Between 1978 and 1982, from age 84 to 88, Efronia Khatchadourian put words to her tortuous life history.
The memoirs begin with the axing of her father in Armenian-populated Aintab in 1894. Efronia writes extensively on her daring love story with an Iranian boy, and elaborates aspects of the life of those Armenians who were not deported during the Armenian Genocide but were daily in terror of being kidnapped and forcefully married to Turks.
Next, the memoirs describe some aspects of Armenian socio-cultural life in Iskenderun between 1920 and 1939, before it was acceded to Turkey, and episodes of her life in Beirut prior to her move to the USA.
The book, translated by her son, Dr. Herant Katchadourian, offers contemporary accounts of extended family support, family networks and relations, community habits and traditions as well as the self-deceiving perceptions and experiences of Efronia’s husband, Aram, with a number of high ranking Turkish military officers, which eventually lead to the loss of Aram’s wealth and fortune in Iskenderun. In this regard, the book is a personal account of confiscation of Armenian property by the state of Turkey.
Since its inception in 2011, Haigazian University Press has now published 50 books.