Last edited by Fred Aprim on May-18-2001 at 05:23 PM (CT) Last edited by Fred Aprim on May-18-2001 at 05:09 PM (CT) An Assyrian Odyssey
1998
compiled and annotated by Youel Baaba Word was received that the Russian Army in Azerbaijan (territory in north of Iran at the borders with Russia) is withdrawing to the Russian side of the border.
The Army of the Ottoman Turks overran Azerbaijan killing, pillaging and devastating anything that is Christian and Assyrian who fled to Russia. Ten thousands perished on the roads for it was bitter cold.
Dr. David Yohannan, an Assyrian American who graduated of the Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and his wife Miriam Jonathan d' Bet qasha Yacoub, with the four children crowded with hundreds and hundreds of Assyrians and Armenians in Memorial High school, under the protection of the western missionaries, but their one year old Theodore was stricken with the dread disease and breathed his last when pneumonia set in. Months later the Russian Army re-entered Azerbaijan and for days the Russians were collecting mutilated bodies of the Christian victims, only to be buried in great pits dug quite a distance from the city. In 1917 the Russian Revolution broke out and the Russian army was ordered yet again to evacuate and return to Russia, and it began to dawn on the Assyrians that the worst was yet to come to break the vengeance of the Muslims. This time the great exodus from the city of Urmia began after the British officials planned the next step for this helpless Christian nation. 80,000 Assyrians, including Dr. David and his family, headed South toward Hamadan, it was during this massive refugee move that Dr. David due to some complication from an unprofessionally handled operation passed away on August 24th., 1918. Miriam Yohannan with her three children, between two and six, reached Baghdad, Iraq, ultimately with thousands of other Assyrians. The family sailed to India later and from there to Britain where she got her American passport (since her husband was an American citizen) and entered the United States after four years from fleeing her home. The above is a brief summary of the ordeal of Miriam Yohannan. Need to say that the content sometimes is not the exact extract. Fred Aprim
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