The oldest man in the Netherlands, Mr Serob Mirzoyan of Amersfoort, turned 107 last Monday.

Interestingly Mr Mirzoyan was born in the Armenian part of what then was the Ottoman Empire (currently Turkey). According to a website called Horizon Weekly he moved from Diarbekir in Turkey to Iraq and from there to the Netherlands in 1996. Mayor Lucas Bolsius of Amersfoort came by to congratulate the birthday boy.

It is not clear whether Mr Mirzoyan was still living in Turkey when the Armenian Genocide took place, but if he did his reaching such an old age seems to be a triumph over the Turks that tried to exterminate the Armenian people.

According to De Stad Amersfoort, Mr Mirzoyan is a devout Christian who has read the Bible at least twenty times front to back. He also likes to listen to music.

(Photo of ponds near Diyarbakır by Wikipedia user Dûrzan, some rights reserved)