99 - all you should know about the Genocide April, 2014 | Page 71

Azat Sulukyan | 03.02.1912, birthplace – Musa Dagh
I am from Musa Dagh. I was born in Bitias, which was one of the villages around the mountain.
Hakob, my father, worked in sericulture in Musa Dagh. He did the same work in Armenia. The
leaves of the mulberry tree are food for the silkworm. My father used to say that in order to get
good quality silk, you had to have large mulberry leaves. I learned a lot from him, but worked as
a builder. My family stayed in the Fatherland until 1939, then we migrated to Lebanon. Our family
did not suffer any losses in the fight with the Turks. There were nine of us – my father, mother,
four brothers, two sisters and I. We went to Lebanon on foot. It was a long journey, there was no
water, 10-15 people would die every day. On our way, we stayed for two months in the village of
Ainjar, right on the border between Syria and Lebanon. Syria lay 51 kilometers to one side, Lebanon
was 51 kilometers on the other side. My mother lived a long life – 103 years.
After Lebanon, my family came to Alaverdi in Armenia in 1946. I got married in 1955, and had
children.
As for the Turks… there are good foxes and bad foxes, but you can’t have a forest without foxes.

A photograph from Azat Sulukyan’s school years, 1926.