Kathryn Cook

Memory of Trees

The shadow of ‬a train that runs from Adana to Istanbul‭, ‬Turkey‭, ‬is seen projected on adjacent land near the city of Konya. ‬A German company won concessions to build part of the railway back in the early 1900s‭, ‬then called the Baghdad Railway‭, ‬and in 1915‭ ‬the young Turkish government began to use it to deport thousands of Armenians to Syria‭. ‬According to eyewitness accounts‭, ‬concentration camps sprung up along the sides of the train track‭, ‬particularly between the cities of Konya and Gaziantep‭. ‬Defending themselves from bandits and starvation‭, ‬thousands perished in the camps or in route to Syria‭.‬
The shadow of ‬a train that runs from Adana to Istanbul‭, ‬Turkey‭, ‬is seen projected on adjacent land near the city of Konya. ‬A German company won concessions to build part of the railway back in the early 1900s‭, ‬then called the Baghdad Railway‭, ‬and in 1915‭ ‬the young Turkish government began to use it to deport thousands of Armenians to Syria‭. ‬According to eyewitness accounts‭, ‬concentration camps sprung up along the sides of the train track‭, ‬particularly between the cities of Konya and Gaziantep‭. ‬Defending themselves from bandits and starvation‭, ‬thousands perished in the camps or in route to Syria‭.‬