In a way, this reminds me of some Catholics in the American Southwest who are sending in samples of their DNA and finding out that they have Jewish roots. Now they know why every Friday night there was a clean white tablecloth set out and candles lit. I would imagine that many Muslims in the Middle East would find out that they actually have Christian roots since the lands were invaded by the Muslims who left the Saudi Peninsula and forced the ancestors of these Christians to convert.
Turkey’s Armenians Rediscover Their Identity
April 23, 2015 - 1:25pm, by Gayane Abrahamyan
A family of Muslim Armenians gather in their home in the Turkish village of Norshen, where 2,150 Armenians used to live in 1914. The family’s oldest members converted to Islam after the 1915 massacre by the Ottoman Empire. Many Islamized Armenians in Turkey are discovering their pre-1915 roots, getting baptized as Christians, and no longer concealing their Armenian identity. (Photo: Anahit Hayrapetyan)
Five years ago, 53-year-old freelance columnist Miran Pirgiç, a resident of the eastern Turkish region of Tunceli, decided to disclose a tightly held secret — his Armenian ethnicity. Increasingly, scores of ethnic Armenians whose ancestors survived the 1915 massacre and were raised as Turks, Kurds or Alevis are choosing to do the same.
For decades, fearing repercussions, many of Turkey’s ethnic Armenians have kept themselves concealed; observing religious rituals and Armenian customs such as coloring eggs for Easter privately, if at all. But the 2007 assassination of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, an outspoken, Istanbul-based advocate for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, proved a catalyst for change.
Continue reading at:
Turkey s Armenians Rediscover Their Identity EurasiaNet.org
Turkey’s Armenians Rediscover Their Identity
April 23, 2015 - 1:25pm, by Gayane Abrahamyan
A family of Muslim Armenians gather in their home in the Turkish village of Norshen, where 2,150 Armenians used to live in 1914. The family’s oldest members converted to Islam after the 1915 massacre by the Ottoman Empire. Many Islamized Armenians in Turkey are discovering their pre-1915 roots, getting baptized as Christians, and no longer concealing their Armenian identity. (Photo: Anahit Hayrapetyan)
Five years ago, 53-year-old freelance columnist Miran Pirgiç, a resident of the eastern Turkish region of Tunceli, decided to disclose a tightly held secret — his Armenian ethnicity. Increasingly, scores of ethnic Armenians whose ancestors survived the 1915 massacre and were raised as Turks, Kurds or Alevis are choosing to do the same.
For decades, fearing repercussions, many of Turkey’s ethnic Armenians have kept themselves concealed; observing religious rituals and Armenian customs such as coloring eggs for Easter privately, if at all. But the 2007 assassination of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, an outspoken, Istanbul-based advocate for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, proved a catalyst for change.
Continue reading at:
Turkey s Armenians Rediscover Their Identity EurasiaNet.org
