Mahir Özkan

Apparently, behind the narrative of modern, democratic and contemporary Artvin that many of us held up as an example for years, there was a motivation to ‘instill national spirit and culture’ in a population speaking Laz, Georgian and Armenian that was deemed to have ‘zero cultural status’, in other words, to assimilate them into Turkish identity. We thought we were becoming enlightened, but it turns out we were being assimilated!