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1. A fascinating article that demonstrates just how interrelated Turks and Armenians actually are. I’m releasing a new film on the Armenian Genocide this April 2018 that delves further. See https://www.tugg.com/titles/tabu for details.

2. My mother Siranoosh Gobelian was married abd ge was forced to be in the Turkish Army and one of his buddies returned telling my mother who had an infant son and was told he died because his boots were worn out and his feet got infected and died next to a tree. My mother remarried Nishan Darderian from Sepastia who lost 20 people in his family including the mothers of the children drowning them so they would not see the blood shed and their evil killing methods. I am from their second marriage. My father escaped because of an angel told him in advance there was going to blood shed and he needs o go home and have everyone go to the new country……remember my father was a shepherd a young man. they said you go and come back for us……….which he did and they all perished from the turks

3. Excellent piece. Thank you.

4. What is the purpose of the Turkish government making public the info about the roots of its citizens?
   Are they planning an ethnic cleansing?

5. Well done Raffi. History cannot be overturned, it is a fact of life, you cannot change the facts. A very good article – bravo.

6. Informative profiles of the Monster and the Martyr. The first is Ismet Inonu, who was born Armenian and later became the second President of Turkey. During his reign Inonu heavily taxed Armenians, saying he would “squeeze them like lemons.” The second man is Ali Kemal, who tried to defend Armenian rights and was later torn apart by a Turkish mob who hung a sign on his chest that said, “Artun Kemal,” which was a Turkish insult branding the man an Armenian lover. In recent years in Turkey, Kemal has been considered a Quisling, comparing him to the Nazi-Norwegian leader during World War II. Ironically, Kemal’s great grandson is Boris Johnson, Great Britain’s foreign minister. I don’t think this will help Turkey gain admission into the European Union. A pity — as they say in UK.

7. Stories such as these send shockwaves through me. Armenians have some of the greatest minds, but at times some of them turn against our cause. Even today, too many examples exist of ignorant hot-heads being placed in sensitive positions, resulting in utter distruction of our comunities…enough said.

8. Raffi manages to enlighten the present generation with articles about Turkish history that will not be destined to obscurity.

9. There is evidence that on his deathbed Ismet Inonu coming out of a comma to the astonishment of those keeping vigil around him enquired about the Armenian alphabet. By the time a book on Armenian was fetched from the library Ismet started reciting the Armenian alphabet with his very last breath. Google:- Ismet Inonu Ermenimidir.

10. What is the address of the new web site. Is it in Turkish

11. There are several video clips on the internet in Turkish (not websites) from Radyo Saray (a Turkish radio station).
    Speaker is Kadir Misiroglu, writer, lawyer, journalist, opponent of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s reforms and secularism. Misiroglu’s views are very controversial and disputed indeed.
    Be that as it may, one clip is headlined, Ismet Inonu Ermenimidir, is Ismet Inonu Armenian. Another, Ismet Inonu Ermeni alfabesini sayarak oldu, Ismet Inonu died counting the Armenian alphabet.

12. My father Tateoss Durgerian whom was born in the Village of Sis in 1885, in the Provence of Shabin Karahissar was inducted into the Turkish Military in 1912, whereby the Turks were fighting the Greeks & Bulgarian’s in that Balkan War of 1912-1913. My father did not want to kill Christian Greeks & Bulgarian’s, therefore he fled to the Greek side in 1913, & was later sent to America in 1913 from a relative living in Lowell, Mass. Another brother Levon (khevon) Doorgarian was also inducted in the Turkish Military in 1915 during the 1st World War along with 200,000 other Armenian’s. When they finished their training they were disarmed & put on road building projects & when finished they were taken away in batches of 50 to 100 & forced to build trenches, whereby they were then shot & killed & buried. All 200,000 Armenian’s were massacred, leaving the home front defenseless. My father Tateoss after the War whom was married with 3 children, found out that he lost his wife, father, mother, his 3 children, & many other relatives. Two young brothers & a sister were taken in by Turkish families & Turkified. The two brothers, Krikor & Varteres were circumsized & given Turkish names. After the 1st WW, the Allies went knocking on doors asking if any Armenians wished to come forward & be freed from Turks to come forward, which my fathers 2 brothers & a sister became released from Turks. They were sent to Istanbul and the 2 brothers were unified with my father in the U.S. in Lowell, Mass. & his sister ended up in Cavalla, Greece where she got married to a Safarian & had 3 children. My mother whom was born in the Village of Goteh in the Provence of Erzerum where her whole Village was removed of all Armenian’s & sent on a death march. She, Satenig Vartanian whom was married with 2 children lost her whole family & all her relatives. They bayoneted one of her children & the other starved to death on their death marches. Satenig was the only survivor from her Village of Goteh, now renamed Keutur. She always said, as bad as the Turks were, the Kurds were just as bad in those death marches. She got saved while passing a Catholic or Protestant Missionary Home, whereby they pulled her in and saved her. After the war she also got sent to Istanbul & met my father’s two brothers & she came with them to America in Lowell, Mass. & met my father Tateoss whom they both remarried at the St. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Church in Lowell, Mass. in 1920.

13. Please send us the Armenian Weekly

14. Very interesting

15. I couldn’t stay silent on this one. I am referring back to the comment by Arto K. posted on March 21, 2018 about Ismet Inonu and the Armenian Alphabet. Truthfully, Arto I think this was a way for the ultra right in Turkey to disparage the reputation of Inonu for whatever reason by highlighting his Armenians roots. It is true that people in the throes of death revert back to childhood memories and maybe that’s what Inonu did when he was near death. There is no doubt in my mind that the man was an absolute monster and I’ll go one step further and say he was a puppet master too. Ataturk when he ordered the invasion of Dersim was very ill with advanced alcoholism so what better person to encourage him in his sorry quest to destroy the Kurds and hidden Armenians besides Inonu. The painful history of the taxes imposed on Christians is another matter entirely. He did indeed break so many financially and spiritually. So the fact that he remembered the Armenian alphabet on his death bed doesn’t mean “jack shit.” Excuse my expression. I’d like to thank Raffi Bedrosian for a very informative and painful article. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
    ELLEN SARKISIAN CHESNUT

16. My Father’s Mother was a Satenig Vartanian. She migrated to Akron, Ohio with her husband Dono Vartanian. My Father’s Parent died at a young age. I feel so sad after reading this story. How can Ismet Inonu hate and destroy his own People.

17. I have been deeply involved with Turkish music and culture. I am only now really learning about their historic treatment of Armenians and other minorities. I am dismayed by the continued refusal of the country to take account of its own history. I see it as an enormous chain around the necks of Turks, including those I consider dear friends. I believe it makes them especially vulnerable to the likes of Erdoğan and his ilke. Tanrı onlara yardım etsin (God help them) as the wheels of justice slowly come around.

18. Hi, I am in my mid sixties and was born in Sepastia. I am an alevi by faith and ethnically Kurdish. However, my maternal grandmother and her a few years older sister were both orphans with no relatives, to my knowledge. They were living in a Kurdish village. Her sister got married in her teens to someone in an Armenian and Kurdish alevi village. My maternal grandfather was from Mileti and he was an orphan as a toddler after the Armenian genocide, and he was brought to Sivas. I remember that my grandparent had an affection for the Armenians at a time many Turks in Sivas or Sepastia hated Armenians. Their best friends were few Armenian families who survived the massacre. After the death of her husband, my grandmother moved to Istanbul. Armenians there used to come and take my grandmother to church whenever there was a wedding or funeral. Before my mother passed away, she said to my brother in Hawaii that her parents were Armenians; and that one of her relatives were denied a high level governmental job, because his family was recorded in archives as Armenian before the genocide. I now understand why my grandfather murmured some words and touched the stone walls of Sumerbank, which was an old Armenian church, whenever when we walked by it. It is all confusing and hard to reconstruct my Armenian ethnicity, but as an American now, I will continue to fight for the rights of both Armenians and Kurds

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