ervonitor

Hello Miss Kiffer, Again please excuse me for I answer you so late. The tree you talked about is "dut" in Tutrkish, it is obvious that the origine is Armenian, like many Turkish words. In English it is "mulberry". The catterpillars of silk worm eat only the leaves of the mulberry trees. Together with Bursa, Adapazari was an important silk production town before the Genocide. Now there are very few mulberry trees left around Adapazari. Since very old times non-muslims were heavily taxed instead of been taken into the army. This changed before the first World War. Thousands of Armenians fought in the Ottoman army during the Balkan war and many have been decorated. Even after the Genocide, many Armenians continued to serve in the army, especially as doctors. But most were in "amele taburu" which is a "workers batallion". Most probably your grandfather has died of starvation, disease or over working. And unfortunately many people had to pay the "bedel" more than once. If you permit me, I would like to write to your e-mail address, instead of this Forum. In that way I can answer you quickly and we can exchange more. My e-mail address is de_murat@yahoo.com Yours sincerely, Murat Oguz

Dear Miss Kiffer, Thank you very much for your answer. And please excuse me for I answer late, unfortunately I was very busy to check the Hye Forum. As far as I understand and know, the religios school you mention must be the Armenian religious school and convent in a village called Armash (now Akmese) about 20 km Northeast of Izmit. Adapazari is about 60km East of Izmit. I have been to Armash but unfortunately the newest building there is about 50 years old. There were some one storey stone buildings in Adapazari, somehow protected because they were historic. One was being used as a shop and survived the great earthquake of 1999 but after the earthquake some local "animals' demolished it to build a taller building in its place, saying that it was badly damaged. It was news on big TV channels and everybody saw that the Armenian built staone house was in perfect condition. Unfortunately it was too late to save the building. Around 1915 the population of Izmit was about 8-10 thousand. Nowadays it is about 500 thousand. When I look at the city from the seaside or walk the old streets, I always wander if those Armenians who were forced to leave came back, would they recognize the town and find their way around. That is why I want to meet some Armenians, "people of Izmit" like me, and ask if they have any photos of the town before 1915. There was just one Armenian familiy still living in Izmit and some years before they moved to Istanbul. If you can give me names, I will ask them if they know each other. My friend's father wrote a book about the history of Izmit. it is very informative about the Armenian population and buildings in town. Unfortunately it is in Turkish. If you e-mail me, I can send you some old photos. My e-mail address is de_murat@yahoo.com Best regards, Murat Oguz

Hello Arpa, Thank you very much for your help. Please excuse me for my late answer, I don't have much time to check the Hye Forum. Best regards, Murat Oguz

The Turks never had a grammer book or any idea about Turkish grammer until Ataturk wanted a Turkish grammer book during the 1920's. Since there were no Turkish linguists he chose an Armenian one, Mr. Martayan. One should not be angry with him because, how many people in the world actually "invented" an alphabet for another language other than his own? The only other example is the Kirilian brothers who were Greek and created the Slavic alphabets. This is a great achievement that no Turk could do. An honor for him and the collective intellect and culture of the Armenians. Also, being an Armenian, or anything else for that matter, has nothing to do with blood or religion. The only factor is the DNA of a person. Even if one changes his religion or nationality, one is still what he is. Also, some Armenians converted to Islam because during the 1400's people who converted to Islam were exempt from taxes of ruling Turks. Some were forced to convert by fear of being slaughtered. There were also some relatively peacefull times for Armenians in which names didn't matter much. One must also remember that out of roughly 40 thousand words used in Turkish today, just about 500 words are Turkish. The rest is barrowed from other languages, Armenian being a major contibutor. Some have been taken about 600 years before from Armenian and that only a handfull people actually know it. This means that, names of things, abstract values or people may sound Turkish to some but they are actually Armenian. Armenian also took some words from Turkish but almost all were discontinued after the establishment of the Armenian Republic. If some people are living under the political rule of a country where the majoruty of the population usese another language, than it is normal for them to use it in daily life, and in the course of centuries adapt some words. There was also a custom of Turks focibly taking children from non-muslims to be raised as muslim children. The Architect Sinanyan is one of the most famous of them. His story is officially written in historic documents and has begun to be accepted since recent years by educated normal Turks. The Ottomans didn't have any idea about "nationality", so anyone who was a muslim was considered as a muslim or an Ottoman. They also married with some Armenians. Consider this; if a muslim Ottoman marries an Armenian, their child is half "Turk" and half Amenian. If in later life that child becomes a prominent person, that is because of his/her Armenian genes. Even though he/she may consider himself/herself a Turk or anything else. Some people may not like the fact that many statesmen, artists, businessmen and even military officers were Armenian and helped the Ottomans. But one should think that, all that happened before the massacre of 1915. It also means that the credit goes to Armenians when one speaks of any achievement of the Ottomans, also shared by Greeks, Jews and many other nationlities. An Armenian may only be considered as a "traitor" only if that person has harmed any Armenian knowingly while he also knew that he himself was an Armenian, especially after 1915. I don't think that there were or are Armenian "traitors" in Turkey. But there are many Armenians who are "harmful' to the Armenian people and for Armenia. They are the communists and the criminals in Russia.

The Zildjian family is a centuries old Armenian artisan family. Hundreds of years before they perfected the art of cymbal making. Because of that they were the only authorised family who could sell to the Ottoman Palace. The secret was passed from father to the eldest son. During the 1910's the person who should learn the secret went to the United States so his cousin cotinued the business, thoug it was not big or fashionable. During the 1930's jazz era Mr. Zildjian in America decided to restart the business there and became the most famous cymbal manufacturer. He also made an agreement with his second cousins living in Turkey so that he could exclusively use the "Zildjian" name as a brandname. Part of the Zildjian family still lives in Istanbul, Turkey and make cymbals but use the "Istanbul" name as a brandname. It can be noticed that both names are written with the same style of letters. I got this information from the official Zildjian site on the web.

Hello Mr. Yervant, Thanks for your wish. I actually meant to meet the children and grandchildren as you advised. I was not silenced but, since I left my e-mail address on my profile page and asked to be informed by e-mail about contacters, I didn't visit the forum since than. Unfortunately the address I left for the notifications was discontinued for the mail company closed. So I was not informed about your message. Luckily, an Armenian from Australia contacted me yesterday using my e-mail address shown on my profile, which is working. And his grandparent was from Izmit. By the way, I would like to ask you if there is an Armenian organization to document lost people, like The Simon Wiesenthal organization. Thanks for your interest. Yours truly, ervonitor

Dear Armenian friends, I live in the city of Izmit in Turkey and would like to get in contact with the survivers of the Genocide who used to reside in Izmit or the villages around Izmit, namely; Bardizag, Armash and Aslanbeg. Please write to me at ervonitor@hotmail.com Best regards, ervonitor