Atatürk University is combining efforts with the Erzurum Museum Directorate to unearth the mass graves of Turks in Erzurum massacred by Armenian criminal groups during the March riots of 1918. 
During the excavation Atatürk University and the Erzurum Museum Directorate will attempt to uncover the truth surrounding Armenian atrocities of World War I. The excavation is scheduled to begin on June 15, the Anatolia news agency reported on Wednesday.

Preliminary excavations reveal that most of the people lying in the mass graves are Muslim Turks. According to scientists, more than 70 people were killed by Armenian criminal groups in the spot where excavation will take place.

Armenians have long claimed that more than 1.5 million Armenians were sent to their death at the hands of Turks during the last years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey vehemently rejects this idea, claiming that killings took place on both sides. Speaking with Anatolia, Atatürk University Turkish-Armenian Relations Research Center head Erol Kürkçüoğlu said there were two massacres in the city in 1918, one including women and children and the other only of men. He said this is the first time that scientific research is being conducted in the area and that they will announce to the world that the real victims of the massacre are Turkish Muslims, the real owners of the region.

Kürkçüoğlu said they were made aware of the massacre due to the memoirs of then-Russian Gen. Yarbay Tverdohlebof, who served in Erzurum during World War I, in which he said he had been informed by his soldiers that Armenians killed all the residents of the Tepeköy district. 
 
Souce: Today’s Zaman 
URL: www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-212663-100-excavation-to-unearth-armenian-massacre-victims.html