More than 500 people, among them Turkish intellectuals and human rights defenders, sat down quietly on Istanbul's centrally located Taksim Square around a banner saying "This pain is our pain, his mourning is the mourning of all of us". They commemorated in silence the 95^th anniversary of the deportation of Armenian intellectuals. Candles had been lit around the banner.

During a few days around 24 April 1915, 220 Armenians were exiled from the Ottoman Empire by force and then killed. Among them were artists, authors and other representatives from the intellectual and cultural world. They were taken to Ayaş and Çankırı in northern Anatolia where they were killed.

Commemoration events were furthermore held at the Haydarpaşa Train Station on the Anatolian side of Istanbul and at the Galatasary Square on Istanbul's lively district of Beyoğlu. Intense security measures accompanied the events.

Provocations were greeted with applause

67 intellectuals had initiated the commemoration on Taksim Square. Small groups of people calling themselves idealistic provoked the silent group by gatherings in front of the nearby French Consulate and a hotel opposite Taksim Square.

The groups shouted "Go to Erivan, traitors" at the participants of the silent commemoration, who responded with applause. The groups furthermore shouted slogans such as "This is Turkey, love it or leave it" and "A Turk has no other friend than a Turk", while the police let them draw closer to the quiet group.

Aktar: One more part of the taboo got broken

Publisher Ömer Laçiner told bianet, "This was a good start. We want this to become a tradition". Journalist Cengiz Aktar emphasized the historic significance of the commemoration, "One more part of the taboo in Turkey has been broken" he said.

Dancer Zeynep Tanbay addressed the crowd and the journalists with reading the call for the event once more: "We had a population of 13 million people in 1915, 1.5 to 2 million Armenians were living in this country. In Thrace, at the Aegean, in Adana, Malatya, Van, Kars... In Samatya, Şişli, on the Princess Islands, in Galata... On 24 April 1915 they started to 'send them away'. We lost them. They do not exist anymore. They do not even have graves. The weight of the "Great Pain" has ever been growing in our conscience of the "Great Disaster" throughout the last 95 years".

The silent event was also attended by Galatasaray University lecturer Prof. Dr Ahmet İnsel, journalist Perihan Mağden, writer Yalçıın Ergündoğan and lawyer Eren Keskin amongst others. (EÖ/VK)