Mariam Avoyan with her wedding photograph

Mariam Avoyan was born in 1901 in the vilayet of Baghesh (Bitlis). In this photograph, taken in 2008, she holds the wedding photograph of herself and her husband, while her daughter stands behind her. Both women wear headscarves and stand by a stone wall and a wooden door.

Mariam Avoyan remembered how the Armenians — men, women, children, young and old — were driven out to a large open space, doused with petrol and burned. She survived by lying silently under the dead until the Turkish soldiers left. ‘At last we managed to reach Armenia, Talin. I married and gave birth to 6 children; my young husband went to war and did not return.’