TURKEY: A PERMANENT THREAT TO ARMENIA

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TURKEY: A PERMANENT THREAT TO ARMENIA

 

http://ramgavar.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=560%3Adavid-boyajian-turkey-a-permanent-threat-to-armenia&catid=56%3Aramgavar-mamoul&Itemid=27&lang=en

 

David Boyajian, Belmont, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

 

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

 

If Turkey were to open its border with Armenia, and the two established

diplomatic and trade relations, Turkey would still be a threat

to Armenia.

 

Turkey would be a threat even if it were to acknowledge the Armenian

genocide, pay reparations, and return stolen Armenian property. And

the threat to Armenia would remain even if it someday regains its

homeland which now lies in eastern Turkey.

 

Why? Because Turkey's belligerent policies towards Armenians, its

pan-Turkic goals (PDF- Pan-Turkist Dreams and Post-Soviet Realities)

in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and its neo-Ottoman ambitions pose

essentially the same dangers today as at the time of the genocide. And

they show no sign of ever changing.

 

Aside from a general awareness of the genocide and present-day Turkish

hostility, however, many Armenians and others are unfamiliar with

key details of past and present Turkish policies. Consequently,

they underestimate the dangers that Armenia faces.

 

Even the commonly held view that "in 1915 the Young Turk regime

committed genocide against Armenians in Turkey" is dangerously

misleading.

 

The genocide actually lasted through 1923, five years after Turkey's

defeat in WWI. Two regimes conducted the genocide: Ottoman Young

Turk and Kemalist. The latter, of course, founded today's allegedly

"modern" Turkey. And the genocide took place not only in "Turkey"

but also, ominously, on what was and is today the territory of the

Republic of Armenia.

 

Endless Genocide

 

Turkifying and Islamizing the remnants of its empire was a key

reason that Turkey destroyed its indigenous Armenian, Assyrian, and

Greek Christians during WWI (1914-18). But Armenians and Armenian

soil also lay just across the border, in the Caucasus region of the

Russian empire, directly in the path of Turkey's genocidal pan-Turkic

jihad. Turkey committed genocide against those Armenians too, and

ripped large chunks of territory from the new Armenian Republic,

which had just been reborn from Russian Armenia.

 

Azeris -- Turkey's blood brothers then and now -- also conducted

large-scale massacres of Armenians in the Caucasus in WWI and

through 1920.

 

[recep_tayyip_erdogan_t.jpg]

 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

 

After Turkey's defeat in 1918, Turkish forces under Kemal (known

later as Ataturk) continued the genocide in the Armenian Republic

through 1920 and in Turkey through 1923.

 

Like Turkish leaders today who lie and deceive, Kemal publicly

professed peaceful intentions toward Armenia. Secretly, however,

he told his commanders that it is "of the utmost necessity that

Armenia be both politically and physically eliminated." Kemal, too,

lopped off chunks of Armenia. Though it resisted heroically, only a

Soviet takeover in December of 1920 saved Armenia from annihilation.

 

These facts are relevant to the perils that Armenia faces today

because of Turkey's pan-Turkic and neo-Ottoman foreign policies.

 

Pan-Turkism

 

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Turkey has

established ongoing relationships with Azerbaijan and Central Asia's

new "Turkic-speaking" countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan,

and Uzbekistan. Turkey has invested billions of dollars and established

Turkish schools and universities in these countries. Turkey's President

Gul declared that "Kyrgyzstan is our ancestral homeland" while visiting

that country's International Ataturk-Alatoo University.

 

Turkey hosts major gas and oil pipelines originating in Baku,

coproduces weapons with Azerbaijan, and trains Azeri troops. In

Turkic solidarity with Azerbaijan, Turkey has injected itself into the

Artsakh/Karabagh conflict by closing its border with Armenia for two

decades. The Turkish-Azeri axis -- termed "one nation, two states"--

harks back to its assault on Armenia during the genocide. One hundred

years has changed nothing. Turkey remains enamored of Turkic blood

bonds.

 

In the former Armenian province of Nakhichevan -- now part of

Azerbaijan and emptied of its Armenians -- Turkey, Azerbaijan,

Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan recently signed a treaty creating the

Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States.

 

Let's be clear. Only Soviet control of the Caucasus and Central Asia

from the 1920's to 1991, and Russian and Chinese dominance since then,

have thwarted Turkey's pan-Turkic goals.

 

For several decades, of course, Russia and China have possessed nuclear

weapons. Turkey has not. Imagine what an arrogant, genocidal Turkey

would have perpetrated by now had it possessed nuclear weapons. Turkey

could still, unfortunately, acquire nuclear weapons or other WMDs.

 

Turkey's dangerous imperial goals today also include "neo-Ottomanism."

 

Neo-Ottomanism

 

Turkey regards itself as the leader of not only its former colonies

in the Middle East and Balkans but also the entire Muslim world.

 

Turkey is investing heavily in those regions.

 

Its Education Ministry recently released multi-media material that

shows Armenia, Cyprus, and parts of Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece,

Iraq, and Syria as being part of Turkey. Turkey claimed it was just

a mistake.

 

[abdullah_gul_t.jpg]

 

Abdullah Gul

 

"You are the grandchildren of the Ottomans. It will be the Ottomans

who will make the world tremble again. If the Ottomans do not come

back, the unbelievers will never be brought down to their knees." A

Turkish clergyman thundered those words to a frenzied Turkish rally

in Belgium two decades ago.

 

In attendance were his admirers: Necmettin Erbakan, soon to be Turkey's

Prime Minister and the latter's protégés, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and

Abdullah Gul, Turkey's current Prime Minister and President.

 

Far from renouncing its bloody Ottoman past, such examples illustrate

that Turkey embraces and wants to recreate it. Consequently, its

threats against Armenia must never be taken lightly.

 

Turkish Threats

 

During the Artsakh/Karabagh war, Turkish President Turgut Ozal

repeatedly threatened Armenia. Armenians, he warned, "had not learned

the lessons" of WWI -- that is, the genocide.

 

According to Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, former Greek ambassador to

Armenia, U.S. and French intelligence sources confirm that Turkey

was poised to invade Armenia in 1993. Ruslan Khasbulatov, a Chechen

who was Speaker of the Russian Supreme Soviet and an opponent of

Russian President Yeltsin, had secretly given Turkey the go-ahead to

invade Armenia if he toppled Yelstin. Fortunately, Yelstin survived

the challenge.

 

If not for the Armenian-Russian alliance of these past two decades,

Turkey and Azerbaijan would have jointly attacked Armenia, with

catastrophic consequences.

 

Despite Turkey's hostile record, some Armenians have fallen victim

to the constant drumbeat of propaganda that Turkey is "reforming."

 

Turkish non-Reforms

 

Some even believe that acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide would

be tantamount to Turkey's having "reformed." That's absurd and a

serious mistake.

 

An acknowledgment, which would almost certainly be incomplete,

insincere, or reversible, could psychologically disarm Armenians into

letting down their guard. By not owning up to the genocide, therefore,

Turkey may unwittingly be doing Armenians a favor.

 

[turgut_ozal_t.jpg]

 

Turgut Ozal

 

Turkey's actual record is one of repression, followed by mass violence,

interspersed with so-called "reforms."

 

In the 19th century, large-scale massacres of Armenians, particularly

those of the 1890s, followed Ottoman "reforms" such as the Tanzimat

(anti-discrimination decrees). The Young Turk "reform" revolution

of 1908 -- cheered in the beginning by Armenians, Greeks, and other

national groups -- was followed by the 1909 Adana massacres, the

1915-23 extermination, and genocidal attacks on Russian Armenia and

the Republic of Armenia.

 

Then along came the new "reformed, modern" Turkey of 1923. It

confiscated Armenian property, destroyed Armenian churches, and

Turkified Armenian city and village names. In 1943, Turkey unleashed

its malicious Capital Tax program against Armenians, Greeks, and Jews.

 

Later came the devastating Istanbul riots of 1955. Did we mention

Turkey's massacre of Greek Cypriot civilians and ongoing occupation

of northern Cyprus? The death squads and torture chambers? The

repression, deportation, and massacre of Kurds and other minorities,

and the jailing of dissidents and journalists?

 

All the while, we are told that Turkey is "reforming."

 

Turkish Syndrome

 

In addition to Turkey's policies, its political leaders pose a danger

because of what one may term Turkish Political Personality Syndrome.

 

This syndrome is on full display today in "modern" Turkey's constant

threats, chest-beating, belligerence, malignant narcissism, hypocrisy,

extortion, despotism, cruelty, crudeness, lies, broken pledges, and,

of course, the use of violence.

 

One cannot think of even one positive Turkish political quality.

 

The countless victims of Turkish violence down through the centuries

are proof of Turkish leaders' disordered state of mind.

 

[ruslan_khasbulatov_t.jpg]

 

Ruslan Khasbulatov

 

There is little indication that either Turkey's policies toward

Armenians or their leaders' disorder will ever change. Indeed, they

may grow more threatening.

 

Yet, Armenians still hope that Turkey will change. How to make them

aware that the Turkish threat is here to stay?

 

Education

 

Young people will, of course, become the adults who conduct the

political, economic, cultural, and military affairs of Armenia. They

must be equipped intellectually and psychologically to deal with

Turkey.

 

>From a young age, Armenian students must study -- but not in Turkish

schools -- Turkish history, geo-politics, and language, and their

application to present-day Armenian-Turkish relations.

 

The Turkish political personality and its violent and deceitful

tendencies must be dissected and understood.

 

This is not easy, for two reasons. First, Armenians are bombarded by

pro-Turkish and "reconciliation" propaganda from around the world

and even by some Armenians. Second, we Armenians are unlike Turks

and often have difficulty understanding their political culture.

 

Ultimately, future generations of Armenians will have to choose whom

to believe. Will it be the allegedly "reformed, modern" Turkey? The

international media that kowtows to Turkey? Countries that historically

have betrayed Armenia?

 

Or will Armenians learn from the past and the hard-earned wisdom of

their forebears?

 

Their decision may determine whether Armenia lives or dies.