CONFESS FROM OZGUR POLITIKA:
"THOSE WHO ASSASSINATED ARMENIANS WERE KURDS"

In an article titled "Sound of an Old Time (Eski Bir Zaman Sesi ): Karapete Xaço" by Mehmet AKTAS, who is a programme compere on Medya TV, in the issue of Ozgur Politika dated 22 July 2000, the assassination of Armenians by Kurds was clearly exposed by an Armenian.
In the article, it is said that Karapete Xaço known as "the survivor of Armenian assassination" is a ma of age 93 who lives in the 4th Solxoz village 30 kilometres far from Yerivan, the capital of Armenia.
Mehmet Aktas who visited Karapete Xaço, an Armenian singer, who had sung songs in Kurdish for many years on the radio of Yerivan's Voice, to make a documentary of his life, quotes fragments from the interview he had with him.
K.Xaço, who emigrated from Armenia to Syria in 1946, while talking about his childhood, says that Kurds were responsible for the assassination of Armenians committed in the year 1915.
I would like to quote some parts of the said article by M. Aktas:
"Karapete Xaço.. was telling his story with a clearly spoken Kurdish. His story had started in Blender, a small mountain village in the region of Xerzan (Garzan) in Kurdistan.. Karapete Xaço was born in 1908 in this village of mostly populated by Armenians and is close to Xerzan. When the assassination against Armenians, Yezidis and Assyrians started, Karapete Xaço was seven years old. These words spill out of his mouth about those days:
"Hamidiye soldiers were accompanied by death angels everywhere. Mothers were not able to protect their children. We all were thinking that the doomsday had arrived."
Like at every Armenian home, the days of Xaço family were passing in fear. Not much time had passed when he met the cold face of the death of five membered-Armenian family. On a nice May day in 1915, The Angel of Death appearing in the form of three Hamidiye cavalrymen stood in front of their door.
Karapete Xaço never forgot all his life what had happened that day:
"We first heard the bark of the dogs and then the sound of the door. They were knocking at our door harshly. It was me who went to open the door. Three armed people were standing at the door. They were talking in Kurdish. Therefore, I was not frightened much. "Is your father at home? they asked. No sooner had I said "yes", they broke into and took all of us out. After that they took my mother, two siblings and my father and everybody at home to the bank of the stream down the village. We saw there that they took some other Armenians there as well. Without wasting any time, they first murdered the men, then the women. They excepted only a few young beautiful women. They also let the children free. All of the Kurdish lords and masters took Armenians into their service. They were doing any kind of work of Kurdish lords for only a full stomach. When the atrocities began, several lords and masters surrendered the Armenians in their service to the Hamidiye Regiments..." (Ozgur Politika Paper, 22.07.2000).
As known, all commanders of 36 Hamidiye Regiments consisting of 1200 people each were the Chiefs and the soldiers were the members of the Kurdish Tribes.
There are several sources mentioning the oppression and massacre conducted by Hamidiye Regiments against Armenians, Syriacs, Nestorians, Assyrians, Keldanis and Yezidis in the region.
For instance, Armenian writer Garo Sasuni's words below are quite interesting:
"In 1895, atrocities against Armenians were started horrifyingly everywhere. Kurdish people involved in these barbarities with heart and soul. To tell the truth, all massacres in Armenian provinces were committed by Kurds. 300.000 people were killed during the massacre." (See, Garo Sasuni, Kurdish National Movements and Armenian-Kurdish Relations From 15th Century Till Today, Istanbul 1992, p.124.).
To make the historical realities and the roles of Kurds in assassinations come out with its all aspects, it is time for all the other elderly people like Karapete Xaço who witnessed the assassination to speak.

Agop PALANCIYAN