Harut Sassounian
Over the years, Turkish media have reported numerous articles claiming that various high-ranking Turkish officials are of Armenian or Kurdish descent. These officials have often vehemently denied the claims, but sometimes have ignored them to avoid drawing more attention to them.
For example, a few years ago, when it was announced that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was of Armenian descent, he simply replied, “I’m sorry to be called Armenian.” Given the widespread racism in Turkey, calling someone Armenian is considered an insult. Former Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz was said to be of Armenian descent, as was the radical ultra-nationalist Devlet Bahçeli, the chairman of the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party). I recently discovered a YouTube video in which Isa Ilyasoğlu, who served in the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT), claimed that Bahçeli was of Armenian descent on his mother’s side. Ilyasoğlu claimed that during the genocide, the governor of Adana kidnapped and raped a 16-year-old Armenian girl. That girl later became Bahçeli’s grandmother, who, contrary to what was stated on her ID card, was not from Osmaniye, but from the town of Halfeti in the Urfa region.
As a child, his family moved to the city of Bahçe in Adana, where he acquired his surname, Bahçeli. It is widely accepted that a large percentage of today's Turks are descendants of Armenians, Greeks, or Kurds, many of whom were Islamized and Turkified, especially during the 1915 genocide, when Turkish families kidnapped and adopted young Armenian children. Most of these children were too young to remember their ethnic origins. Turkified and Islamized Armenians are often referred to as "hidden Armenians." However, over the years, many Turks have announced that they have recently discovered their Armenian origins. Some have even asked to be baptized in the Armenian Church and reconvert to Christianity. In 2018, the Turkish government unexpectedly launched a website that revealed the ancestors of all Turkish citizens.
Within days, millions of Turks rushed to find out their ethnic origins. As a result, the website crashed and was shut down shortly after. The website was later restored with “enhanced privacy measures.” Some Muslim Turks were shocked to learn that they had Armenian blood. One report said that a fanatical anti-Armenian Turk committed suicide upon learning that he was of Armenian descent. There is also a large group of Armenians in Turkey, known as the Hamshens, who live in the Black Sea region. They have been forcibly converted to Islam, but some have retained their Armenian traditions and their native language, Armenian, which has a distinctive dialect. In a YouTube video I recently discovered, Turkish intelligence officer Ilyasoglu made shocking revelations about the ethnic origins of Turkish President Erdogan. I am not sure how true his report is, but given Ilyasoglu’s intelligence background, I could not ignore his claim. Ilyasoglu lived in England from 1995 to 1996 and moved to Germany in 2000. In 2005, he ran for parliament in Turkey, but later withdrew his candidacy.
He is currently the chairman of the Renaissance Party, whose slogan is “One government, one nation, one flag, and one religion: Turks.” He now lives in Germany. It is widely known that the Turkish government has numerous intelligence officers in Germany who spy on the millions of Turks living there, particularly Kurds and Erdogan’s political opponents. Erdogan’s ID card shows that he was born in Rize, which is in the Greek Pontus region of Turkey.
In his video, Ilyasoglu stated that “Erdoğan’s father was a Pontic Greek and his mother was a Spanish Jew who came to Pontus via Georgia.” Ilyasoglu added: “If Erdogan dares, let him object.” “The brother of one of Tayyip’s (Erdoğan’s) grandfathers was a Greek priest who tried to establish the Greek Republic of Pontus on the Black Sea coast after the Russo-Turkish War.” “His grandfather and his priest brother were arrested and tried by the ‘Giresun Independence Court’, sentenced to death and hanged.” Ilyasoglu explained that he was from Giresun. “It is written in the memoirs of Judge Ali Kilic.” “And Erdogan’s maternal great-grandfather, Teyyub, was an anarchist who, after entering Turkish villages and committing murders, engaged in looting.
Then, during the 1922 Marash Armenian Uprising, he and his group sided with the Armenians, attacked Turkish soldiers, and was killed in the Taurus Mountains.” Ilyasoglu added: “Let Tayyip Erdogan search for the remains of his maternal great-grandfather in the Taurus Mountains. In other words, his maternal grandfather does not have a grave.” The above video is dated October 28, 2023. There is no information in the Turkish media that Ilyasoglu has been criticized or condemned for his sensational revelations about Erdogan, despite the fact that he has visited Turkey several times. Since the Turkish media is under Erdogan’s complete control, no Turkish newspaper will dare to publish anything that could anger the president.
It is not known why the Turkish government has not condemned Ilyasoglu, who claims that Erdogan’s ancestors are Greek. The reason may be that Ilyasoglu is telling the truth about Erdogan’s ancestors, or the president does not want to draw more attention to the claims made in the video. According to a Turkish proverb, “Spoiled wine becomes bitter vinegar.” This could mean that some Islamized and Turkified Armenians are becoming the sworn enemies of Armenians. This is similar to the expression “more Catholic than the Pope.”
