Speaking to One Another - The International Raoul Wallenberg ...

There are no problemsbetween the peoplein that region. But wecannot erase what happenedin the past. Infact, the present generationis not responsiblefor the events ofthe past. They just inheritedthat history.Yes, there was conflictand hostility betweenthe Armenians and ourpeople, but the feelingsof enmity are not deeply-rootedenough topersist into the future.”Mehmet finds traces ofArmenian history in hisvillage in the architectureof the bathhouse.For him, it is evidenceof a highly developedcivilization: “We need to acknowledge that there are some brilliant craftsmen among the Armenians.Their cities and their architecture are sophisticated, very sound and refined. The settlements over on ourside are built carelessly by poor people, mixing together sand and clay. The Armenians built an impressivebathhouse at the entrance of our village. During my childhood, we would go in and look around. It is obviousthat other people used to live here before us. I knew that it was not built by the Turks; I could sense thisfrom the inscriptions. That bathhouse still stands. I get the impression that the Armenians who lived herein the past were concerned about cleanliness. If there is no bathhouse in a village, you know that there isno custom of hygiene. Why is there a bathhouse in our village and not in the other villages? Who broughtit here? And why is it made of stone, when all the houses in the village are made of clay?”On Ararat children roam freeMehmet, whose family were farmers, used to spend summers on Mount Ararat: “We were the wealthiestfamily in the village, but also the largest. There were 36 of us in total, and 40 if you counted the dogs aswell. Dogs were as important as people there. We had herds of sheep up on the slopes of Ararat. These68