positions and began fighting.
We had no ammunition or weapons assistance. When the Armenians
entered our village, some of our men died fighting; others
were burned in their homes. I hid with my mother and some
others in a barn further away from the fighting grounds I
got under a large basket. The Armenians killed everyone they
found and also fired at the barns. A bullet hit my mother's
scarf, but she was not hurt. I know of only two other women
who survived.
The Armenians went to Bardakci before they came to our village.
My God, when we went out at night, blood, gunfire, mourning,
and wailing filled the air. I saw them torturing people by
cutting "pockets" out of skin while mockingly telling
them they were decorating them with medals. When we approached
the Bardakci village, I saw that on the other side of the
brook, in the field near Mehmet's house they had tied the
arms of five men together and were shooting at them. When
they fell to the ground, they stabbed them with bayonets.
My mother handed them all of her money and valuables so that
we would not be hurt. They then brought us to Van, and tortured
the prisoners in unmentionable ways. We stayed in the military
barracks for four months. We later became refugees and remained
as such until April 1918.
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