We Have Two Homelands: Turkey and Armenia - Ari Hattetjian

The desire of the Armenian community in Istanbul is for Armenia and Turkey to reconcile. Ari Hattetjian, the director of the Armenian newspaper 'Marmara', which has been published in Istanbul since 1940, expressed this in an interview with 'Armenpress'.

“We have two homelands: Turkey and Armenia. We certainly wish for these two homelands to live in harmony, and we want to be able to move freely, boldly, and happily between the two countries,” said Hattetjian, discussing the importance of Armenian-Turkish relations. He noted that the normalization of relations between the two neighbors would positively affect the societies of both countries.

Addressing the approximately 50,000-member Armenian community in Turkey and its challenges, Hattetjian lamented that sadly, many people no longer speak Armenian. “There is hardly anyone left who can speak or read Armenian. We have 5 high schools and 12-13 middle and elementary schools, with thousands of students enrolling each year, but finding a child among them who can read Armenian or desires to read it is a miracle. They are gradually assimilating into Turkish,” Hattetjian stated.