Plans for "Turkish Plot" Put on Hold

Heather Ibbotson

A proposal to erect a plaque at Mount Hope cemetery is in limbo after it unleashed a storm of unexpected international controversy, says Mayor Chris Friel.

"There are so many aggressive and very angry groups, and accusations and absolute misunderstandings of the situation," that the plan is now "officially on hold," Friel said Thursday.

"We're backing away" until a response is received from the federal government and city council has an opportunity to review and discuss it, he said.

Friel said the plan had stirred up negative commentary "on an international level, far beyond what a municipality can handle."

Setting the Record Straight: An Exchange

Martha Skrypuch (July 2, 2013)

Dear Mr. Antourian,

I read with interest your article about the Ottoman WWI Internees from Brantford and would like to clarify some of the points you've made. I am indeed a member of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association. In addition to the five novels I have written about the Armenian Genocide and the Georgetown Boys, I have written books about the internment of Ukrainians in WWI (my grandfather was an internee and my book Silver Threads was the first commercial book to ever be written on this topic). I also have written about the Holodomor, and have received hate mail and death threats for doing so.
I do not shy away from difficult historical topics.

For the Benefit of the Turkish Ambassador: An Exchange

Marsha Skrypuch's Interest in the Topic
 

(June 16, 2013)

Marsha Skrypuch here, author of three novels set during the Armenian Genocide (The Hunger, Nobody's Child, Daughter of War), two chapter books about the Georgetown Boys (Aram's Choice and Call Me Aram) as well as author of two books set during the internment of Ukrainians in WWI (Silver Threads, Prisoners in the Promised Land).

My own Ukrainian grandfather was interned as an enemy alien in WWI and this topic is of deep interest to me.

For the Benefit of the Turkish Ambassador (Public Service Announcement)

"Keghart" (editorial)

 

On a cold night in late November 1914 police rounded up 100 Turkish immigrants living in Brantford, Ontario (56 miles west of Toronto). Most of the arrested were laborers in a local foundry. A few days later the 100 men were shipped off to a concentration camp in Kapuskasing (then called MacPherson), 520 miles north of Toronto. The Turkish immigrants spent most of the First World War in the Canadian gulag (average winter temperature -25C).

What was their crime?