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[Adventurer]

Turkey fixes Armenian church as gesture By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 24, 3:35 PM ET



AKDAMAR ISLAND, Turkey - An ancient Armenian church, perched on a rocky island in a vast lake, has become a modern symbol of the divisions and fitful efforts at reconciliation between Turks and Armenians whose history of bloodshed drives their troubled relationship.

The Akdamar church, one of the most precious remnants of Armenian culture 1,000 years ago, deteriorated over the last century, a victim of neglect after Turks carried out mass killings of Armenians as the Ottoman Empire crumbled around the time of World War I. Rainwater seeped through the collapsed, conical dome, treasure-hunters dug up the basalt floor, and shepherds took potshots with rifles at the facade.

Next week, the church will showcase Turkey's tentative steps to improving ties with its ethnic Armenian minority, as well as neighboring Armenia. Turkey completed a $1.5 million restoration of the sandstone building, and invited Armenian officials to a ceremony there on March 29 to mark what Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has called a "positive" message.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070324/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_armenian_church

[If more people could focus on bridges, reconciliation, rather than finger pointing, things can get better for people.]

[nautilus]

It is a positive step, although of course racism against armenians if rampant in a lot of Turkey.

If there are any of them left, their rights would be garanteed under EU membership.

[Adventurer]

[igotthisguitar]

It has been said that the same "cult of evil" behind what happened in Armenia, subsequently had a leading role in orchestrating what transpired a few years later in Europe.

Presumably practise makes perfect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide

[Rteacher]

Although 39 states have passed bills recognizing the "Armenian Genocide" the U.S. government has never passed a bill using the term genocide, mainly because of Presidential opposition (regardless of political party) and the Jewish lobby acting on behalf of Turkey ...

A current bill taken up by Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has politicians and lobbyists worried about its impact on U.S. - Turkey relations...
http://www.jdemirdjian.com/Pages/Jewish_warning.htm

The home page of that site presents some interesting stuff about Armenian culture ... http://www.jdemirdjian.com/Armenians.htm

I've mentioned before that I was named after one of my grandmother's kids who starved to death on a forced desert march (of women and kids...) to concentration camps.

Many children met a similar fate:

[yawarakaijin]

Jesus Rteacher! How about a little bit of a heads up when posting an image like that!? I take no offence to being shown the results of genocide but not when I'm at work man! and especially not when I work in an open office where anyone walking by can see my screen. How about a little " scroll down to see an image of the result of genocide." It would be appreciated.

[yawarakaijin]

*double post*

[dogbert]

Turkey is unlikely to move to improve its relationship with Armenia until Armenia withdraws from Azerbaijan.

[Rteacher]

Sorry about posting that picture without warning - I guess - but I really didn't anticipate it causing a work problem. If that kind of nudity arouses anyone's prurient interest, there could be a serious problem with necrophilia ...

I got the image off the Wikipedia link posted by "Igotthisguitar" ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide

[yawarakaijin]

The problem would be a passersby believing I was into necrophilia

[Rteacher]

Yeah, you're right, that's why I deleted the picture. Although I don't strongly identify with my Armenian heritage, I sometimes get angry when I try to imagine what my relatives went through. My grandmother (on my mother's side...) lost at least two of her children to starvation (including a boy, Ashod, who I was named after...)

It looked like my uncle Avy was a goner too (at age 5) when he came down with the "plague", but he was apparently saved by a miracle. My grandmother (who lived to be about 100...) related that in her agonizing grief she heard a heavenly voice from above tell her to scrape some mold off a rock and give it to her son. He soon recovered, and in retrospect, we think that it must have been a natural antibiotic like penicllin - years before its discovery...

She and her two surviving kids were again saved from sure death when they were taken in by a sympathetic Turkish Muslim family (taking a grave risk as Turkish officials threatened to kill Turks found sheltering Armenians...)

My uncle wrote an account of his recollections from that period, and one of its themes was that there are good and bad people within every religion (and nationality...)