99 - all you should know about the Genocide April, 2014 | Page 89

A women in a hijab on the streets of Erzrum. Erzrum is the largest
city in the region, with a population of around 300,000 Turks and
Azerbaijanis

The bathhouses of Kars. Bearing a typical Byzantine style, the
bathhouses were located in the lower part of the fortress, near
the river. They are in a state of neglect today, filled with rubbish

band of red – this one symbolizes the blood that
we have spilled.
One can see typical Armenian architecture in
various parts of the city – 19 th century structures
and half-ruined buildings with Armenian letters
carved into them. Next to these buildings with
exquisite carved designs, there are typically a
number of tall, identical, rectangular residential
blocks of concrete, which look awkward next

Did the Armenian Genocide
end in 1918 after the War, or
the 1923 Peace Conference?
No, unfortunately, this is not
the case. The destruction
of cultural values is a continuation of the Armenian
Genocide. The Turks have
rid the Armenian homeland
of any Armenian names, and
they are now driving the
Armenians and their traces
from the history textbooks.
The destruction of cultural
values means deleting the
memory of the people who
created them. The Armenians
have left their material
wealth in today's Turkey,
which experts have estimated
to be more than 100 billion
dollars. The Turkish
authorities have not only
written laws to grab all that,
they have also destroyed
archive documents, which
testify that Armenians were
born and lived in specific
parts of the territory.

to these delicate antiques and distort the city’s
architectural style. There is no difference, it
seems, for the residents of Kars today, what kind
of building they walk past. An old and delicate
building can end up covered in commercial
posters, which hide its architecture and its warm,
grey tuff stones.

Dickran Kouymjian
Director of Armenian Studies
Program, California State University