Lucy Arevian/Hagopian Azarian and her siblings, Batist, Hovsep, Nazareth, and Avidis Arevian/Hogopian were born Pirkinik. Lucy was born circa 1875.

Before 1915 Pirkinik was a predominately Armenian Catholic village.

In May 2008 Tom and I visited Turkey for a week. We spent two days in the Sivas area. One morning our guides and translator, Kagan, Yervant and Metin, drove us to the village of Pirkinik.

I read somewhere that Pirkinik was an hour outside of Sivas. That may have been true in the days before automobiles when one had to travel by foot or ox cart. By car, the trip from the center of Sivas to Pirkinik took less than ten minutes.

We drove the length of the village on its south side. On the north side of the street were older buildings and on the south were several modern high rise apartments and a modern school. At the end of the village we got out and explored a bit on foot.

We did not venture too far from the main road. Most of the buildings were in very poor shape — patched and jerry rigged with wood, cinder blocks and corrugated tin — and leaning at all sorts of precarious angles. We could see three types of basic construction in the older buildings: cut stone, uncut stone and timber framing (with rubble filling & stucco finish). Most of the buildings orignially probably had red tile roofs — although many now had corrugated tin roofs. Many of the buildings had balconies (or the remains of balconies). We could not see any modern buildings in the cluster of older buildings except on the periphery of the village.

Despite the poor shape of the village today, it does not take much imagination to picture it as having once been a fairly prosperous farming community.

The satellite map on Google earth is muddy for the side of Sivas that contains the village of Pirkinik and the image of Pirkinik is not clear. Hopefully this will change, as the image of Sivas itself was just made clearer between March and May 2008. I am curious to see a clearer image because I would like to know the exact shape of the old village.

The people of the village may have made rugs in addition to farming. John Minassian in Many Hills Yet To Climb states that Oriental carpets were woven by young Armenain girls in the hundreds of Armenian villages that surounded Sivas.

This is the largest and most imposing build we saw — being one of two buildings of cut stone. Its shape and the domed roofs suggests that it was once a bath.* The ground level must have been lower at one time as the doorways are impossibly low for an adult to enter. The interior appears to be completely filled with rubble and dirt. We could not find any inscription. The light green object in front of the building is a fountain.

* See the bath in Sivas at Sivas

Another view of the same building.

This building was one of the two buildings of cut stone that we saw (the other being the bath (?)). It is clearly an old Armenian building as evidenced by the inscription in Armenian on the key stone. See image below.

Another view of the same building.

I believe that this is just a fragment of the original building. The stone work around the arch ends rather abruptly at the top. It is highly likely that the original building was much taller.

Since most of the buildings in the village were of uncut stone or timber framing it is highly likely that this was a building of some importance. With the wide arched doorway it is tempting to think it was part of the church. This type of doorway was common on Armenian churches.

The inscription on the key stone is in Armenian. We could not make out what is written, except the year — 1909 — which is barley visible on the lower right.

This is typical of the state of the village today. The uncut stone walls are most likely old; as are the red tile roofs. The cinder blocks and corrugated tin can be presumed to post date 1915. The house on the extreme right is whitewashed. It is likely that at least some of the Armenian houses in Pirkinik were stone covered with stucco that was whitewashed or painted in some way.

This building looks to be of timber framing. Notice the remnant of a balcony.

The gate is a ghost of the typical entryway into pre 1915 properties. See the houses in Sivas at Sivas

The house on the left shows the uncut stone construction and the one on the right shows a balcony.

Our guides told us that this old mill wheel was turned by oxen.

This image gives some idea of the terrain around Pirkinik. The house in the distance is of modern construction.

Based on window size, the balcony and the type of construction, I believe that this building dates from the days when Pirkinik was an Armenian village. The cemetery in the background on the left is Moslem. This building is one of the first of the old buildings as one approaches Pirkinik from Sivas.

• The Arevian/Hagopian Family

• The Armenian Poet, Taniel Varoujan

• Anna Desirmenjian, wife of Nazareth Arevian/Hagopina

• Kazanjian — Margaret said that her grandmother's maiden name was Kazanjian. Her grandmother left the village prior to 1915. There she worked in a rug factory. Her father upon receiving a tip from a Turk that a future genocide may occur left the village with his family in 1912. Margaret lives in Toronto. Robert Haroutunian, March 2007.

• Balian Family, per Therese Topalian, July 2008

• Topalian Family, per Theresa Toplian, July 2008

  Zakar Topalian, born November 1, 1890 in Perkinik, Sivas, Armenia, medium build, short, brown eyes and hair, Fitchburg, Worcester, Massachusetts, registered for the WWI Draft Registration in 1917. Additional information: alien, single, soldier Turkish. There are things I cannot make out as the image is fuzzy. It is interesting that he specifically listed Perkinik and Sivas. Most men only listed the county of birth.