Turkish Christians took the first step toward embittered Armenians declaring: ‘We came to share your pain’, as they stood before TV cameras on 11 April at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan.
‘We have come here to apologise for what our ancestors did, to ask for your forgiveness,’ two spokesmen for the Turks went on to say. Shocked viewers across Armenia watching the Azdarar TV news channel could hardly believe their eyes and ears. Turks, claiming to be Christian? And laying wreaths at the nation’s genocide memorial? How could Turks, of all people, come to Armenia to honour the memory of more than a million Armenian Christians who had been slaughtered 100 years ago by their own forefathers, the Ottoman Turks?
Holding hands
Gathered around the monument’s eternal flame, the more than 20 Turkish citizens spoke out simply and repeatedly: ‘We plead with you, if you can, to forgive us and the crimes of our forefathers.’
