Research Refutes Armenian-Urart Relation

Zaman, Turkey
May 24 2004

It has emerged that the Armenians do not have a genetic relationship
with the Urart civilization that once settled in Eastern Turkey in
the vicinity of Van city.

Research conducted by Ankara University’s Anthropology Department
faculty member, Prof. Erksin Gulec, scientifically refutes Armenian
claims of kinship with Urarts. The Urarts established a strong
civilization in the 7th and 8th centuries in Eastern Anatolia as
well as in Caucasus. Armenians believe that the lands under the Urart
hegemony are the homeland of Armenians.

This thesis has been historically and scientifically refuted. Now,
it is anthropologically refuted as well.

Gulec anthropologically examined 288 different skeletons unearthed
during archeological excavations in Van and Hakkari. The Urart
skeletons previously removed in Tilkitepe and Erzincan were also
examined. Using a special method, distance analysis, it is possible to
analyze kinship relations of populations. In the end, the morphological
characteristics of Urarts and Armenians were compared.

Gulec presented his study at the 1st National DVI Congress held in Van
lately and said that Urarts had a Mediterranean morphologic structure
while the others have an Armenian structure. He said that the ancestors
of Armenians are accepted as Armenoids and said they were a sub-group
of Dinarics who lived in Anatolia previously in the Bronze Age.

05.24.2004
Necip Cakir