TURKEY CHANGES TACTICS ON "GENOCIDE"

[Yervant1]

TURKEY CHANGES TACTICS ON "GENOCIDE"

 

Golos Armenii

Feb 21 2009

Yerevan

 

Armenia is losing in the "information war" against Turkey and

Azerbaijan, says a columnist with the pro-government Armenian

newspaper Golos Armenii. Turkey has recently changed its tactics

to prevent international recognition of the Armenian genocide,

Razdan Madoyan says. The Armenian language and literature have

started to be taught at several universities in Turkey. The Turkish

government has also decided to start "TV propaganda" in Armenian,

Madoyan says in an article headlined "They have started to act..." He

accuses the Armenian authorities of not doing enough to counteract

Turkey. Subheading as given:

 

According to Turkish news agency reports, universities there have

started to open departments of Armenian language and literature. They

are almost competing with one another on this. Universities not only

in Istanbul but in other places are also doing so. Thus recently

Erciyes University in Kayseri province received the Turkish Higher

Education Council's permission to open such a department.

 

[Passage omitted: the rector of the university says the faculty will

be set up in two months and students for 2009-2010 will be enrolled].

 

A boom for tutors of the Armenian language has started in Turkey. There

is a lack of such tutors. For this reason, the University of Nevsehir

(another out-of-the-way place in Turkey), for example, cannot start

enrolling students into the already opened department of the Armenian

language and literature.

 

Under the conditions of the quite tense and mutually uncompromising

Armenian-Turkish relations, regardless of the football diplomacy,

this Turkish policy (this is a policy and not a private initiative)

is of course explained not by altruistic motives but an urge to know

a neighbour better, which can be welcomed per se.

 

Turkey understands that the mere denial of the Armenian genocide is

already not enough; both countries not favourably disposed to it and

its yesterday's friends and allies already do not believe it. The

USA will use the fact of genocide in every possible way as a means

of putting pressure upon it; Israel has proved by its behaviour

that it needs Turkey's friendship as long as it benefits from this

friendship, and will not refrain from throwing it in Turkey's face

upon necessity. Turkey understands that it is impossible to stop the

avalanche and tries to avoid it with minimum losses.

 

Turkey has comparatively recently said that the genocide did not

take place, as it has no documents proving this in its archives. The

archives are open for researchers, Turkish politicians said, and anyone

can get convinced of this in person. However, the archive topic was

no further developed. It is apparent that not all were allowed access

[to the archives] and not to all materials. It is quite possible that

Turkey is going to again announce the opening the archives, and ahead

of this it wants to comb them out, in particular, to carry out a total

check of Armenian materials; of course there should be many of those

there. Their own reliable personnel are needed for this cause, and

Turkish universities have been assigned to prepare those. It becomes

clear that in such state of affairs why there is a lack of tutors:

naturally those cannot be accidental people, invited from the side.

 

Turkey is shifting from the unproductive policy of denying the genocide

to anti-propaganda, and this requires other types of means and other

actions. Turkey's decision to start TV propaganda for Armenia in

Armenian should be considered in this perspective. On the one hand,

Turkey will try to break the stereotypes established in the Armenian

public by presenting itself as a tolerant, democratic country, which

is full of love for its neighbour. Much space will be allocated to

cultural interference, which of course did take place; to stories

how well they treat Armenia and Armenians in modern Turkey; maybe

they will create soap operas. It will be, of course, done with great

professionalism, and specialists of Armenian language and literature

- Turks - are needed for this very purpose. Unfortunately, all this

will look very attractive against the background of idiocy broadcast

by Armenian TV channels.

 

Under the quickly changing conditions Turkey needs peculiar

"rapid reaction forces" of propaganda, which would monitor the

everyday situation in Armenia, drawing conclusions and submitting

recommendations. This is another reason of the "boom" of Turkish love

for Armenian things.

 

The Turks are not just good: they are great diplomats, and we get

convinced of this again and again. They can turn even their military

and economic defeats into diplomatic victories. In the contemporary

world it is much more important to win in the information-political

war than in the battlefield, moreover that the latter happens rarely.

 

Armenia has no TV propaganda against Turkey

 

We have been trying to make ourselves heard by our government, saying

that we are losing in the information war with Turkic Azerbaijan,

that it, as any war, cannot be let take its course, that it can't

be won with the efforts of individual heroes, and that the state,

and not bushfighters should wage this war. If the state of affairs

at the second Armenian-Turkish front is a little better at present,

this is due no to the Armenian state, but to the Diaspora. However,

the Diaspora cannot take upon all the functions of a state.

 

In the days of [former President Levon] Ter-Petrosyan's junta, when

every parvenu who had power shouted "I am the state!", the general

staff of the ideological and information war was destroyed due to its

being dangerous for the junta people, and the whole sector got under

the control of their people. The second president [Robert Kocharyan]

did not manage to, and rather did not want to change the state of

affairs, the third one [serzh Sargsyan] will do something but will

he do it?

 

That's why one feels sick of the programmes of almost all Armenian TV

channels, and the satellite ones are a disgrace. That's why we have

not been able to take time and establish not a special channel for

broadcasting for Turkey but even an ordinary 15-minute news bulletin

in Turkish. That is why we do nothing but talk. If the Turks open

their archives, no-one will be able to work there, as we do not have

specialists of Ottoman [Turkish] language.

 

We are not preparing tutors or specialists of the Azerbaijani language

while we have an opportunity to do this. We will have to do it from

scratch in the future.

 

 

 

[DominO123]

We are really late in this sort of things. See this for example: http://irevan-az.com

[Harut]

the effect is already felt in armenia... i'm sensing a lot of reluctance from my friends and people i'm in touch with from armenia about genocide recognition, especially by usa... it's not that they don't care one way or another or that they don't believe in the facts, but are afraid that the recognition by 3rd parties will have devastating affect on their lives...

[hosank]

i agree. i am very much pro- warming relations with turkey...at least on an economic level, but i fear that turkey is now using this issue of closening relations as part of a new attempt at blackmail against genocide recognition.

after all, turkey has definately tried to change its role in the region as being a "big brother" for the caucasus, trying to broker peace, and economic unions and so on.

more and more, we are faced with the turkish argument of "1915 was a tragedy for everyone, lets move on"...as false reconciliation, in order to push for relations without recognition of the genocide. but, like any armenian, i think that friendship cannot last if it is built on hypocracy. so, definately, i think armenians should be careful, and watch their diplomatic language, because this issue can be won or lost on word games.

and maybe we should teach turkish in university too...