Bedoyan Collection - Athens and Nea Erythraia

Author: Ani Apikian, 09/06/2024 (Last modified: 09/06/2024) - Translator: Simon Beugekian. This page was prepared collaboratively with the “Armenika” periodical of Athens.

Jack (Jacob-Ferdinand) Bedoyan/Bdoyan’s father, Henrik, was born on March 23, 1915, in the city of Paghesh (Bitlis). He was the son of Hagop Bedoyan and Makrouhi Bedoyan (nee Kurkdjian), who married in 1912. Hagop Bedoyan’s family belonged to the Armenian Evangelical community of Paghesh. After marrying Hagop, Makrouhi also converted to Evangelicalism.

Hagop’s surname was probably initially Bedrosian, but had been distorted over the years and had become Bedoyan. Hagop and Makrouhi had another son, Ferdinand, who died in infancy. Hagop’s father was called Mardiros, and his mother was called Baydzar. Mardiros and Baydzar also had a daughter, Heghine, who was married to a man with the surname Kouyoumdjian.

Jack Bedoyan’s maternal grandmother and grandfather, Takouhi and Garabed, had nine children – five daughters and four sons. We only know the names of six of these children: Makrouhi (Hagop’s mother), Hripsime, Hasmig, Shoushan, Krikor (their eldest son), and Haroutyun (their youngest son). Hagop’s mother’s family also hailed from Paghesh and was considered wealthy. Garabed was a merchant and owned his own shop. The family lived in a three-story stone house, which had a unique appearance and looked like a gate. It was located in the Keyik-Meydan neighborhood and was still standing as late as 1936, as attested by Roupen Kayukian, who visited Paghesh sometime that year and personally saw the house. By then, it had become the residence of a high-ranking Turkish military official. In 1998, Jack Bedoyan also visited Paghesh and found the old family home, which was still standing but was in a dilapidated state.

When the Bedoyans lived in Paghesh, a total of 58 family members lived in this house.

Jack Bedoyan’s grand aunt (Mardiros and Baydzar’s sister), Heghine Kouyoumdjian (nee Bedoyan), was the principal of Mount Holyoke College, an American missionary girls’ school in Paghesh. Henrik’s mother, Makrouhi, had also attended this school. Henrik’s father, Hagop, was a cobbler. After marrying Makrouhi, he changed careers and became a trader of untreated leather. Hagop would travel to Constantinople every six months to oversee the transportation of leather to Paghesh.

The life of Satenig Vartanian was deeply intertwined with the history of the Bedoyan family. Makrouhi and Satenig had probably been neighbors in Paghesh. “Aunt” Satenig, as Henrik called her, was born on May 6, 1896. She was the daughter of Avedis and Shoushan Barnoyan, a wealthy Armenian couple from Paghesh. The couple had 18 children, only nine of whom survived infancy. Satenig married Boghos Vartanian, and the two had a daughter.

Very Reverend Khachig Vartanian was Boghos Vartanian’s brother. Khachig was an orphan from Sassoun and was raised by American missionaries. In 1890, he graduated from the theological seminary of Kharpert, was ordained as a minister in 1903, and served as the minister of the Evangelical Church of Paghesh from 1903 to 1915. Very Reverend Vartanian was married to Lousuntak, a graduate of the American girls’ college of Paghesh. The couple had two sons and two daughters: Barkev, Kisag, Shnorhig, and Dziadzan. All four of their children left for the United States, where a relative lived, before 1915. Kisag later worked for an electronics company. Satenig Vartanian later settled in Athens. Kisag continued to correspond with her and supported her financially. In 1970, he visited Athens and met Satenig.

Makrouhi and her two children, Ferdinand and Henrik, found shelter at the American school where Heghine worked as the principal. Satenig, Very Reverend Vartanian’s daughter-in-law, also joined them there, alongside her daughter, who was only a few months old (name unknown). One-year-old Ferdinand and Satenig’s daughter gradually became weaker as a result of malnutrition and their living conditions, contracted typhoid fever, and died.

Sometime during this period of persecution and brutality, a Turkish officer visited the school to check if any Armenian boys were hiding among the pupils. Heghine arranged for Makrouhi and Henrik to hide in an underground cellar used for storing wood, 40 steps below ground. There was also a well in the cellar, in which Henrik was hidden whenever danger loomed. Mother and son lived in the cellar in terrible conditions. Food was scarce, but thanks to the American missionaries, Henrik received a glass of milk each day. Satenig, who had recently given birth, would also nurse Henrik when necessary.

One day, Makrouhi, convinced that the Turkish police would no longer search the school, decided to bring her one-year-old son out of the cellar. At that very moment, policemen burst into the building. Makrouhi hid her son under her hem, but he started crying. Hearing his cries, the police searched the school thoroughly, but failed to find Henrik.

By then, the Russian forces fighting the Ottoman army had advanced as far as the environs of Paghesh. The Ottoman forces began retreating. Turkish military officers ordered the 90 female pupils of the American school to accompany the retreating soldiers. That same day, Heghine arranged for each of the girls to be hidden at a different location, so that each would remain unaware of where the others were hiding. The following day, the Ottoman armies began retreating in a panic, without attempting to take the students with them.

The first soldiers to enter Paghesh were Levon Balian and several other volunteers of the Armenian volunteer battalions under the command of General Andranik. When they reached the courtyard of the school, they shouted in Armenian that they had arrived to save the girls, asking for the gates to be opened. Despite this, Heghine and Satenig were not sure if these Armenian-speaking soldiers were Armenians or Turks. To prove his identity, Levon Balian began singing Armenian songs and making the sign of the cross. Eventually, the gates were opened. The Armenian volunteers embraced Heghine and Satenig and began dancing with the girls in their joy.

When American missionary O’Shane visited Leninakan on NER business, Heghine handed her 100 gold coins to pass on as a gift to Henrik. To receive this gift, Henrik was to wait until he came of age and considered himself worthy of it. And in fact, years later, Henrik received this gift, and thanks to it, purchased a house in the Nea Erythraia area, northeast of Athens.

In Constantinople, Makrouhi and Henrik lived in Avedis Kurkdjian’s home, while Satenig lived in rented rooms. Avedis and his wife, Armenouhi, had five children: Sarkis (born in 1904), Sirarpi (1908), Edward (1912), Arshaluys (1914), and Shake (1915). Henrik and Arshaluys were of the same age and attended the same school in the city. All members of Avedis Kurkdjian’s family continued living in Constantinople/Istanbul until 1988. It was only Sirarpi who, after the death of her daughter, emigrated to the United States in later years.

While Makrouhi and Henrik were initially welcomed warmly by the Kurkdjian household, life quickly became unpleasant for them. The Kurkdjian family effectively treated Makrouhi as a maid, which she could not accept. Makrouhi and Henrik were forced to endure these conditions for approximately two years.

Makrouhi and Henrik arrived in Oropos. The director of the orphanage refused to admit Henrik into the institution, arguing that it was a girls’ orphanage, and demanded that he be transferred to the orphanage in Argostolion. Makrouhi refused to part with her son. She proposed working in Oropos without remuneration if Henrik was allowed to stay with her. This proposal was accepted. However, this meant that life became very difficult for both. Satenig often had to send help. Makrouhi continued working without pay until a high-ranking NER official who had worked in Armenia visited the orphanage. When she learned of Makrouhi’s situation, she intervened with the director of the orphanage, who began paying Makrouhi a monthly salary. In fact, Makrouhi was paid the wages owed to her for the time she had worked without pay.

In 1924, the orphanage of Oropos was moved to the island of Syra/Syros. There, Makrouhi became the director of the Armenian section. The orphanage was home to 130 wards between the ages of 15 and 25. In 1926, Satenig also moved to the island of Syros. The general director of the orphanage was John White, who in 1928 took the kind step of enrolling Henrik in the American Anatolia College of Thessaloniki. At the same time, he found a sponsor from the United States who would pay Henrik’s tuition fees. While studying at the college, Henrik also worked in the institution as a food server and a supervisor of bedroom cleaners. After the death of his American benefactor, Henrik’s tuition fees were paid by the head of all NER orphanages in Greece, Turpin [sic]. Later, Henrik’s tuition fees were paid by Mardiros Nigoghosian.

Around 1930, Makrouhi and Satenig moved from Syros to Athens. They settled in the Armenian refugee camp of the Dourghouti neighborhood. There, Makrouhi worked as a teacher at the school of the local Armenian Evangelical Church. The two women lived in Dourghouti until 1961, when they moved to the area of Nea Erythraia, which was to be their last home. Makrouhi died in 1981, and Satenig died a year later.

As for Henrik, after graduating from Anatolia College in Thessaloniki, he studied at the school of business in Athens while working for the Star Company, which was involved in the trade of textiles. In 1940, the company relocated, and Henrik found a new job with the Sousmandjian Company. There, he met his future wife, who visited the Sousmandjian shop to exchange fabric. In 1948, Henrik began working as an accountant for the United States embassy in Athens. In 1956, he married Vivi. A year later, they emigrated, by ship, to Canada, where their son, Jack Bedoyan, was born (1958). Life in Canada did not meet the expectations of the Bedoyan family, who returned to Athens in December 1958.

In later years, Henrik Bedoyan wrote a family history, basing it on his own memories, as well as information provided by Satenig and Makrouhi. The family history was written in Armenian and Greek, and was later translated into English by Henrik’s son, Jack.

1. Makrouhi Momdjian sent this photograph of herself to Makrouhi Bedoyan. On the back of the photograph, she wrote to “Her Mother,” addressing Mrs. Bedoyan. Thessaloniki, October 25, 1926.

2. Aghavni Takvorian sent this photograph of herself to Makrouhi Bedoyan. Syros, January 17, 1928.

3. Unidentified individuals, 1932.

4. The inscription on the back of this photograph identifies the adult woman as Haygouhi, and the boy as her son. The inscription is addressed to “My Dear Aunt.”

5. A photograph sent to Makrouhi Bedoyan. The woman is unidentified, but she was probably the sender of the photograph. Syros, 1925.