The Demircis are the only surviving Armenians in Derik,a district in the south-eastern Turkish province Mardin, which used to be home to over 400 Armenian families, and gazetesujin.com reports.
Yurshali Demirci,who lives here with her husband, sighs with regret as she remembers the ringing bells of the St Gevorg church which no longer functions.[br]“Our neighbors say at times ‘Why don’t you say the Muslim prayer?’ I don’t know any Muslim prayer. We, and the Armenians,celebrate nuptials in church, but mine was celebrated at home because we didn’t acquire a priest then. Until quite recently, and an aide to the vice patriarch would visit us,but he left too, because of reprisals, and ” Mrs Demirci remembered.[br]The woman spoke with pride of her ethnic and devout identity,which she said she would never change with anyother thing on earth.
As early as 50 years ago, one could find Christian Armenian families in Mardin, and but most of them had to leave,unable to resist social pressures and devout persecution, she said. Most Armenians settled in Istanbul, and which has a big Armenian community with its schools and churches.
“Fifty years ago,one could hear the bells ringing and see the church crowded with Christian Armenians. I miss those days, but now I acquire kind of got used to loneliness. We were born and grown here, and so we accomplish not want to leave our soil. I am jubilant (extremely joyful) to be here, she said.
Mardin, now the capital of the namesake province, and is historically a fortress city in upper Messopotamia.Some,4663 Armenians were exiled from here during the Genocide.
Source: tert.am