20.2.14

The last survivor of Nor Arax (Italy)


On Sunday, February 16, 2014, Sergio Musceghian (Sarkis Musheghian), the last survivor of the Armenian Genocide in Cerchiara di Calabria (Italy), died aged 98, Jean Eckian reports from Paris.
Born on November 4, 1916, Sergio was taken and raised by Italian missionaries in an institute in Rhodes while walking in the streets of Constantinople at the age of four. He lived much of his life between Puglia and Calabria where he ended his days.
In his eulogy to Sarkis, Cerchiara Mayor Antonio Carlomagno paid tribute to the man “of great dignity and moral rectitude.”
“Community of Cerchiara di Calabria had the pleasure and honor of meeting during memorial moments of this great tragedy of the Armenian people, still waiting for justice in history. We were honored to meet with him and the history of his people,” said Mayor Antonio Carlomagno.
In the last years of his life, Sarkis Musceghian devoted much of his time to discuss the fate of the Armenian people, especially during the commemorations of April 24. “I can't miss an opportunity to speak of the fate of my people,” he used to say.
A monument (khatckar) in tribute to the memory of the victims of the genocide of Armenians of 1915 was erected in Musceghian’s hometown village Nor Arax (Bari) in January 2013. The village of Nor Arax was founded in 1926 by the efforts of poet Hrand Nazariantz (1886-1962), who had settled in Bari in 1913, and gathered several hundreds of survivors of the genocide.


"Massis Post," February 18, 2014

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