14 February 2023

The Armenians aren't there any longer ...

 As terrible news about the Earthquake continues to emerge, some place-names stand out ... Gaziantep ... Adana ...

Would you have guessed that 'Iskenderun' is a corruption of 'Alexandria'?

Use of Wikipedia reveals that most of these places were substantially Armenian Christian, until the hideous twentieth century genocides of Armenians by Turkey.

BTW, I'm far from sure that all the Alexandrias were founded by Alexander. His Successors ("diadokhoi"), I think, founded quite a number.

5 comments:

Michael Leahy said...

What can come around can go around.

Richard said...

One of the 80 or so settlements founded by Alexander and named after himself.

Albertus said...

Indeed God's mills grind slowly, bur they grind exceedingly fine.

Protasius said...

I first heard of the ancient name of Iskenderun in the film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", in which Sean Connery played the part of Indiana Jones' father. There he refers to it by the name Alexandretta.

Peter said...

Much of the area damaged seems to be in the County of Edessa and the Principality of Antioch. How far back should we go I wonder?