Your trusted source

Ermenihaber.am news website presents the story of a Turkish student which was also published on several Turkish websites. In the story, Baris Mumakmaz told how much things changed in his worldview after he learnt Armenian. 

Below we present the main part of the article.

“People decide to learn a foreign language for different reasons. Some do it for business, others for fun or for getting acquainted with girls. I did it for “feeling.” I was working on my Master’s thesis on conflict resolutions in Boston in 2009 when I decided to study the Armenian cause. I was informed about the Armenian cause but I felt as if it was insufficient and I decided to learn Armenian. I decided to attend Armenian language classes.

“Hello, Baris,” a woman told me in native Turkish on the first day when I came to classes. “My name is Anahit. You are welcome to Armenian classes.” For a moment I thought I was dreaming, but I understood everything later, when I knew that Anahit was a descendant of an Armenian who fled the Armenian massacres for America in 1915.

I was doing well in classes. At one of the final lessons, Anahit told us to make up sentences with the Armenian names we knew. I mentioned all Armenian names I could recall – Hrant, Rachel, Nora, Sevan, Sayat.

Anahit got surprised and asked how I can know those old-style Armenian names. Then I told them about Constantinople. I told them what happened on January 19 and that HRANT is not an old-style name in Turkey. I told them how a great number of people who felt pangs of conscience took to the streets chanting: “We all are Hrant Dink.”

Everybody was looking at me thinking “he will speak out this time.” But I was not able to tell them that I acknowledge the events of 1915 as genocide, that I share their pain, though as a student who studied conflicts I knew what to say to the aggrieved party. But I could say nothing just because for a moment I felt so guilty that my tongue failed to move. For the first time in my life, as a Turk, I felt guilty towards the Armenians.

The classes finished and for a long time I could not work on the Armenian cause. I was shocked. I understand it now that I had to feel the shock to be able to understand many things.”