Armenians’ seeking organization in Turkey should be cautious – expert

13:58 * 28.09.14

It is for years that Armenians, including Islamized Armenians, have
been seeking to organize in Turkey’s different regions, and have
formed a number of NGOs, expert in Turkic studies Ruben Melkonyan told
Tert.am.

“By and large, I welcome the process. On the other hand, I am calling
for caution because Turkish authorities are trying to get some people
included in such unions and issue certain instructions to them. If we
deeply consider different NGOs’ steps, we can see they often play into
the Turkish authorities’ hands, which affords more opportunities to
Turkish authorities to get a better knowledge of Armenians’ problems,”
he said.

Such NGOs are participating in different events in Armenia, and
Turkish authorities’ can have access to the events in Armenia through
the NGOs.

“Loyal ones are certainly among the organizers and rank-and-file
members of a union, seeking to organize local Armenians. On the other
hand, there are time-servers. I am calling for a more cautious
approach to the matter, considering it a phenomenon within Turkey,” Mr
Melkonyan said.

NGOs are dealing with the return of churches and other holy places and
even succeed in some cases.

“As regards the return of churches, I am concerned that more cases of
‘return’ will be recorded as the year 2015 nears, and only a small
part of the Armenian property seized in different years to the
Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul, with a serious propaganda to be
organized to show Turkey to the world as a civilized and tolerant
state.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress