Much to the surprise of Turks, the unexpected discovery of population registers on an online genealogy database three weeks ago was so overwhelming that the system crashed within hours, British journalist Robert Fisk writes in his article in The Independent reported.

According to him, it turned out that many Turks were actually Armenians, or part-Armenians or even partly Greek or Jewish.

“Ancient ghosts climbed out of century-old graves to reassert their Armenian presence in Turkish history,” wrote the journalist.

The editor of the Armenian newspaper Agos, Hrant Dink, who was killed in 2007, reported that Turkish government was secretly coding minorities in registers, Robert Fisk noted.

The journalist wrote that up to four million Turkish citizens have requested access to their family tree within 48 hours, which is why the system crashed.

According to retired statistician and Armenian demographer George Aghjayan, eight millions Turks have requested access to their family tree that is 10 percent of the entire Turkish population.

“Perhaps two million Turks have Armenian grandmothers. But they are supposed to believe that the genocide never happened,” Fisk concluded.