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Archaeological excavations in Elazig, a city in Eastern Anatolia (historical Armenian name: Kharberd), have led to the discovery of a stone record with Armenian inscriptions.
The relic, measuring 80’ x 53’, was unearthed in the vicinities of the Armenian church St Karapet, a 19th century construction. It dates its history back to 165 years, Ensonhaber.com reports.
According to the website, the stone record has been handed over to the city’s history museum.
Correspondent at Turkish-based Armenian newspaper Agos, Vercihan Ziflioğlu authored a book about Turkey’s hidden Armenians, titled “Story of Armenians of Purgatory,” Ermenihaber.am reports, citing demokrathaber.net
The author analyzes the struggle of Armenians who were forced to conceal their identity and live in a Muslim society for already 100 years.
Ziflioğlu presents the chronology of the most important developments for Crypto-Armenians, including Hrant Dink’s murder on January 19, 2007, the publishing of Fethiye Çetin’s book “My grandmother,” announcements in Agos newspaper by people who were looking for their families, the restoration and reopening of the Armenian churches of Van, Kayseri, Diyarbakir and other events.
Ziflioğlu also reminds about the Armenian women, who were abducted at the beginning of the last century. Emphasizing the fact that mainly Kurds live in areas previously inhabited by Armenians, the author writes: “Four out of five people we met in Anatolia had Armenian grandmothers.”
Armenian slaughterhouses sites in eastern Anatolia
A group of about sixty people, from all backgrounds, commemorated the centenary of the genocide on two major slaughterhouses Armenian sites, one 50 km from Harput, near a village called Tchunguch, and the other near Batman (Sasun region), in south-eastern Anatolia. These celebrations were sponsored by the municipality of Diyarbakir and local branches of the Organization for Human Rights in Turkey (IHD), and organized by the Gomidas Institute of London
By Dr Jan Best de Vries:
Since Mr. Erdogan and his ministers, living in a state that is currently a NATO member, repeatedly accuse NATO members Germany and The Netherlands of being aggressive and racist against people of Turkish descent in these countries (1), one should realize for a moment that, from an historical point of view, the Turks arguably do not belong in Anatolia at all, in that, as barbarian nomads, they intruded there from the Siberian steppes some centuries ago. Since the beginning of the 20th century at least, Turkey has itself showed itself to be aggressive and racist against minorities within Anatolia, and the Armenians and Kurds, both sharing a common Indo-European language, have even experienced genocide from the Turks.
One should also realize that the present Turkish government is responsible for the creation of barbaric ISIS in Istanbul, Ankara, Raqqa and Mosul these days. Many peoples from before the Turks arrived in Anatolia are extinct now, but not all. One people surviving the onslaught of the Turks in Anatolia, whose ancestral territory is East Anatolia, are the Kurds, whose ancestors were the Medes who lived in Kurdistan, like the Persians in Iran, from 1700 BCE. These peoples have, like the present peoples in Germany and The Netherlands, not only a common Indo-European background, but they also speak Indo-European languages (Sorani and Farsi respectively, cognate to most languages spoken in Europe these days).
At the moment American, Canadian, German and Dutch private soldiers fight together with the citizens of Rojava against ISIS, the closest ally of the Islamist state Turkey that you can imagine. Why do they do so? Because, as in their own countries, in Rojava reigns secularism, democracy, gender equality and humanism. ISIS fighters in The Netherlands, Germany, Syria and Iraq do represent just the long arm of Turkey, the latter state demonstrating itself once more as an enemy of human civilization. Mr. Erdogan’s Turkey does not belong in NATO in the first place and Turkey should at least withdraw from East Anatolia, the ancient homeland of Armenians and Kurds. The patience of the populations in Germany and The Netherlands with the Islamist fanatic Mr. Erdogan is almost over and when so, at last, the Turkish embassies in these countries would better be closed….
(1) For example, on the Dutch TV-program Nieuwsuur (News hour) on NPO 2, Sunday 7 December, 22.00- 22.35 h.
Dr. Jan Best de Vries is an archaeologist and historian, decipherer of the so-called Byblos Script from Aleppo and Alalakh (‘How to Decipher the Byblos Script’, Aspekt Publishers 2014, ISBN978-946-153-420-0)
Source: kurdistantribune.com