Melikian / Merigian
Family Story

HIGHLIGHTS

 

Nazareth Melikian was known as Nazareth Agha, a title that denotes high standing.  His position was somewhat akin to the mayor of Prapert.  According to Onnik Melikian's memoirs, "in keeping with their high station," Nazareth Agha's family had a large home with secret doors and passages. 

 

During the Genocide, Nazareth Agha hoped that his high position and relative influence in the local government would protect him and his family from the violence.  When he found that was not the case, he converted to Islam, taking the name Mahmud Agha.  That action also did not protect him. Three of Nazareth Agha's five sons (Ohan, Arshag and Dikran) were killed by Turks, ten of his grandchildren were killed, along with a two daughters-in-law, leaving alive only three children (Levon, Khatcho and Shamig) and six grandchildren.  

 

Nazareth (Mahmud) Agha was "roughed up" to induce him to give away the whereabouts of Onnik Melikian and the others who had fled the village and were hiding in caves in the mountains.  He did not give up the information, and instead, pulled a few strings to give Onnik a bit of leeway to come into the village for food and occasional work, and to avoid capture.  Despite having lost his standing as a government official, Nazareth still had a wide variety of contacts, and bribed a Turkish official (the "chief clerk") with a solid gold cigarette case and gold cutlery that Mgrdich Melikian had brought from Constantinople.  

 

Later, this same official warned Onnik that an order had been given to kill even the Armenians who had converted to Islam.  He asked Onnik for a further bribe, 150 gold pieces, to save Nazareth. Onnik brought the gold pieces, but when it came time for Nazareth, he wouldn't come, and Onnik was accused of being a robber and escorted out of town.  

 

Nazareth was still convinced that his new faith would protect him.  "Relaxed and unconcerned," he took a trip to the family farm outside the town.  When he returned, not one family was left in Prapert.  He decided to stay with a Turkish neighbor, but one night, an old Turkish enemy who had "nursed a grudge against him for many years over a property dispute," snuck in, kidnapped Nazareth, and tortured him to death.  

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