Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • GagruleLive
  • Armenia profile

Camp Armen in Istanbul to serve as youth centre

January 19, 2017 By administrator

The architectural plan for the restoration of Camp Armen, a former Armenian summer camp located in Tuzla district of Istanbul is already ready, Panorama.am reports referring to Ermenihaber.

As the source reports the camp will serves as a youth and technology centre meanwhile functioning as an orphanage.
President of Gedikpasa (Istanbul) Armenian Protestant Church and School Foundation Krikor Agabaloglu has informed that the reconstruction works will begin when the Municipality of Tuzla removes the phrase “administrative area” written on the restoration plan of the camp.

“In that case we will be able to launch the program. It will be a great joy for us. We want the competent bodies to deal with the issue as soon as possible. We are waiting for a good news from the municipality,” he added.

Notably Camp Armen is currently an abandoned, dilapidated building in Tuzla district of Istanbul. In 1961, Camp Armen occupying an area of 8,552 sq. meters was purchased by the Fund of the Armenian Protestant Church and turned into a summer camp for children from low-income families and Armenian orphans. Hrant Dink and his wife, Raquel Dink grew up in this camp. Later the camp was illegally seized from the Armenian community by the Turkish authorities.

In 2015 the owner of the building started its demolition, but the work was suspended following mass protests staged by the Armenian community of Turkey and the camp was returned to the rightful owner, i.e. the Fund of the Armenian Protestant Church of Gedikpasa.

Activists have no intention to stop round-the-clock vigil at Camp Armen in Istanbul

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: camp armen, İstanbul

Istanbul: Camp Armen deed returned on 175th day of occupation

October 31, 2015 By administrator

232076On the 175th day of the occupation of the former Armenian orphanage known as “Camp Armen,” located in the Tuzla suburb of İstanbul, the deed was returned to the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church Foundation, 28 years after the property was usurped by the Turkish government.

On Tuesday, Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy Markar Esayan posted pictures on Twitter of the foundation’s lawyer Sebu Aslangil receiving the deed to the premises, writing, “We managed [to perform] the impossible.”

The orphanage was opened by the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church Foundation in 1963 and was built in part by the orphans who were at the camp. At the time of its construction, the suburb of Tuzla was an open space with few buildings around, located three hours from the heart of İstanbul. It has now become an affluent neighborhood with gated homes and houses with gardens.

In 1974, a high court ruling stated that “minority foundations cannot own property.” In 1983 the camp was closed and the deed to the land was returned to its former owner despite legal action that was taken to prevent its closure by the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church, which owned and operated the camp. After a string of sales, the parcel’s ninth owner, Fatih Ulusoy, ordered demolition teams to knock down the former orphanage in order to build villas in its place.

Bulldozers first arrived on May 6 and successfully demolished one part of the desolate building that had been left untouched since it was emptied by force in the 1980s. Then-parliamentary candidate (now serving as a deputy) Garo Paylan and former resident of the orphanage Garabet Orunöz acted immediately when informed by local Tuzla residents of the presence of demolition teams.

The effort to return the property was a difficult one, with activists taking turns to stay at the site day and night to protect the property in case another demolition team arrived without notice. Many of the activists on duty live and work in İstanbul, therefore having to commute for three hours in the morning to continue their lives after camping out at the site.

The occupation of the property began just one month before the June 7 election and was one matter that three of the four major political parties seemed to agree on. In addition to the efforts of Esayan and Paylan, Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Selina Doğan, of Armenian descent, also participated in the occupation by visiting the site and taking part in the marches on İstiklal Avenue for the cause.

One of the reasons the orphanage holds such symbolic importance is due to the fact that the assassinated journalist Hrant Dink spent his summers there as a youth and was later a counselor at the camp. Dink was the founding editor-in-chief of Agos, a Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper. He was one of the leading figures in the trials attempting to the retrieve the ownership of the parcel of land the orphanage sits on and was generally a dynamic and influential leader for the Turkish Armenian population. Dink was murdered outside the Agos newspaper’s headquarters on Jan. 19, 2007. The great efforts made by activists were dedicated to the memory of the murdered journalist.

Armenians are a minority in Turkey and lost a significant portion of their population on the soil of the former Ottoman Empire because of the massacres against the demographic that took place during World War I. While they made up a little over 5 percent of the total population of the Ottoman Empire, Armenians living in Turkey today make up a small minority group ranging from an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 citizens in the country’s population of 75 million. Although Turkey faces calls from international communities to recognize the events of 1915 as genocide, the Turkish state has a strict policy of opposing such a notion.

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: camp armen, Insight: 'Crude for blood' - return of sectarian war hits Iraq's oil exports, İstanbul, return

Ownership of Istanbul’s Camp Armen orphanage is returned to Armenians

October 27, 2015 By administrator

camp-armenThe ownership certificate of Camp Armen Armenian orphanage in Istanbul, Turkey, has been handed over to the Armenian Protestant Church of the city.

The attorney of the church foundation, Sebuh Aslangil, announced that all activities regarding the return of the ownership certificate of the orphanage building have completed, and the building is now owned by the Armenian Protestant Church, reported Agos Armenian bilingual weekly of Istanbul.

Camp Armen Armenian orphanage was confiscated by the Turkish authorities back in 1987. Subsequently, it was sold to a Turkish businessman who, in turn, decided to demolish the orphanage and build luxury homes in the premises. As a result of public pressure, however, the demolition of the orphanage has been temporarily halted.

The camp was once home to around 1,500 Armenian children, including the late Hrant Dink—the founder and chief editor of Agos, and who was shot dead on January 19, 2007 outside the office of his weekly—, and his wife Rakel.

The orphanage sought to help underprivileged Armenian children and orphans, who had moved to Istanbul from other parts of Turkey, get an education.

Armenian activists keep watch in the area for several months now, and against the demolition of Camp Armen.

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: camp armen, İstanbul, orphanage, return

Istanbul’s Camp Armen Attacked

August 14, 2015 By administrator

Nor-ZartonkActivists occupying the grounds of Camp Armen, the former Armenian summer camp located in the Tuzla district of Istanbul, were attacked on the hundredth day of their live-in demonstration. According to a statement released by the Armenian Nor Zartonk movement of Istanbul, two activists were attacked and beaten with sticks.

The attack took place on the night of Aug. 13, at around 11:30 p.m. according to the statement. “This attack, which is a manifestation of a genocidal mentality, cannot break our resolve. We publicly announce today that we will continue our struggle with the same determination,” read a part of the statement, which also called on the public to stand in solidarity with protesters.

Armenian member of Turkey’s Parliament Garo Paylan of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) tweeted that some of the activists sustained injuries, and urged the public for support. Soon after the attack, the Nor Zartonk movement shared a photo of a group of activists with the caption “Racist/Fascist attacks will not intimidate us.”

The Nor Zartonk Armenian movement of Istanbul has led a campaign to occupy the grounds of the camp since bulldozers arrived to demolish it in early May. After weeks of protest, the current owner of the campground, Fatih Ulusoy, said he would sign the transfer of the property over to the Gedikpaşa Armenian Evangelical Church Foundation; so far, the deed has not been transferred.

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: attacked, camp armen, İstanbul

Camp Armen is Proof of Genocide, Says Turkish Armenian Parliament Member

June 30, 2015 By administrator

Garo Paylan, newly elected Turkish parliament member, speaks to protesters at a rally in Istanbul organized by the Nor Zartonk youth movement (Source: Docu Press Agency)

Garo Paylan, newly elected Turkish parliament member, speaks to protesters at a rally in Istanbul organized by the Nor Zartonk youth movement (Source: Docu Press Agency)

ISTANBUL (Armenhaber)—During a protest organized by the Nor Zartonk youth movement on Friday demanding the return of Camp Armen to the Armenian community in Turkey, newly-elected Turkish parliament member Garo Paylan said the issue of Camp Armen is proof of the Armenian Genocide.

Speaking after the protest, Paylan, who was one of three Armenians to be elected to the Turkish parliament and represents the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) said that the fight to reclaim Camp Armen will continue.

“It has been 52 years that we have been fighting; however, we have been waiting for justice for 100 years,” said Paylan. “Those who are ignoring the crimes committed 100 years ago, those who are deferring to historians, let them look at Camp Armen.”

“Camp Armen is direct proof of the Genocide,” added Paylan. “In the way that it [the camp] was usurped by the government, it must also be returned in the same way.”

The protesters took to the streets again Friday in Istanbul’s Tuzla district demanding the return of Camp Armen to the community.

Members of the Nor Zartonk movement and Camp Armen supporters chanted slogans and held placards that said “This is just the beginning,” “Our Struggle Will Continue,” and “We are all Hrant Dink. We are all Armenians.”

Camp Armen was built in 1963 on land bought by the Gedikpasa Armenian Protestant Church. In 1983, the property rights of the land were taken from the Armenian community based on a 1974 Turkish high court ruling which stated that minority groups could not own property. When plans were revealed earlier this year to demolish the historic site for the construction of luxury apartments, Armenian activists staged a resistance movement to save the historic site, demanding its return to the Armenian community of Turkey.

The deed to the property has yet to be returned to the Gedikpasa Armenian Church, despite a promise by the deed holder that it would be returned.

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: camp armen, Genocide, İstanbul, proof, Turkish mp

Armenian orphanage’s deed turns into election ruse

June 4, 2015 By administrator

Members of Nor Zartonk held a press conference at the Armenian Culture Association on Thursday morning.(Photo: Zeynep Karataş)

Members of Nor Zartonk held a press conference at the Armenian Culture Association on Thursday morning.(Photo: Zeynep Karataş)

By ZEYNEP KARATAŞ / ISTANBUL

The Nor Zartonk, a civil society group representing Turkey’s Armenian community, condemned false reports that the deed for a former Armenian orphanage widely referred to as Camp Armen has been returned to the Gedikpaşa Armenian Proestant Church Foundation and called the false reports a ploy for votes in the run-up to Sunday’s election during a press conference held in İstanbul on Thursday morning.

Thursday marked the 30th day of Nor Zartonk’s occupation of the land in an effort to prevent the demolition of the camp, preserve its historic symbolism and protest the continuation of the unjust seizure of property from minorities by the state. The camp was opened by the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church Foundation in 1963 and built in part by the camp’s orphans. A high court ruling issued in 1974 stated that “minority foundations cannot own property.” In 1983, the camp was closed and the deed to the land was returned to its former owner, despite legal action taken by the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church, which owned and operated the camp, to prevent its closure. The ownership of the land has since changed hands several times.

“We are in the 30th day of our Camp Armen resistance, and we wanted to share [our experiences] of these 30 days, for there have been several false reports circulating in the media regarding the camp. […] It’s unfortunate but some of these lies are being produced in an effort to win votes [for the upcoming June 7 general election], and this includes Armenian media outlets. To gain these votes, there are reports being produced stating that the deed to the camp has been returned to the Gedikpaşa foundation, but unfortunately, this is not true,” said Sayat Tekir, spokesperson for Nor Zartonk, during Thursday’s meeting.

What Tekir was referring to was the latest issue of Paros monthly magazine, an İstanbul-based magazine that focuses on the local Armenian community. The magazine published an article about the camp with the headline, “Camp Armen has been returned to the foundation” on one page and a full page ad for Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy candidate Markar Esayan, who is also a prominent columnist of Armenian descent, on the adjacent page. In addition to falsely stating that the title to the property had been returned to the foundation, the article described Esayan as “the one who has undertaken the coordination for the Armenian orphanage to be returned to the foundation,” portraying Esayan as being at the forefront of the resistance to the demolition. The members of Nor Zartonk openly criticize Esayan for using the Camp Armen resistance to promote the AK Party. In addition to the Paros article and Esayan’s statements on Twitter, he also penned a column in the Sabah daily last month entitled “A new formula for the Tuzla Armenian Orphanage” in which he falsely stated, “When the current owner began demolishing the building upon a court order, the government intervened and stopped the demolition process.” In fact, it was former resident of the orphanage Garabet Orunöz who mobilized local Tuzla residents to the site and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Armenian parliamentary candidate Garo Paylan who halted the demolition. In the same column, the parliamentary candidate noted, “Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is personally involved in the case. Also, İstanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş has promised to resolve the problem.”

According to Tekir, there are ongoing meetings taking place with the government and the owner of the property which are widely suspected to be ongoing negotiation processes to agree on a price for which the owner will agree to “donate” the property to the Gedikpaşa foundation. Tekir told the press that while the owner of the deed on paper is a man named Erhan Aydınlar, the actual owner of the property is Fatih Ulusoy, who has been engaging in the negotiations.

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: Armenian orphanage, camp armen, deed, Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church Foundation, Turkey election 2015

Turkey DOĞU ERGİL: Camp Armen: an official disgrace “systematic discrimination against non-Muslims”

May 20, 2015 By administrator

DOĞU ERGİL

DOĞU ERGİL

By DOĞU ERGİL

Over the past few weeks, Turkey has been faced with another shame created by its officialdom. The demolition of Camp Armen in İstanbul’s Tuzla district on May 6 has once again brought to mind how the Armenians of Turkey suffered greatly through the systematic discrimination against non-Muslims.

Built as the orphanage of the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church Foundation in 1963, Camp Armen has a powerful symbolic meaning. When Anatolia was left devoid of Armenian schools after 1915, orphaned and impoverished Armenian children who made their way to İstanbul found a home and were educated at the camp that was called the “Youth Home of İstanbul.”

Once home to around 1,500 children, who built most of the facilities they used, Camp Armen was confiscated by the government in the 1980s and left in a state of decay. Now it faces demolition in order to make way for new luxury housing. Armenians, including former residents of the orphanage, along with their Turkish friends, have risen in protest.

Usurpation of minority groups’ property, including the camp in Tuzla, is a continuation of the transfer of non-Muslim property/wealth to Muslims, a policy unchanged from Ottoman times to the republic.

The government demanded a law in 1936 which is currently known as the 1936 Declaration to make the property acquisitions of Christian churches and endowments possible. Using this law, the government confiscated anything acquired after that date, starting in 1970. Property endowed by deceased members of non-Muslim communities to their churches, synagogues and charitable organizations went to the state, later to be sold to third parties. This was a gross violation of human and property rights. Nevertheless, both the administration and the judiciary acted in partnership to perpetuate the injustice.

In 1971, 1974 and finally 1975, the Supreme Court of Appeals issued three judicial decisions. It decreed that all properties acquired by minority religious foundations had no legal validity and were to be returned to the national Treasury. In the suffocating atmosphere of the 1980 coup d’état, the orphanage’s founder and supervisor, clergyman Hrant Güzelyan, was accused of raising militant Armenians and was tortured into confessing his supposed crime. After a series of futile legal battles, the foundation lost the site of the orphanage, which has since been sold several times.

During the partial demolition of the camp earlier this month, a group of Armenians from Turkey, including some of the former students of the Youth Home of İstanbul who grew up in Camp Armen, rushed to the site and are presently keeping guard day and night. In the meantime, many Armenian organizations at home and abroad are appealing to the government to halt further demolition of the camp and return the site to its rightful owner. The present owner seems to be willing to return it to the church provided that he receives the market value. It is the moral and material debt of the government to pay this sum to the present, illegitimate owner.

If this correction is not made in due time, as common sense dictates, not only will the remaining handful Armenians of Turkey be hurt again, but Armenians elsewhere will be convinced and global public opinion will maintain that there is systematic discrimination and ill will toward Armenians in Turkey. At a time when Turkey is being pressured to acknowledge the fate of the Armenians a hundred years ago, a new example to reinforce old accusations is both wrong and unintelligent. A government that claims to be “neo-Ottoman” has a golden chance to mend the wrongdoings of the imperial times it praises as just and benevolent.

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: camp armen, Turkey

First street protest by Turkey’s Armenians “Camp Armen” the Armenian orphanage

May 18, 2015 By administrator

Rakel Dink (C), widow of slain Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink, walks toward the Agos newspaper office during a demonstration

Rakel Dink (C), widow of slain Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink, walks toward the Agos newspaper office during a demonstration

By Sibel Hurtas Contributor,  Al Monitor

Armenian youths in Turkey have launched a protest campaign against the demolition of Camp Armen, the Armenian orphanage that housed hundreds of Armenian children in summer sessions. The Armenian community demands the orphanage be preserved and handed over to it. This does not sound likely, but it is significant as being the first street protest by Turkey’s Armenians to express their demands in recent times.

Camp Armen symbolizes the long saga of the deportation and massacres Armenians suffered on Anatolian soil. Its history starts with the purchase of a plot of land by Gedikpasa Armenian Protestant Church from a private party to house Armenian orphans who lived in Anatolia and were labeled as “sword leftovers” by the Armenians. The orphanage camp was built in 1962 by the orphans themselves under supervision of a master builder.

The existence of the orphanage camp, where 1,500 children were housed and educated, was endangered by a decision by the Court of Appeals in 1974, ruling that foreign foundations cannot own immovable property. The state, empowered by the court decision, seized the orphanage in 1986 and returned the property to its original owner free of charge, including the buildings on it.

The owner couldn’t cope with the implications of owning an orphanage camp and immediately resold it. The new owners, once they found out the background of the orphanage camp, also sold the property without touching it. The property remained abandoned, untouched for a while. In 2008, the Aydinlar family, one of the richest families in Turkey, bought the property and this year decided to build on the lot.

This is why on the morning of May 6, bulldozers approached walls built with the hands of the camp’s orphans. Armenians, when informed of the demolition, rushed to the scene and stopped the bulldozers from razing the structure. Armenian activist Garo Paylan found the new owners and requested they postpone the demolition until after the June 7 general elections. The new owners agreed.

At the moment, a part of Camp Armen is crumbling, but most of it is still standing. It has become the symbol of a new Armenian attitude. Since May 6, Armenians have been standing guard around the clock in front of the building. This can well be interpreted as a first such move in the recent history of Armenians in Turkey.

The protests and posting of Armenian guards led to some colorful displays. A huge banner that says “Camp Armen should be returned to the Armenian people” was hung on the building. Armenian musicians showed up to play music.

Rakel Dink, the wife of Hrant Dink, the slain editor-in-chief of the Armenian newspaper Agos that has an important place for Turkey’s Armenians, is one of the ardent supporters of the protest. Hrant and Rakel Dink attended the camp; during the discussions that took place in front of the building, Rakel Dink told the youths standing guard about their days in the orphanage camp.

The goal of the protest is to restore Camp Armen to its original status. They have started an Armenian Workshop. Ani Balikci, the mother of Armenian Sevag Balikci, who was killed by another soldier on April 24, 2011, while he was doing his national service, is giving Armenian lessons. They are planting trees and watching documentaries. Political parties, civil society organizations, university students and activists frequently visit the Armenian protesters to express solidarity.

Garo Paylan, an Armenian activist and a candidate for the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party in the June 7 elections, told Al-Monitor, “This place was seized by an action of the state. We want it returned but I don’t think the state can do it just like that. We had thousands of properties confiscated like this. If the state returns Camp Armen, then it will have to return the others.”

From what Paylan said, we understand that the return of the orphanage camp to Armenians is not likely. But the fact that it encouraged Armenians to take to the streets to demand their rights vocally and visibly is important. The Armenian community, which until now has refrained from taking a position against injustice and unfairness, is perhaps showing that its traditional reticence is a thing of the past and that the community is becoming politicized.

Paylan said that in recent history there has been no such public protest apart from the funeral of Hrant Dink. He said, “The fact is the Armenian community is becoming truly politicized after [the killing of] Hrant Dink. There are now more Armenian actors who are more sensitive. They have orators and spokesmen. But their pigeon jitters still prevail. [Hrant Dink used to define Armenian fears as ‘pigeon jitters.’] That fear is still there, but alongside politicized people. We now have people and actors of divergent views who are active in various political parties, indicating that our community is increasingly politicized and ready to react to unfair practices.”

Sibel Hurtas
Contributor,  Turkey Pulse

Sibel Hurtas is an award-winning Turkish journalist who focuses on human rights and judicial and legal affairs. Her career includes 15 years as a reporter for the national newspapers Evrensel, Taraf, Sabah and HaberTurk and the ANKA news agency. She won the Metin Goktepe Journalism Award and the Musa Anter Journalism Award in 2004, and the Turkish Journalists Association’s Merit Award in 2005. In 2013, she published a book on the murders of Christians in Turkey. Her articles on minorities and unresolved killings appear on the Faili Belli human rights blog.

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: Armenian, camp armen, İstanbul, orphanage

Istanbul: Camp Armen orphanage “They Want to Demolish Peoples’ Memory in This Country”

May 14, 2015 By administrator

510Nor Zartonk calls out to protect Camp Armen: Camp Armen is a place where our hope will cherish in spite of our losses and we will live together in peace and fraternally, one way or another.

Nor Zartonk made a statement and called out to protect Camp Armen, a former Armenian orphanage in Tuzla district of İstanbul after the attempt of demolition the camp.

“We call everyone who supports our mutual past and future to protect Camp Armen.

In Nor Artonk’s statement, it was emphasized that Camp Armen, built with the labor of more than 1500 children, was the hope to live together. Camp Armen was the past and the mutual memory of all people’s living in this country.

Extermination policy continues

It was stated that Camp Armen was built without state assitance and in spite of all difficulties and oppressions and it was reminded that this demolition process was a part of the extermination policies.

“After 1980 coup d’etat, orphanage’s founder and manager Hrant Güzelyan was tortured with the claim he was raising Armenian militant in the orphanage and they closed down the building unlawfully by occupying its territory and left it to rot. Now, they want to demolish it totally.

“This is not only a worn-out building left to rot for a long time with mingled bureaucratic process they even didn’t want to handle and this is not only its green surrounding once made by children.

“It is a ‘homelike’ orphanage once embraced and was built by the labor of more than 1500 poor and orphan children like an embroidery that they want to demolish now.

“It is an orphanage for poor Armenian children grew up in this country whose families and elder ones exposed to genocide or witnessed genocide in which they dealt with their losses and pain and created a new life and hope.

“It is the tradition of these people to adopt their pain, loss, mutual past and history despite the state and official institutions’ ongoing massacres, murders, threat and extermination policies spread over time and their denials they want to destroy!” (YY/BD)

Source: bianet.org

 

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: camp armen, İstanbul, orphanage

Turkey: Former residents want Armenian orphanage reopened

May 10, 2014 By administrator

Boys playing football in the yard of what was Camp Armen, also known as the Tuzla Armenian Children’s Camp, which was closed in 1983.
184691_newsdetailMay 10, 2014, Saturday/ 17:00:00/ AYÇA ÖRER

Camp Armen, which raised hundreds of Armenian orphans, including the late journalist Hrant Dink, should be reopened, according to the wish of its former residents.

The camp, also known as the Tuzla Armenian Children’s Camp, was home to many children until 1983. Dink in his article “Do not get lost children,” from Nov. 8, 1998, would say of the camp: “Our orphanage was the meeting center for those who were separated. For example, there were Garabet and Flor. These two siblings, who had lost their mother, were able to find each other after 15 bitter years at the end of a sweet accident of fate. … How can I ever forget the way they ran towards each other when we told them they were siblings? How Garabet ran to his sister, towards the sea. Now some of you will say, ‘Oh, this sounds just like a Turkish movie.’ But that’s how it happened.”

The story that Dink wrote years ago is about Garabet Orunöz, the organizer of a recent union at Camp Armen after many years. The first time they came together in a reunion was in 2008, one year after the death of Dink. Since then, they have been meeting once or twice a year to remember the old days.

Orunöz showed us around, pointing at the corridors of the camp, which are now in ruins. “This used to be the cafeteria. This is where our bunk beds were; eight children shared a room.” He remembers that to teach children responsibility, every child would be in charge of a certain task. “For example, I was in charge of eggs. Even adults would come and tell me, ‘I bought this many eggs.’ Just like that, the trees in the camp were assigned to the children.”

Hand-built school

The camp was built in 1963, but not completed until 1966. The children staying at the camp completed the missing parts. “We were scrawny kids between grades two and five. We first started digging. We kept digging. We put up the poles of our Kızılay [Red Crescent] tents. We planted saplings. We dug a well. For three years, we got up at dawn and worked until midnight and completed the camp building. … Everybody envied [how hard we worked].”

Garabet Orunöz now tells his own story and the story of those days to the visitors of the camp. “My father sent me to Gedikpaşa first to learn how to read and write. Later I started going to Tuzla Camp. In the summer of 1970, Camp Armen’s principal, Hrant Güzelyan, sent me to Malatya to my father’s house. My father prayed in the morning. He was thankful to the woman who sent me to the orphanage in İstanbul.

“My name was Nedim when I came from Malatya. I found out in İstanbul that my name is Garabet. When my mother died, we gave my then-3-month-old sister to a family. The woman who found the family, Sara Makascı, didn’t tell me where the family lived. I promised myself not to fall in love until I found my sister. I was 19 and I worked at a workshop. My friend Nişan arranged for us a place near the camp. My sister was also there to oversee younger children. Everybody there knew we were siblings. When I was there, Hrant Dink’s father, Sarkis, shouted at me, ‘You have a sister, you have been looking for her.’ He pointed at the balcony across. I instantly recognized Flor.”

Most residents of the camp today live abroad. Cellphones kept ringing during the reunion. They connected to a friend who lives in Argentina via video chat. Tears ran down the cheeks of the faces on the two screens. They showed each other the saplings they had planted as children, saying, ‘This is my tree.’ At this point, Orunöz gave a present to the children of the Aziz Nesin Foundation, who had also come to visit the camp: three bicycles. “We could never learn to ride. Take these bicycles so that you may learn.” Orunöz also said they wanted their camp back.

Last word from Dink

“I went to Tuzla when I was 8. I spent 20 years [working for the camp]. I met my wife, Rakel, there. We grew up together. We married there. Our children were born there. Later they imprisoned the principal of our camp, accusing him of ‘raising Armenian militants.’ It was a false accusation. We weren’t raised as Armenian militants. … I have a complaint, humanity! They threw us away from the civilization we had created. They sat on the labors of 1,500 children who were raised there. They usurped our labor. They destroyed our home. … And our Tuzla Camp for Poor Children, our own Atlantis, now lay in ruins. The water had gone from the well, together with the children’s voices. The building had lost its teeth, its shoulders slouched, its cheeks gaunt. The soil is dry, the trees are offended. My anger is as sharp as the anger of a sparrow whose nest which it built after painstaking efforts had been destroyed with a single strike.”

Getting through

Those who visited the camp that day also talked about “1965,” a book co-authored by journalists Serdar Korucu and Aris Nalcı about the 50th anniversary of the events of 1915. We talked about what had happened half a century earlier on April 24 with the authors.

Nalcı noted that in 1965, the language of the state was different from that of today. “Hate crimes were not seen as a bad thing. The wider Turkish society didn’t know about the discrimination citizens of the republic were being subjected to because of their ethnic roots. In 1965, gatherings to commemorate the victims of the genocide began in Lebanon. Turkey met with the diaspora Armenians for the first time and they put forth the thesis that it wasn’t the Turks who killed the Armenians but the Armenians who killed Turks. At the same time, they also wanted the ‘hostage’ Armenians inside the country to respond to the diaspora. The same things are happening today.”

Korucu notes that the mainstream media has been changing its approach to the genocide issue. “Given that the media in Turkey always aligns itself with state policies, it is not surprising that the issue has not been discussed adequately with only one year left before the centennial of 1915. As we state in the book, the state theses that were first formed in 1965 remain alive today. Official history doesn’t change rapidly in any country.

“And if we are talking about Turkey, we all know how slow that change is. We have seen many examples where government ‘initiatives’ have failed to change official ideology. If missionaries are still listed as an element of threat in schoolbooks in spite of the Zirve massacre, if they have only just recently retracted the sentence ‘They became instruments of Western interests for their own welfare,’ which was said of Syriacs, that means there is a problem.”

Armenian Orphans 1Garabet Orunöz talked about the recent meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Armenian Patriarch Aram Ateşyan: “The problem in this meeting is that the political government is talking to a religious institution as a counterpart. There were other civilian representatives, but we need to think about their representation. Today, there is not a single unit that can represent the Armenian society in Turkey. The mechanisms we have developed only to survive have put our minds in chains, making us into ‘loyal’ citizens.”

Orunöz said Armenians in Turkey became centralist after their attempts to engage in politics, both left wing and right wing, were suppressed. “This is why we should see the wealthy among Armenian society thanking the prime minister for preserving what is. The solution to this pathological state of mind is through healing each other. Armenians and Turks will have their healing process together.”

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: Armenian Orphans, camp armen, Hrant dink

Support Gagrule.net

Subscribe Free News & Update

Search

GagruleLive with Harut Sassounian

Can activist run a Government?

Wally Sarkeesian Interview Onnik Dinkjian and son

https://youtu.be/BiI8_TJzHEM

Khachic Moradian

https://youtu.be/-NkIYpCAIII
https://youtu.be/9_Xi7FA3tGQ
https://youtu.be/Arg8gAhcIb0
https://youtu.be/zzh-WpjGltY





gagrulenet Twitter-Timeline

Tweets by @gagrulenet

Archives

Books

Recent Posts

  • Armenia: Letter from the leader of the Sacred Struggle, political prisoner Bagrat Archbishop Galstanyan
  • U.S. Judge Dismisses $500 Million Lawsuit By Azeri Lawyer Against ANCA & 29 Others
  • These Are the Social Security Offices Expected to Close This Year, Musk call SS Ponzi Scheme
  • Breaking News, Pashinyan regime has filed charges against public figure Edgar Ghazaryan,
  • ANCA’s Controversial Endorsement: Implications for Armenian Voters

Recent Comments

  • administrator on Turkish Agent Pashinyan will not attend the meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State
  • David on Turkish Agent Pashinyan will not attend the meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State
  • Ara Arakelian on A democratic nation has been allowed to die – the UN has failed once more “Nagorno-Karabakh”
  • DV on A democratic nation has been allowed to die – the UN has failed once more “Nagorno-Karabakh”
  • Tavo on I’d call on the people of Syunik to arm themselves, and defend your country – Vazgen Manukyan

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in