YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 30, ARMENPRESS. Hrant Dink's widow Rakel Dink introduced two new books published by Hrant Dink foundation titled “Kılıç Artıkları” (The Remains of the Sword) and “Mardin Tebliğleri” (The Papers of Mardin). “Armenpress” reports about this citing Turkish T24.

Mardin Tebliğleri consists of articles that examine the social and economic changes during the 100 years between 1838 and 1938 that occurred in Mardin and its surroundings. This area was among Anatolia’s most cosmopolitan and served as a cradle for its various religions, languages and cultures.

The book begins with the Tanzimat period of Ottoman reforms and continues through the first 15 years of the Turkish Republic during one-party rule. It considers how state policy and the general conjecture affected local culture, daily life, economy, ethnic and religious conflicts and the axis of violence.

The millennia-old civilization of Mardin and its surroundings was distilled through the centuries to create a pluralistic culture. Today only the sediment of this pluralism remains. Mardin Tebliğleri looks at the most lively narratives and how this culture was eroded.

After almost a century following the annihilation of a large portion of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian population in 1915, Laurence Ritter, a journalist and sociologist, and photographer Max Sivaslian met with dozens of survivors grandchildren of those killed in eastern and southeastern Anatolia, as well as in Istanbul and Europe.

Hrant Dink said: “In this country it is more difficult to speak about the living than about the dead.” Until very recently, it was taboo among Turks, Kurds and Armenians to discuss Islamized or secret Armenians. In fact, the only ones who were willing to talk about them were extreme nationalists who sought to show them as part of a secret political conspiracy. According to some researchers, the real story of these people, who number in the millions today and who are referred to by that disturbing Turkish expression “the remains of the sword”, is almost completely unknown.

Who are these people? How do they live? What challenges do they face, what do they feel, how do they identify themselves? This book attempts to answer those questions with firsthand accounts. There is one certainty: Sometimes they are Armenian, sometimes Turks, sometimes Kurds. Sometimes they are Christians and sometimes Muslim. And sometimes they are all of these or none of these.

Kılıç Artıkları is another breach in the wall of silence.