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Turkey’s language activists keep Armenian dialect alive in music, literature

Cultural activists are struggling to keep Homshetsi, a western Armenian dialect spoken in northern Turkey, alive through music and literature.
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His most recent album sung in Homshetsi can be taken as an SOS call, says Hikmet Akcicek. The tongue, a northwestern dialect of Western Armenian, is one of 15 endangered languages spoken in Turkey — and Akcicek’s band Vova means to keep it alive.

The cover of the band's July record, “Garmi Doc” (“Red Truck” in Homshetsi), shows a woman in red traditional clothing. For Akcicek, it's a chance to showcase his culture and mother tongue, spoken in the mountainous northeastern Black Sea region of Turkey, and becoming extinct for a combination of reasons.

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