Sildirian Collection – Kokkinia, Greece

Author: Ani Apikian, 30/09/26 (Last modified 30/09/26 ) - Translator: Simon Beugekian

These family memories were provided to us by Manoushag Sildirian-Tsoukala. She presented her family history to our team with an open heart and with warmth. Manoushag, known within her community for her generous hospitality, provided us with a detailed history of her family. Although during the days of her childhood, her relatives had not spoken of the ordeals of their past lives, Manoushag, thanks to her inquisitiveness and research, has been able to restore a substantial part of the history of her ancestors.

Manoushag’s grandfather, Nahabed Sildirian, hailed from Yozgat. He was married to Gyulizar (nee Azadian). The Azadian family hailed from the small city of Roumdig (present-day Felahiye), in the Yozgat area. Nahabed and Gyulizar had two daughters and one son, Khoren (Manoushag’s father), Ovsanna, and a second daughter whose name remains unknown.

In Yozgat, Nahabed was a prominent figure and wealthy landowner, whose large farms and estates provided employment for a large number of locals. He was a highly respected person, who closely observed the issues in the village, addressed them, and maintained good relations with the local authorities.

In 1915, when deportations and massacres began targeting the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire, the Armenians of Yozgat, including Nahabed’s family, also faced the threat of deportation. The family’s oral history remembers that one day, a high-ranking police official invited Nahabed to his home, supposedly to “drink some arak together.” Nahabed, hoping to make things easier for himself, brought food with him from home. Soon, his wife, Gyulizar, was also ordered to appear at the police station, with her children, to also “drink some arak together.” A police officer acquainted with her warned her that the authorities intended to hang Nahabed and advised her to immediately flee.

While Gyulizar was busy making hasty preparations for departure, another policeman arrived and led her and the children to a gathering area for deported Armenians. There were many other Armenian women and children there. After spending a whole night there, they were taken to the courtyard the following morning, to witness the hanging of Nahabed and other prominent Armenian men who had been arrested. After witnessing this horrific scene, Gyulizar went silent, and never again spoke of this event or of anything else that had happened in her past.

Amidst this carnage, a high-ranking Turkish officer who was a friend of the family noticed Gyulizar among the Armenian deportees. He promised Gyulizar and her family to give them shelter and save them from deportation. The officer transported the family, in a chariot, to a nearby village, where they lived with his Turkish relatives. The Sildirian family lived with these Turks for seven whole years. To hide her identity, Gyulizar always wore a black veil to conceal her face and always walked with her back bent and with a limp, so that nobody could tell that she was a young woman.

We must note here that in her underwear, Gyulizar had hidden the wedding gift she had received from her mother-in-law, a gold necklace/chain, from which hung five-pound coins. Throughout the Genocide and in later years, Gyulizar kept this treasure safe and never took it out of hiding. Moreover, she had been able to leave home with some money, which she used in later years as needed.

In 1922, when Turkish forces approached Smyrna and the exodus of Greeks – and tens of thousands of Armenians – towards Greece began, the same Turkish officer was able to bring Gyulizar and her family to Smyrna, from which they left on a ship to the port of Piraeus.

When the Sildirian family reached Greece, Gyulizar learned that the Greek government was providing each refugee with a tent or a hovel. She, too, applied to the government and decided to temporarily live in such accommodations. At the same time, she had decided to finally sell the jewelry that she still had, to buy land and build a house for her family in the Nikaia (Kokkinia) area.

In Greece, Gyulizar also found her brother’s sons, Apraham and Armenag Azadian, whose parents had been killed during the Armenian Genocide. Apraham Azadian later married Ovsanna (surname unknown), and the couple had four children, Krikor, Angel, Makrouhi, and Dikranouhi. Armenag Azadian married Tjkouhi, and the couple had two children, Vagharshag and Azadouhi.

In exile, Gyulizar put to use all the skills and experience that her family had gained as landowners and property owners. She began cleaning homes and gardens for work. The money she earned doing this work allowed her to purchase properties and gardens. She built her own house on Beloyan Street in Kokkinia, with two rooms, a kitchen, and an outhouse. Gyulizar also built a second home, for her son Khoren, on a nearby street.

Prior to the family’s arrival in Greece, Gyulizar’s second daughter (name unknown), died at a young age of an unknown cause.

Gyulizar’s son, Khoren Sildirian, received his primary education at the Zavarian School of Kokkinia. Then, he attended the Saint Paul French College. Although his mother, Gyulizar, hoped that he would become a doctor, Khoren preferred cobblery, for which he displayed an extraordinary talent. He became a well-known modelist of shoes, founded his own cobblery workshop, and gathered many skilled cobblers around him.

According to Manoushag Sildirian, Khoren was a friend of Marika Ninou, before she became a renowned star of rebetiko music, and when she still used her true name, Evangelina Atamian. Both were Armenian refugees living in Kokkinia. Also according to Manoushag, when Ninou dedicated herself entirely to her art, she and Khoren parted ways.

Later, Khoren met Nver Baghdasarian. The two married and had two children, Manoushag and Baghdasar. Gyulizar gifted the valuable gold necklace that she had kept for years to her daughter-in-law, Nver.

In 1946, when thousands of Greek Armenians repatriated to Soviet Armenia, Gyulizar’s family faced a fateful decision. Her daughter, Ovsanna, with her husband, Kalousd Kayserian and their five children (Serop, Vahan, Nahabed, Hagop, and Srpouhi), joined the repatriation caravans. In those days, Armenag Azadian and Apraham Azadian also left for Soviet Armenia with their families.

Khoren Sildirian remained in Greece. He was an active member of the Ramkavar Liberal Party and served as the party’s secretary. Khoren also had close relations with the Armenian Prelate of Greece, Father Mazlumian. Gyulizar recalls that the prelate was well-acquainted with the difficult conditions in Armenia, which was experiencing Stalin’s repressions at the time, but could not openly speak about them. But he obliquely warned Khoren against leaving. He said, “Khoren, your work is good here, don’t go. This is not the Armenia we want. Perhaps better days will come, and then we’ll go.” Khoren, returning home, relayed the prelate’s message to his mother and his sister Ovsanna. They immediately retorted: “We’ll go to our homeland! Here, we’re only foreigners!” Gyulizar added, “My son, an Armenian’s place is in Armenia. We are foreigners here, we must go and build Armenia.”

Khoren remained in Greece, while Gyulizar, Ovsanna, and her family left for Armenia.

Gyulizar Sildirian died in Soviet Armenia, in 1972 or 1973. Ovsanna and her family left Soviet Armenia in 1977 and emigrated to the state of California in the United States.

Nouritsa Hanum Koplanian (nee Gyulbengian) had three children, Manishag, Aram, and Bedros. They were born in the village of Germir, near Gesaria. Aram and Bedros received their education in Germir, and aside from Armenian, also spoke Turkish and French; while Bedros knew how to drive a car. Their sister, Manoushag, also attended the local school, but left school at the age of 17 and married. In 1915, during the Genocide, the Ottoman authorities arrested and hanged Nouritsa Hanum’s husband (name unknown), who was one of the prominent figures of the village of Germir.

Nouritsa’s daughter, Manoushag, married Baghdasar Baghdasarian, who was one of the wealthy landowners of Germir. Baghdasar had two brothers, Sdepan and Apraham. Baghdasar (called Baghdasar Agha) and Manoushag had three children, Hripsime (born in 1918), Nver (born in 1920), and a third child who died in infancy.

Baghdasar’s youngest brother, Apraham, had left for the United States before 1915. The plan was for Apraham to establish a business in the United States, and if he succeeded, to return to Germir, after which the entire family would emigrate to America. But these plans were not realized. Eventually, his other brother, Sdepan, with his newly formed family, settled down in France. Sdepan’s wife was called Srpouhi and their daughters were called Mary and Takouhi.

With the start of the Armenian Genocide, prominent Armenians in Germir were arrested at the first opportunity. Baghdasar’s father (name unknown) was among the detainees. He was later killed.

The family’s history has not preserved the events of the ensuing years. We only know that by September 1922, the surviving members of the Baghdasarian family had left Germir and were living in Smyrna. Like many others, they, too, tried to board ships and leave the country. In the chaos, different members of the family boarded four different ships. Apraham reached France. Nouritsa, with her granddaughter, Nver, boarded a ship headed for Greece; while her daughter, Manoushag, with Hrimpsime, boarded yet another ship, also heading for Greece. Bedros and Aram tried to jump onto a fast-moving sloop. Bedros made it, but Aram fell into the sea. Bedros, seeing that his brother was in danger, asked the captain to slow down the sloop, immediately jumped into the water, and saved his brother.

The family’s oral history has preserved another incident that took place on Nouritsa’s ship, probably while it was still in port and hadn’t left for Greece yet. A Turkish officer called to two-year old Nver, who was sitting in the lap of her grandmother, Nouritsa. Nver was a beautiful little girl, with curly dark hair and green eyes. Naturally, this made Nouritsa very uncomfortable. The Turkish officer, who was eating grapes, took the child into his lap and asked her if she understood Turkish. Nver only knew the word evet (“yes”) in Turkish, so she answered all of the officer’s questions with evet, including questions about Mustafa Kemal. When the officer asked about Venizelos [the prime minister of Greece], little Nver, exhausted and irritated, answered, “Oof, I don’t know Venizelos!” The officer was satisfied with this reply, and gave Nver a huge bunch of grapes, then said: “Go and eat these grapes with your friends!” Nver returned to her grandmother and shared the grapes with the other children on the ship.

When Aram reached Greece, he immediately decided to head for Thessaloniki, given that a girl he was in love with was also heading to that city. Aram died in Thessaloniki at a young age.

Bedros and Nouritsa, with their family, settled down in the Dourgouti (Fix) neighborhood of Athens. While still in Gesaria, Bedros had learned how to drive cars. In Athens, he put this knowledge to use and became a taxi driver at a time when the motor car was a novelty in the streets of the Greek capital. Nouritsa died in 1939 in Athens, while Bedros died in 1966, also in Athens. 

The other members of the family headed for the northern suburbs of Athens, specifically the area of Amarousio (Marousi). The Marousi of 1922 looked nothing like it does today. It was one of the distant villages of Attica, known mostly as the birthplace of Olympian champion Spiro Louis. A unique Armenian community had developed there, consisting of about 120 households, living far from the large refugee centers.

In Marousi, Baghdasar made an important contribution to the organization of the local Armenian community. He had established close relationship with Prodromos Bodosakis-Atanasiadis, the wealthy Greek magnate, who offered him a position as a manger in his businesses. Baghdasar turned down this offer. He did not speak Greek fluently and probably wanted to preserve his independence. In Marousi, step by step, Baghdasar built a house for his family on land that the government had provided to refugees. According to Manoushag, Spiros Louis was present when the plots of land were distributed, and it is said that with his own strides, he measured the small plots that were provided to the refugee families.

One of Baghdasar’s concerns was the preservation of Armenian identity among the refugees. To this end, he became one of the founders of the Marousi Armenian school. He personally paid the salary of the Armenian teacher who worked at the school. Baghdasar also made use of the relationship he had with Bodosakis, and thanks to the latter, he was able to get the Greek government to appoint a Greek teacher for this Armenian school.

About five-six years after settling down in Greece, the family faced a new tragedy. Baghdasar’s wife, Manoushag, once again fell pregnant, but she died during childbirth. Baghdasar, who called his wife his “diamond,” remarried years later, but this union did not last long, and he and his second wife separated. As a result, the two sisters, Nver and Hripsime, were forced to take over domestic duties while also caring for their father. Baghdasar, too, passed away at a young age. He died of pneumonia at 56.

Nver attended and graduated from the well-known Tsobonaki Sewing School. She liked sewing so much that she made it a habit to sew a dress almost every day. She also passed her skills down to her students.

Hripsime married Krikor Boyadjian. The couple had two daughters, Takouhi and Lousin. In 1946-1947, during the repatriation movement, Hripsime and Krikor, with their children, left for Soviet Armenia. In 1949, they were also blessed with a son, whom they named Aram.

As we have already mentioned, Nver Baghdasarian married Khoren Sildirian, and the couple settled down in Nikaia (Kokkinia). Their first child was born in 1938 and named Manoushag after Nver’s mother. Their second child, Baghdasar (or Baghdig), was born in 1945.

Manoushag and Baghdid attended the Zavarian School of Nikaia. During her school days, and partly thanks to the encouragement of principal Onnig Zakarian, Manoushag became an avid reader of Armenian literature, and particularly the poems of Silva Gaboudigian. In the 1960s, Silva Gaboudigian was invited to Athens. When she addressed the local Armenian community, she criticized the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). Manoushag remembers how, despite her admiration for the poet, she daringly stood up and criticized Gaboudigian for her words.

In 1944, when Nver was only 46 years old, she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. She survived, but she was weakened, and was ill for the rest of her life. Khoren Sildirian died in 1951.

Manoushag graduated from the Zavarian School, then attended the Jeanne d’Arc French school, administered by nuns. However, due to the family’s dire financial situation, she was forced to take a year’s break from school, during which she mended socks. After saving some money with this work, she began attended the Institut Français. Manoushag soon became fluent in French and began giving lessons in the language. Nver also taught sewing to her daughter, but she never wished for Manoushag to choose it as a profession.

In 1955, Nver, Manoushag, and Baghdig decided to move to France. But they spent only one year in that country, then opted to return to Greece. Nver Sildirian (nee Baghdasarian) died in 1980, at the age of 60.

Later, Manoushag married Panayotis Tsoukala. The couple had three children, Dimitra (Dira), Nevi, and Khoren.

For many years, Manoushag was an active member of the Armenian Relief Society (ARS), the Armenian Blue Cross, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), and especially the Armenia pan-Armenian Fund.

His brother, Baghdig, was a beloved figure by the Armenian community of Nikaia. He was also a skilled jeweler, and worked with his business partner, Haroutyun-Aris Nadjarian, in the basement of the house that Gyulizar had purchased for Khoren. That basement was their workshop and continues to operate as a jeweler at the same location to this day.

Baghdig was a member of the Armenian General Athletic Union (HMEM). He played an important role as a member of the committee that supervised the construction of the new building of the Zavarian School.

After the independence of Armenia, Manoushag and Baghdig sent help to their aunt, Hripsime, who was living through the acute economic crisis of those years in Armenia.

In 1973, Baghdig married Dirouhi Srabian. They had two daughters, Nora and Maral. Baghdig died in 1997, of cancer. His daughters, Nora and Maral, continue practicing their father’s craft of jewelry.

In these videos, recorded in 2026, Manoushag Sildirian-Tsoukala shares memories and stories about her family’s history.