“Hrant Dink’s assassination gave courage to many Armenians living in the city of Dersim to speak out about their Armenian roots,” told the Armenian-origin Zeki Sarojan in conversation with us.
Both his mother and father are Armenians, but converted to Turks. In his words, after the death of Hrant Dink, when many Armenians living in Turkey were afraid to speak out of their Armenian roots and even left Turkey, many crypto Armenians in Dersim began to reveal themselves. “Six month ago I came to Armenia and was baptized in in Etchmiadzin under the name Armenak. Armenak was a revolutionist in Turkey and was one of the leaders of Rural Workers’ Liberation Army, who was killed by the Turkish government authorities.
Both my mother and father are Armenians. My father’s grandfather was selling fabrics in Dersim, he was a rich and famous Agha. After the death of my father’s grandfather, the Turks began the Armenian massacre, my father’s grandmother and her three sons was left orphaned and during the massacre, another rich Turkish Agha who was her husband’s partner hid them in his house. The Turks knew which family they are hiding and demanded them to surrender, but this Turkish Agha has fought and has not handed over my father’s grandmother with her three sons. So, they were rescued. Neither my father nor my mother remember anything from the genocide, my mother was only telling that her uncle hardly escaped.
” Zeki Sarojay’s Armenian surname is Karibyan.
Arpine SIMONYAN
