PanARMENIAN.Net - Clara Russian of Arlington, Mass, one of the last Armenian Genocide survivors and past active member of the Watertown Armenian community, passed on October 5. She was 101 years old, The Armenian Weekly reports.
Clara Movsesian Russian was born on Oct. 28, 1914, in the village Yegheki, Kharpert province, Armenia. Her mother, Haigouhi Echmalian had moved to Yegheki from Hussenig to work as a teacher and was matched with Nishan Guetchudian, who had just returned from America to find a bride.
The couple was not married two years when Turkish gendarmes entered Yegheki in Spring 2015 and marched the men out of the village. Nishan was never seen again. What followed was an arduous, sometimes grueling journey through the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East, and Europe, across mountains, gorges and seas, spanning 10 years, from Yegheki to Agn, back to Yegheki, on to Aleppo, Marseilles, and then Cuba.
In Cuba, they were greeted by Haigouhi’s sister Teriz Kalousdian, who had already emig...
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