Sayat Tekir: Kamp Armen Stands as a Monument to Armenian Genocide in Turkey

ISTANBUL (Armradio) — The Tuzla Armenian orphanage camp “Kamp Armen”, seized in 1980s by Turkish state, was restituted to the Armenian community last week. Nor Zartonk, an NGO founded by Armenian young people in Turkey, took part in the struggle for the return of Kamp Armen.

“If we wanted to erect an Armenian Genocide monument in Turkey, there would be no need for that. Kamp Armen stands there like a monument of the Armenian genocide,” Sayat Tekir from Nor Zartonk said in an interview with Repair Future.

“Many people participated in the Kamp Armen resistance and these were people who had not come to the fore in the political arena before. The resistance politicized the people. We turned Kamp Armen into a space in which everything concerning Armenians could be talked about. We held panel discussions there, we organized activities about culture and history, we kept it constantly alive,” Tekir said.

He said there were two attacks on the hundredth and hundred and twenty first day of the resistance. “Especially because the atmosphere in the country changed after the elections, because nationalism and other racist inclinations had increased drastically, Kamp Armen became a target.”