Vartan Estukyan

Vartan Estukyan

Paşinyan meets Armenian community, Patriarchate a no-show
As the Armenian community, has Patriarch Maşalyan whom we have chosen to be our 'leader' delivered on his duties? Even the people who would've responded "Yes" to this question are questioning the Patriarchate's attitude during Paşinyan's visit of Turkey. Especially when the Armeno-Turkish relations are fragile as they are, subjecting the Prime Minister of said country to the inner disagreements within Armenia is nothing short of being politically scandalous. The Patriarchate have committed themselves to this scandal last week and has ignored the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Paşinyan's visit to Turkey, if expressed more contemporarily, they've "ghosted" the prime minister.
27 June 2025
Boxing, dance, and Romani culture: An extraordinary film experience in Leipzig
“Dance is the hidden language of the soul, of the body.” Martha Graham
23 September 2024
An exhibition focusing on Antakya after the earthquake: Art at the Zero Point
Art at the Zero Point, formed by a group of artists, most of whom are from Antakya, opened an exhibition on the damage caused by the earthquakes in Antakya and the current state of the city. The exhibition, hosted by Gallery KUB in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany, opened on Saturday, September 7.
13 September 2024
Minority groups in Turkey tend to migrate
It is revealed that 250 Jews in Turkey have moved to other countries recently. Though the number of migrated Armenians hasn't risen that much, they also think about migration.
20 October 2016
“With September 12 coup in Turkey, Armenian Genocide became a security issue”
Emre Can Dağlıoğlu made a presentation titled as “September 12th Regime and the Re-Shaped Identity of Armenians in Turkey” in “Critical Approaches to Armenian Identity in 21st Century: Vulnerability, Resilience, and Transformation” conference. We talked to him about his presentation and coup’s effects on the Armenian identity.
14 October 2016
Are “Talat Pasha Telegrams” real?
Prof. Dr. Taner Akçam, in his recent book, published the memoirs of Naim Bey, who played an important part in the historiography of the Armenian Genocide and whose existence had been denied. With this book, Prof. Akçam responded the claims and broke a new ground in the historiography of the Armenian Genocide.
7 October 2016
Hayko Bağdat: They seized my passport without any reason
Journalist Hayko Bağdat's passport was seized by police officers, when he arrived at the airport on the evening of August 6.
7 August 2016
Armenian trainer fired under the cover of “Fetullah Terrorist Organization”
As part of the purge that was started after the coup attempt, Ari Hergel, who has been working as a guitar teacher in İSMEK (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Art and Vocational Training Courses), is fired.
2 August 2016
Armenian with French nationality deported due to speaking Turkish
Speaking to the police during the ID check in Istanbul Atatürk Airport, Richard Demirci said that he is an Armenian from France and he ended up being deported. Police officers asked, “You speak Turkish. How come you are not Turkish?” He is prohibited from entering Turkey with an exclusion order.
2 August 2016
Germany continues to confront its history with Herero Genocide
After the Armenian Genocide resolution was passed, German government also recognized what happened in Namibia as genocide. We talked to Prof. Jürgen Zimmerer from Hamburg University, who has been studying Herero Genocide.
29 July 2016
Being Armenian in Fresno
Fresno city of California has a historical significance for Armenian people. The city was the first stop of the mass migration to the US after the genocide. However, it hosted Armenians before 1915. Though there are 50.000 Armenians in Fresno today, there had been more Armenians living in the city in the past. In 1976, Armenian Studies Program was launched in Fresno State University. We spoke to Barlow Der Mugrdechian, who has been working as the director of this program for 8 years, about Fresno and its importance for Armenian people.
29 June 2016
Germany's process of confrontation with Holocaust
The debate on “confrontation” is heated again after Bundestag's Armenian Genocide resolution. Germany is one of the remarkable countries in terms of reckoning and we talked to Prof. Nora Şeni from Paris VIII University about Germany's process of confrontation with Holocaust and what Turkey should do in order to confront with 1915.
13 June 2016
"With regard to genocide, Turkish historical discourse is compatible with the East German discourse"
Graduated from Köln University History Department, Sandy Zurikyan recently completed her thesis on East Germany and Armenian Genocide. We spoke to Zurikyan, who was also a former culture and arts editor of Agos, about the Armenian Genocide's repercussions in Eastern Germany.
25 April 2016
Call for "death to Armenian dogs" forced resignation
The deputy chairman of a Swedish-Turkish association Barbaros Leylani has resigned after derogatory comments he made about Armenians last week at a Stockholm rally.
14 April 2016
“We don't know whether race code exists”
CHP MP Selina Doğan tabled a parliamentary question addressed to Ministry of Internal Affairs, but hasn't received a response. After that, she applied to General Directorate of Civil Registration and Citizenship Affairs. She demanded to know how many of non-Muslims there are in Turkey, given there is race code procedure. The Directorate replied that they cannot give any answer to that question, since there is no procedure like race code.
23 March 2016
Finalists of "Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity" selected
Named after Aurora Mardiganian, who witnessed the killing of her relatives in 1915 Armenian Genocide and survived the massacre miraculously, Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity will be given for the first time.
17 March 2016
My home where my son is: Şişli Armenian Cemetery
Sevag Balıkçı was killed by Kıvanç Ağaoğlu while he was doing his military service in Kozluk province in Batman and the most recent hearing of the murder case was held in Diyarbakir on February 25. The case is adjourned to April 6 because of a missing document. Sevag Balıkçı's parents Garabed and Ani Balıkçı were present at the hearing. We talked to them about the legal process and the claims that Ani Balıkçı has moved to Armenia.
2 March 2016
Race code abolished "orally"
Last year, the procedure of using the ‘race code’ for students applying to non-Muslim schools was abolished with a public mandate. General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs Director Ahmet Sarıcan informed HDP MP Garo Paylan that this procedure is also removed from their system.
25 February 2016
Armenian is not a foreign language to be learned later!
On the occasion of February 21 International Mother Language Day, we talked to philologist and Jamanak newspaper editor Sevan Değirmenciyan, who is also Armenian teacher in Pangaltı Mıhitaryan High School, about the importance of Western Armenian for Armenians in Turkey.
19 February 2016
Mossessian Architect to build faith museum in Mecca
Based in London, Mossessian Architect will design the Islamic faith museum that will be built in Mecca.
20 January 2016
Hrant Dink Award laureate Badawi released on bail
Receiving International Hrant Dink Award last year, Saudi human rights defender Samar Badawi was arrested yesterday. Today, she released on bail.
13 January 2016
Armenians were the “Jews of the Orient” in German discourse
Historian Stefan Ihrig authored another important book titled as “Justfiying Genocide” that is published by Harvard University Press. In this book, Ihrig discussed the Germans' view of the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler and we talked to him about the background and the factors that led to this historical attitude of Germans toward Armenians.
8 January 2016
Turkey to require visa from Syrians
Visa requirement between Turkey and Syria will put into effect again starting from today.
8 January 2016
“Christians started to celebrate Christmas in 4th century”
December 25 is a special day for all Christian communities. Though the birth of Jesus Christ is commonly celebrated, the origin of Christmas traditions isn’t known by all. We talked to the leader of Armenian Catholics of Turkey Kerabaydzar Levon Zekiyan about these traditions, from why Christmas is celebrated on December 25 to the origin of Christmas tree decorations.
24 December 2015
Zorro of Sinaloa: Berc Zorian
Born in Sivas, Zara in 1944, Berc Zorian became a prominent figure in amputee football in South America. We talked to him about his life that reached to Mexico and memories of football.
23 December 2015
“Distorted historical narrative is not Netanyahu’s invention”
Author of “Islam and Nazi Germany's war”, David Motadel answered our questions about Netanyahu’s recent statement.
31 October 2015
Farewell to Papa Stratis, the angel of the refugees
Papa Stratis from Kallonili Village of Lesbos Island turned Lesbos into a home for refugees with the contributions he made. Papa Stratis passed away on September 2; the same day that Aylan passed away, who put the refugee problem into world’s agenda again with the photograph of his dead body lying on the shore.
10 September 2015
A survival story from Aleppo to İzmir
21 years old law student Claudia Brounsouzian first went to Mersin with her mother. Then, she went to Cyprus and tried to go to Europe from there. However, she couldn’t have managed to go to Southern Cyprus and because of that, she returned to Turkey; but this time, she went to İzmir. We talked to Brounsouzian about her story of migration from Aleppo to Turkey.
17 August 2015
An AK Party fetish disguised as the Conquest of Istanbul
I should have guessed we had to walk a kilometer once I heard an attendant repeat every five seconds, “The rally venue is 100 metres ahead, on the left”. You would think we were re-conquering the city, as we walked on and on but felt like we were in the same place. In the meantime, I observed the middle-aged men, whose commercial acumen I greatly admired, selling scarves, caps, sandwiches, bottled water, flags and plaques.
31 May 2015
Investigation launched against conscientious objection site
An investigation has been launched against the web site www. askeregitmeyin .com (don’t do your military service) on charges of ‘alienating the public from military service, and there are reports that the 381 people who contributed to the book are also being investigated.
8 April 2015
Time for Saroyan Library in Bitlis
A new library in Bitlis will be named after William Saroyan. Journalist Ahmet Tulgar, who came up with the idea, reports that he met with Bitlis Co-Mayor Hüseyin Olan and discussed the idea for a library.
12 February 2015
Armenians in Anatolia wait for clergy
Although there are Armenian churches in Diyarbakır, Van and Kayseri, regular mass cannot be held because religious clergy is not appointed by the Patriarchate. There are no permanent religious officials in churches in Turkey apart from the churches in Istanbul and the church in İskenderun.
26 January 2015

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