Workers in Aintab, from Cesar Jacques Chekijian

Cesar Jacques Chekijian posted on Facebook (see below) in Aintabtsi Armenians, a list of Armenian shops that existed before the genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Turks.  As Marash Girl's mom's family comes from AIntab (yes, Marashtsi men often married women from Aintab -- such elegant women they were!), Marash Girl was intrigued by the list below and wondered if any of the shops listed belonged to a long-ago relative.  Marash Girl's Aintabtsi grandma (Yester Bosnian) and grandpa (Garabed Vartanian) knew to leave Aintab before the genocide.  How they knew, nobody knows, but Marash Girl's guess is that since Grandma Yester lost her first husband (Bezjian) in an earlier attack on Armenians by the Ottomans in Adana, she (Grandma Yester) was hypersensitive to the warning signs.     Cesar Jacques Chekijian March 7 at 8:09am Aintab Number of Armenian owned shops in 1914. Each shop employed on average of 5 skilled craftsmen, exception being shoe-shops, which employed about the double the average: Below is a list of the total of 684 Armenian shops, employing about 4,000 skilled professionals. The number of 4,000 corresponds to 4,000 Armenian families in all the parishes of the Armenian churches in Aintab in 1915. Stonecutters 300 Goldsmiths 50 Coppersmiths 50 Bakeries 50 Shoes 40 Farriers 33 (shoes for horses) Cutlers 30 Saddlers 30 Blacksmiths 25 Gunsmiths 25 Tailors 25 Smelters 22 Millers 4