ARMENIAN'S ORDEAL.

Shannon News, 10 May 1927, Page 3

ARMENIAN'S ORDEAL.

ESCAPE FROM MASSACRE. JOINS MOTHER IN NEW YORK. Rubina Gurdgian,. who at 15 had known the horrors of massacre and of being carted as one of the dead to a burial ground, and who had since been a member of a Turkish harem, has arrived in New York City on the White Star liner Olympic, wrote a correspondent of the New York World on ~ February 7. Her mother,. Mrs Marian Mahakian, traced to America by the Near East Relief; and" believed her daughter died in the concentration , camp at Urfah, Turkey, where they were herded 11 years ago after the massacre in which the girl's father, Haruten Gurdgian, was murdered. := As the story is told, the girl and her mother were lodged in the eamp early in 1916 following a wholesale slaughter of Armenians by the Turks. Rubina, a child aged four years, became desperately ill.. The Turks flung her body among the dead and carried her among a waggon load of dead for burial. She was found alive and lodged with a Turkish family, where she was brought up. . ■ .'. ~.. •■ ■:=■■■'.: -,'-■■■■ "' Three years ago her good looks attracted a Turk of influence, and he added her' to his harem. There she remained until on a journey to Egypt with his household she encountered ah: Armenian girl, who encouraged her to escape. When the train stopped at '■/&.,.; busy station she leaped off : and mingled with the crowd." In some manner, she made her way to Jerusalem, where she sought refuge with the Near East Rlief. / Workers sought among the Armenians there some survivor of ~the massacre of 1916 who might know what happened to the girl's mother. By chance they discovered an Armenian woman who had received letters from Rubina's mother, who had gone to New York in 1920. The letters revealed the name of the woman's second husband, a Syrian. Through his naturalisation papers, Near East Relief workers in this country traced the woman to West Haven. Thereupon they sent, for the girl.