The largest circulation Armenian e-magazine, circulates every Thursday. Est.

1999
issue: 5 May 2011

THE DEGHATSI ARMENIAN-CYPRIOTS:

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY
Alexander-Michael Hadjilyra - About a month ago, Gibrahayer e-
magazine Chief Editor Simon Aynedjian went for a walk to the
Turkish-occupied part of old Nicosia with a few friends. Meandering
its narrow streets, he stumbled upon an interesting inscription. It has
three years (1791, 1801, 1805), all accompanied with a date in
September. Although the script is Armenian, the language is
Turkish, as the first reference is Sepdemper 1in de (on the 1st of
September). Another Turkish inscription in Armenian letters can be
found at the old cemetery for a certain Sdepan Papazian, who died
on 20 August 1875.

Upon seeing the first inscription, I consulted with my good friend and educator Vartan
Tashdjian, who was able to understand that it was in Turkish, then my also good friend
and half-deghatsi Elsie Utidjian, who supplied me with important information about the
house, as well as my also good friend and half-deghatsi Berge Kouyoumdjian, for more
information. I finally contacted dear Eliz Keshishian at the Arachnortaran to collect some
final information. And heres what I found:

The house on which the inscription is was owned by Yevnige Sinanian, who lived there
with her sister Eojenie. They inherited it from their parents, Apraham and Sima Sinanian;
Apraham (1844-1894) was from Yozgat, whereas Sima Philibbosian (1859-1929) was a
native Armenian-Cypriot, the daughter of Philip Sdepanian and Yeghsapet Ohanian and
the great-great-granddaughter of the famous Sarkis Agha; there is mention that some of
her ancestors perhaps came from Caesarea at an uncertain period. When in 1913 Simas
son Philip Sinanian, a civil servant stationed around the island, returned to Nicosia, Simas
sister Anna gave him what was then the garden of the original house, to build his own
house, in which he lived with his four daughters and his wife Gulenia Boudakian, Artin Bey
Melikians niece. After Gulenia died in 1927, he married her sister Marie. And of the four
daughters of Philip Sinanian (1880-1958), only one was married and had children: Alice
Keukdjian (1911-2009), the mother of Elsie Utidjian and the grandmother of Haig Utidjian.

What the dates mean is uncertain, but perhaps 1791 is the year that Simas maternal
family first came to Cyprus. The lives and stories of the deghatsi are always very
intriguing, especially because they are lost in time. Whatever the truth of the matter is, I
am sure that they would be proud of their descendants, but also sad because their house
is now under the Turks, from whom they perhaps fled in 1791. But their mark has been left
there, untouched, a reminder and proof of Armenian presence in Cyprus long before the
Genocide".