Hamshenian Forum

You are welcome, mizzLebanese. Thank you for your interest.

I would like to answer your second question. The Armenians might not consider us as "real" Armenians, but many Turkish Hemshinians do not consider themselves as Armenians aswell. They have reasons for that. First of all, Hemshin people are a compound of nations. A compound of Armenians, Laz, Turks, some Kurds and greeks and maybe even Italians. Vartivor fiest is the best way to understand us. We still celebrate that ancient Armenian fiest, but with Laz music and dances, and songs in Turkish. We are not christian and the western Hemshinians speak Turkish, since they have converted long time ago. Some of them are Turkish nationalists, most of them feel that they are a part of the Turkish nation, they feel Turkish but always prefer to say "I am Hemshinian." They don't love armenians but they love Hemshin and fellow Hemshinians.
The Hemshinians in Russia are alike according to a report of Asam, a strategic research center linked to the Turkish army. They live side by side with armenians but they still call themselves Hemshinian and they have reluctantly come together with them only after they got threats from Cossacks after they applied for autonomy.

Arkadaşlar, isteyen olursa yazdıklarımı Türkçe tekrar edebilirim.