Let My Absence Be Gifted to Your Existence
September 14th, 1999, was the day I started elementary school in Istanbul, Turkey, where I was born and raised as the daughter of an Amernian family. At 7 years old - an age when one is not quite equipped with a conscious understanding of an ethnic identity - I was enrolled at Mhitaryan Varjaran, a private Armenian school located in the Pangalti neighbourhood, one of Istanbul's small enclaves, where many Aermnian families have settled over the years. This was also the day I was introduced to the "Student Oath". Written in 1933, on the 10th anniversary of the Turlish Republic, by the Minister of National Education at the time, which every student in Turkey had to recite at the start of each school day. This had to be led by one student and repeated by all the others.
I am Turkish, I am honest, I am hardworking. My principle is to protect my juniors, to respect my elders, to love my homeland and my nation more than myself. My ideal is to rise, to progress. O Great Atatürk! I vow to walk ever upon the path you paved towards the aim you have set. Let my existence be gifted to the Turkish existence. How happy is the one who says "I am a Turk!".....Read the full article in the printed issue. Get OVER Journal 4
