ARMENIANS CONVERTED NOT ONLY TO KURDS OR ALEVIS, BUT ALSO TO ARABS
By Hakob Chakrian
AZG Armenian Daily #159
04/09/2007
The "Discoveries" of Halacoglu
Turkey’s official chief historian Yusuf Halacoglu announced at the
August 18 conference titled "The Avsharis in the history and culture
of Turks" that Kurds are "Turkmen" by origin in reality, and the
Kurdish-Alevis have "Armenian" origin.
That announcement had got a wide resonance in the Turkish media and
he was forced to give a more precise definition to his announcement:
"I don’t reject the existence of the Kurds in Turkey, but in reality
30 per cent of the Kurds are Turkmen by origin.
In order to avoid the exile, some of the Armenians presented themselves
as Kurdish-Alevis and adopted Islam in 1915. The apostate Armenians
were about 100.000 in Turkey in 1920. From 1936 to 1937 the Government
of Turkey had revealed the apostate Armenians house by house. I have
the list of those Armenians and I will publish it, if the authorities
let me do it".
The above-mentioned announcements of Halacoglu were the basis for the
accusations against him that he was making political preconditions
for the speculation of "apostasy".
It is evident that for the counter-attackers of Halacoglu the main
issue is not the apostate Armenians (the existence of those they don’t
deny), but the application of the apostasy as a means of blackmail.
It’s worth to mention that about the apostate Armenians mentioned also
Pr. of History of the Inyoyu University in Malatia Salim Gyohgen at
an interview to "Aksiyon"magazine: "There are about 80.000-100.000
hidden Armenians in Turkey. They mainly hid themselves among Kurds
and Alevis".
"Aksion" has published the interview with Pr. Salim Gyohgen and the
article about the apostate Armenians, which is of a great interest
and we want to present it partially:
"Pr. Salim Gyohgen supports a thesis, which says: "There are also
thousands of Armenians, who converted to Arabs. There is nothing new
in the announcement of Yusuf Halacoglu. It was evident to everybody,
but nobody wanted to speak of it. American representatives of that
time mentioned of the hidden Armenians in their reports, i.e. Kurds
hid 500.000 Armenians in Erzerum, Alavis helped 50.000 Armenians in
Tungeli (Dersim). The same happened also in Vardo (region of Van),
Khnus and other places.
There are many Armenians in Hata, Sgherd, Urfa, Mardin and other
places, who are converted to Arabs: they speak Arabian and present
themselves as Arabs at present"
Some of the Armenians converted to Assyrians, according to Pr. Gyohgen.
"Aksion" magazine published the number and the "official" originality
of the Armenians. According to it, 1000 Armenian families (converted
to Kurds, Assyrians and Alevis) live in Diarbekir, 3655 families
(as Alevi-Kurds) – in Malatia, 5000 Turks (hidden Armenians) –
in Cesaria, 1000 families (as Kurds and Alevis) – in Eliazig, 4000
families (as Kurds) – in Van, 3500 families (as Kurds and Arabs) –
in Urfa, 1200 families (as Arabs, and a little part as Kurds) – in
Sgherd, 1100 families (as Arabs) – in Hata, 200 families (as Kurds) –
in Bitlis, 3000 families (as Kurds, Alevis and a little part as Turks)
– in Erzerum, 1300 families (as Alevis and Kurds ) – in Erznka, 1500
families (as Arabs) – in Mardin, 3000 families (as Kurds and Alevis)
– in Marash, 1600 families (as Kurds) – in Adiyaman, 2000 families
(as Kurdish-Alevis) – in Tungeli and 2000 families (as Kurds, Alevis
and Arabs) – in Adana.
At the end of the article "Aksion" added: "The data come from the
researches of different institutions and works of different researchers
that continue till today. The indexes can be changed according to
new revelations".