I have often reflected on my journey to Armenia, trying to understand the historical path of an ancient nation across the centuries.
My first encounter with Armenian culture came through a television documentary on the Armenian Genocide and the shared fate of the Christians of Asia Minor, Thrace and Cyprus — Greeks and Assyrians alike. From there, I began to inquire more deeply into Armenian civilization and was struck by the elaborate architecture of Armenian monasteries and the intricate stone carvings of the khachkars.
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This is a very insightful article.
However, I wish the author hid his name, if he wants to return to Turkey, because the Turkish government has a habit of banning or even arresting anyone it considers as “hostile” to Turkey for publishing articles, social media posts, or even mere “likes” it deems as “anti-Turkish”, and that of course includes all the “inconvenient truths” about Turkey’s dark past and present, including the genocides it committed and the human rights abuses. Many academicians, politicians and tourists have been denied entry to Turkey, expelled, or arrested and expelled, for these reasons. The Turkish government spies on every would-be visitor’s social media accounts, who applies for a visa or books a flight to Turkey. I for example, visited Turkey for the first and last time in the spring of 2005, when I didn’t have any social media accounts then, because social media hardly existed then. If I wished to visit that country now, I couldn’t have, because of these risks.
Dr. Mavrakis’ work in visiting, photographing, documenting, explaining and publishing on the civilisations of Anatolia is invaluable. The photos are so professional and express the loave Dr. Mavrakis has for Anatolia.
I hope to read many more of his interesting articles.
Yet, despite some common recent history, none of the Balkan countries helped us 5 years ago. including Greece and greek cyprus. Or Bulgaria. If there is an innocent explanation, I am all ears.