Islamized Armenians in Turkey Represent Age-Long Assimilation Policy

The Islamization of Armenians in Turkey is the product of a long-term and systematic political strategy of assimilating and Turkifying the Armenian community, according to documents from the late Ottoman era, said Taner Akçam, a Turkish-German historian and sociologist, at the Conference on Islamized Armenians held in Istanbul over the weekend, Today’s Zaman reports.

Identity Crisis: Journalist Explores the Roots of Hamshen Armenians

Gayane Mkrtchyan

 

“Who were they? Were they actually Armenian? Did they look like us? Were they different, very different? What an exotic thing – people who are Muslim, but speak Armenian,” these were the questions and thoughts that prompted journalist Vahan Ishkhanyan to search for answers in the land of disputed identity and present it all in his lengthy new commentary about Hamshen Armenians.

Ishkhanyan’s grandfather was from Hamshen, as the reporter learned when Hamshen expert Hovan Simonian took a gene sample from Ishkhanyan for his Armenian gene project.