99 - all you should know about the Genocide April, 2014 | Page 67

Baghdasar Lepejyan | 01.07.1915, birthplace – Adana
My father, Panos Efendi Lepejyan, was a businessman. He would sell mandarins, boxes, paper – all kinds
of things. He would trade with Russia. He would bring oil, sugar and petrol from there to Adana.
He was a well-known and respected man. He had many friends and acquaintances. He also had
enemies, but they were afraid to approach him. That is the man whose eldest son I am. We were
two brothers. A Turk had told my father that something was being planned and advised him to
take his family and leave. We escaped that very same day. I was just 40 days old, a baby wrapped
in cloth, when we were forced to leave our house.
We managed to get to Aleppo. My father had arranged everything, sold his gold and rented a
camel. We got to Aleppo with six other families. My family suffered no losses, but my uncle’s
family was killed in Adana.
My mother, Mrs. Satenik Lepejyan, was very sensitive – she would often recall all this and suffer.
My parents were very close to Soghomon Tehlerian’s family. Soghomon would come to our house
often and he would talk with my mother for hours.
One day, my mother seated Soghomon on her left side and said, “Listen, Soghomon, you have
drunk of my milk. It would be a sin if you evaded the chance for revenge. Even if you kill just
one of the people who had been at the top, I will be happy.” They would not let me listen to
their conversations. They were probably afraid, thinking that I was a child and might blab it out
somewhere.
I got married in 1945, came to Armenia in 1947, and had five children. I know many languages
- French, Turkish, English, Arabic. I have worked as a French translator, and then held several
different jobs. I’ve worked as a postman for many years.
The Turks are not allowing the Armenian issue to rise up, because everyone has their own
interests at heart. I think the Genocide will be recognized, there is a lot of hope. Sooner or later,
historic justice will establish itself.

Baghdasar Lepejyan at the age of 17, 1932 .