Sibel Hurtas
Translated by Timur Göksel
Armenian youths in Turkey have launched a protest campaign against the demolition of Camp Armen, the Armenian orphanage that housed hundreds of Armenian children in summer sessions. The Armenian community
demands the orphanage be preserved and handed over to it. This does not
sound likely, but it is significant as being the first street
protest by Turkey's Armenians to express their demands in recent times.
Camp Armen symbolizes the long saga of the
deportation and massacres Armenians suffered on Anatolian soil. Its
history starts with the purchase of a plot of land by Gedikpasa Armenian
Protestant Church from a private party to house Armenian orphans who
lived in Anatolia and were labeled as "sword leftovers" by the
Armenians. The orphanage camp was built in 1962 by the orphans themselves under supervision of a master builder.
