MINORITIES

Population of Greeks in Turkey decreased to 2500 and the lowest number of graduates in recent years has seen in Greek community's schools. 19 students are graduated from 3 schools; while this causes concerns, RUMVADER chair Andonis Parizyanos, Zoğrafyan High School Principal Yannis Demircioğlu and the former representative of Minority Foundations Laki Vingas stated that positive discrimination is needed.

Garo Paylan had filed a lawsuit against Tolga Adıgüzel, who is the chair of Kars branch of a Turkish nationalist organization, because of his racist statements about pianist Tigran Hamasyan who performed at Ani last year. Adıgüzel is sentenced to 7 months and 15 days of imprisonment and imposed a 11.240 TL fine. The judgment is suspended.

Today, in Agos' archive, there is the story of 2 Armenian deputies who were killed in 1915. They are two of the seven deputies that HDP MP Garo Paylan brought to the parliament's agenda by his demand for investigation. Rober Koptaş, in his article written in 2013, told about the process that led to the killing of Istanbul Deputy Krikor Zohrab and Erzurum Deputy Vartkes Serengülyan.

Hristos Monastery in Heybeliada is emptied because it is located on forest land. It has been demanded that the monastery is given to Greek society in Turkey, but there is still no response.

CHP MP Selina Doğan tabled a parliamentary question addressed to Ministry of Internal Affairs, but hasn't received a response. After that, she applied to General Directorate of Civil Registration and Citizenship Affairs. She demanded to know how many of non-Muslims there are in Turkey, given there is race code procedure. The Directorate replied that they cannot give any answer to that question, since there is no procedure like race code.

Privately-owned Armenian Catholic Church and French Church which belongs to General Directorate for Foundations (VGM) has similar fates, but what is currently happening to them is different.

Sevag Balıkçı was killed by Kıvanç Ağaoğlu while he was doing his military service in Kozluk province in Batman and the most recent hearing of the murder case was held in Diyarbakir on February 25. The case is adjourned to April 6 because of a missing document. Sevag Balıkçı's parents Garabed and Ani Balıkçı were present at the hearing. We talked to them about the legal process and the claims that Ani Balıkçı has moved to Armenia.

A document in the appendix of the indictment prepared for Hrant Dink case revealed the fact MİT (intelligence agency of Turkey) was monitoring Armenians, Greeks and other non-Muslim communities under the title of “Ethnic Separatist Activities”.

Hrant Dink Foundation's studies on cultural heritage continues. After the inventory of the structures of Armenians, Greeks, Syriacs and Jews in Turkey is taken, the foundation focused on the cultural heritage of Kayseri. In late 19th century, one third of Kayseri's population consisted of Christians. Though it is a rich country in terms of cultural heritage, there are few studies on the city.

Sarkis Eken, one of the oldest Armenians of Diyarbakir, was 86 years old and passed away last night. He had been in the intensive care unit for a while.