Fascinating story.
“Eastern Turkey had a large and thriving community of Christians a little over 100 years ago, but since then most have been dispersed or killed…….. Eli Melki went to look for traces of a relative, who was martyred at the age of 33.”
In 1915, there were 2 million Armenians living in the declining Ottoman Empire. But under the cover of World War I, the Turkish government systematically destroyed 1.5 million people in attempts to unify all of the Turkish people by creating a new empire with one language and one religion.
This ethnic cleaning of Armenians, and other minorities, including Assyrians, Pontian and Anatolian Greeks, is today known as the Armenian Genocide.
Despite pressure from Armenians and activists worldwide, Turkey still refuses to acknowledge the genocide, claiming that there was no premeditation on the deaths of the Armenians.
Read more at Syrian Free Press
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