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TURKISH MP DISLIKES 'VAN,' SUGGESTS RENAMING IT INTO 'WAN'
October 31, 2013 - 17:33 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - President Ilham Aliyev's "astounding" statement on
the 2800th anniversary of the Azeri people was followed by a similarly
inconceivable one: Turkish parliamentarian Aysel Tugluk offered to
rename the city of Van into Wan. As the MP noted, for thousands of
years, the city carried the name of Wan, which has to be brought back.
The MP is confident that current name of the city "is incurrent from
the viewpoints of democracy and pronunciation." One might wonder
what a city name has to do with the democracy. But the pronunciation
point is clear enough: everything in Turkey that used to belong to
Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians was declared wrong and was demanded to
be corrected. Same is the case here: Van sounds too "Armenian" to
the Turkish MP, so it has to be renamed. Seems like this is the way
Ms Tugluk interpreted Prime Minister Erdogan's statement suggesting
that historic sites will recover their old names. Strangely enough,
the PM's remark did not affect the cities listed in the catalogues
and historical works. Also, by that logic, the village of Hissarlik
should be re-given its ancient name, Troy.
As for Van and the Kingdom of Van, which was one of the most powerful
ones back when the ancestors of the Turkish MP never even existed, our
advice is a simple one - learn history. And not by Turkish textbooks,
but serious world-acknowledged works.
And if renamed, the city should be called Tushpa, rather than Wan.
Turks already renamed Ararat into Agrı Dagı, Akhtamar into Akdamar,
Smyrna into Izmir - the list is endless. Is Van the next?
October 31, 2013 - 17:33 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - President Ilham Aliyev's "astounding" statement on
the 2800th anniversary of the Azeri people was followed by a similarly
inconceivable one: Turkish parliamentarian Aysel Tugluk offered to
rename the city of Van into Wan. As the MP noted, for thousands of
years, the city carried the name of Wan, which has to be brought back.
The MP is confident that current name of the city "is incurrent from
the viewpoints of democracy and pronunciation." One might wonder
what a city name has to do with the democracy. But the pronunciation
point is clear enough: everything in Turkey that used to belong to
Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians was declared wrong and was demanded to
be corrected. Same is the case here: Van sounds too "Armenian" to
the Turkish MP, so it has to be renamed. Seems like this is the way
Ms Tugluk interpreted Prime Minister Erdogan's statement suggesting
that historic sites will recover their old names. Strangely enough,
the PM's remark did not affect the cities listed in the catalogues
and historical works. Also, by that logic, the village of Hissarlik
should be re-given its ancient name, Troy.
As for Van and the Kingdom of Van, which was one of the most powerful
ones back when the ancestors of the Turkish MP never even existed, our
advice is a simple one - learn history. And not by Turkish textbooks,
but serious world-acknowledged works.
And if renamed, the city should be called Tushpa, rather than Wan.
Turks already renamed Ararat into Agrı Dagı, Akhtamar into Akdamar,
Smyrna into Izmir - the list is endless. Is Van the next?