Turks

[arabaliozian]

Wednesday, December 07, 2016
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NOTES /COMMENTS
*****************************
“Armenians slaughtered Turks too,”
a Turkish reader reminds me.
If they did, they were emulating
their role models.
*
Dealing with Armenians is not easy:
it means coming to grips with millennial oppression
and countless unsettled scores.
*
From an unsent letter to an Armenian publisher:
“The conditions outlined in your last letter
are contemptible but I accepted them
and am grateful.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: Turks

Henceforth, we should concentrate our efforts on humanizing the Turks as opposed to dehumanizing them, if only because we cannot make any moral demands on a dehumanized entity.

[arabaliozian]

Re: Turks

If a wolf kills a sheep, is he guilty of murder? In a way, when we reduce Turks to the level of bloodthirsty beasts, we also enter a plea of not guilty on their behalf -- a plea similar to that of insanity. Because if they are no better than animals, they cannot be held responsible for their actions. It is therefore to our advantage not to dehumanize but to humanize them. In other words, to think of them as we think of all other nations that have at one time or another committed genocide and other unspeakable crimes against humanity - that includes Germans and Americans.

[arabaliozian]

Re: Turks

When Armenians asked Toynbee permission
to reprint his book on the Genocide,
Toynbee refused because he explained,
he was afraid of what would happen
to the Armenian communities in Turkey.
Another genocide?

[arabaliozian]

Re: Turks

The pen is mightier than the sword?
Don’t make me laugh.
If that were true,
our Turcocentric ghazetajis
would have exterminated Turks years ago…