Hussenig
The Origin, History, and Destruction of an Armenian Town

The Armenian town of Hussenig is situated in Eastern Turkey on a plateau surrounded by lofty peaks and adjoining a vast ""golden plain"" of over 300 towns and villages. The area borders the fertile crescent that has been described as the ""cradle of civilization."" Hussenig is the heir to a rich history of human habitation that goes back to earliest times, and its way of life at the turn of the century represented a creative mixture of tradition and modernization. The author of this poignant memoir about his native town, Marderos Deranian, left his home at the age of 17. He was destined never to return to Hussenig, whose Armenian population was destroyed subsequently during the 1915 Turkish massacre of the Armenians. All of his life he retained his longing for his home town and for the people and the way of life it embodied. Though not an educated man, he devoted the last years of his life to writing his recollections of the history of the town, a description of everyday life, and the story of its illustrious citizens, both in Hussenig and in the United States. It remained to the author's son, Hagop Martin Deranian, to have his father's lengthy manuscript translated into English and published and also to prepare additional text and photographs that enrich the narrative. Hussenig was first published in 1982 in a bilingual edition and was soon out of print. This revised and expanded edition of the English-language portion of the original edition, with over ninety-three photographs, provides a rare glimpse into the everyday life of a Middle Eastern town at the turn of the century. ""Any nation, race, or people which ignores its past and becomes callous toward its traditions and indifferent toward its heritage will sooner or later perish from the face of this earth,"" Marderos Deranian writes. The obvious care taken by the author and by his son in preparing this account of Hussenig now insures that this past will not be forgotten.