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**Gavur** · 07-20-2005, 09:06 PM

Sons of the conquerors: The rise of the Turkic world
From: "Katia M. Peltekian" <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 08:25:32 +0500 (AMST)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Asharq Alawsat (The Middle East), UK
July 20 2005

SONS OF THE CONQUERORS: The Rise Of The Turkic World
Asharq Al-Awsat Book Review
20/07/2005
By Amir Taheri

With the increasingly globalised international system heading towards
what looks like the elimination of nation-states are we heading for
a new world which resembles the primeval soup in which nations could
not be told apart?

This is the question behind Hugh Pope's new book which is about the
identity debate in almost a dozen countries where what he describes
as "the Turkic people" form either a majority or a substantial
minority. His answer is that globalisation, while effacing political
and administrative frontiers among nations may paradoxically encourage
a sense of cultural identification. And this, he further argues,
is especially the case among the Turkic peoples.

But let us start by finding out what makes a people "Turkic".

The key element in that identity is not race or ethnicity. Ataturk's
attempts at inventing a racial origin for his people led him into a
number of absurd, if not comical, conclusions. At one point he traced
the origins of the Turkish people to Finland rather than Central
Asia and Siberia. The book "White Lilies", which promoted that idea,
became compulsory reading at Turkish government schools. The idea was
that Turks were Europeans and thus progressive and modern rather than
Asian and "backward".

Nevertheless, a majority of people who now live within the borders of
the Turkish Republic and speak Turkish as their mother tongue are,
as far as race is concerned, the descendants of the Greek and other
Hellenised communities of Asia Minor who have been Turkicised during
the past 10 centuries or so. What makes them Turkic, therefore,
is not blood but culture and sentiment. They feel they are Turks,
and so they are.

Not everyone who speaks a version of the half a dozen or so Turkic
languages may describe himself as Turkic. But most do.

Pope estimates the number of Turkic-speakers at over 140 million,
almost half of them in the Turkey itself. Turkic-speakers are also
a majority in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and
Azerbaijan which have a combined population of 50 million.

Turkic-speaking Azeris number around 15 million in Iran while the
Uyghurs, another Turkic people who live in Xinjiang, or the Chinese
Turkistan, number some 12 million. There are also Turkic minorities
in Russia (including the Tatars, the Bashkirs, the Charkess-Qarachai,
and the Kabardino-Balkars) who account for some 20 million people.

Smaller Turkic minorities live in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Armenia,
Syria, Iraq, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia.

The idea of pan-Turkism, based on the dream of creating a single
state to unite all the Turkic-speakers from Central Asia to the
Mediterranean, reached its peak in the first two decades of the
last century. One of its greatest champions, a certain Anwar Pasha,
even tried to carve himself a mini-empire in Central Asia after the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

It was pan-Turkism that inspired other nationalistic movements in
the region starting with pan-Iranism in the 1930s and pa-Arabism in
the 1960s.

The pan-Iranists preached the unification of Iran, Afghanistan,
Tajikistan, and the Soviet Caucasus, plus the Bahrain archipelago in
the Persian Gulf, in the name not of language but of Iranian blood
and culture. The pan-Arabists dreamed of a single state spanning the
vast region between the Arabian Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the
name of the Arabic language.

Pan-Iranism died in the 1960s when the Shah finalised Iran's borders
with the Soviet Union and gave up the old Iranian claim on Bahrain.

Pan-Arabism died with the demise of Gamal Abdul Nasser's dictatorship
after Egypt's 1967 defeat by Israel.

Pan-Turkism, however, has managed, with many ups and downs, to survive
and still constitutes a good part of the political discourse in Turkey
where even Islamist and liberal ideological rivals pay lip service
to it.

In the 1990s Pan-Turkism received an unexpected boost from the fall
of the Soviet Empire. Turkey's President Turgot Ozal was especially
keen to fill in the void that was taking shape in Central Asia and
the Caucasus. A pragmatist, Ozal knew that sentimental issues, while
important, could not sustain a serious policy in the region.

Accordingly, he mobilised whatever economic, trade and military
resources that Turkey could put together for the purpose, and
organised an "invasion" of the region by businessmen, engineers,
and military advisors.

In both Central Asia and the Caucasus, Ozal had to compete against
Russia, which still hoped to retain a dominant position, and Iran,
which was entering the scene with more money and an Islamist
discourse. But Ozal's strategy ultimately failed not because of
Russian or Iranian competition. The clincher in its defeat was the
massive arrival of the Americans. Once the US was present with a
high profile the newly independent republics preferred to deal with
it rather than it junior local ally Turkey.

As Hugh Pope shows in his excellent study, the dollar proved stronger
than emotional assertions about a common ancestry and a shared
culture. In many cases the Turkish businessmen that Ozal had despatched
to Central Asia ended up as middlemen for American corporations seeking
a share of the regional market. Pope introduces one such businessman,
identified only as Murad, who has made his fortune importing frozen
chicken into landlocked Turkmenistan via Iran.

Pope, a British journalist and a fluent Turkish-speaker who has
lived in Turkey for decades, knows the Turkic world like the back of
his hand. His book is, for a good part, a travelogue, narrating his
numerous ventures in the Turkic lands over the past 15 years.

But is language enough for shaping an identity?

Pope should have but does not pose the question. If language were
enough as the basis of a common identity, the people of Bangladesh
would not have separated themselves from their fellow Bengali speakers
in Indian West Bengal.

It is also interesting to note that the world's second largest
English-speaking nation, after the United States, is the Philippines
not the United Kingdom.

Pope cites several collective features, or identifiers, of which
language is the most important. But the Turkic people he describes have
other common features, including their belief in a common ancestry-
they all regard Chengiz Khan as their distant ancestor.

Another common feature is what Pope describes as "the military
vocation" of the Turkic peoples.

This is borne out by history which shows how various Turkic peoples
appeared on the scene as mercenaries for local Persian, Arab and
Byzantine principalities and ended up by absorbing, and in some cases,
Turkicising them.

In some cases, especially in North Africa and Egypt, however, the
Turks were gradually absorbed and Arabised and are today identified
only thanks to their Turkish-sounding family names.

Pope asserts that the Turkic peoples have a certain fascination for
the military which has turned the army, especially in Turkey itself,
into the custodian of the highest national interests. He also says
that the Turkic peoples always look to a "strongman" to lead them, and
thus have developed a penchant for authoritarian rule. Because of that,
Pope argues, prospects for democratisation in the Turkic world remain
dim. One could safely ignore such questionable generalisations. There
is, in fact, no evidence that Turkic-speaking peoples would reject
the chance to live in a democracy where their human rights are
respected. The book, which will be on sale next month, was written
before the pro-democracy uprising that ended the regime of President
Askar Aqaev in Kyrgyzstan and before the current pro-reform revolt
in neighbouring Uzbekistan.)

Pope also acknowledges Islam as one of the key features of the Turkic
identity. With the exception of Azerbaijan, where 98 per cent of the
Turkic-Azeri speakers are Shiites, almost all other Turkic peoples
are Sunni Muslims with a strong Sufi tradition. In fact, one of
the weaknesses of Pope's otherwise valuable book is his failure to
describe the role of the various Sufi fraternities, especially in
Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Pope shows that despite the revival of Islam in former Soviet republics
all the new regimes are prepared to work with the Western powers,
especially by allowing access to the oil resources of the Caspian
Basin. Moreover, the United States now maintains military bases in
several of the Turkic states in addition to its massive presence in
Turkey itself through the NATO alliance. The pragmatist policy of
the ruling elites means that the Turkic states are performing better
than their Iranian, Slav and Arab neighbours in a number of domains,
especially economic development and the spread of education.

For this reviewer the most interesting part of Pope's fairly long
book is the narrative of his travels in Xinjiang (East Turkestan), a
vast land controlled by China and largely closed to the outside world.

Pope estimates the number of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang at eight
million, which is the official Chinese claim. But most Western
specialists put the number at around 12 million. For the past five
decades Beijing has pursued a policy of Sinification in Xinjiang by
bringing in large numbers of Han Chinese so as to turn the native
Muslims into a minority in their own land. Pope says that the Muslims
now account for only half of the population in Xinjiang.

Pope shows that the Han settlers are given the most lucrative jobs in
Xinjiang while the native Muslims are assigned to low-paid positions
and rigorously kept out of "sensitive" fields such as the military and
he police. Until the 11 September 2001 attacks against New York and
Washington, the US, along with several oil-rich Arab states, had given
moral and financial support to Uighur opposition parties. Since then,
however, most of that support has stopped as the US has drawn closer
to China and Russia in the name of a joint campaign against Islamist
terrorism. As for the oil-rich states, they have recognised China
as their biggest future market and, perhaps, even biggest protector,
if and when the US loses interest in the region. This has persuaded
the oil-rich states that backing the Uighurs is not worth the loss
of Chinese goodwill.

Pope writes: " Islam is channelling the Uighurs' political
frustration. A longing for international strength and legitimacy is
the Main factor behind the Uighur embrace of Islam. It gives them
a perhaps misleading sense of equality in numbers, since there are
nearly as many Muslims in the world as Chinese. Islam is also a safer
kind of dissent. Despite [periodic crackdowns on religious practices,
including what a Human Rights Watch report in April called a '
highly intrusive religious control' Islam benefits from a minimum
of toleration by the Chinese state. By contrast, Beijing bans every
secular expression of a Uighur nationalist identity."

Pope says that the death in 1995 of Isa Alptekin, the secularist Uighur
independence movement leader, marked the start of a long process that
had led to the domination of the Uighur national scene by Islamist
preachers and militants.

According to Pope some of the Islamist Uighur fighters joined the
Taliban in Afghanistan where a few of them were captured by the
Americans and taken to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Having attributed the growth of Islam among the Uighurs to purely
political factors, Pope , nevertheless, goes on to contradict himself
by showing that the Uighur attachment to Islam is not purely motivated
by politics.

He writes: " In most houses, people rigorously observe Islam's five
daily prayers. In Uighur villages, mosques are usually the tallest
and best built buildings for kilometres, their street fronts decked
out in fancy tile work and a line of slender minarets. At one small
bookshop in Kashgar's old town, there were just a few dusty volumes
of Uighur history. The fastest moving bestsellers turned out to be
the Quran and teach-yourself Arabic books."

Pope further reports that many Uighur freedom fighters are expressing
doubts about the wisdom of using an Islamist discourse in pursuit of
political goals. This apparent change of heart has allowed Erkin,
the late Alptekin's eldest son, to move centre stage to lead the
independence movement towards a secular discourse based on culture
and identity rather than religion.

" I was telling them for years that while you might admire a suicide
bomber, the rest of the world will see him as a terrorist," Erkin
Alptekin told Pope. " Now they come and tell me: Erkin, you were
right!"

No one knows where the Turkic world maybe heading. Turkey is trying
to become part of the European Union while the Tatars and the Bashkir
appear content to remain part of the Russian federation. The Central
Asian republics may be entering a period of political instability that
might ultimately lead to their democratisation. One thing is certain:
the Turkic nations are to move up the news agenda and Pope's book
offers much insight into their little known world.

Asharq Al-Awsat | Explore World News Today

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?id=898

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**Gavur** · 07-25-2005, 01:26 PM

Media, Capital in Same Hands, No Freedom of Press.

Media, Capital in Same Hands, No Freedom of Press.
By Anadolu News Agency (aa)
Published: Tuesday July 26, 2005
zaman.com

The President of Turkish Journalists Federation Nazmi Bilgin said that the media in Turkey was in the same hands as the capital, banking, energy, oil sectors and political world and added: "as long as we do not break these chains of relations we cannot talk about freedom of the press."

Nazmi Bilgin gave a statement on the occasion of the 97th anniversary of the abolishment of censorship of the press and the 82nd anniversary of the Lozan Agreement. Observing that that remembering both these days is important Bilgin added: "Because the unity of freedom, democracy and independence is represented in both these two events, they are requirements of national unity and national responsibility." Bilgin noted that one cannot say that there is democracy and human rights in a country where there the press is not objective and independent. He further said "media in Turkey is in the hands of the owners of capital, banking sector, energy and oil magnates and most importantly with politicians. As long as this chain of relations is not broken we cannot talk about freedom of press. Turkey should definitely overcome this problem immediately."

**Gavur** · 07-29-2005, 10:06 PM

Armenia To Be Invited To Participate In Peace And Beauty Festival In

PanArmenian News Network
July 29 2005

ARMENIA TO BE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN PEACE AND BEAUTY FESTIVAL IN
TURKEY

29.07.2005 06:29

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Handi Sedefti, the Mayor of the Turkish town of
Edirne stated that he is going to invite an Armenian delegation for
the participation in the International Festival of Peace and Beauty
to be held in Turkey September 18. On this day representatives of 20
countries will address the whole world with the message of peace and
beauty from the place where the borders of Turkey, Greece and
Bulgaria meet. Delegations from Turkey, northern Cyprus, Bulgaria,
Armenia, Russia, UK, Poland, Georgia, Bulgaria, Germany, France,
Romania, Hungary, Singapore, China, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Albania,
Bosnia and Herzegovina will take part in the festival.

**Gavur** · 07-30-2005, 01:35 AM

Congressman Tancredo Avenged By The Turkish Government

CONGRESSMAN TANCREDO AVENGED BY THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT

Several weeks ago Colorado Congressman Tancredo stated that America could bomb Muslim Holy sites if there was a need. The Congressman's unbalanced statements were exploited by the Turkish government to avenge him.

First of all, I strongly disagree with Mr. Tancredo's statements, because sacrilege is not a solution for any kind of a problem. The bombing of Mecca would not only give birth to a sinister and indescribable war, but it would also be an attack on the world civilization.

The Congressman's unbelievable comments, nevertheless, are not as absurd as the condemns expressed by the Turkish officials. The Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul called the Colorado congressman fanatical person ignoring the fact that his own Turkish government denies the Armenian Genocide (the systematic massacre of the oldest Christian people in its motherland between 1915-1923); that his own Turkish government is responsible for bombings and desecrations of more than 2000 Christian Armenian churches and cathedrals, some as old as 1700 years; that his own Turkish government occupies northern part of Cyprus; that his own Turkish government beheaded 30,000 Kurds in the last two decades and that his own Turkish government is a violator of basic human rights.

There are two apparent reasons why the Turkish government suddenly emerged into this issue as an accuser. First of all, Turkey truly dreams of joining the European Union, thus this engagement would speak of Turkey's democratic standards (at least the Foreign Minister thinks so). Second, Turkey wants to use this opportunity to punish Tancredo and turn him to its side. Congressman Tancredo lately voted in favor of Armenian Genocide's recognition by the US House of Representatives, thus the Colorado Representative is on the black list of Turkey. As the Associated Press reported on 19 July 2005, Tancredo talked with the Turkish ambassador Tuesday afternoon during a long-scheduled meeting about a House bill on the Turkish-Armenian conflict. Turkey simply aims to exploit Congressman Tancredo's situation to get him off the black list. Otherwise, why would the Armenian conflict emerge during these negotiations? Is this the way Turkey condemns offensive speeches?

By exploiting the Congressman's comments, Turkey wants to kill two birds with one stone: to praise itself as a democratic country and to avenge Mr. Tancredo for recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

As a resident of Littleton who was paid tribute by Congressman Tancredo in the House of the Representatives last year, and as an Armenian whose family survived the Armenian Genocide, I find Mr. Tancredo's comments shocking and offensive. At the same time, Turkey's sudden statements in this situation are sinister and ridiculous.

The sick man of Europe should solve its problems first.

By Simon Maghakyan in Littleton, Colorado

**Hovik** · 07-30-2005, 04:00 AM

This last article was fantastic, glad you posted it Gavur. Thanks.

**Gavur** · 07-30-2005, 07:40 PM

Turkish �friendly resolution� offer

Turkish �friendly resolution� offer on Anter murder case rejected

29/07/2005 Ozgur Politika
Ankara - Friendly resolution is now on the agenda for the murder of the famous Kurdish intellectual Musa Anter, who was assassinated in 1992 by the counter-guerrillas and which was regarded as an unknown-killing by the government to cover up the murder. Turkey is now trying to wrap up the case which is at the European Court of Human Rights by paying 15,000 Euros on the basis of friendly resolution. Anter�s family has rejected this offer.

Musa Anter was invited to a Culture and Arts Festival in Diyarbakir. Just before the festival, on the 20 September, 1992, he was murdered. The case has been taken to the European Court of Human Rights and Turkey recently offered to resolve the case through friendly resolution. Turkey has offered 15,000 Euros to the Anter family. This offer has been rejected by Anter�s children.

He was killed in 1992

Musa Anter was killed in 1992 as a result of an armed assault in Diyarbakir. In the aftermath of the murder, Diyarbakir Republic Prosecutor instigated an investigation into the matter. The case was then called an unknown-murder and left on the shelves. Due to the investigation never being finalised, the Anter family took the matter to the European Court of Human Rights. The case is about to be finalised.

�We do not accept the friendly resolution offer�

Dicle Anter said that they will not accept such an offer of resolution and continued: �The reason why we do not accept such a resolution is quite clear. Through a payment the crime can not be covered up. Those responsible should be punished. We can not accept the approach of covering up the murder through money. This is not only true for the case of my father but for all such cases. The confessions of Abdulkadir Aygan are very important but those responsible are still free.�

Musa Anter�s son Anter Anter who lives in Sweden has also said that they shall not accept a friendly resolution and continued �Even if they offer 15 million euros we shall not accept it.�

�State Secret�

Musa Anter who was known amongst the Kurds as Uncle Musa was killed on the 20 September 1992 in Diyarbakir as he was invited to attend Culture and Arts Festival there. The murder case of Anter could not be processed for 13 years. In the Susurluk Investigation report of Kutlu Savas, President of Prime Ministerial Inquiry Committee, it was accepted that the murder of Anter was committed by the state. The confessions regarding Musa Anter�s murder was in the 9th additional file of the report. However these additional files were not revealed on the grounds that they were �state secret�.

Confessions of Aygan

Abdulkadir Aygan, one of the founders of JITEM, revealed how Musa Anter was killed, 12 years after his murder in 2004. Aygan, whose confessions were submitted to the ECHR by the Anter family, had said that the murder of Musa Anter was organised at the JITEM by Yesil.

**Gavur** · 08-13-2005, 07:28 AM

Turkey admits its "mistakes" toward Kurds

Turkey admits its "mistakes" toward Kurds

By Amberin Zaman

Los Angeles Times

ANKARA, Turkey � The prime minister acknowledged yesterday that the Turkish government had mishandled its relations with the nation's minority Kurds, saying their long-running grievances need to be addressed through greater democracy, not repression.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's admission, believed to be the first by a Turkish leader, came during a speech in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the troubled Kurdish southeast region and a hotbed of Kurdish nationalism.

The crowds applauded wildly as Erdogan termed the Kurdish issue "my problem, our collective problem."

"Mistakes have been made," he said. And to ignore past mistakes, he declared, was not "fitting behavior for great nations such as Turkey."

Erdogan's speech won praise from the Kurdish community.

"It constitutes the foundation for turning a new page in relations" between the government and Kurds, said Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir.

"The significance of his words cannot be underestimated," said Sezgin Tanrikulu, chairman of Diyarbakir's influential bar association. "It's the first time any Turkish leader is admitting to wrongdoing on the part of the state."

However, Tanrikulu noted, "He will need to match his words with deeds."

For decades, Turkey's estimated 14 million Kurds were dismissed by successive governments as "mountain Turks." Their ancient tongue, which is distinct from Turkish, was officially banned until the early 1990s. Thousands of Kurdish activists, who demanded official recognition of their ethnic identity, were tortured and jailed. Kurdish insurgents in turn carried out a rebellion against the government.

As Turkey seeks to join the European Union, it has begun to ease pressure on the Kurds. Since Erdogan came to power in 2002, his conservative Justice and Development Party has enacted a series of sweeping reforms, among them measures enabling the Kurds to broadcast and publish in their language and to teach it in privately run courses.

The changes contributed to the decision of European Union leaders in December to open membership negotiations with Turkey, which are scheduled to begin Oct. 3.

But analysts warn that renewed violence between security forces and the rebel group known as the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, could spark a nationalist backlash that would in turn weaken public support for reforms.

Scores of Turkish soldiers have died in attacks that have been spreading across the Kurdish southeast region since the PKK called off a five-year unilateral truce in June 2004. In the latest incident, two soldiers were killed Thursday in Tunceli province.

In an ominous sign, Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, chief of the general staff, noted that the fight against the PKK would continue nonetheless.

**Gavur** · 08-16-2005, 03:51 PM

Imam Of Kars Does Not Allow Armenian Tourists To Light Candles In Church Turned Into

KARS, AUGUST 15, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. A number of Turkish
newspapers ("Hurriet", "Milliet" and some others) reported on August
15 that the imam of the city of Kars did not allow a group of tourists
from Armenia to light candles and hold a religious ceremony at the
Church of Twelve Apostles turned into a mosque. The Armenian Apostolic
Church was turned into a mosque in 1998 and called Qumpet Chamii. Imam
Mehmed Altun prohibited the Armenian tourists from lighting candles or
singing in the former church. According to the imam, such ceremonies
are not allowed in a mosque, the newapaper "Marmara" wrote. Later the
tourists intended to light candles in the garden of the former church,
but this time some locals intervened, preventing them from doing
so. The Armenian tourists had to interrupt their ceremony and leave.

**Gavur** · 08-16-2005, 11:19 PM

Armenians of Istanbul

Armenians of Istanbul
Istanbul Ermenileri
this page is dedicated to the Armenian-Turkish brotherhood.
last updated on 20 August 1997
Problems

--------www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5503/MAP.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today, there are nearly 50.00 Armenians living in Istanbul. The population is distributed all over the city. The rights of the community is secured after the Lausanne treaty(1922). According to the international agreements, the three minorities in Istanbul(Greeks, Armenians and Jews) have right to worship, speek their mother tongues and educate their children at their own schools. According to the laws of the Turkish laws, there's no difference among each citizen living in Turkey. On paper, Republic of Turkey is a secular state.
The problems come out by the misapplication of the rules, or the application of the "de facto" rules. Especially, after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk died in 1938, the pressure over the minorities increased. From then on, the governments took many unfair decisions to assimilate or to reduce the non-muslim comunities. First of all, "Varlik Vergisi"(Prosperity Tax) was applied in 1942. According to the tax law, the citizens were divided into three parts: (a)Muslims (b)Non-Muslims (c)Donmeler(muslims, formerly Christian or Jew). Each fraction was made to pay different amount of taxes. Of course, the Non-Muslim fraction was forced to pay incredibly high amounts of money, while the muslims pay reasonable amounts. Those, who couldn't pay the money were captured in the working camps of the deserted Southeastern Parts of Turkey. Many fled away from Turkey. Nearly half of the non-muslim population of the country emigrated to other countries. These people made their destination countries richer with their hardworking and intelligence. Republic of Turkey lost many things after this emigration, but it was just the thing the "Inonu" government wanted:"to nationalize the capital" they began to succeed. Many Turkish bankers, businessmen, factory owners became very rich.

Following years, Menderes was elected to the government in the first multi-parties election. Menderes and his team was conservative and nationalist, some of them were even fundemental muslims. After the rule of Menderes, Republic of Turkey started to shift to the right wing and islamic world.

Menderes started a campaign against the non-muslim communities : "vatandas, Turkce konus!", which means "citizen, speak Turkish". This campaign led many conflict between nationalist Turks and the minority members. Slowly and slowly, by these kinds of campaigns, the Menderes government succeeded to establish hatred between Turks and other groups.

The most horrible event occured on 6th and 7th of September 1955. After a false news reporting that the house of Ataturk at Thessaloniki was bombed by Greeks, large crowds of people brainwashed by the campaigns of the government filled the streets. They were shouting with anger, blaming the non-muslims. They broke the shop windows, broke the cars, burnt down the houses, raped young girls, plundered and stole. Only the non-muslims were the targets. Noone harmed from the muslims, only those who wanted to protect their Christian or Jewish neighbour. After the events, the Istiklal Street was totally full of broken glass, reminding the Cyristal Night of Nazi Germany. Those, who took leading role in the events were taken to the court, but they are freed after ridicilous punishment. This was a proof that the events were guided by the Menderes government.

Istiklal Street after the events
The main aim were the Greeks. They were the ones most harmed by the events. Nearly two third of the Greeks emmigrated to Greece just after 1955. Also many Armenian shops were stoned, many houses were burned, many girls were raped. Also, after 1955, many Armenians were left without money, no home and no job. Thousands went to United States, Germany, Canada or even Australia. There were not as lucky as the Greeks, because they didn't have a country to be easily accepted.

The 70s passed with the terrorist activities of ASALA against Turkish ambassies. Every attack caused hatred in Turkey for the Armenian race. Also the press and the television helped to grow this hatred. During nearly 15 years, the Armenian community passed their one of the hardest times in Istanbul. They confronted insults and accusations. Armenians were isolated from social life. Many Turks regarded their old Armenian friends as potential terrorists. The reports, given regularily by the Armenian Patriarchate condemning all kinds of terrorist acts didn't make any difference. There were even Armenian Ministers in Turkish government once, but then no Armenians were accepted even for the simplest state jobs. The pressure to the Armenian schools, churches and press was increased. Thir accounts were frequently checked. Frequently, you could read a news about an Armenian blamed for helping ASALA. At those years, an Armenian youngman burnt himself at Taksim Square to protest the pressure on them.

Years passed, and little has changed. Nationalism in Turkey is growing fast, like all in the world. When the conflict at Nogorno Karabag started, the Turkish Goverment immidiately took side with the Azarbaijani Turks. Nearly %100 of Turkish people believes that Azarbaijani side is the one whose rights are taken off, and the Armenians are those who are attacking to innocent Azarbaijan. Noone knows what is exactly going on, and the reason for the fight, but they believe that Azerbaijanees are right. So once again, the Armenian community is under suspect. Many Armenians in Istanbul even do not know where Karabag is, but they are accused of giving aid to Armenia. I see many things written on the walls at Kurtulush, Shishli and other places where the Armenians live densely, many bad words against Armenian which I'm ashamed of writing here.

When something happens bad to the Turks living outside of Turkey, the government stresses the pressure to the ethnic minorities. For example, when there were severe Armenian attacks to Karabag, the government banned the Armenian Schools to give education in Armenian. It was a clear violation of International and Turkish Laws. They closed up some Armenian schools, churches and newspapers. The ban for Armenian Language was pulled back thanks to the international human right institutions and some Turkish intellectuals.

The conflict at Karabagh seems calmed down, but the prejudice for the Armenian community still goes on. The government and the media tries to put hatred between Turks and Armenians. Today there's nearly no Greek community living in Istanbul(only 3.000, maybe less). So, being the largest non-muslim community in Turkey, generally Armenians are regarded as targets for the nationalists. Each time when there's a crisis in Turkey, government puts forward a nationalist subject to discuss. Unfortunately, it works.

The media and the government succeeded to link the Kurdish problem to the Armenians. The head of PKK, Abdullah Ocalan was accused to be an Armenian so as to be hated by the Turks. There is a common belief that PKK is leaded by the Armenians.

Also, the growth of fundamentalism is another threat for the Armenians. When I was completing my postpone process at the military office in Istanbul, I saw a young man(Christian, most probabily Armenian) talking to four Turkish men. They realized that he is a Christian and they were trying to convert him to Islam. Fortunately, by talking. The thing is, that boy was not enjoying the situation.

Last year, there was a heavy discussion of a list, passed by fax machines. The list was composed of the non-muslim shops and businessmen. On the fax message transmitted by many unknown fax terminals, there were nearly a hundred shops owned by Armenians, Greeks and Jews and at the bottom of the page, there was a warning: "please do not get any contact with these shops, because they are not Muslim". This act was not approved by most of the Turkish citizens, and many people sended fax messages listing the fundamental islamic establishments that should be careful.

There were many problems, which I didn't mention or I can't remember. But some of the problems are common with the muslim Turks as human right violations. Both Armenians and Turks wait for a more democratic Turkey.
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