Mass Graves In Mardin

[HyeFedayis]

In the fall of 2006, villagers in Mardin discovered a mass grave in a cave possibly carrying remnants of the Armenian Genocide victims. News spread and Professor David Gaunt of Sodertorn University College was interviewed as a scholar and expert on massacres in this region. Following his insinuation that the bones most probably belonged to Armenian victims of the 1915 genocide, authorities reportedly cordoned off the cave and finally, in December of 2006, the site was closed.

 

The next move came from Professor Yusuf Halacoglu, President of the Turkish Historical Institute, denying Gaunt's suggestions and insisting in a provocative manner that the bodies found were from Roman times and did not belong to Armenians. The authorities in the province of Mardin also launched their own investigation and concurred, as expected, with Professor Halacoglu.

 

Following somewhat abrasive negotiations in late 2006 - interrupted by Hrant Dink's assassination on January 19, 2007 by Turkish nationalists due to his views on Armenian issues - it was decided to initiate a joint investigation by interdisciplinary specialists in forensic medicine, archeology and anthropology, backed by historians knowledgeable about the region in question.

 

On April 24, 2006, the symbolic date for the Armenian Genocide, Professor Gaunt of Sodertorn accompanied by Yusuf Halacoglu arrived at the burial site, only to find a tampered grave full of mud where no bones were preserved to enable scientific research. As per Turkish modus operandi, authorities attributed it to weather conditions when in fact, they were deliberately unwilling to seal the historical grave site to prevent reliable scientific research for fear of exposing the truth. Allegedly, within a few months rain and mud had damaged the excavation site and the corpses therein, something that nature had been unable to do for a century.

 

Turkish authorities did, however, offer a shovel to Gaunt to recover some soil and leftover bones to conduct his research regarding the origins of bones. When the Professor protested the intentional cover up and the deliberate unprofessionalism in securing the grave site, he was blamed as unwilling to collaborate with Turkish authorities. The Swedish professor's disappointment was eventually brought to the point that he had to describe the whole theatrical production as an "expensive picnic".

 

This was, as a matter of fact, Turkey's generous offer for objective archeological investigation, later tempered by its fear that it would prove the truth of the Armenian Genocide. This fear possibly led the country and the Turkish Historical Society to tamper with the findings at the excavation site and blame the selective damage on acts of nature.

 

Sad Story! What a pathetic and futile effort for vindication and denial of universally accepted history.

 

To discuss the reality versus the fabrication of the Armenian Genocide at this point is irrelevant. Any scholarly, cogent analysis of historical facts point to a premeditated annihilation of a nation; the only country that denies it seems to be the instigator of these horrific crimes. Turkey's behavior and its continued blunt denial of the Armenian Genocide only serves to widen the gap between the two people and exacerbate the grief experienced by Armenians.

 

Due to the lack of any public retribution or even recognition of the genocide by the perpetrator of their collective martyrdom, the crime festered in the hearts and minds of Armenian people for a century, and the pain and suffering passed onto future generations until it became engraved in their national character. The natural outcome was resentment to Turkey's illogical but recalcitrant denial, and fueled Armenians' hostility toward their murderer nation.

 

It is a shame that the civilized world tends to leave its moral values behind when it comes to personal gain, and acquiesces to governmental blackmail by the perpetrators of Genocide. It rends itself unable or unwilling to denounce "men's inhumanity to men" with the word "Genocide," for fear of losing political leverage.

 

Turkey's denial may allow it to drag its feet in the short term, but in the long term history never lies.

[HyeFedayis]

http://books.google.com/books?id=4mug9LrpL...0#PRA1-PA438,M1

 

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