Turkish James Bond and his merry men took me to the town of Hadjin, now known as Saimbeyli. I took the photos and generally had a look around. I took the guys to lunch at a road side restruarant that was randomly selected. Whilst having lunch the owner (Turkish) is told of my interest and brings out a photograph. It was taken 1906.
The owner takes me inside his house and shows me a hand drawn picture hanging on his wall. It is a picture of the Church or Monastery I had just come from. How good is that? A Turkish man with a picture of Armenians and others and a drawing of the church on his wall. I have to say in all honestly the Turkish people I have meet so far on this trip have been very open and forthcoming. James Bond with his limited English keeps saying Armenians good. He and his brothers have nothing to gain from me.
P.S. I have, since this post, Googled the place and now understand its significance. It was a place totally distroyed and many people killed. Wouldnt it be amazing if Garobet was in this photo. I doubt it as we are 80 Kms away from Kozan (Sis)
I've actually been to Kemmer and Anataliya once. We stayed at a luxury hotel for a few days in each city and had a wonderful times. Since then I've been around the world but the pictures I took of sunrise above the Kemmeric mountains will always be something I treasure close.
ReplyDeleteHi Stephen , I have family from Izmir also but I have no records to prove it either , and the ones from Istanbul /Constantinople are just the same from the 1895 onwards nothing till 1920's Although I still have family in Istanbul today , they are not wanting to dig too deeply for fear of reprisals , Hope you do find some records , but be careful
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