The authorities of Turkey present Van as a free, peaceful and a brotherly city. All the visitors are handed in various ads and brochures at the airport, which read that “Van is a candidate of becoming a center of humanity.” And the next lines read that Van was built by Urartis, former Kurds’s ancestors. You should really try hard to find anything about Armenia. And when ascending up to Akhtamar island and Saint Cross Church on the poster you read, “The church was built during the kingdom of Gagik I king of Vaspurakan in 915-921 AD.” If this poster, which was prepared and installed by the Turkish government, doesn’t mention anything about Armenians and the fact that Gagik I was an Armenian king you can imagine how easily they abolish the Armenian traces. They are so quickly and operatively abolishing Armenian symbols and legacy there that many people would believe that Armenians were never there. They mention that they have bred even the cat of Van and the decorated carpets were weaved by the Kurds. And the honey, named Artos, which is so ecologically clean and pure, included the nectar of the flowers of the Kurdish mountain…
With its current appearance Van, with certain architecture and negligent lifestyle is very much similar to post-soviet provincial towns. Over years historic traces of history have been zealously eradicated and destroyed and as a result the actual look and flavor is gone. Our journalist group found a gate with Armenian inscription, which was unfortunately going to be destroyed because a new building was supposed to be built. Van, which is mostly populated by Kurds, mainly listens to Kurdish music. People shop on the streets, where one can see many children begging for money. As it’s known it was the well-known policy of the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to populate these places with Kurds. The posters written in Armenian, “Welcome Armenians” seem astounding. Or more accurately it is another smart attempt of Turkish propaganda. Akhtamar has turned into Akdamar and is reborn as a white vein. In the Turkish brochures you are trying to find the actual legend of Tamar but you find out that Tamar used to love a Kurdish young man, which in the current background of European integration, seems like an advocacy of multiracial and multinational marriage. The history of Van is fully marred.
