Memory of Trees

A dirt track disappears off into the hills of the Turkish countryside as it is seen from a train that runs from Istanbul to Gaziantep‭, ‬Turkey‭. ‬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 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.‬