Turkey's 'Hidden Armenians' Break Silence Of The Past
Armenia is marking the 100th anniversary of the start of the World War I-era massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, widely recognized as the first genocide of the 20th century. The nature of the tragedy continues to be disputed by Turkey, which says that civil strife claimed lives on both sides. In this documentary, RFE/RL's Armenian Service investigates the stories of Turkey's "hidden Armenians" -- families whose forebears converted to Islam, or were forcibly converted, and concealed their background to escape persecution. They describe a slowly changing atmosphere in Turkey that has made it possible, after decades of silence, to live openly as Christians and Armenians.