My wish is to see the copy of Tsitsernakaberd Memorial opened in Turkey, Turkish writer Kemal Yalcin told a press conference in Yerevan.
Kemal Yalcin is a Turk and a Muslim. He has nothing to do with Armenians. As a student he read in Turkish textbooks that Armenians were traitors. He met the first Armenian in Germany, where he has been living since 1980. It was Meline, an Istanbul Armenian teacher.
“Meline was teaching us, telling about different countries – China, Finland, India, but never about Armenia and Armenians. ‘It’s impossible to tell about our pain,’ she said, when I asked her why she avoided telling about her Motherland and her people. When I revealed my plans to write about Armenians, she made me promise I would visit Cilicia to find the heirs of Genocide survivors and talk to them. Only after that she agreed to speak about her pain,” Kemal Yalcin said.
The Turkish writer visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today. “I’m shocked and extremely excited,” he said. “I have dedicated more than 5,000 pages to the Armenian people and the Armenian Genocide, but I know it’s nothing compared to the sufferings the Armenian people went through. Believe that I carry that pain in my soul and I’m aware I have a lot to do to support your just cause,” Kemal Yalcin added.
The author’s dream is to see the copy of Tsitsernakaberd built in Ankara. “I want Turks to lay flowers at the memorial to the innocent victims every April 24 just like Armenians do,” he concluded.
