THE GENOCIDE OF ARMENIAN PLACE NAMES IN TURKEY

Aysor.am
20.08.2009, 15:32

The appropriateness of changing the place names is still being
discussed in Turkish Media.

The launching point of the quarrels concerning the mentioned subject
was the event when recently the Turkish President Abdullah Gyul
during his visit to Bitlis called one of the dwelling places, today’s
Gyuroymak village, Norshin the old name of the village.

The leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party Devlet
Bahceli heavily criticized Gyul for not using the Turkish name of
the village. The answer was not late; the Prime Minister Erdoghan
advised Bahceli before speaking about the nationalism to think first
of all about his name and surname which have exceptionally Arabic
and Iranian origin.

"Milliyet" daily has touched upon the prehistory of the place-names
changes.

"In 1915 January 5 the Military Minister Enver pasha gave an order
to change the names of all the villages, provinces, mountains, and
rivers which have Armenian, Greek and Bulgarian origin."

According to the results of the investigation of Turk scientist
Dr Harun Tunceli, in 1940-2000 in Turkey, officially the names of
12.211 villages have been changed, which make the 35% of settlements
of the country.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress