The Armenian periodical “Jamanak“, published in Constantinople, represented the story of one of the oldest Armenians of Western Armenia, 104-year-old Heghine Urushyan’s story.
A resident of the Ortaköy district of Constantinople, “Heghine yaya” as her relatives call her, was born in 1914 in the family of Hayrapet and Anna Urushyans, in the village of Chorkotan, Armenian-populated village of Yozgat.
“My mother was taking me and my little brother Grigor to the neighbors’ homes, they were also coming to our place. We were very close with some neighbors. We had a tonir in the garden of our house, all the men were gathering there: they were lighting fire and baking bread, ” remembers the old Armenian woman.
When Heghine was 8, her family had to leave the native village, as they were no Armenians left in the Yozgat. After the Genocide against Armenians, the Urushians, like many Armenians of Western Armenia, also took the road to Constantinople.
“When we came to Constantinople, at first two families were living in one room. We spent the nights sleeping on the ground. We cooked and ate in the same saucepan, we did not have plates, ” told 104-year-old Heghine about the first difficulties of urban life.
After the family settled in the Ortaköy, Heghine started to attend the local Armenian Translation College, but after graduating pre-primary school, she had to leave school and work because of hard conditions of life․
“Till now she does not think she is old. She tries to do everything by herself. Recently she has made a liqueur for a neighbor with Armenian recipe. She also prepares various sweets. Our “Centuries-old oak” is our “eternal flame,” said Mrs. Flora, a relative of Heghine Urushyan.
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