Armenian Genocide Survivor Celebrates 102nd Birthday

Not all Turks participated in the atrocities, Jebejian said. Historians are finding more evidence recently of Turks who hid Armenians and helped them in other ways during the genocide, he said.

Carman remembers that a Turkish woman helped her once when she injured her face as a child.

With her mother and grandmother, Carman relocated from their small village to Istanbul. Her mother worked in a factory and her grandmother worked as a cook. By the time she was 16, both her mother and grandmother became too ill to work and Carman took responsibility for supporting them.

She worked in a factory and later bought a sewing machine and assembled men’s shirts.

In 1960, she came to the United States, leaving her mother in the care of a cousin. She hoped to bring her to America but her mother died before the necessary paperwork was approved.

Just a few months after arriving, she married Masa Carman. She taught herself English and was later hired by Hagopian to repair their Oriental rugs. She retired in 1976 and she and her husband enjoyed travel together.

After her husband died in 1995, she traveled to France and Turkey to visit relatives. She visited Turkey again in 2001.

Relatives say she remains fiercely independent, living on her own until about three years ago. Even now, as the oldest resident at Manoogian Manor, they say she looks after others, making sure they eat properly and are getting around well.