Armenian Genocide Novel Published in Turkey

Turkish author Vedat Turkali

ISTANBUL—The Armenian Cause and the 1915 Genocide have been comprehensively covered for the first time ever in Turkey in a new novel written by Vedat Turkali.

The author has written about various ethnic minorities in other literary pieces.

The new novel presents a retrospective look into history against the background of the love story of a self-confident young lady and a young man who lost the sense of confidence in the aftermath of a trauma suffered in a prison in Diyarbekir (Dikranagert).

The author’s brief overview of the Armenian history is accompanied by a depiction of the other nations killed in Turkey (where he says every inch of land had seen bloodshed) in the Ottoman Empire’s last days.

Turkali writes about the various groups like the Hamidiyes (cavalry), the Ittihat ve Terakki (Committee of Unions and Progress), Cembalists, and others.

He tells the history of the 1909 Cilicia massacres (committed by Ittihat ve Terakki) which preceded the Armenian Genocide. The author also writes about the deportations from the province of Kharberd and the other regions of historical Armenia. He remembers how the soil turned into a vast graveyard, witnessing losses, forced conversion of people to Islam, and more.