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Armenians Have Unique Chance To Buy Eleven Turkish Villages
The New York Times reported on April 22nd that "desperate farmers in Turkey [are] offering their villages for sale." Due to the country's worsening economy, "residents of 11 villages in central Turkey have put their hamlets for sale," according to reporter Douglas Frantz. "This is not a game we are playing," Mahmut Cakir, one of the leaders of the villagers in the Sivas region, told The N.Y. Times. "If anyone comes to buy these villages, we will sell." Frantz wrote that the villagers have put up the "for sale" sign out of desperation. "Much of this country of 65 million is being transformed into empty storefronts, idle workers and small business owners and farmers burdened by crushing debt." Cakir and his neighbors "voted to sell their villages and promised to leave with only the clothes on their backs. The price tag is about $1.3 million per village," Frantz wrote.
Cakir's village, Calli, is located about 20 miles east of the regional capital of Sivas. It has paved roads, green areas and homes for 120 families. Cakir said that if no buyers were found, he and his fellow villagers would leave Turkey en masse and go to any other country to find a job. "We would even immigrate to Greece or Syria and clean the streets," Cakir told the N.Y. Times. This is the opportunity Armenians have been waiting for since their deportation from their historic homeland in 1915. Hundreds of such villages and towns in what is now Eastern Turkey belong to Armenians. They are legally entitled to reclaim them without paying a penny.
However, due to the presence of the powerful Turkish military on these occupied Armenian territories, the true owners of these lands have no choice but to acquire them by paying money as the first step in the eventual liberation of their "yergir" or the historic homeland. At a price tag of $1.3 million per village, all eleven of these villages could be bought for around $14 million. I know that the Turkish government will not allow Diaspora Armenians to purchase these villages directly. Therefore, other arrangements need to be made!
N.Y. Times Rejects Turkish Ad Denying Genocide
Long years of Turkish efforts to buy off American University chairs,
scholars, politicians, publishers and reporters suffered a setback last
week when the New York Times rejected to print a paid ad that denied
the Armenian Genocide.
According to the Hurriyet newspaper, the N.Y. Times rejected an
announcement by 125 Turkish-American scientists and academicians because
"it contradicted the well-known facts of the Armenian Genocide."
The Times reportedly told the Turkish group: "Your announcement denies the
Armenian Genocide. You deny a Genocide that is accepted by the whole world.
We cannot publish such an announcement in our newspaper." Even though I have
neither the text of the Turkish announcement nor the actual reply of the
Times, I believe that the Turkish press, which is notorious for distorting
the news, would not make up a story that Would present its people's
interests in such a negative light. I congratulate the New York Times for
its courageous and moral stand. It's about time that somebody stood up to
the Turkish lies to show that not everyone can be bought with money!
Turkish Press Puts Words in Patriarch's Mouth
Even though there is no need to prove that Turkish newspapers invent
stories, I would like to present the most recent example of Turkish
yellowjournalism.
The Turkish Daily News published an article on May 19 with the following
sensational headline: "Armenian Patriarch rejects so-called Genocide."
The Turkish paper claimed that the Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, Mesrob II,
had said: "terminology should not be used for defining the events which took
place in the past between the Turks and the Armenians, stating that he could
not say that either a genocide or a massacre took place."
Even though the Patriarch is under constant pressure to make pro-Turkish
statements, the Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate issued the following
cautiously worded clarification which in fact does not deny that a genocide
had taken place:
"Patriarch Mesrob responded to some of the reporters' incessant questions.
One of the reporters asked: 'What do you say about the genocide resolution?
Can you say that a genocide occurred?' The Patriarch replied: 'Again, you
are posing the wrong question to the wrong person. I am neither a diplomat,
nor a historian, nor a statesman. I am a Christian overseer…. Did something
happen? Of course it did. The terminology is secondary. Some terrible thingn
took place in the past between the Turks and the Armenians, and how to term
it, whether a genocide or a massacre, is not my prerogative."
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives