Nicosia

Class photo from Melikian familly photo album: The children are all dressed in Western-style outfits. The girls are wearing long, light-colored dresses, with their hair pinned back from their faces. Most of the boys are dressed in a variety of light-colored, long-sleeved outfits, except for two boys seated in the front row's left corner, who are wearing dark-colored Western suits. Two boys are dressed in light-colored sailor outfits, one with a tie and the other wearing a long-sleeved jacket over a white shirt. The man on the left is dressed in a three-piece Western suit with a cravat and a hat, while the woman is wearing a floor-length skirt and a long blouse with puffy sleeves.

Family portrait from Melikian familly photo album: The entire family is dressed in Western-style outfits. The wife, on the left, is wearing a floor-length, long-sleeved dress with a long necklace. The young boy is dressed in a  children's sailor outfit. The young girl is wearing a knee-length white dress with white socks and brown lace-up shoes. The man is wearing a dark-colored three-piece suit with a white high-collared  shirt, a cravat, and dark shoes.

The photograph depicts two women dressed in western-style outfits. The woman on the left is wearing a light-colored, floor-length skirt and a high-neck blouse. The woman on the right is wearing a long-sleeved, white blouse with collar and a floor-length skirt.

Melikian familly photo album

Zabelle Meutemediar Melikian is wearing a western-style skirt suit paired with a white frilly blouse and a bow tie.

Adam Kevorkian, Postmaster General, MBE, is wearing a dark-colored, Western-style three-piece suit with a matching vest, a white dress shirt, and a tri-colored tie. His suit is also adorned with his medals. He wears round, black-framed glasses.

Zabelle Meutemediar (1908–2007) married Hairabed Melikian (1903–1973) on July 5, 1925. She wore a calf-length, white, western-style dress with a long train, a hooded veil, and heeled shoes. He wore a western-style three-piece suit with a white vest, gloves, a bow tie, and a lapel pin.

The Agha’s Children traces the adventurous history of the Eramian dynasty in Cyprus over the last two hundred and fifty years.

Around the middle of the eighteenth century, in the face of Ottoman oppression of the Armenians, Stepan Eramian Agha bought land in Cyprus for his second son, Boghos-Berge, and sent him away from the family’s ancestral estate in Turkey. Although life was safer on the island, this, too, was a troubled land. The stories of the Agha’s descendants are tales of love and hatred, cruelty and compassion, murder, piracy, slavery, tragedies and triumphs. Through it all the family survived and prospered and the Agha’s decision to move to Cyprus secured the future of his line when so many perished in the genocide of the Armenians.

The accounts in this book of the lives of the Eramian family members are based on the memories and traditions of their descendants, many of whom live in Cyprus to this day.

Engagement purse and photograph

Engagement purse and photograph of Nazareth and Terfanda Terzian (Ναζαρέθ και Τερφάντα Τερζιάν) from Adana, in Asia Minor. The small metallic object is a mesh chain purse, typical of Art Nouveau. This fine accessory is made of sterling silver and is provided with a chain attached to a metallic frame with a kiss closure.

Engagement photograph of Mr. Nazareth and Mrs. Terfanda Terzian from 1908. The bride wears a European-style white wedding gown and an impressive white veil. She holds a  small purse which accompanied them from Adana to Damascus, then back to Adana, and finally to Cyprus. The purse was inherited by their daughter, Mrs. Honor Terzian Kooshgeman, and is currently in the possession of their granddaughter, Mrs. Sona Keoshgerian Kesterlian.

Christening hat belonging to Vartouhi Tavihan (Βαρτουχί Ταβιχαν) from Seleukia. The beige hat with flower embroidery and lace around the perimeter, is one of the pieces they embroidered for sale.

Her family created very fine embroideries by the end of the 19th century. It was the cousin of Mr. Klathig HadjiTarihan, Mrs. Ahahid Parazian, who taught Miss Varrouhi Tavihan how to embroider. During the war, they left Bandirma (Panormos) and took refuge to Kavala, wherefrom they exported their embroidery to Germany. This was the sole income they earned as refugees. 

Nightgown and underwear belonging to Haiganoush HadjiTantian (Χαϊγκανούς ΧατζιTαρατιάν) Both pieces were made of woven silk fabric in off-white colour and were decorated with fine embroidery around the neckline and the hem. Originally, they belonged to Haiganoush’s  mother-in-law.