CASAS

In 2006 I was in Aintep to see the city where my grandfather was born. I
was looking for traces of Armenian life, I wanted to see how my family use to live, where were their houses etc. The tourist information gave
us (I went with my husband and my little son Avedis) a lot of material to learn the grate past of this region, the multicultural, plurality of religions, multiethnicity character, etc. In the whole prospects I didn't find one single time the word "Armenian". Is like they NEVER existed. The City-museum is a beautiful house near the former main church in the Armenian quarter. One day after visiting, I've found a link in google saying that, that beautiful house was a former Armenian house. In the museums prospects no single word about that fact. The only trace that I've found was a big and also very beautiful house, now a coffeehouse full with young people in the same quarter. I was bewitched looking the big courtyard when a young men ask me if I would like to see the first floor. I don't know why he did it, perhaps because we looked like tourists, or maybe he understood where I come from. He said something like "bu ev ermeni" and I said "Ben de ermeni". In the moment he brought me to a room and showed me a frieze with Armenian letters on the wall. You can't imagine how healing was that moment. Till that moment I thought I'm chasing ghosts. Suddenly it became tangible. This was the only trace I've found.

2006 HOTEL KALELI GAZIANTEP

When I arrived in Gaziantep, the city where my grand father was born, I didn' t want to say to anybody I was Armenian, I was afraid of the reaction of the people. But in the reception of the hotel, I had to show my passport, so, for the recepcionist it was obvious where my name came from. He was a very serious man, and I had the feeling that he looked at me with cold eyes. I bought 6 or 7 postcards for the whole family. I wanted that they get a postcard from Aintep.

But the last day I was in town, I forgot to bring them to the post office and I was obliged to let them in the reception with the question, if they would send them in my place. I was sure, the man with the cold eyes will see all this armenian names, the hertimians, the kanzabetians, the baliosian's, all this ians that use to live in Aintep, ... and will through my postcards away. I could see my postcards in the garbage... To my surprise, every single postcard arrived to the hands of my family in Argentina. I'm very thankfull, my family was full of joy!