History of Kilis

[chinchilla]

I have a book that my father gave me on the Armenians of Kilis, located in what is now the Kilis Province of Turkey. The book was published in Beirut in 1969 and is quite detailed. In addition to the history of Kilis (until 1968) it contains things like anecdotes, proverbs, loanwords from Armenian into the Turkish spoken by the inhabitants of Kilis, a count of how many Armenian people with origins in Kilis were living in the world at the time (9,470 in 1968), as well as short biographies of prominent Kilis Armenians living in the Armenian SSR, Lebanon, and Syria.

I want to translate parts of the book into English and put it up here (since I don't have the time or money to maintain a website). I only hope I won't be violating any copyright laws...

[Haykakan]

Re: History of Kilis

Nah Bell you are wrong and this is becoming a trend with you. Whatever mountain of obstacles we Armenians have or have not created for ourselves - it is a mere hill compared to what the international community has put on our path to justice. Yeh some Armenians are obnoxious but then again if you go on generalizing you can say xxxx about every person on earth. Generalizing is wrong for there are many nonobnoxious Armenians seeking justice to. Even if all of us are obnoxious does that mean obnoxious people are not entitled to justice? Cmon bell you used to produce some interesting post at one time - but hey you know what they say about obnoxious people.. Bell you sure your not one of them obnoxious Armenians?

[bell-the-cat]

Re: History of Kilis

Yes the impact will be minimal just like all the other clear evidence of genocide. It will be minimal because the media wishes it to be minimal, because the powers of the day wish it to be minimal, because it tells a true story which is uncomfortable for those in power to deal with, because xxxs-turks-kurds-germans-english-french.....want it to be minimal. O and the European court ruled that there was not enough evidence to constitute a genocide by the Turkish government thus any evidence to the contrary must be minimized... It has always been astounding to me the size of the mountain of obstacles we Armenians must climb to get justice but then again we are mountain people.

It will be minimal because Armenians seem to like things the way they are - they can continue to produce their AG propaganda, safe in their belief that the "other sides" propaganda is so atrociously false that nobody will care about the lesser failings in their own. Except that nobody believes or has ever seriously believed, the Turkish propaganda - and it only continues to exist because the Armenian response to it has always been so lamentable. And the "other sides" truth (i.e. truthful things produced by anyone who is not Armenian) is far more effective than your propaganda. That's why there are no serious academics of the Armenian Genocide who are "card carrying" Armenians, and much the most advanced and most interesting research on the Genocide is now coming from Turkey. There is also the truth that main purpose of Armenian writing on the Genocide is to be seen by other Armenians and not to inform non-Armenians, whereas the Turkish propaganda is written to be seen by non-Turks.

There are no mountains other than the ones Armenians have imagined in their heads or have built for themselves to climb (or, rather, not to climb but to just sit at the base of and complain). Of course, Armenians inevitably being obnoxious to any non-Armenians doesn't help in getting people interested in the subject. And there are plenty of people who think being spat upon (or having the risk of being spat on at some time in the future) is worse than the certainty of being politely lied to - so they prefer Turks to Armenians.

[Haykakan]

Re: History of Kilis

Yes the impact will be minimal just like all the other clear evidence of genocide. It will be minimal because the media wishes it to be minimal, because the powers of the day wish it to be minimal, because it tells a true story which is uncomfortable for those in power to deal with, because xxxs-turks-kurds-germans-english-french.....want it to be minimal. O and the European court ruled that there was not enough evidence to constitute a genocide by the Turkish government thus any evidence to the contrary must be minimized... It has always been astounding to me the size of the mountain of obstacles we Armenians must climb to get justice but then again we are mountain people.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: History of Kilis

NEWLY PUBLISHED BOOK IS PROOF OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE (PHOTO)

January 17, 2014 | 16:37

YEREVAN. - The book, entitled The Records of Aleppo, is published
in Armenia.

The book presents the photographs which its author, researcher Raffi
Kortoshian, had taken during his visits to Aleppo, Syria, from 2006
to 2011, and which show the Armenian presence in this city.

In Kortoshian's words, this book is especially valuable in the sense
that these photographs were taken before the Syrian civil war.

The author of the book also noted, at a press conference on Friday,
that the photo collection presents 2,500 records 2,000 of which are
published for the first time.

"When I visited the cemeteries of Aleppo, I was interested in
the surnames and the places of birth on the tombstones. And I saw
places of birth which represented Western Armenia. It was then that
I conceived the idea that the inscriptions on the tombstones should
be photographed," Kortoshian said.

In turn, monument specialist Samvel Karapetyan, who is also chairman
of the foundation that studies Armenian architecture, stated that
this book will help the development of historiography, since the work
is grouped into two parts: references until, and references starting
from, 1915.

"It is enough to make a list of the inscriptions of all those
tombstones of the cemeteries of Aleppo to understand how people
found refuge in Aleppo after 1915; this only proves the fact of the
[Armenian] Genocide," Karapetyan noted, in particular.

http://news.am/eng/news/189719.html

In the late 1990s I attempted to make a film about the Armenian Genocide that would have culminated in an Aleppo graveyard. I remember that the Syrian Armenian I went there with was incapable of understanding what I was trying to do with the graveyard, failing completely to see the visual and metaphorical impact that these graves, with the birth places on them from all corners of Turkey, would make on a viewer. Same for the AGBU, who refused funding. It's good to see that someone else has at last understood their importance - but it is in a very limited circulation "by Armenians for Armenians"-type book so the impact on the wider AG narative will be minimal.

[Haykakan]

Re: History of Kilis

NEWLY PUBLISHED BOOK IS PROOF OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE (PHOTO)

January 17, 2014 | 16:37

YEREVAN. - The book, entitled The Records of Aleppo, is published
in Armenia.

The book presents the photographs which its author, researcher Raffi
Kortoshian, had taken during his visits to Aleppo, Syria, from 2006
to 2011, and which show the Armenian presence in this city.

In Kortoshian's words, this book is especially valuable in the sense
that these photographs were taken before the Syrian civil war.

The author of the book also noted, at a press conference on Friday,
that the photo collection presents 2,500 records 2,000 of which are
published for the first time.

"When I visited the cemeteries of Aleppo, I was interested in
the surnames and the places of birth on the tombstones. And I saw
places of birth which represented Western Armenia. It was then that
I conceived the idea that the inscriptions on the tombstones should
be photographed," Kortoshian said.

In turn, monument specialist Samvel Karapetyan, who is also chairman
of the foundation that studies Armenian architecture, stated that
this book will help the development of historiography, since the work
is grouped into two parts: references until, and references starting
from, 1915.

"It is enough to make a list of the inscriptions of all those
tombstones of the cemeteries of Aleppo to understand how people
found refuge in Aleppo after 1915; this only proves the fact of the
[Armenian] Genocide," Karapetyan noted, in particular.

http://news.am/eng/news/189719.html

[bell-the-cat]

Re: History of Kilis

note: Kilis Compatriotic Association is no longer availble since several decades now ...

Same for almost all the post-genocide compatriotic associations. The many now obscure and forgotten publications that these survivors produced to record for posterity their destroyed homelands do need to be translated into English to reach a new and wider audience.

[SoSarkissian]

Re: History of Kilis

that book is just a first attempt of the armenians in kilis about who they are and where are they now ...

a second version (more complete) is going to be published soon + website and a digital version of that book as well ...

i'm a board member in the Armenian Youth Association of Kilis and i would like to notify you that soon we'll have a site about kilis and all armenians from kilis (an interactive one)

note: Kilis Compatriotic Association is no longer availble since several decades now ...

[chinchilla]

I'm going to start translating it and posting it on Blogspot. I'll credit the authors and hopefully they won't have any problems with it.

Would ArmenianGenocide.com be willing to host a website on Kilis?

[Gavur]

Looking forward to it.