It’s a pity that the era which preceded the past decade became a very ancient history: it’s forgotten and expunged from memory, Ragip Zarakolu, a famous Turkish human rights activist, director of Belge Publishing House and author of a number of books on Armenian  Genocide, wrote the aforementioned in an article on Turkey’s Kegi district (Bingöl Province), published in the Turkish Taraf newspaper.   

The article reads, in part:

“Keghi is one of the districts of Bingöl Province. In early 1915, 3900 Armenians and about 1000 Turks with Armenian roots lived in Keghi district. The number of Armenians reached 37,000 in the villages. This region was mainly dealing with agriculture, cattle breeding and spinning wheel…

I first heard about Keghi in 1967. I had a friend named Tulay, a member of Turkey’s Workers Party, who was studying medicine. I remember his mother, who was always sad and worried about something. She was always worrying about her daughter, so that the latter didn’t suffer the same as they did, since they were “leftists.” If her daughter was a bit late, she started to panic…

Yes, perhaps she was right…So much occurred with us and the following generations…  

I though about the latent meaning of this woman’s sorrow for many years. Who knows how many misfortunes her family went through, what they saw in 1895-95, 1915, 1938…

When I acquired my friend Osep Tokat’s book i“Keghi in ruins” in three languages (Armenian, English and Turkish), I remembered that sad woman from Keghi…

The book presents rare manuscripts, photos of the region’s wonderful geography, as well as the ancient map of Keghi. Generally, such books are very important in terms of preserving history, especially for the local residents, who seem to be living not in the same country, but, say, on the Moon or in Australia…

And still, it’s a pity that the era which preceded the past decade became a very ancient history: it’s forgotten and expunged from memory…”