If you are wondering what are the developments of the newly-discovered possible Armenian genocide mass grave in Turkey's Mardin region after it was burried in soil by the Turkish military, here you go.

Dear All,

An update about the mass grave-related developments. According to today's Toplumsal Demokrasi (a replacement for Ulkede Ozgur Gundem which is closed down for 15 days under a court ruling after Chief of General Staff fingered it out as the publication of the outlawed PKK) Yusuf Halacoglu, Head of the Turkish Historical Society, issued a written statement yesterday in response to Ulkede Ozgur Gundem's "allegations" in connection with the mass grave found in Mardin. "The mass grave belongs to the Roman and early Byzantian period," says the statement. "However if this assertion is found unsatisfactory we are ready to start an investigation to reveal the truth in cooperation with an international research degelation. It is unfortunate that the issue is presented as a discovery of a mass grave belonging to Armenians. In order to show how unfounded and inconsistent are the allegations that Armenians were subjected to a genocide and how everything is exaggerated and turned into a scheme of propaganda we are ready to investigate the case with experts from any country including Sweden or even Armenia. If it is found that the allegations (about this grave) is unfounded then the publications publishing the news item, and the scientist and the parlamentarians will have to apologise." It is not clear who is the "scientist" and who are the "parliamentarians" he is referring to but we can guess that the "scientist" might be David Gaunt quoted by Gundem and the "parliamentarians" the Swedish.

Best regards,

Ayse

By the way, my own extensive family's possible mass grave was discovered in front of Urfa's Armenian Church and also announced a "Roman site" by notorious Turkish historians in the early 1990s.

A photo of Ourfa's Armenian church by Dick Osseman, taken by my request, in fall of 2005