Researcher collects 1915 solidarity stories

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

A London-based academic is gathering the stories of Turks who saved the lives of Armenians during the forced deportation of the latter in the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

“The [notion of] the ‘murderous Turk’ disturbs me as an individual. It is much more important to remember the good than to remind [people of] the bad. I have no special [desire] to compile Turkish and Armenian stories. I want to do this project in the name of humanity,” Ziya Meral, a Turkish researcher and academic living in London, told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Meral said she did not use the term “genocide” to describe the events of 1915, and that he disliked emphasizing the word.

The story of Mehmet Bey, a factory owner, is among the most striking accounts she came across, according to Meral. “Mehmet Bey established a factory in [the eastern province of] Malatya with the aid of an Armenian family. He hid the family that helped him during the events of 1915 and arranged for their safe departure to Aleppo,” he said.

The project will also be launched on the Internet soon.