Onnik Melikian
1895 - 1985
HIGHLIGHTS
Onnik Melikian was born in Prapert, Sepastia, and escaped the Genocide as a teenager thanks to a warning from his father, who was working for a prominent family in Russia. He and a handful of Melikian cousins collected weapons and hid in caves around their village, sneaking back at night to attack Turkish forces. After four years of fighting, Onnik was the only survivor of his band of brothers. After a stint in the British Foreign Legion, and a job as a bank guard at Bank Ottoman, Onnik was smuggled out of Constantinople, through Italy, to land in the United States in 1923. He settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, and sent for his second cousin, Elmas Melikian, to whom he had been betrothed before the war. When she arrived in 1927, they were married. They had four children: Shaken, Takvor, Salpi and Gorken. (Photo above: Onnik in 1922 as a bank guard)
Onnik in his British Foreign Legion uniform, circa 1920
FAMILY CONNECTIONS
PARENTS SIBLINGS SPOUSE CHILDREN
Mgrdich Melikian Zakar Melikian Elmas Melikian Shaken Melikian
Tschun Davitian Takvor Melikian
Names in white are linked to an individual page
Onnik (L), Mardiros Merigian (C), and Nishan Merigian (R)
The knife Onnik used to defend himself throughout the Genocide. It was one of the only possessions he carried with him to America.
GENOCIDE EXPERIENCE
Onnik was about 15 years old and attending boarding school at the Province Orphanage/Hospital in Sepastia when the Genocide began. His mother had been killed by lightning when he was 11, his sister died as a baby, and his father, Mgrdich Melikian, was away working in Russia for a prominent family (as a chef, or chief of protocol). This family, the Ananov dynasty of bankers, was connected to a high-ranking Russian ambassador. When news of the impending Ottoman raid on Prapert and neighboring Kochisar broke, both Onnik and Mgrdich were in town on holiday. Mgrdich's employers were able to persuade the Russian ambassador to put pressure on the local Turkish police to escort Mgrdich away from the fighting to relative safety in Constantinople. Onnik was left behind.
The order to surround the villages in the Kochisar area came on June 9, 1915. In most of the villages, the men were taken away and killed, and the women sent on death marches to the desert. Onnik avoided both circumstances through a fortuitious quirk of fate. One group of Turks was assigned to handle exterminations in two neighboring villages, Prapert and Chiquid. They began with Chiquid, which allowed some residents of Prapert to leave for their farms outside town, or to hide.
Although all arms and weapons were to have been confiscated from Armenians, Mgrdich had brought a good number with him from Russia. Onnik's cousin, Sahag Melikian, also had collected a stash of guns, swords and ammunition which he hid in the hills. In the early days of the occupation, Onnik saw Sahag bayoneted by Turkish officers. Sahag's last words to Onnik were, "Avenge my death!"
Onnik gathered his cousins, several of whom were Elmas' brothers and uncles. They collected supplies and hid in caves in the hills surrounding the village. For four years, these fugitive guerrilla fighters made stealthy nighttime raids in and around the area, at first to avenge the deaths of their families, and later entering into hours-long gun battles to keep from being captured. Each man had a price on his head. Eventually, no Armenian families were left in Prapert; it was burned to the ground. One by one, the men were killed, and Onnik became the last survivor of his band of brothers.
A relative, Margaret Davitian, paid to smuggle Onnik to Constantinople in 1919. Not content to accept defeat, he joined the British Foreign Legion, but at the end of WWI, was forced to abandon his hopes for military retribution, and became a guard at Bank Ottoman in Constantinople in 1920. As a wanted criminal, he was recognized by villagers from Golan-Gegelbash, who began to protest outside the bank daily. The bank director, a close friend of the Italian consulate, was able to secretly spirit him away in a diplomatic vehicle to the seaport, and forge papers to help him get to Italy (where he stayed a few months), and then to the US on July 1, 1923.
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Onnik's memoirs
Handmade animal-skin satchel Onnik carried from Armenia
Russian money and various coins, discovered to be worthless when he arrived in the U.S.
Onnik and Elmas, circa 1927
Elmas, Onnik, and baby Shaken, circa 1929
IMMIGRATION EXPERIENCE
Onnik settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, and began to sponsor any remaining relatives and friends as they came to this country. He worked days at the Chapman Valve Factory, but quickly began to buy up apartment buildings, where he housed Armenian refugees for free or little rent. He sent for his second cousin, Elmas Melikian, to whom he had been betrothed before the Genocide, and when she arrived in 1927, they were married. They had four children, Shaken, Takvor, Salpie, and Gorken. Onnik was a founding member of St. Gregory Armenian church in Springfield in 1934, and became a well-known real estate “mogul," amassing several dozen properties in the Indian Orchard section of Springfield, including not only apartments, but houses, office buildings, and a shopping center.
Onnik and Elmas with their children, circa 1937
L-R Salpie, Takvor, Shaken, Gorken
Onnik, Shaken, Takvor, Salpie, Elmas, Gorken
circa 1937
Onnik & Elmas, circa 1967
Names engraved on the memorial wall at Ellis Island