An Armenian Named Talaat‏ - Armenian Weekly

• Saturday, June 29, 2013 Recent Articles from the Armenian Weekly... An Armenian Named Talaat Search Armenian Weekly An Armenian Named Talaat Talaat is the son of an Armenian Genocide survivor. I first met him on a cold January day in Lice (pronounced Leejeh), a district near Diyarbakir perched on layer upon layer of violence—first against the Armenians, then the Kurds. It was a day before my scheduled speech at a conference in Ankara. His family gave us a warm welcome. After all, I was friends with Talaat’s brother, who had recently changed his Muslim name to Armen, and was taking Armenian language courses in nearby Diyarbakir. I do not remember how long I sat on the sofa in their quaint living room, at loss with words, sipping my tea, and thinking about identity, while my friends conversed with the family, diluting the awkwardness of my silence. The ruins of an Armenian church, with Lice in the background. (Photo by Khatchig Mouradian) Talaat’s father, Hovsep, was born in 1910 in an Armenian village in Lice. His family was butchered during the genocide when he was five, but somehow, he survived, and was taken in... Read More »