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4 Comments

  1. we are the same in the past we were faced gineocide thousands of our people still not found and they were buries in massgraves mostly childern,in the same time we are going to get benfit from the past and bulid our future .make bilatral eforts in all the fiellds ,
    Barez-kurdistan -Sulaimani

  2. The Kurds always love Armenian and Armenian & Kurds lived together for thousands years

  3. Despite our historical differences with the Kurds and the atrocities committed by some of their tribes against our population, I welcome and encourage the progressive steps of rapprochement taken by the ARF. In my capacity as a US Senior Legal Advisor in 2003 and later in 2008-09 as Advisor to Talabani’s Chief Legal Advisor among others, I often dealt with Kurdish colleagues and Kurdish officials and have on each occasion found them to be yearning for friendship the moment my Armenian ethnicity was revealed to them. In the current geopolitical environment, genuine or not, our friendly relationship would be a necessary marriage of convenience to say the least. Foreign relations know neither friend nor foe -only national security interests. In 2003 while visiting Erbil on assignment, I had asked my Kurdish body guards the whereabouts of Armenians and they immediately offered to take me to the Kurdish town of Zakho on the border of Turkey. Friday being the Muslim Sabbath and a day off for me, I accepted the offer and asked my Jewish/American colleague, a California Judge, if he wanted to accompany me. He jumped at the opportunity. Upon reaching Zakho, unbeknownst to me and to my surprise the Kurds had arranged for a lavish private meal at a Kurdish restaurant just for us. After the meal they drove us to the Armenian Church where Der Hayr was expecting us. Of the five guards two had whispered in my ear the fact that they were part Armenian. I had many other opportunities to observe the general attitude of Kurds toward Armenians. Short of formal apology, I have yet to find one who denies the participation of some of their tribes in the genocide. It will not come as a surprise to most that as Armenians we have deep roots in the Middle East. The international relations paradigm in the Middle East is shifting and not so much in our favor. We need to be vigilant and proactive. We need to carve new paths, build coalitions and create new alliances. It behooves us to develop and maintain relations with all parties Kurdish or otherwise who could even remotely touch our national interest. I cannot forget the time I was introduce to President Talabani’s Chief Legal Advisor to be his Advisor. The moment he heard of my ethnicity he began telling me of his mixed ancestry -Arab/Armenian. He then called the Vice President’s Chief Legal Advisor to whom I was also assigned as a legal advisor and confirmed that he also was of mixed Arab/Armenian ancestry. The short of it is that both were from the “Shammar” tribe that, among other regions, inhabits the northern territory between Syria and Iraq. Both were Sunni Muslims. During the genocide, they recounted, their tribe found close to 10 thousand Armenian orphans, whose parents had been slaughtered, roaming the nearby desert without food or water. The tribe took in the children, fed them and raised them as their own. They were both descendants of these Armenian orphans. The rest is history.

  4. To Ara Sarian,
    Your words so touched my heart and thoughts.  In particular, they give me pause to remember an event back in 2002 when my mother and I, along with other Armenians on a tour, traveled to the town of Hussenig in the Kharpert region of historical Western Armenia (eastern Turkey).  This is the town where my grandfather had grown up and from which his mother and father, younger brother and younger sister, perished in the Armenian Genocide.
    Upon entering the town, the local Kurds greeted our tour group with gracious hospitality.  They especially made great efforts to help my mother and I to find the house of my grandfather.  When we arrived at the house we were greeted by an elderly Kurdish woman who immediately drew a connection to my mother.  To see them there, in front of the house of my grandfather, as friends, it was a truly wonderful experience.  As we left, the Kurdish woman spoke through a translator, the precious words, “I’m sorry that we are in your home.”  At that moment, I believe my mother and I, and I like to think by extension my grandfather, experienced a measure of reconciliation between the Kurdish and Armenian peoples, an experience that gives me real hope in the future not only for Kurds and Armenians, but for all of humanity.

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