Rober Koptaş

Rober Koptaş (bourgeois Murat Koptaş , * 1977 in Istanbul ) is a Turkish historian of Armenian descent, journalist and since 2010 the editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos .

Like his murdered predecessor Hrant Dink , Koptaş is threatened by Turkish right-wing extremists with messages of murder and hate.

biography

His maternal family comes from the city of Kastamonu and escaped the genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire from 1915 only because the governor at the time tried to prevent the bloodbaths . His family on his father's side comes from Sivas and survived the genocide because they were bakers and were therefore protected; Rober Koptas's father decided to give him the name Murat , as he feared that Rober might later have problems with his military service as an Armenian.

Koptaş learned the Armenian language in school, his mother tongue was Turkish . He didn't realize his Armenian identity until he was 12 or 13 years old. He wrote his dissertation on the subject of the political activities of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire between 1908 and 1915.

Koptaş works as an editor at the Istanbul book publisher Aras Publishing. He criticizes the constant derogatory remarks by politicians, officials and journalists about the Armenian minority and sees this as an attempt to create a strong national feeling in Turkey.

He described the degrading illustration of a genocide memorial in Paris by a Turkish newspaper as "humiliating"; the statue itself shows the clergyman and composer Komitas Vardapet , the Turkish newspaper showed him with a dog urinating on his robe.

Rober Koptaş is demanding that the Turkish government recognize the genocide of the Armenian- Christian minority in Turkey. He has been married to Delal Dink , the daughter of the murdered Hrant Dink , since December 17, 2011 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Why the Armenian Rober Koptas is sometimes called Murat. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 20, 2014 ; accessed on February 6, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Armenians. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on February 6, 2014 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
3. ↑ Bir düğünün hikâyesi. Radikal , December 25, 2011, accessed February 6, 2014 .