YES, MR. DAVUTOGLU, BUT...

[Yervant1]

YES, MR. DAVUTOGLU, BUT...

By Hayk Demoyan

 

Times.am

Dec 3 2010

Armenia

 

Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum institute

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, I fully agree with you that many things have

changed in the Turkish society and the "tragic events" of 1915 are now

on the agenda for public debates, but one may ask why those events

have been denied and still it is hard to believe that all denialist

documents and publications on the web site of the Foreign Ministry

of Turkey will soon be removed. Let me guess: perhaphs Turkey needs

another decade for proper facing with its own history without new

and old taboos, syndromes and complexes.

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, while speaking about the causes of implementation

of state-planned and orchestrated policy of Genocide against Armenians

and other Christian minorities one can blame for intensification of

nationalist movements in the fall of the Ottoman Empire, but let

me ask why the killer of Hrant Dink, who was shot dead in January

2007, was treated as a hero in the police station and no one has

been sentenced so far? Why are the Armenians living in Anatolia

still afraid of expressing their real identity? That's because

of... I believe that you are well aware of the answer since the

next question I would like to raise in this regard is the "unknown"

nationalism which is responsible for the destruction of more than

3000 early Christian Armenian monuments dynamited or used as target

during the tank exercises in 1960s and 1970s i. e. during the period

of republican Turkey.

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, Armenians were holding some high positions in the

Ottoman Empire in 1914, but let me quote Tallat *****'s words directed

to Danish orientalist Johannes Ostrup in 1910 before the "tragic war"

of 1914: "You see, between us and this people (Armenians - H. D.)

there is an incompatibility which cannot be solved in a peaceful

manner; either they will completely undermine us, or we will have

to annihilate them. If I ever come to power in this country, I will

use all my might to exterminate the Armenian" (Johannes Østrup,

Erindringer, Copenhagen: H. Hirschprungs Forlag 1937, p. 118.). I

think there is no need for further comments.

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, 1915 is an important date for the Armenians,

but it must be an important date for the Turks as well, since the

history of the Armenian Genocide is and must be an inseparable part

of the Turkish history and memory.

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, It was a war period and maybe the political order

was weak in Turkey, but let me remind that while making orders for

the deportation of the Armenians and appropriation of their property

from 1915 till 1924, the Ottoman and Turkish laws and orders were

implemented unconditionally.

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, the Gelipoli/Canakkale battle was the bloodiest

in the history of Ottoman Turkey. Ottomans lost a quarter million

of lives, but not only Turks were among the victims in this deadly

battle. But hundreds of Armenians, as ordinary Ottoman patriots

joined their Turkish fellowmen to fight against the enemies and

defend their homeland. Among those 250.000 there were not only

Turks, but Arabs, Kurds, Armenians and other nationalities as

well. Do Turks know the name of Sarkis Torossian, who destroyed the

first enemy battleship during Chanakkale in 1915 and was known as

"Armenian hero of Dardanel"? Moreover, the names of Avedis Chepechyan,

Vahram Papazyan and many other Armenian soldiers and officers, who

probably were fighting together with your grandfather, are unjustly

forgotten. Those Armenians, who survived in Canakkale in 1915, later

learnt that their beloved ones were sent to die in the slaughterhouses

of the Arabian deserts.

 

Yes Mr. Davutoglu, you are right to say that we have to escape from

one-sided representations and interpretations of the past, but I am

afraid that with this you just represented the Turkish point of view.

 

Furthermore, I do not really understand the logic to connect Cannakkale

fighting and the Armenian Genocide. If there is any link between both,

then it is the very date: April 24, 1915.

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, nine and half centuries of the coexistence of

Turks and Armenians is solid period of time, but let me remind you

that except millet-i sad?ka, i. e. "obedient people", Armenians were

known also as giavurs i. e. infidel. Being infidel I think means being

non-equal in the given society. Or when one group says to another

"obedient people" it already means that they are not on the same

level in terms of elementary human rights.

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, I agree with your statement that "if there were

mistakes, they should be named", but it seems to me that within last

nine decades Turkey has only insisted and justified its past mistakes

and made a huge list of new ones.

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, we should remember a good side and be ready to

share our pains in order to move forward, but at the same time we need

no more alternative rhetoric to hide the shameful parts of the history.

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, during the recent failed attempt to ameliorate

relations between Armenia and Turkey, a step which was set off by

Yerevan, the Constitutional Court of Armenia has adopted a decision

on the protocols, but it is totally mistaken to blame the Armenian

court, as you said, for "excluding the establishment of a commission of

historians that was important for Turkey." Do you need the commission

of historians just in order to "share our pains"?

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, it is up to Turkey to keep its border with Armenia

open or closed and put a precondition saying that there will not be

any progress in the ratification of the Protocols unless the Karabakh

problem is settled. But with this claim you just crush your previous

statements and reaffirm that Turkey is not ready for changes...changes

which possibly could be fatal in terms of saving not only the country's

face but the future too.

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, the regional peace is a need while making

fundamental approaches to solve long-lasting problems. But do Syria,

Gaza and Lebanon is making their politics under the banner of one

nation - two or three states?

 

Yes, Mr. Davutoglu, we should address Karabakh issue, but while

speaking about occupations I have to remind you that your country

still keeps the part of the European Union in Cyprus under occupation

for already 36 years, but you prefer to speak about the "Armenian

occupation" of Azerbaijani territory.

 

Yes, say?n Ahmet-bey, we lived together and I believe we have no other

choice but to do the same in the future and overcome all burdens. But

I am afraid you also should take responsibility: instead of uncertain

and cautious statements it is better to appear with clear messages

to the Turkish society on the past mistakes in order not to repeat

them in our days...