A TURKISH CITIZEN GIVES AWAY FAMILY LAND AS GENOCIDE REPARATION

Blogian.net
09 Jan 2009

Encouraged by the recent apology to Armenians by thousands of
Turkish intellectuals and dissidents, a Turkish citizen has done the
unprecedented: Berzan Boti (not his real name) of Siirt is giving
all the land he inherited to an Assyrian organisation. Along with
Armenians, indigenous Assyrians were also victims of the WWI genocide
at the hands of Ottoman Empire’s government during WWI: Boti’s letter
to Sabri Atman, founder and director of the Assyrian Seyfo Center in
Europe who will now be responsible for the returned land (south of the
Lake Van), states: "When I found out that the properties that I and my
brothers inherited from our father wasn’t our own, but properties taken
from the murdered Assyrians in 1915 I felt an indescribable feeling of
guilt and shame. I’ve been thinking long and hard before I have come
to this decision. I tried to put myself in their position. I have
personally apologised to every Assyrian and Armenian I’ve meet. But
this does not get rid of the crime our ancestors committed. Even if I
am personally not responsible for what happened in 1915, I felt as I
had to do more than just to apologise. Finally, I came to the decision
to give back all properties that I inherited from my forefathers to
Seyfo Center, who struggles for a confession of the Seyfo genocide
in 1915".