Have you heard of the Akhtamar church issue with Turkey

[Pedro Xaramillo]

Dunno if anyone has posted yet, but Akhtamar church (I hope I spelled that right) is being renamed by Turkey to Akdamar (White Vein in Turkish).
They already changed it from a church (which was destroyed during 1915) to a secular museum, many people were still fine with that, but now they are talking about renaming the church and island to Akdamar.

A Turkish journalist said that this is an attempt for Turkey to remove the Armenian past.

This is just further evidence of the many Armenians once in Anatolia and Turkey's destruction of not only the people but their heritage.

[bell-the-cat]

It's been Akdamar for decades. I think there already is a thread on this forum about the church and the 'restoration'.

[Pedro Xaramillo]

Sorry

Didn't see it till now, but anyway what are your thought and feelings on this

[Alexandros]

Didn't see it till now, but anyway what are your thought and feelings on this

There`s a pattern here.And in some way it`s tragicomic:

Even animal names can become contentious in politics


Turkey renames 'divisive' animals

Last Updated: Tuesday, 8 March, 2005, 10:41 GMT

Turkey has said it is changing the names of three animals found on its territory to remove references to Kurdistan or Armenia.

The environment ministry says the Latin names of the red fox, the wild sheep and the roe deer will be altered.

The red fox for instance, known as Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica, will now be known as Vulpes Vulpes.

Turkey has uneasy relations with neighbouring Armenia and opposes Kurdish separatists in Turkey.

The ministry said the old names were contrary to Turkish unity.

"Unfortunately there are many other species in Turkey which were named this way with ill intentions. This ill intent is so obvious that even species only found in our country were given names against Turkey's unity," a ministry statement quoted by Reuters news agency said.

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NAME CHANGES

Red fox known as Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica becomes Vulpes Vulpes

Wild sheep called Ovis Armeniana becomes Ovis Orientalis Anatolicus

Roe deer known as Capreolus Capreolus Armenus becomes Capreolus Cuprelus Capreolus

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Full article here

[Pedro Xaramillo]

Its not tragic comic, It's f**kin sad man

It's f**kin sad man, really are they that petty that they are going to change the names of animals as well. In addition I saw a dude write on a SOAD page (why the hell do the Turks always attack them) that they demand Armenia should not be known as Hayastan but as Erivan. Not just content with destroying Armenian indentity in Turkey they want to do it in Armenia as well.

[egeli]

Turkification is a potent force. Turkish nationalism is not based on ethnic background or on a common heritage, it was created to unite the muslim inhabitants (who are mostly converts from indigenous Anatolian populations) of Anatolia. Without this Turkificaiton, the state of Turkey will internally collapse.

To all those Turkiye haters out there, this is not going to happen. The Turkish language will become more and more Turkified by the kemalist TDK (Turk Dil Kurumu). Its not just Armenian or Latin names that have been removed from Turkish. Arabic, Persian, and Greek Turkish words have also been Turkified. Ironically, Ataturk's original speeches about language reform are now themselves archaic.

It is only a matter of time before Kurds in Turkey will be Turkified. They will soon be chanting Ne Mutlu Turkum Diyene. Look at Erdogan, he said himself that he was ethnically Georgian. Thanks to the rise of the AKP, as long as you are muslim, you will be Turkish.

As for Anatolian non-muslims, their hertiage is safe. It is impossible to simultaneously be of non-muslim descent and Turkish. If only Kemalism was not compromised by the conversative muslims of Anatolia. If it were up to Kemalists, all inhabitants of Turkey, regardless of their religion, would be Turkified. I wish this happened, the non-muslims of Anatolia would have been spared their awful fate.

[Gavur]

I'm sorry I don't see a bright future for a country called Turkey, before this century is out (max) you people will have to reinvent yourselves.

[Pedro Xaramillo]

Turkification, to unit Muslims, there is a joke

Lad, first up what you are talking about is cultural genocide, regardless of religion, you are destroying indigenous West Asian culture.
Do you honestly think by destroying a people's ethnic identity you will make them stronger, the Spanish tried that with Amerinds and that didn't work.

There are many countries who have multicultaral elements, take for instance Iran, Argentina, France, South Africa, etc, they aren't crumbling but stronger than ever before.

In addition to this you are telling Arabs to use the Latin script and not the Kuffic script if you Turkify them, I ask you how on Earth, if all Anatolian Muslims are Turkified, can Islam properly survive, what next, destroy hadiths?

Now Turkey also killed thousands of Kurds in the Genocide, is that fair?
Also there are Turkish Non Muslims and if you mean Turkish culture do you mean Central Asian, because Turkey's Turks haven't borrowed alot of culture from Arabs, Iranians, Armenians, etc.

If non Muslims are safe, please explain Hrant Dink and why lovely Turkey supports Azeris and Turkish Cypriots occuping lands not belonging to them.

Sorry but all of this smells of Genocidal intentions, fascism and imperialism.

[egeli]

Im sorry, i guess i should have made an introduction about my political views first. You just gave an entire assumption that i accept these policies. I do not, there were many Christian Anatolians who were faithful to the Turkish state (Hrant Dink is one of many). Hrant Dink even wanted to be an officer in the Turkish army. However, because he was identified as Armenian (on par with the Lausanne treaty), the Turkish army forbid it.

The Turkish nation never accepted these faithful Anatolian Christians only because they refused to be Turkified. I hope Turkey will one day be less insecure of its identity and allow ethnic pluralism.

In Turkey, it doesn't matter what ethnic background you come from, as long you are proud to be CALLED a Turk, you are Turkish, and the state will not oppress you.

Turkish culture is Anatolian culture, its certainly not "central Asian culture" Wake up and go to Turkey to see for yourself.

[Pedro Xaramillo]

And you don't read

I know full well what you said about Christians, but how can you justify Turkifying Arabs, Kurds and so forth on the basis of the security of Turkish state and because they are Muslims.

So in short what you are saying is that anyone who is muslim must manditorically become Turkified, which basically is a cultural genocide of indigenous Anatolians. What about Hamshenis who are Armenian ethnically and Muslims, must they now also be Turkified?

If you read my post carefully you will see that I said that Turkey has Anatolian and Mesopotamian elements, but it was borrowed from the indigenous people of the region, whereas ORIGINAL Turkish culture is Central Asian.

Sorry but all of this sounds like a Grey Wolf speech.