TURKS, ARMENIANS SHARE SIMILAR GENES, SAY SCIENTISTS
Cansu Camlibel

Hurriyet
m/n.php?n=turks-armenians-share-similar-genes-say- scientists-2009-12-24
Dec 24 2009
Turkey

Turks, Armenians and Kurds are genetically linked to each other,
Armenian scientists say, calling for a joint research with their
Turkish colleagues on the genetic similarities. European politicians,
who have supported the recent normalization efforts, will also back
the project, they say

While Ankara and Yerevan struggle to ease long-standing tension that
has divided the two neighbors for years, a discovery about genes
appears to remind everyone how close the two nations actually are.

Armenian scientists said they observed high genetic matching between
the two nations during their research on leukemia. They say Kurds
are also genetically linked to the Armenians and Turks.

"Turks and Armenians were the two societies throughout the world that
were genetically close to each other. Kurds are also in same genetic
pool," Savak Avagian, director of Armenia’s bone marrow bank, said
in an interview with daily Hurriyet.

Calling on his Turkish colleagues to examine the genetic similarities
of the two nations in addition to asking for funds from the European
Union, Avagian said he believes European politicians, who have
supported the recent normalization efforts between Turkey and Armenia,
would also back the project.

Genetic research in 1998 also supported the Armenian scientists’
findings. A project titled "The Genetic Relations between Mediterranean
Communities," prepared by three Spanish scholars from the molecular
biology division of Complutense University in Madrid, defines the
Turks and Armenians as two branches with the same genetic origin.

However, Avagian said few people know the genetic similarities between
Turks and Armenians. "The high ratio that we observed in bone marrow
matching supports our thesis. I am sure everybody will be surprised
when they hear this scientific truth."

Marrow cooperation

The Armenian Marrow Bank has 15,000 Armenian donors in its records
and is cooperating with 59 other banks through the World Marrow
Donor Association.

Mihran Nazeretian, chief doctor of the bank, defined the institution’s
mission as trying to "discover whether there is an equivalence of cells
between Armenian donors and a patient living elsewhere in the world."

"The patient’s ethnic background, citizenship, or political and
religious views are not important at all," Nazeretian said, signaling
his willingness to cooperate with Turkish marrow banks.

Avagian said he visited Turkey in 2005 and met with the executives
of marrow banks in both Ankara and Istanbul with an offer of a joint
project. But Turkish officials were not interested in Avagian’s offer
and applied alone for EU funds on marrow research. In the end, their
request was rejected.

Noting the more convenient atmosphere between Turkey and Armenia,
Avagian said: "If we knock on the doors of the European Union
together, they would consider our request twice. Now, there is
a political motivation, too. The bloc has already voiced support
for the normalization talks between the two nations and I bet many
politicians would support such medical research."

Nazeretian said they would provide marrow without question if a
Turkish patient would match with one of their Armenian donors.

The doctor told of his experience with Turkish patients, saying:
"From Armenia, we found 43 matches with the bank in Istanbul and five
with the one in Ankara and we made immediate inquiries. However,
nobody responded. Unfortunately none of those matching results led
to a marrow transplant."

Nazeretian said there might be various reasons for the failure. "Maybe
the patient found another donor in Turkey or the patient was lost
before our response," he said.

He also said there have been Armenian matches for Turks living in
Germany as well but that no matches had resulted in transplants. "My
only wish is for a transplant between an Armenian donor and a Turkish
patient to happen one day," he said.