This time my column will have no structural integrity. It will be fragmented just like life itself and just like my thoughts wandering around, coming and going at unexpected times, intertwined to form strange, disconnected images in my mind, culminating in absurd dreams at night.
Yesterday, on the 13th of May, a very young, very intelligent, bright-eyed, energetic, and warm-hearted journalist from Yerevan interviewed me. While talking, I suddenly found myself wishing I had a daughter like her. She asked me questions about the prospects of normalization between Turkey and Armenia. I told her what I think very briefly: How can anyone believe Turkey really wants friendly relations with Armenia while it, at the same time, displays such an unreservedly aggressive denial of the genocide (I mean, not just saying “We didn’t do it,” but saying “They deserved it”)? Official statements about taking steps for good relations with Armenia were all part of a marketing campaign to sell the “Turkey” brand to the world, as a country evolving into a more democratic system, eliminating its taboos, and seeking good relations with its neighbors. Among thousands, I gave only one very recent example.
That same day, journalist Ozgur Gundem reported how in Diyarbakir’s Dicle University, the history exam included the question: “The Ottoman state did not commit Armenian genocide. Deportations took place on the suggestion of Germany because of the treachery of Armenians who stabbed the Ottoman army in the back. During deportations some of them died of hunger, diseases, and cold weather. True or False?” Gundem called the professor who had prepared the exam question, and the latter confirmed he had prepared it knowingly, to ensure that his students learned the truth and were not mislead by unfounded allegations.[1] This is the country that is supposedly taking steps towards good relations with Armenia.
While we sat and talked in Uskudar by the sea, convoys of political parties were campaigning for the upcoming general elections with their unbearably high-volume songs and slogans filling the air, making it difficult for us to hear each other. At the same time, mass arrests were happening in the cities against Kurdish students, activists, and their supporters; military operations were intensifying in the Kurdistan mountains, with an unprecedented number of Kurds joining the funerals of guerillas; and nationalist mobs were attacking the Kurds’ Peace and Democracy Party offices in the west before the eyes of security forces.
That same day, on the 13th of May, before I met the young journalist, an e-mail had reminded me that it was also the day when Armenak Bakirciyan, the legendary guerilla leader of one of the oldest Marxist-Leninist armed movements in Turkey, was shot dead in an ambush by the military in Elazig (the old Armenian city of Harpert) in 1980.
Armenak, the son of an Armenian family from Diyarbakir, was named after Armenak Ghazarian, popularly known as Hrayr Tjhokhk, one of the heroes of the second Sasun resistance in 1904. More than a century later and carrying his name, Armenak Bakirciyan was Hrant Dink’s close friend at the Surp Hac Tibrevank Armenian School in Uskudar. He and Hrant Dink, together with other schoolmates, worked selflessly to find Armenian children in the remote villages of Anatolia, the grandchildren of genocide survivors who were unable to learn their mother tongue, and bring them to Istanbul to attend Armenian schools, where they could study in their own language. Some of these volunteer teachers of the Armenian language and culture joined the armed revolutionary organization TKP/ML-TIKKO in Turkey, waging an armed struggle, mainly in the southeast of Turkey, especially Dersim. Armenak was one of them, like Hayrabet Hancer, Nubar Yalimyan, and Manuel Demir, hiding in the mountains and punishing merciless army officers who made life hell to the villagers with arbitrary arrests and beatings in the village squares and market places, terrorizing them in every way. Armenak became a hero in the eyes of the local Kurds. He was caught wounded in a raid to the house he was hiding in and taken to prison in Izmir. Two years after his arrest, he managed to escape with the help of his comrades, fleeing to the mountains once again. On May 13, 1980, he was shot dead in an ambush in Elazig, Karakocan. The military, refusing to return his body to his family, buried him in the cemetery of the nameless. His comrades managed to secretly take his dead body out and bury him in the village of Farach, in the Mezgert (Mazgirt) District of Dersim to fulfill his last wish. During the small ceremony, the imam—in fact a secret Armenian—read lines from a poem written for Armenak: “Sing songs to me Armenak! / Let the darkness fall apart with your melody / Let your voice wake up mountains from sleep / And let life keep going with you.”
Armenak, despite his admirers and followers for more than 30 years now, was just as lonely as the others that Armenian Weekly contributors Talin Suciyan and Ayda Erbal referred to in their recent article “One Hundred Years of Abandonment.”[2] The armed illegal organization he joined as an Armenian communist was the most radical movement of its time, refusing to abide by the laws of the Republic of Turkey and waging an armed struggle against its security forces. However, the movement was also part of Turkish Marxism-Leninism, according to which Turkey’s historical backwardness was due to imperialism (that evil responsible for everything awful in Turkey) and not the Armenian Genocide which, alongside the ethnic cleansing of the Greeks, fatally destroyed the newly developing commercial bourgeoisie and the flourishing economic infrastructure, with its entire system of production and trade relations, thus putting the country 100 years back economically as well. Directing one’s anger to another, to a common enemy, to the wicked imperialism, rather than directing it to one’s self, has always been much more convenient and relieving.
Thirty years after Armenak’s death, on April 24, 2011, a young Armenian man, Sevag Sahin Balikci, not fighting against the Turkish Army—on the contrary, doing his military service for Turkey—was shot dead on the 96th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The military authorities issued an official statement saying that he was shot while joking around with his “close friend” in the same unit.[3] The “close friend” however, proved to be a Turkish ultra-nationalist, evident from his likes and dislikes on his Facebook page, which were soon removed.
The Human Rights Organization of Turkey has filed a complaint with the court demanding that legal action be taken against the Turkish General Staff for misleading the public and attempting to cover up the crime.
Sevag’s funeral was turned into a military show and ceremony of Turkification, with such a high number of army officers and government officials that they filled up the Surp Vartanants Church and left others in the garden, unable to go in. The soldiers loudly warned people to “step back” for the army generals to pass, and the coffin was adorned by the Turkish flag that, hours later, was held out to Sevag’s father by an army officer to kiss.
Now I take the liberty to quote in full what Talin Suciyan wrote in the May 6th issue of Agos, in response to the Turkish minister of EU affairs’ words about Sevag’s “representing the colors of Anatolia,” because nothing can express better what Armenians in Turkey were subjected to with the whole affair:
“First you made me into a tessera in your mosaic of cultures just to be able to put up with me. But soon you found that too static and resorted to the image of ebru.[4] Whether an ebru or a tessera, you all agreed that I was ‘a color of Anatolia.’ Yet, I’m neither your ebru nor your tessera, nor am I a color of your Anatolia. I know that I can acquire a color only if I’m dead and gone, mute and traceless; more colorful I become as you further destroy my history.” ‘What are you then?’ you might ask. I’m the child of the remnants of sword; the daughter of women whose bodies have been ravaged; the daughter of a people that many times have been forced to exile and whose traces have been erased throughout the last century from the land it lived on for millennia. I’m the daughter of a people that has been captivated, alienated from itself, subjugated, and whose existence as well as extermination have been denied, and temples, schools, foundations, even the hearts and minds of its members have been turned inside out. They call me a Turkish Armenian.”
“On April 24th, an Armenian died (shot dead) in barracks. The Armenians knew from their guts what that meant. But the minister for EU Affairs, Egemen Bagis, says that ‘our brother Sevag represents the colors of Anatolia.’ Bagis is right: A dead Armenian is always ‘our brother’! And yes, we do represent a color: A deep, bottomless black. An infinite black!”
“Sevag’s pitch-black eyes are staring at us; Sevag is draped in the blackest of all colors. Will you be able to look into those eyes without that gibberish about food, folk songs, and brotherhood? Don’t try to feel the suffering that has lasted a century. But you can understand the oppression we were subjected to at Sevag’s funeral ceremony; how the church has been taken away from its congregation and the funeral from its rightful owners. And just by looking at the archbishop’s post-service speech, you can understand how the Armenians remaining in Turkey have been sentenced to pay a perennial price for their survival. Don’t expect us to talk any longer, for words stand in front of us and laugh mockingly as we try harder to tell. Share in this loneliness.”[5]
The young journalist from Yerevan was looking at me sadly. She had just finished the frustrating story of her days in Turkey, contacting various people from all walks of life. “I will not come to Turkey again, I don’t want to,” she said, lowering her eyes. “Maybe I would as a journalist for professional reasons, but not as a visitor.”
“Then I will come to Yerevan,” I said. “We will meet there.”
[1] See www.ozgur-gundem.com/haberID=11382&haberBaslik=Bebekten%20katil%20yaratan%20soru&action=haber_detay&module=nuce
[4] Both ebru (traditional Muslim art of paper marbling) and mosaic Suciyan refers to here are the metaphors widely used in Turkey in eulogizing the so-called pluralistic cultural making of Anatolia.
[5] For the online version of the article, see http://azadalik.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/i%e2%80%99m-neither-an-ebru-nor-a-tessera%e2%88%97-nor-am-i-%e2%80%98a-color-of-anatolia%e2%80%99/#more-78.
Ayse Gunaysu
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Very powerful. Thank you Ms. Gunaysu.
Beautifully written and heartfelt. Thank you.
Tank you so much ms. Gunaysu. May Sevag & Armenag rest in peace.
This was not my idea; someone after Hrant Dink’s brain and blood like your captivating fragmented story was scattered in front of his office; marked him as number 1,500,001st Armenian martyrs who were publicly killed with a premeditated, State sponsored, savage and inhumane program; and now Sevag becames the number 1,500,002nd martyr in that list.
This doesn’t mean that since 1915 there are just 2 Armenians who got killed; no; these are just the
ones that we started tally after January 19, 2007; the ones which deliberately became Public and are planned to work as “Reminder Shots” to the ailing body of Armenian community and others in Turkey to not make mistakes and get too excited for things like Recognition of the Armenian Genocide or Democracy in general.
According to you and other sources there must be hundreds of thousands if not Millions of such premeditated overt and covert government sponsored killings and sure there are more coming.
Your bravery is such community is greatly commendable.
Ms. Gunaysu, I wonder if you know how much it means to Armenians to have someone who is not Armenian, feel our pain with so much sensitivity. It doesn’t lessen the burden we feel for the martyrs and all that was taken from us, but it gives us hope to know there are people in this world who see the truth in Turkey’s shadow.
Thank you Gunaysu for the courage and compassion you show. You are a very special human being. God bless you.
Thanks a million, for an article full of undertanding for our pain. If there were more people like you in Turkey, it would help Turkey to own up to it’s guilt and move on, but alas…
Dear Gunaysu…
For many months now, I have been just skimming through the titles of the Armenian Weekly issues, not finding the time to read them fully. But when I saw your name as the author of this article, I had to read….
You always touch my heart with your humanity…. something we long for from the Turkish people… humanity… You took 1.5 million of us… You took our churches,…. farms…. trees…. historic land…. language…. memory…. with hate so deep that it denies the victim even a closure by admitting to the crime…. that it denies the parents of a victim the right for a family funeral and a last goodbye following cultural traditions …where is humanity in Turkey? … It is asphyxiated!
Dear Guyansu, you are a ray of sunshine in this darkest of places. Please continue unveiling the stories of heroes whose names we never heard of.. Armenian heroes in Turkey, whose deeds we were not aware of… they were asphyxiated…. like everything else about us…. How sad and cruel… Never stop to tell us these stories in your decent humane voice…. it gives us hope, and it connects us to Turkish Armenians, who continue suffering under tyranny in this day and age… How courageous of them… How courageous of you…. Thank you….
Gunaysu: how can you claim to be democratic and peace loving human, when you depict the armenian gangsters who started an uprising as “heroes”?
What can I say, you want attention. The Sevag incident has nothing to do with nationalism, he was not killed by an ultra nationalist, stop spreading lies.
James (or whatever your real name is): Kindly provide–and let’s discuss, if you will—who were the Armenian “gangsters” and what “uprising” they started? Kindly provide the number of these “gangsters” and the scope of this “uprising” that shook the foundations of mighty Ottoman Empire. While you’ll be fabricating your answer, kindly explain whether the nation of 2 million men, women, children, and the elderly could all be “gangsters” or could all have started “uprising”? In the conclusion, kindly explain: if there were “gangsters” who started “uprising”, why the Ottoman government wouldn’t imprison those few “gangsters” but choose to exterminate the whole racial, ethnic, national, and religious group of Armenians in an internationally recognized act of genocide? Thank you.
Dear Armen,
Do you really think that he has any knowledge to answer those questions? I don’t think so.
It doesn’t matter if he is James or Jamesoghloo, when our 59th speaker of house Dennis Hastert during and after his term was/is in the pocket of Turks then what do you expect from the street people.
You can find thousands of such people that they can’t even locate Armenia or Turkey on the map but “For a Handful of Dollars” will sing like a parrots after their Masters; and for another bunch they even sell their own Mother because they don’t know what dignity means.
Armen et al,
To properly answer your posed questions, you and all the others MUST accept our invitation to debate us in an open public frum WITH full media coverage!! Then, and ONLY then, will you be shocked as you and all the others finally learn the truth!
Very touching article Ayse.
I could feel it into my bones.
It will stay with me.
Robert, alas you are just a three years too late. Had you asked this question three years ago, I could have you talk to my 98 year old grandfather, who lived through the Genocide which was probably perpetrated by your grandfather. The historians of today will base their opinions on paper, where my grandfather based it on his senses, when he saw his family torn up, he smelled the stench of innumerable dead bodies, he tasted no food or water while being marched out for his hometown, he felt the dried up skin and bones of his mother’s hand as she held on tight to him, and he heard the voice of “your” grandfather ordering his soldiers to KILL ALL GYAVOURS. But alas he passed and now you have me to tell you that what my grandfather lived through does not need a historian or an ignoramus like you to justify or to believe. WE KNOW.
Ms. Gunyasu
I thank you for your bold and honorable articles which shed light on the true face of the Turkish propaganda machine. But for as long as I read articles like this written by someone of Turkish descend, I know there is hope for a nation of millions of ill-informed and mis-educated Turks. I pray God will one day open the eyes of all the Turks like He has yours to see the TRUTH. In the meantime, I will go on being Appalled at the leadership of a country which places adds for their country in the LA Times newspaper and uses pictures of a church stolen from a people raped and murdered and claims it as part of their own heritage. I thank you for who you truly are. A reasonable human, before being a Turk.
Robert, I wonder what kind of truth is hiding there. I think you need to seek professional help in order to clear your conscience.You are in a big denial.It is not your fault whatever had happened in the past, but it is your responsibility, as human to accept anything which happened against humanity.Think wisely and educate yourself.Thanks to Ayse being such a human being.I am sure we will see more educated and kind people like her.
Robert:
What happened ? couldn’t stay away ?
Didn’t you promise not to come back ?
here: [from the HAMSHEN thread May18, 2011 “
“…..To all of the ARF posters on this site,…….”…… “ As for me and this site, I may return one day, after there has been a change in the editor’s position”]
First you post under ‘Robert R.’ @ Asbarez.com, now you post under ‘Robert K.’ here: what’s up with that ? I don’t think there has been any change in Editor’s position: but I could be wrong.
As to debating you Denialist Turks: why waste our precious time ? To prove to the likes of you what ? That AG happened ? And you are going to, quote, ‘prove’ to us it didn’t happen ?
Robert K.
Really? After all the decades of burying the collective heads of Turkey in the sand, after denying that any Armenians were killed to begin with, after all these decades of hiding that Armenians lived in Asia Minor and perpetuating the myth that Armenians are outsiders, you want us to come and sit with you to have a sensible “debate”? There is too much distrust to do this. There is no expectation that there will be an honest introspection of Turkish history from the Turkish side*. Armenian genocide has been studied for decades and Turkey decided to hide and deny and not participate, and this attitude will not change overnight. Turkey had the opportunity to settle this in 20s and 30s, but she chose not to.
* ie, the Turkish government, military and nationalistic segment of the population, who dominate Turkey at the moment.
I wish there was a like button on each post because I like Berch’s first post. Berch summarized where we Armenians are coming from. But Robert will not get it because he chooses to be in a state of willful ignorance.
What is the truth Robert? That there is, in this world, an actual, rational justification to massacring unarmed civilians, men, women children, in the hundreds of thousands?
James/Robert, etc., what you seem to forget or overlook is that there were many ‘uprisings’ against the empire….the Greek, the Bulgarian, the Arab, etc. In none of those did the imperial government of the sultan seek to decimate, eradicate, obliterate, annihilate those who were fighting for independence, as they did with the Armenians. Huge chunks of the empire were removed, yet…those peoples remained, by and large. Moreover, whatever the revolutionary societies might have done, they were insignificant when compared to the might of the state and the army. The real problem was that the empire was bankrupt, the sultan was overthrown, murderous criminals took the reins of control and in the climate of a three front war waged by the CUP leaders, sought to rectify the situation by expelling and murdering the largest minority group and then stealing everything for themselves and the new immigrants from Bulgaria, Greece, the Caucasus, etc. If you want to have a ‘debate’, let’s have it, as long as we can discuss how and why the Ittihadists went beserk in an honest, open way. The entire world saw what happened very clearly, and the criminals were later tried and convicted of their crimes against humanity in Turkish courts. So, there is plenty of evidence already on the table and very little to ‘debate’, but in an open discussion, there’s alot you could both learn once you get yourselves outside the Turkish propaganda bubble. Ayse khanum has done a very good job in this regard and is trying to educate those who read her article….please try to learn and think outside your little boxes for a change.
James…. James… hmmm Western name yet Turkish blood talking.. i wonder what hole did you come out…. I would love to hear what you have to say to the questions Armen posted even though I already know your brain does not have the capacity to answer these questions because you don’t know the truth… it is not your fault.. we feel sad for you my dear souless human being…
Robert K… REALLY? now you post yourself as ROBERT K? thought you were done posting on our pages…..what happened? you know what happened? just like i said in my other comment: your ego will never let you stay away from these pages and sooner or later your ugly head will pop up… and WUAAALLAAAAAAAAAA… here you are… SOOO FUNNY…..P.S if you are FOR SOME MIRACLE not the same Robert as we know, then you are bad as he is…
Also: the debate you are talking about is empty and senseless matter in everyone’s minds except your Turkish fuzzy brains because you very well know that Armenians won’t agree to a debate about something that need to discussions.. because there is nothing to debate.. GENOCIDE HAPPENED.. END OF STORY.. you press for the debate to show the world your fake willingness to sit and make mends with Armenians…but reality check.. WE KNOW YOUR TRICKS.. WE KNOW YOUR GAMES.. so stop trying…
Katia K… Miss you my dear.. glad to see you again..:)
Gayane
Thank you Aysa for writing the article, you are on the right side, same as everyone else who is not afraid from bringing up the truth, which I call a real bravery, specially in that part of the world. There is always a infinite need for your kind of thinkers, take care of yourself and keep on the good work.
Thank you The Armenian Weekly.
gayane: ‘Robert K’ is our old friend Robert. We can change our names, but can’t change the ‘fingerprint’ of our writing style. Even if he changes his name to ‘John Doe’, I’ll still know it’s him.
Berch: Based on her others articles, I believe Ms. Gunaysu is a Kurd, not of Turkish/Turk descent. Kurds in Turkey have struggled for decades to be properly called Kurds, instead of ‘Mountain Turks’ that the Turk Racists prefer to call them.
Avery, Ayse is not Kurdish. She is Turkish! I know it might be hard for some to believe…
Avery jan… that is what i thought.. as you said no matter how many times one changes his or her name, the fingerprint will remain and that is the writing style… guess my assumption was correct when i said he won’t stay away.. it is too tempting to always jump in and say something Anti-Armenian.. that is his characteristic…
I also thought Ayse was Kurdish… but either way.. her dedication to human rights advancement is commendable and should be made example of those Turks who deny and hide behind in their brainless govt games and tricks…
Gayane
Garo Manuk:
If you know for certain Ms. Gunaysu is a Turk, then I stand corrected.
Mr. Taner Akçam is a Turk, so it’s not hard to believe there are righteous Turks: lots of them, as a matter of fact.
Avery, yes I know as a fact that she’s Turkish. I apologize if my comment sounded harsh. It was a general statement not directed to you, but I can see now that that wasn’t clear in my message.
I tried to research about her but i could not really find anything…wanted to learn about her bio..
any idea where i can find this information? Garo? maybe you might know..
Thank you
Gayane
no sweat: your statement was not harsh.
no offense taken.
no need for apology.
Dear Ms. Gunaysu,
You are really a greatness. And we are really greatfull. Words are not enough!
ROBERT K, One must have integrity to face the truth and balls of steel to wright such an article.
You keep on inviting us to other forums for what?? To discover a new America?? If you have new evidence about Genocide I suggest you keep it safe, because very soon the courts are going to need it. If you want to teach us something about the Genocide, I suggest you start from the International Genocide Scholars. Their oppinion will matter more for your government. Otherwise be a man, keep your promise and disappear from here. Are you a Turk, don’t you understand? Oh, I forgot. You are!
Hatred has taken over your soul so bad that there is no way going back. Your stupid strategy of “suicide negative energy releasing” is not going to work here. I already blocked it.
Hey James Bond-oglu
Tell me please, what does “democratic and peace loving” have to do with”uprising”? Are you saying the uprising in the Arab world today is initiated by gangsters?? or perhaps peace loving civilians who are striving for democracy? Get your facts together Mr. Bond-oglu. JAMES Bond-oglu!! pst.
I see I am not the only one back on these pages… Yes, yes… 1.5 million out of 2 million just disappeared off the face of the Earth…Why would a modern country chose to continue to live under a dark cloud?… Come clean and let’s all move on…
Hi Gayane and Boyajian… Missed you…
Vay Mera AR jan… from laughing.. James Bond-oglu.. how appropriate..LOL thank you for the laugh.. i needed it…you are hillarious…
AR jan.. Robert is inviting us to his forums to show us how Turks do it.. the civilized and organized manner… he wants to show US how open minded Turkish editors are and they NEVER censor or block anything Armenian related..LOL i mean talk about serious complex… especially when open mindedness and civilized don’t go hand in hand with SOME TURKS … note Robert.. i said SOME and not all…you and James are included in that some group.. sad but it is what it is..
G
Let’s not forget….those 2 – 2.5 Armenians million were fully 25% of everyone living in Anatolia. In the Armenian provinces, the numbers were much higher – between 50 – 100%. While cities were mixed and cosmopolitan, there were also many completely Armenian villages and towns, living close to completely Kurdish or Turkish settlements. The thing to imagine is this: any country, anywhere eliminating that much of their population! It is unimaginable. The Greeks represented another 25% and by 1923 most were also gone. Their homes, businesses and properties were then handed over to imported ‘Turks’ from the Balkans and Salonika, the Caucasus and other areas, as well as to Kurds who helped facilitate the genocide. More minority remnants also left in the late 1950s due to the anti-Greek riots and violence. The largest minority holdouts were and still are the Armenians, Christian, Muslim and Alevi, who feel a special connection to their ancient homeland and are very reluctant to leave their still vibrant communities.
Good post Karekin:
Except instead of ‘Anatolia’, I’d use Armenian Highlands, Armenian Plateau, or Western Armenia when referring to the Armenian population. Anatolia refers to Western part of present day Turkey, or Eastern part of the Byzantine Empire. Turks use the term ‘Anatolia’ when referring to Western Armenia in order to erase any names that contain ‘Armenian’ in their toponyms: a continuation of bloodless Genocide.
And 1.5 Million Armenians were murdered 1915-1923, plus about 1/2 million in the 1800s for a total of 2 million Armenians, their potential progeny and genes forever gone from the Armenian nation. Several hundred thousand Greeks and Assyrians (total 1-1.5 million) were also exterminated by Turks.
Or at least “East Asia Minor” instead of “Eastern Anatolia”…
It is incomprehensible that you have been able to transcend all things and to knowingly pierce the veil of despair, pain and unconsolable grief that has gripped “knowing” Armenians for generations since the horrors of the Genocide. It didn’t simply happen…it is still going on in the form of hatred, misrepresentation of truth, and utter ignorance of mankind’s most hideous expression of bestial cruelty. God bless you and especially…God protect you. Your heart is great and is virgin soil for the unrestrained expression of realities.
1914, a Turkish judge who lived next door to my father told him: send your son to America…black clouds are approaching. As a result, my grandfather sent my father to America. In 1915, my grandfather was beheaded by Turks during the “roundup” of intellectuals and leaders.
But I live today because my father lived to have children…thanks to the Turkish judge…who probably was also killed for collaborating,
Whatever the name, whether a Robert or a Robot, the leaders of a Turkey are using PLOYs and more to further their lies… Turks’ leaderships speak to the world as if they are attempting to ‘make peace’ with the victims, the Armenian nation. All their misdirected and destructive efforts to appear as the intelligent, great nation they consider they have become. Reality: all these years these leaderships have been maintaining their ongoing pursuit teaching their citizens to see the Armenians as the enemy (imagine, as though it was the Armenians who had committed a genocide against the Turkeys). More and more evidence of another PLOY – now, for their own youth of a Turkey, as their students are being educated to believe that the Armenians were deserving of all the vile and inhumane forms of tortures and deaths that the Turk mentality devises. Too, all this has become more and more evident when the Armenians congregate in memory of the slaughters, rapes, kidnappings, tortures suffered from the Turks… observed across the world and in Washington DC for their April 24th memorials – both last year and this year again.
Turk youths have been put forward to vent their obvious hate and disregard for the right of the Armenians to conduct their observance in the USA (mind, not in their Turkey) but these vicious voices, actions and symbols which these youngsters displayed was shamefully embarrassing… for all Washingtonians to have observed… actually, to see/to hear Turks at their best.
Evident: the educational system of a Turkey teaches lies…ala Turkish style… thus a Robert.
Just because the turk says there must be an open public forum does not mean that such a forum with full media coverage…. is to be accomplished. The civilized nations/states the world over know that the Turkeys committed the Genocide of the Armenian nation, and too, the Greeks and Assyrians – too, the Kurds, today. Begun against the Armenians in the 19th century,planned/perpetuated in the 20th century against the Armenians – and now, in the 21st century fully abusing and pursuing in all manners the elimination of the Armenians, which the turkeys had thought shall have been accomplished with the slaughters, rapes, tortures and worse… Too, the
turkeys had imagined that the Survivors of the Armenian Genocide shall have been
– via mixed marriages in the various nations, and more, would have by now, nearly 100 years later, as turkeys had planned, elimination of their victim Armenians from planet earth. Well, robert A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, Armenians have survived and will re-create via our Armenia, too, a nation based upon their ancient and advanced peoples and, as well, our great intelligentia of today shall (albeit a small nation) is outstanding and will stand tall amongst all the civilized nations of the world… AND, continue to address our efforts to eliminate any further Genocides, AND, address our efforts against any nations who have yet to face justice for their crimes of humans killing humans, inhumanity… since the perpetrator nations have been the WINNERS – AND ALL THEIR VICTIMS THE LOSERS!
Hi Katia, I’m always glad to read what you write. But I understand your absence. It is tough deciding how much energy to give to the denialists and easy to lose ourselves in our national obsession to have our pain acknowledged by Turkey. Sometimes it all makes you feel off balance.
Sadly, Monastras and Robert show us the other side of the obsession that infected Asia Minor 100 years ago. We are all its victims. Only truth will heal this and so we carry on.
Hi Boyajian… Great to “read” from you too!
This subject is very close to all of our hearts because we are the direct descendants of the survivors of the Turkish monstrosity…. for someone to tell US that the Genocide did not happen is utterly and painfully ridiculous…! But it also attests to the psychological depth of the Turkish denial! To scoop as low as telling a victim that his grandparents did not go through what they in fact went through is the continuation of active Genocide, but it is also “desperation” stemmed from an inability to reconcile with what one’s ancestors have done… Of course it also emanates from fear of punishment and the return of stolen land and resources…. so the saga continues… The only way justice will be served is when we as a people become united and powerful enough to commend attention and be listened to. Can you imagine what Armenia will look like if most of the Diaspora settled there and its population went up to 6 or 7 million? For that to happen we will need true inspiring leaders who will direct the country towards Democracy and economical stability and prosperity….
Amen, Katia. It is hard to wrap one’s mind around the fact that the Armenians of Asia Minor suffered in this way, and even more difficult to accept the cold audacity of denial and distortion which perpetuates the genocide today. I am really grateful to Turks like Gunaysu who fight the urge to look away from the ugly truth and choose instead to stare directly at the facts, name it, and speak boldly for it. If she can do it, we must also use our voices.
Well said, Ghevont Samoorian.