VAN CEMETERY PROVES TO BE VILLAGERS’ HOAX

Hurriyet
domestic/11790546.asp?scr=1
June 4 2009
Turkey

VAN – Two villagers have admitted to fabricating claims that a school
was planned on a former Armenian cemetery in a village in the eastern
province of Van. They said they invented the story because they did
not want to be bothered by noisy children.

In an April 22 story, it was reported that an inquiry was launched
after locals complained that a school was being built on land formerly
used as an Armenian cemetery in the village of Aydınocak in Van.

The area was officially assigned to the village as pastureland,
but some villagers alleged that it contained an Armenian
cemetery. Aydınocak’s muhtar, or administrative head, Bahri
AltıntaÅ~_, told the Anatolia news agency that the village was upset
about the stories that bones were dug up in a school construction site.

"Two people from the village made the claim to journalists who came
to the village. We approached them and asked them to repeat their
claims to us. Both said they didn’t want a school to be built near
their homes and that was why they made the claims," AltıntaÅ~_
said. In the past, Muslims and Armenians used to live side by side,
said the muhtar. "We respect all religions. We would never build a
school on top of a cemetery," he said.

He said some stones that had crosses on them were found elsewhere
and brought to the village, only to be shown as if they were dug up
during the construction. One villager, Fehim Yurdagul, said reports on
school construction had portrayed the village as anti-Armenian. "We
respect all beliefs of not only Armenians but everyone. Villagers
would never have allowed building on a cemetery," he said.

Previously, the local administrator of the wider region of GevaÅ~_,
Tahsin Aksu, had dismissed claims, explaining that the villagers had
told him the bones that were buried there belonged to animals that
died of a disease 50 years ago.