Pizza wars: flatbread becomes latest battlefield in Turkey-Armenia dispute

 Sibel Hurtas

Translated by Sibel Utku Bila

Earlier this month, a Turkish newspaper reported that a new crisis was brewing between troubled neighbors Turkey and Armenia. The disputed issue this time is a popular foodstuff called “lahmacun” in Turkish and “lamadjo”(*) in Armenian. According to the report, the Armenians had launched an international drive to promote it as an Armenian dish, opening two restaurants in Russia.(**) The report sparked indignation among Turks, who also claim ownership of the dish, which is a thin piece of dough, topped with minced meat, vegetables and spices, ideally baked on a wood fire. Some television programs even took it upon themselves to explain why it was Turkish food.(***)

In the Ruins: The 1909 Massacres of Armenians in Adana, Turkey

Scott Neuffer

 

Zabel Yessayan, In the Ruins: The 1909 Massacres of Armenians in Adana, Turkey, translated by G. M. Goshgarian, AIWA Press.

This unsparing, unflinching, and darkly poetic account of the 1909 massacre of 30,000 Armenians in Adana, Turkey, makes Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness seem like leisure reading. That’s because Zabel Yessayan, one of the most important Armenian woman writers of the modern era, is relentless in capturing every horrid detail of genocide: every burnt building, every blood-streaked field, and every broken and whimpering face of those who survived the massacre.