Comment on Armenian newspaper holds century of memories in Istanbul

Istanbul (AFP) - It's witnessed the collapse of an empire, the horrendous massacre of its people and the birth of an entirely new state. And it keeps on printing.The newspaper "Jamanak" ("The Times" in Armenian) is the oldest continuously-running newspaper in Turkey and oldest anywhere in the Armenian language.It published its first issue on October 28, 1908, in the final one-and-a-half decades of the Ottoman Empire when Armenians were still citizens of the empire, before the creation of modern Turkey and when Istanbul was still officially known as Constantinople.It survived the massacres from 1915 of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman forces, an atrocity whose 100th anniversary is commemorated on April 24.And still it prints almost every day, keeping Istanbul's small Armenian community of some 60,000 up to date with events and views.Entering its offices in Istanbul's Ferikoy district  is like visiting a museum with the walls decorated with old photos and back issues painstakingly stacked up.In his office, the director Ara Kocunyan, dictates his articles to three editorial assistants who type them into the computer in Armenian script."We are the newspaper of the Armenian community in Turkey," said Kocunyan. "Jamanak has been published without interruption and for a long time, it has crossed so many eras that it has become an anthology of the life of Armenians in the Republic of Turkey.""It is our memory," he added.Six days a week, the 2,000 daily copies of the newspaper are printed in a basement close to the editorial offices.