Today the number of Armenian families in Adiyaman exceeds 1,600. What makes them more confident and stronger
Cryptic Armenians of Western Armenia. Adiyaman’s Armenians
07 APRIL 2020 – IDENTITY.
Today the number of Armenian families in Adiyaman exceeds 1,600. What makes them more confident and stronger
Journalist Nayiri Hokhikian continues to study what remains of the Armenian historical heritage of Western Armenia, who lives in our neighborhood, on our historic lands, only the Turks and Kurds, where the Armenian roots continue to germinate ,,, Sputnik Armenia published an article by journalist Hokhikian on the Armenians who converted to Adiyaman.
Today, the legendary Mount Nemrut is located on the territory of Turkey. The mausoleum and statue statue built above it at an altitude of 2,120 meters have a history of more than 2,100 years. They are dated from 69 to 34 BC.
In the center of the 8 meter high statue is the statue of Aramazd, on one side of which are Mihr and Artagnes, and on the other side are the statues of Ditsuhi and Antiochus I. The king is depicted with the crown of King Tigran the Great of Armenia.
The destructive hand of the centuries has also had an impact here, shaking the statues of ancient glory through earthquakes and winds. Archaeologists and historians consider the statues of Nemrut as the eighth wonder of the world, not less than the Egyptian pyramids or the Olympian statues of the Greek gods.
Nemrut is not the highest peak of the Armenian highlands, but from here, the whole region is more than clear. It is as if the vast expanse of the Euphrates basin is on your shores, forcing us to realize what a land is, what land, for the preservation of which, for millennia, our grandparents have not spared their lives.
At the foot of Mount Nemrut are the towns of Kahta and Adiyaman. Today, Adiyaman is one of the most important Armenian colonies in Western Armenia. According to official data from 1971, 52 Armenian families lived in Adiyaman. According to official data, the number of Armenian families in Adiyaman today exceeds 1,600. Misak Manushian, hero of the French resistance movement, Sarkis Hatspanian, participant in the Artsakh liberation war, Stepan Ilhan-Yepremian, the one of the most famous Turkish singers, and many others were born here.
Adiyaman was also one of the largest concentration camps at the time of the genocide, where Armenians from different parts of western Armenia gathered to attack or simply destroy the Arabian deserts.
Here, in order to survive, many Armenians are confronted with Turkish or Kurdish, embracing Islam. One of these Armenians is Nechad Pakirço ղ lu, who met me in Adiyaman. In the 2000s, he not only returned to Christianity, but also took practical steps to build an apostolic church in Adiyaman.
“When I was a child, other children called us Armenians. At that time, we did not understand what it meant, but when a priest from Syria came years later and started telling us what was going on. had passed in 1915 and of what nation the Armenians were, we became more confident and stronger. We have been fighting for 100 years to remain Armenian. We are giving Armenian education to our children so that they do not forget their roots. If we had been silent and suffering before, we would not be silent today, we would not be afraid and we would not suffer, “he said.
Another Adiyaman Armenian, Enver Polat, has repeatedly been pressured to speak about the Armenian identity, but continues to do so with the same pain as not only the Turks but also the Armenians of the Republic of Armenia and of the diaspora have a confrontational attitude towards them.
“We were born here as Armenians, but it is not our will that many of us are Muslims. Here, in our cradle, we are under daily pressure from the public and the authorities. Even at funerals, the imams of the region often avoid us, knowing very well that we are Armenians. But unlike the others, we are here on our own land, in our homeland. This is what gives strength. May our compatriots accept us as such that we are. ”
In Adiyaman, according to various sources, 15 to 20% of the population today has an Armenian conscience.
ORIGIN SOURCES-aztagdaily.com/archives/470291:
ORIGIN SOURCES-armeniasputnik.am
ENGLISH TRANSLATION «lousavor avedis»
