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RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS HEAD MEETS ARMENIAN CLERIC
Hurriyet Daily News
Nov 29 2011
Turkey
The head of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, Mehmet Görmez,
met with the acting patriarch of Turkish Armenian community yesterday.
Görmez said he was honored to welcome Archbishop Aram AteÅ~_yan
as a guest of the directorate. It is not right to classify people
as either minorities or majorities, he said. "We are the children
of a common civilization, history and culture. Identities cannot be
defined with numbers."
AteÅ~_yan said the word "minority" should be put to one side and
added that Turkish and Armenian people had lived together in shared
territories for centuries as members of two different religions
and communities.
"Even though some circles have caused disturbance in this country, it
is time that we left that aside and returned to the good old days,"
he said. "There are no Armenian, Greek Orthodox or Syriac people,
only children of the same soil," AteÅ~_yan said in reference to who
is a "minority" in Turkey.
From: Baghdasarian
Hurriyet Daily News
Nov 29 2011
Turkey
The head of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, Mehmet Görmez,
met with the acting patriarch of Turkish Armenian community yesterday.
Görmez said he was honored to welcome Archbishop Aram AteÅ~_yan
as a guest of the directorate. It is not right to classify people
as either minorities or majorities, he said. "We are the children
of a common civilization, history and culture. Identities cannot be
defined with numbers."
AteÅ~_yan said the word "minority" should be put to one side and
added that Turkish and Armenian people had lived together in shared
territories for centuries as members of two different religions
and communities.
"Even though some circles have caused disturbance in this country, it
is time that we left that aside and returned to the good old days,"
he said. "There are no Armenian, Greek Orthodox or Syriac people,
only children of the same soil," AteÅ~_yan said in reference to who
is a "minority" in Turkey.
From: Baghdasarian