Roots Revealed: How a New Turkish Government Genealogy Database Exposes Citizens’ Armenian Ancestries

George Aghjayan

On Feb. 9, reports surfaced that over four million Turkish citizens had attempted to access the online government system (known as “e-Devlet”) seeking access to their family tree. Regardless of whether the figure is accurate, it is clear that the high volume of traffic to the website at first slowed and ultimately forced the shutdown of the system, which had only recently been opened.

The reason for the extraordinary interest in these family tree reports was the claim that they contained much more information than previously available—information dating back as the early 1800s in some cases. In addition, this was the first time such information was so easily accessible online from anywhere in the world. The internet soon filled with stories of Turkish citizens learning of Armenian and other ancestry they had not known about previously.

Turkish genealogy database fascinates, frightens Turks

 Fehim Tastekin

During the days when Turkey still hoped to join the European Union, its people were becoming willing to question their ethnic and religious ancestry. Since then, the country has reverted to a time when people were disgraced and denigrated, with the government’s blessings, as “crypto-Armenians."

Hrant Dink was the editor of the Armenian-language newspaper Agos in 2004 when he wrote that Sabiha Gokcen, the first female military pilot of the Turkish Republic, was of Armenian parentage. Because of this and other articles he penned, Dink found himself the subject of investigation by the Justice Ministry. He was assassinated in 2007 for reasons thought to be related to his strong support for Armenian causes.

El debate sobre el genocidio armenio llega a Eurovisión

Armenia participa hoy en la primera semifinal de Eurovisión con una tema que tiene como estribillo «No lo niegues», una supuesta alusión a la masacre otomana de armenios en la I Guerra Mundial, que Turquía niega que fuera un genocidio (*).

La delegación armenia ha repetido en Viena, sede del festival este año, una y otra vez que no hay contenido político en su canción, una balada que trata sobre «valores universales como el amor y la paz». Pero una lectura entre líneas despierta dudas, ya que el pasado 24 de abril se conmemoró el centenario de la masacre, en la que se calcula que murieron entre 1 y 1,5 millones de armenios. En Eurovisión está prohibida la alusión a temas de contenido político para evitar que el concurso, decidido por votación internacional, se convierta en un lugar de disputas entre naciones.

The Armenian DNA Project

The Azad-Hye Middle East Armenian portal (http://www.azad-hye.net/) published an interview with Peter Hrechdakian, Administrator of the Armenian DNA Project at Family Tree DNA, on September 25, 2010. This project is aimed at studying Armenian deep ancestry. Below is the text of the interview:

From Van to Buenos Aires: History of Three Generations

Vartan Matiossian

 

Juan (Mgrdich) Binayan was an Armenian from Van who, in 1889, embarked from Marseilles to South America. Born around 1855-1858, he had apparently been involved in some revolutionary activities; therefore in 1874 he had to flee his birthplace. He would never be able to go back. Before going to Marseilles, he had lived and worked in Odessa, Constantinople, Tripoli, Alexandria, and Malta. Attracted by the legendary stories telling “in Chile, you pick gold from the streets with your own hands,” he settled in the capital, Santiago.