Four years in the mountains of Kurdistan, 1915-1919

Aram Haigaz was fifteen when he lost most of his family due to the Ottoman Turkish government's attack on Armenia. He and his mother were put on a forced march toward the Syrian desert without food, water, or shelter, as part of the systematic plan to annihilate the Christian Armenian population of Turkey in 1915. In order to survive, he converted to Islam and spent four years living as a Muslim servant and shepherd among Kurdish tribes in the rugged mountains. He ultimately escaped and came to the United States in 1921.