A Turkish Journalist Describes The Miserable Condition of Ani's Ruins

On May 16, 2005, the Armenian Marmara newspaper of Istanbul republished on its website in Armenian (http:/www.normarmara.com) the article written by, according to the online newspaper, the well-known Turkish journalist Zainab Oral in (Jumhuriyet) Turkish newspaper on May 15, 2005. In her article, Oral, being there, describes the Armenian city Ani's ruins in these words:
"I am at Ani's ruins 45 km. to the east of Kars. Doubtless you have heard of Ani and seen its photos. I'll not tell you about the ruins that are still standing or striving to stand, sometimes living in agony condition, or half of them seem to be bombed and the other half being as half fallen-down. What I can do is to express the pain and sadness that I feel in front of them. The mayor of Kars Naif Alibey Oghlu said to me: It is impossible to be the owner of the past cultures; it is only possible to be its heir".
Oral continues, "The pain and sorrow I felt in Ani became similar to the shame I was feeling by seeing that we couldn't worthily evaluate the treasure we inherited. Why were we such bad heirs, why did we allow Ani to be collapsed or robbed? Not only us, the Russians too (1877-1917) took with them the inestimable precious stones, frescos and wall sculptures".
Oral notes, "The inhabitants of Kars told us that in 1950's, they were, as political preference, ordered to destroy these places as the handwork of -Gavours- (infidels). Moreover, still everyone in Ani, like in the past, is searching for the gold and excavating to find any".
Oral highlights, "Near Ani, Armenia is separated from Turkey by the small Arpacha stream. On the other side of the stream, Armenia's stone quarries exist. The Armenians is reconstructing their Anis with the stones extracted from there, and a church similar to Ani's cathedral is already ready".
Oral expresses pain saying, "The thing which breaks the heart in Ani is the condition of the stone bridge over Arpacha, the bridge of Silk Route in some times in the past. The pillars and the front parts of the bridge still exist, unlike bridge's middle part. While inhabitants of Kars born before the 1950's remember that the bridge used to have its middle part too".
Oral concludes the article by saying, "All who remember or not remember have the same wish; to renovate that bridge to be a (Friendship Bridge)".