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Found by Villagers; Covered up by the Military
By Ayse Gunaysu, Istanbul
Turkish gendarmerie has instructed local villagers of a southeastern
region to keep silence about a recently discovered mass burial site
that might contain skeletons of massacred Armenians.
The mass burial, believed to be from the Armenian Genocide, was
discovered in southeastern Turkey's Mardin region on October 17, 2006.
According to Ulkede Ozgur Gundem , a Kurdish newspaper published in
Turkish, villagers from Xirabebaba (Kuru) were digging a grave for
one of their relatives when they came across to a cave full of skulls
and bones of reportedly 40 people.
The Xirabebaba residents assumed they had uncovered a mass grave of
300 Armenian villagers massacred during the Genocide of 1915. They
informed Akarsu Gendarmerie headquarters, the local military unit,
about the discovered cave. Turkish army officers, according to Ulkede
Ozgur Gundem, instructed the villagers to blockade the cave entrance
and make no mention about the skeletons. The officers said an
investigation would take place.
Ulkede Ozgur Gundem reported on the developments and the Turkish
military's attempt to hide the news. In an October 22, 2006 article,
titled "Found by Villagers; Covered up by the Military", the newspaper
wrote that soldiers from Akarsu gendarmerie headquarters came to the
site, covered the cave entrance and took photographs. Journalists, who
had arrived to obtain more information, were denied access to the cave.
Although there had been prior instances of finding mass burial sites
believed to be from the Armenian Genocide, this was the first incident
when such a discovery was reported by a daily newspaper in Turkey.
As the mass burial made news, local gendarmerie made another visit
to the villagers. The latter were pressed to report the name of the
person who leaked the mass burial discovery to the press. The officers
told the villagers that the news reported by Roj TV, an international
Kurdish satellite television, and Ulkede Ozgur Gundem were "all lies."T
The villagers were warned not to show the way to the cave to anybody.
The victims of the mass grave, according to Sodertorn University
History Professor David Gaunt, are most likely the 150 Armenian and
120 Syriac males, heads of their families, from the nearby town of
Dara (now Oguz) killed on June 14, 1915.
The Armenian and Syriac residents were marched out of the town,
and only one person was known to have escaped to tell of what had
happened, Prof. Gaunt says. According to the Syriac survivor, his
marching neighbors were murdered and their bodies were placed in
a well. "The mass burial in this cave suggests that the two groups
could have been killed in separate places, and that the Armenians
were put into this cave, while the Syriacs were put in a well,"
Prof. Gaunt, whose "Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian
Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I",book comes out
November, 2006, concludes.
The Turkish government officially denies the genocide of over
a million Armenians, accompanied with massacres of thousands of
Syriacs and other minorities, which took place in what is now
eastern Turkey during WWI.
Photographs by Ulkede Ozgur Gundem. Republished by permission.
By Ayse Gunaysu, Istanbul
Turkish gendarmerie has instructed local villagers of a southeastern
region to keep silence about a recently discovered mass burial site
that might contain skeletons of massacred Armenians.
The mass burial, believed to be from the Armenian Genocide, was
discovered in southeastern Turkey's Mardin region on October 17, 2006.
According to Ulkede Ozgur Gundem , a Kurdish newspaper published in
Turkish, villagers from Xirabebaba (Kuru) were digging a grave for
one of their relatives when they came across to a cave full of skulls
and bones of reportedly 40 people.
The Xirabebaba residents assumed they had uncovered a mass grave of
300 Armenian villagers massacred during the Genocide of 1915. They
informed Akarsu Gendarmerie headquarters, the local military unit,
about the discovered cave. Turkish army officers, according to Ulkede
Ozgur Gundem, instructed the villagers to blockade the cave entrance
and make no mention about the skeletons. The officers said an
investigation would take place.
Ulkede Ozgur Gundem reported on the developments and the Turkish
military's attempt to hide the news. In an October 22, 2006 article,
titled "Found by Villagers; Covered up by the Military", the newspaper
wrote that soldiers from Akarsu gendarmerie headquarters came to the
site, covered the cave entrance and took photographs. Journalists, who
had arrived to obtain more information, were denied access to the cave.
Although there had been prior instances of finding mass burial sites
believed to be from the Armenian Genocide, this was the first incident
when such a discovery was reported by a daily newspaper in Turkey.
As the mass burial made news, local gendarmerie made another visit
to the villagers. The latter were pressed to report the name of the
person who leaked the mass burial discovery to the press. The officers
told the villagers that the news reported by Roj TV, an international
Kurdish satellite television, and Ulkede Ozgur Gundem were "all lies."T
The villagers were warned not to show the way to the cave to anybody.
The victims of the mass grave, according to Sodertorn University
History Professor David Gaunt, are most likely the 150 Armenian and
120 Syriac males, heads of their families, from the nearby town of
Dara (now Oguz) killed on June 14, 1915.
The Armenian and Syriac residents were marched out of the town,
and only one person was known to have escaped to tell of what had
happened, Prof. Gaunt says. According to the Syriac survivor, his
marching neighbors were murdered and their bodies were placed in
a well. "The mass burial in this cave suggests that the two groups
could have been killed in separate places, and that the Armenians
were put into this cave, while the Syriacs were put in a well,"
Prof. Gaunt, whose "Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian
Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I",book comes out
November, 2006, concludes.
The Turkish government officially denies the genocide of over
a million Armenians, accompanied with massacres of thousands of
Syriacs and other minorities, which took place in what is now
eastern Turkey during WWI.
Photographs by Ulkede Ozgur Gundem. Republished by permission.
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