COMMENTARY:WHY IS THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE STILL A TABOO?

[Yervant1]

COMMENTARY:WHY IS THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE STILL A TABOO?

By Erol Ozkoray

 

http://hetq.am/en/region/29407/

2010/03/29 | 20:58

 

region

 

I heard about the Armenian genocide for the first time in Paris

during the 70s, and the very logical question I asked myself and also

expressed in my writing at that time (university papers, a reader's

letter I sent to Le Monde newspaper, etc.) was the following: if the

Republic of Turkey is based on a rejection of the Ottoman Empire, then

why is the 1915 Armenian genocide not being dumped on the Ottomans?

 

Why is the Turkish Republic assuming responsibility for this scandalous

event, which is the 20th century's first crime against humanity and

that century's first genocide? Later, in my career as a journalist,

this question always remained on my agenda.

 

I am generally known as the journalist who explained Armenian terrorism

(ASALA) to Turkey during the years 1980 - 1984. I was a socialist,

but I was also opposed to terrorism, and my articles even lead to a

deterioration of relations between Francois Mitterrand's socialist

government (which I supported) and Turkey.

 

Both myself and my family and friends suffered a lot from ASALA:

my friend Nazan Erez's father, Turkey's Ambassador to France Ismail

Erez was killed on duty in Paris; my friend Gokberk Ergenekon was

wounded in Rome; my name was put on ASALA's hit list and removed only

after I met with ASALA's then lawyer Patrick Devedjian, who is now

France's Minister in charge of the Economic Recovery Plan (in 1982,

I did not see these events as genocide, but I did not accept Turkey's

official version either); my cousin Sitki Sencer was caught up in

the shooting during ASALA'S attack on the Ankara Esenboga airport

and was shot 8 times by Turkish policemen (miraculously, he survived)

whereas my mother and her sisters, also present, came away uninjured

by the skin of their teeth.

 

In reality, the list is much longer, but the purpose in my mentioning

these is to indicate that I have worked a lot on the Armenian question,

I know quite a lot about it and I have suffered because of it,

and therefore I have the moral right to say the things I'm about

to say. In other words, the things I say here are the conclusions

an intellectual has reached after 35 years of engagement with this

issue and after repeated reassessments of his position.

 

If we go to the beginning... as the years passed, my reading

progressed and new documents and books came out, it was revealed

that the question I have been asking (to blame the genocide on the

Ottomans) was the product of sophistry and devoid of any meaning,

due to at least three reasons.

 

Firstly, even though Mustafa Kemal did not get along with the

triumvirate of Talat-Enver-Cemal and he did not take any part in the

Armenian genocide on account of being engaged in the fighting on the

Gallipoli front at the time (in a sense, these helped him be later

designated a leader), the genocide that had already been accomplished

served him very well structurally, because he based the Republican

regime on the Turkish race. During the years 1926 - 1927, discourse

on the Turkish race constituted the principal nationalist ideology of

the State (Turkish race = Turkish nation), and therefore Anatolia had

to be 'cleansed' of all Christian and foreign elements (Armenians,

Greeks, Assyrians and Kurds). These policies of ethnic, cultural,

economic and social cleansing were actively implemented through seven

genocides executive during the Republican period. No Armenians,

no Greeks and no Assyrians were left in Anatolia. Only the Kurds

resisted, and despite four genocides, they could not be exterminated.

 

Just for this reason, every person in Turkey must respect the

Kurds' struggle for their lives and their rights. Thus, there was

a continuity inherited from the Ottomans with regards to 'Massive

Annihilation'. In 95 years, 10 genocides were carried out on these

lands (see the archives at www.Kuyerel.com ). Among the founders

of the Republic, there were murderers who had been involved in,

organized and implemented the Armenian genocide.

 

Secondly, there is another line of continuity from the Ottomans to the

Republic, as money and goods confiscated from the Armenians played a

determining role in the financing of the War of Independence. Apart

from monetary and weapons help received from Lenin, the biggest

financial source for the War of Independence was money appropriated

through the Armenian genocide. With this money, weapons were purchased,

an army was set up and its logistics provided. The persons involved

in these came to form a new social class that owed its wealth to

the Armenians' property (for instance, the porter Haci Omer Sabanci

is the ancestor of today's Sabanci family, and grocer Vehbi Koc the

progenitor of today's Koc family), and thus the social bases of the

movement emerged.

 

The reasons for the Armenian genocide becoming a taboo are hidden in

these three observations. Otherwise, it would have been very easy

to solve the problem by putting the blame for the genocide on the

Ottomans. The person who put these issues on the agenda by producing

major works that influenced Turkish intellectuals on the matter of

the Armenian genocide is Taner Akcam.

 

Because of the reasons I have enumerated, whenever the expression

'Armenian genocide' is uttered, people lacking good sense in Turkey

go berserk. What I'm saying here is that, unlike the official history

thesis, the Turkish Republic was not founded after an anti-imperialist

war (in the War of Independence, the Army only fought against the

Greeks, but not against France or England, which were the imperialist

powers of the era), rather, it was founded on the Armenian genocide.

 

This reappraisal means that what you and everyone have been told and

taught would be sent to the trash bin. This is the real reason why

there is a big trauma whenever anybody says 'Armenian genocide'.

 

Everything has been a lie since 1923. In other words, the situation

is not as simple as the state hiding the reality of the genocide,

as certain intellectuals are now saying.

 

Today, when one talks about recognizing the Armenian genocide,

practically everything has to be put on the table: the Republic,

Kemalism, the State, the State's ideology, those who founded and

governed the Republic, Turkey's regime, this country's political

system, its army, its universities, its educational programs, its

press, its elite, its businessmen (the sources of certain capital

accumulations), the courts, the political parties, etc.

 

It is self-evident that no one can cope with such a gigantic

confrontation. Especially in the kind of crypto-fascist and

crypto-totalitarian regime where we are living, it is very difficult -

not to say impossible - to settle accounts with the things enumerated

above even in one's dreams!

 

This traumatic situation, in its historical, political and intellectual

dimensions, goes miles and miles beyond the capacity of our current

Islamist government. Nothing can be accomplished with the protocols

signed between Turkey and Armenia. In any event, didn't the invisible

forces in Ankara make the Armenia Protocols null and void within 24

hours, and through the very hand of the Prime Minister? This State,

in its current structure, will repulse any solution, as there is no

solution that it could accept.

 

The problem can be solved - like the other problems of the country

- only by a statesman with the highest intellectual credentials,

who has internalized the culture of democracy, come to power through

elections and formed public opinion in this direction. It is impossible

for ordinary small persons to overcome Turkey's gigantic problems. We

need politicians and statesmen on the level of Mitterrand, Allende and

[Felipe] Gonzales in order to resolve these gangrenous problems. In

other words, we need Big Men.

 

Kuyerel.com

[Arpa]

COMMENTARY:WHY IS THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE STILL A TABOO?

By Erol Ozkoray

 

http://hetq.am/en/region/29407/

2010/03/29 | 20:58

I heard about the Armenian genocide for the first time in Paris

during the 70s, and the very logical question I asked myself and also

expressed in my writing at that time (university papers, a reader's

letter I sent to Le Monde newspaper, etc.) was the following: if the

Republic of Turkey is based on a rejection of the Ottoman Empire, then

why is the 1915 Armenian genocide not being dumped on the Ottoman

Only if he and his ilk would "hear" with their "ear", not by their "rear"!! All we have to do is take our ears off and show them our "rears"

Edited April 1, 2010 by Arpa

[melissa15k]

Only if he and his ilk would "hear" with their "ear", not by their "rear"!! All we have to do is take our ears off and show them our "rears"

 

 

arpa, please read the entire original post. there is a good, intelligent, and thoughtful purpose in it.

[Arpa]

arpa, please read the entire original post. there is a good, intelligent, and thoughtful purpose in it.

Yea! Yea! My "ear" and my "rear"

See it here;

http://hippoversuswhale.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/donkey_ears.jpg

you mean "my moon"? here;

To not forget when hitler and his clowns were preparing a list of "peoples", when it came to "Armenian" he asked- "who are they? Some kind of 'gypsy'?

Edited April 3, 2010 by Arpa

[Yervant1]

Yea! Yea! My "ear" and my "rear"

See it here;

http://hippoversuswhale.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/donkey_ears.jpg

you mean "my moon"? here;

http://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?catref=dre1367

To not forget when hitler and his clowns were preparing a list of "peoples", when it came to "Armenian" he asked- "who are they? Some kind of 'gypsy'?

What does this mean in plain English?

[Moushegh]

"What I'm saying here is that, unlike the official history

thesis, the Turkish Republic was not founded after an anti-imperialist

war(in the War of Independence, the Army only fought against the

Greeks, but not against France or England, which were the imperialist

powers of the era), rather, it was founded on the Armenian genocide.

 

This reappraisal means that what you and everyone have been told and

taught would be sent to the trash bin. This is the real reason why

there is a big trauma whenever anybody says 'Armenian genocide'.

 

Everything has been a lie since 1923.