We Cannot Afford to Lose Our Armenians!

[Evropeos]

We Cannot Afford to Lose Our Armenians!


Friday, June 8, 2007

Orhan Kemal Cengiz
ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

I wish I had Armenian neighbors living in my block of flats. I wish I could see a Turkish colonel of ethnic Greek origin in the Turkish military talking about the relations between the Turkish and Greek militaries. I wish I could hear a Jewish judge in a Turkish courtroom reading her judgment with a Jewish accent.

If I move to Istanbul I may have Armenian neighbors, but my latter two wishes seem unlikely to be granted in the near future. Once, Armenians lived all over this country and we had a huge population of Jewish and Greek Ottoman/Turkish citizens. They seemingly vanished and now we are facing the risk of losing even the remaining handful of non-Muslim citizens of this country.

After the murder of Hrant Dink threats against our non-Muslim citizens have intensified. Reportedly youths from these communities have started preferring new lives in foreign countries. I am afraid that new attacks and new murders, which unfortunately are not unlikely, will speed up this migration.

I would like to bring to your attention a new kind of threat especially directed towards Armenian schools, which evidently aims at scaring away Armenians from Turkey. I would like to quote from a recent threat letter received by Armenian schools.

The following text was on the first page of the message: "This was sent to all institutions concerned with the matter. This movement was started for the sake of Turkey's future and its unity."

The following pages featured a long text, entitled "The Last Warning and Ultimatum," accusing Turkish Armenians of separatism and efforts to ruin the Turkish state.

The message also mentioned the murder of Hrant Dink: "…exclamations saying ‘We are all Armenians, we are all Hrant Dink' are examples of extreme chauvinism and summons for revolution. Do not forget that besides the Armenian citizens of Turkey, there are also Armenians from Armenia in our land, and they number over one hundred thousand. Both their addresses and their workplaces are well known. Henceforth we hope to see our Armenian citizens as advocates of truth, concerning the Armenian genocide or any other matter, and as defenders of the Turkish statehood.”

“We shall keep an eye on how the Armenians are playing this role. Otherwise, the Armenians shall be those to lie in the grave and count how many Armenians and how many Turks there were in the ‘ages long past'. This land has never pardoned treachery and shall not. Who does not stand for our paradise homeland is against us and shall be vanquished."

The text ends with the following words: "There is no defense line. That line is the entire territory. Anything else is just a trifle when the fate of the homeland is concerned. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk…This is the last ultimatum. It is not to be repeated."

It is a shameful insult to Kemalists that such a racist hate speech document refers to Atatürk's remarks. Kemalists should take into account that some “sheep” among them may be turning into “wolves” in the night!

Recognizing and excluding these racists from their circles is the most urgent and foremost duty of the Kemalists in this country. They should be on high alert for racist rhetoric among their members.

It is also quite thought provoking, isn't it, that this racist letter threatens Armenians with a total extinction if they talk about the Armenian genocide—“Do not talk about genocide or you may be the victim of a new one!”

In the face of these threats we see no serious preparation to protect our citizens of Armenian origins. There are very urgent steps that the Turkish government should take to protect their lives and well-being.

I would like to urge the government and state officials that we cannot stand any new attack on these vulnerable groups. Protecting them is the highest moral obligation of the Turkish Republic and no other priority should prevent Turkey from fulfilling this responsibility.

Our minorities are not able to take public positions. We do not see them as police officers, as soldiers, or as judges. What a pity! They are forced to live an isolated life in their ghettos.

Already long ago we lost the richness the minorities contributed to our lives. But losing even the last members of these communities to foreign countries would be unbearable.

For some, homogenization of Turkey might be the final goal, but I assure you the side effects of achieving it will make this country unlivable, unlovable and primitive.

I also believe that security measures provide only a temporary relief, not a cure, for this racist disease. In the long term we need to take a lot of other serious steps.

One of these steps is that Turkey must start confronting its past. Without this, without having an honest and open discussion about our history, we will never heal and we will never able to put a mirror in front of these racists, which means that we will be seeing the same nightmares again and again.

See you next week!

[email protected]

source

[Steph]

We Cannot Afford to Lose Our Armenians!

They seemingly vanished and now we are facing the risk of losing even the remaining handful of non-Muslim citizens of this country.

After the murder of Hrant Dink threats against our non-Muslim citizens have intensified. Reportedly youths from these communities have started preferring new lives in foreign countries. I am afraid that new attacks and new murders, which unfortunately are not unlikely, will speed up this migration.

Who does not stand for our paradise homeland is against us and shall be vanquished."

It is also quite thought provoking, isn't it, that this racist letter threatens Armenians with a total extinction if they talk about the Armenian genocide—“Do not talk about genocide or you may be the victim of a new one!”

In the face of these threats we see no serious preparation to protect our citizens of Armenian origins. There are very urgent steps that the Turkish government should take to protect their lives and well-being.

Our minorities are not able to take public positions. We do not see them as police officers, as soldiers, or as judges. What a pity! They are forced to live an isolated life in their ghettos.

Already long ago we lost the richness the minorities contributed to our lives. But losing even the last members of these communities to foreign countries would be unbearable.

For some, homogenization of Turkey might be the final goal, but I assure you the side effects of achieving it will make this country unlivable, unlovable and primitive.

One of these steps is that Turkey must start confronting its past. Without this, without having an honest and open discussion about our history, we will never heal and we will never able to put a mirror in front of these racists, which means that we will be seeing the same nightmares again and again.

source

I find it to be a good article.

[Joseph]

I find it to be a good article.

Interesting article. My feeling is that many Armenians (those that still identify themselves as Armenian) will eventually leave. Turkey is not growing any more mature, liberal, non-violent, etc and is indeed going to get worse, especially as the conflicts around Turkey grow in magnitude. When these Armenians leave, they can take their brains, money, expertise and everything else with them a start successful new lives elsewhere in more hospitable places. Why continue living as hostages, as canaries in a cage?

[1.5 million]

Armenians "seemingly vanished" - funny that...As for the rest - good sentiment - but only by (The Turkish Government) acknowledging the Genocide and asking Armenians for forgiveness and making the effort to accomodate Armenians and pushing a public campaign of contrition by the Turkish people - etc - will any of these attitudes be changed. (and fat chance all that) Meanwhile the government is perpetuaing the hatred against Armenians and is happy to do so - what has changed? This is what they have always done.

[Joseph]

"Woe is me. People hate us Turks because of all the bad things we've done?!?!? But that makes no sense. The Ottoman Empire was glorious and uppity minorities who had the audacity to want to be something more than second class citizens in their own lands got what was coming to them. Imagine, they are angry at having their families torn apart and their ancestral homelands taken; the nerve! When will the Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, etc realize this. We only did those things because we loved them!!!"........this denialist bs is getting old. The reputation they have is well earned and attaced to Turkey and Turks regadless of whether that stigma is advocated by any of us.

'The terrible Turk' to be driven into the sea
Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Do you not think, dear friends, those from Europe in particular, that your policies on Turkey are increasingly being held hostage by the irrational stance of some of our beloved neighbors?

C. Cem OĞUZ
A good friend of mine from Australia told me a few months ago he was troubled that the innocent idea of nationalism he grew up with is far removed from the existing variety he has come to see here in Turkey and its neighboring countries.

“In Australia,” he said, “it was one of pride when the anthem was played after another Aussie had won Olympic gold in the pool or us beating the English yet again at cricket.”

He was right. In this part of the world, even simple sporting events between neighboring countries resemble the bloody and dark battlefields of the distant past. What matters is merely victory. The reason in my view is very simple: nationalism of every people in this region is simply positioned against the “other.”

The situation is more complicated particularly among ex-Ottoman subjects. In the Ottoman case, the two most important traits of the nation building process of successor states has become a sense of communal victimization as well as the notion of the “bloody other,” but particularly “the terrible Turk,” who is held responsible for every single historical disease.

It is precisely for this reason that I have continued to argue for a while now, dear readers, that the final settlement of the Ottoman Empire has pretty obviously not been accomplished yet, particularly among the conflicting nationalisms of the ex-Ottoman subjects.

Neither in the Balkans and the Caucasus, nor in the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean ... In this part of the world, the ghost of the Ottoman legacy still haunts reason and common sense. We all are slaves to history. Those from my generation, for instance, grew up in this country with the concepts of Enosis, Megali Idea, and Greater or Lesser Armenia constantly in our minds. Our time will eventually end, but I regret that my children will unfortunately not have a different or better destiny, with one big exception. To these concepts a new one is being increasingly added: “Greater Kurdistan.”



Mamma mia, the Greeks are coming!

What prompted this extremely pessimistic judgment to come to mind? Is it, as some notorious and illustrious experts, both in and outside Turkey, claim it to be, the Turkish paranoia? No, not at all… I rather must have been inspired by a recent opinion poll conducted by the Greek Political Research and Communication Center of 2,000 Greek participants.

For those of you who have missed it let me relate its most striking parts: Asked if there is still “Greek soil under foreign rule waiting to be liberated,” 38 percent of those surveyed pointed at Istanbul. While 36 percent indicated the Aegean coasts, 32 percent mentioned the coastal regions of Turkey along the Black Sea. Almost 60 percent stated they regard the island of Cyprus merely as Greek soil. What is most paradoxical, however, is the fact that 31 percent of the interviewees subsequently maintained that the rivalry between the two countries basically derives from “Turkey's hostile stance toward Greece.”



Turkey's hostile stance toward Greece?

My purpose in touching on the results of this survey is really not an attempt to simply tease my sensible Greek friends and/or readers. They shouldn't feel the need to defend themselves and say the poll does not reflect the Greek people in general. As a matter of principle I always try to avoid generalizations, keeping in mind what Alexandre Dumas wisely wrote: “All generalizations are very dangerous, even this one.” If they do, nevertheless, I can present a more concrete example that will help us better understand what I am asserting.

Just recently, three Turkish banks were sold to Greek companies. At first, it stirred up discontent among the Turkish public but soon Turks, by and large, became acclimatized to this reality. It was part of Turkey's apt attempts for a proper market economy and global integration nonetheless. Do you know what happened to a Turkish bank (the state-owned Ziraat Bankası) in turn which applied to the Greek Central Bank for the opening of two branches in Greece, one in Athens and the other in Komotini (Gümülcine in Turkish)? Let's just say that they are still waiting to get permission. They are still walking for the “El Dorado” they were promised. Eventually, in retaliation to this highly controversial move by the Greek Central Bank, the Turkish Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency has not approved the transfer of the last of these three banks (namely, Anadolu Bank) to its new Greek owners.



‘The terrible Turk' again…

In such a milieu, some of our Greek friends insist on the recognition of Pontic “genocide.” But only a few choose to recall that Turks were not immune to mass deportations, killings or having their property confiscated by those who claim to have suffered such atrocities. Those who are interested in the other side of the coin as well may read of the Turks' own tragedy in Professor Justin McCarthy's brilliant account entitled “Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922.”

And do you think that the situation in our other neighboring countries, in Armenia, for instance, is actually any different? In response to my analyses on the “Armenian genocide” or Armenian-Turkish relations, I sometimes receive inspiring remarks from Armenian readers. Unfortunately, some of them are indeed hopeless cases. They even have the temerity to ask the Turks, on behalf of myself, to “get out of their homeland.”

With sorrow I witness that a new people is increasingly being added to this group: our northern Iraqi neighbors, or the Kurds of “southern Kurdistan,” as they choose to call themselves in messages they are sending me. I cannot believe my eyes when I see the content and substance of these messages profoundly removed from reality.



And Turkey is believed to have a hostile stance towards Greece…

Be sure, my criticism on that point is really not a tactic to undermine dissent or defend the prevailing status quo in Turkey that our dear western friends as well as some of my beloved intellectual compatriots have been complaining about for quite some time. But please tell me how is it only the Turks who are accused of being (ultra)nationalist, fascist, racist, ego-centric, irredentist, tyrannical, reactionary, or whatever you choose to describe them further? How it is merely they who are assumed to be persistently resisting reconciliation with the past? Have I lost to that extent touch with the reality I encounter, or the society I live in? Or is this profound contradiction simply politically motivated? Do you not think, dear friends, those from Europe in particular, that your policies on Turkey are increasingly being held hostage by some of our beloved neighbors' irrational stance? Do you not realize that you are increasingly being caught up by a kind of Stockholm syndrome, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger in which the hostage has been placed?

I regret to say it, but the more you insist on your campaign, the more the Turkish people will become either what you are complaining about, or what you are zealously and in a self-sacrificing way trying to “save” them from.

Have you indeed missed ‘the terrible Turk' to that extent?..