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MEHMET SAAR
Father’s Name: Tevfik
Mother’s Name: Rukiye
Place of Birth: Van-Göllü
Date of Birth: 1901
I am from the Gollu village. The Armenians revolted when the
army in Van retreated towards Erzurum. The Armenians killed
all our parents. My father was a gendarme sergeant and he
was among those who were killed. The villagers in Mollakasim,
Amik, Sihayne, Gollu, Hidir, Kurtsatan, and Koprukoy were
also murdered. Some of our villagers were hidden in Zeve and
were later killed, but we were able to escape.
Armenians tortured and practiced all types of cruelties on
the people they kidnapped. They cut up pregnant women and
removed the unborn children with their bayonets. They raided
and burned all of the Muslim villages, murdering men, women,
children and the old. The Muslim population, which fled from
the villages, I mentioned, tried to escape by crossing the
bridge on the Ablengez River. The Armenians demolished the
bridge, and threw the bodies of their prisoners into the river.
In the spring when the snow melted, the bodies were carried
away into the lake. During the day time, my mother, my two
sisters, and I stayed in the hills. We knew that if the Armenians
found us they would kill us. My mother died before we reached
Diyarbakir. I later lost my two sisters, and was left all
alone. I stayed in Diyarbakir for three years, and returned
to my village the fourth year. Van and the Muslim villages
were all burned and destroyed, we settled down in an Armenian
village since they remained intact. We later returned to our
villages which we rebuilt with our own hands.
Words cannot express the torture we suffered at the hands
of the Armenians. We lost our homes, families, and possessions.
After losing my mother, father, and two sisters, I also lost
my cousin and other relatives who were trying to escape to
Tatvan by ship with thousands of other people. All of the
passengers on the ship were brutally slaughtered by the Armenians
near the Parket village near Adilcevaz.
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