Silenced Press, Scapegoated Minorities, Civil War

No, the title is not some veiled reference to the political climate of the United States in these presidential primary days.

It refers to another place that somehow eludes, evades the attention its current plight deserves.

It is a place where the government is run by people who seem to be power-mad; a place where leaders started out in the right direction, but either altered their plans, were changed by the thrill of power, or got elected under false pretenses with their true agenda hidden; a place where the government stirs up trouble with its neighbors and its own citizens; a place where politicians resort to any means, no matter the cost in blood, to get reelected.

It is a place where chauvinism and religious fanaticism (imagine: rallies in major cities attracting thousands in support of reestablishing a caliphate) exert an ever more powerful influence on society; a place where “minorities” are vilified and scapegoated; a place where a small stratum of civil society is truly decent, but still so far ahead of the bulk of the population that meaningful progress is still minimal, and very spotty.

It is a place, truly, where every time some progress is made, some force in or sector of the polity forces recidivism.

This is a place where Kurds are vilified for simply wanting basic rights and freedoms, where they are vilified as the “Armenians” of today, where there really is no “majority” group despite centuries of forced assimilation, but where those who erroneously believe they constitute the majority want to squelch all other identities.

It is a place of fear.

It is a place where Armenians were eradicated; a place where Armenians are still painted as treacherous creatures, even though most people have never had the opportunity to meet an Armenian; a place where the government finds it necessary to legislate how “buried” Armenian “treasure” is to be handled when found—subtly reinforcing the notion that such treasure exists (and the very notion of that existence implies the Armenians must have been evil, usurious, treacherous people, hence deserving extermination).

It is a place where “Kurdistan without Kurds” is the unspoken policy objective, echoing the centuries-long policy of “Armenia without Armenians”…

It is a place where Kurds are today accused of treachery, echoing the same slander hurled at Armenians a century ago; a place where “Armenian” is an epithet, and “Kurd” is on its way to becoming one.

What happens in places such as this one? What happened in Lebanon when its tensions exploded? What happened in the United States when issues of slavery and other constitutional matters could not be amicably resolved? What happened in France in the era of the guillotine? The same is coming to our “place” according to an Armenian parliamentarian from a Kurdish-oriented party—civil war. I suspect poking sticks in too many hornets’ nests, playing with too many fires at once, and figurative-chest-thumping as a bluff also indicate how overextended this place has become.

Erdogan has messed with too many factions in and out of Turkey, is power hungry, has multiple hands of political poker going simultaneously, callously fuels bloodshed to achieve his ends, and has generated a society of fear. He is working on a “final solution” to his Kurdish “problem” by trying to stomp out any sign of Kurdish dignity, including trying to undercut the standing of the HDP whose Garo Paylan predicts that civil war may be coming. Couple this with Turkey’s external entanglements—Syria, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, refugees, EU, Israel/Gaza—and you can see why a full blown civil war might erupt, much worse than the 1970’s mutual-killing sprees of political opponents.

Should we cheer or shudder? I’m not sure. I am sure that this is a time of extreme risk and opportunity in our occupied homeland. Be alert. Be prepared. “Surprises,” equivalent in scale for us to the fall of the USSR, might be coming.

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Garen Yegparian

Asbarez Columnist

Garen Yegparian is a fat, bald guy who has too much to say and do for his own good. So, you know he loves mouthing off weekly about anything he damn well pleases to write about that he can remotely tie in to things Armenian. He's got a checkered past: principal of an Armenian school, project manager on a housing development, ANC-WR Executive Director, AYF Field worker (again on the left coast), Operations Director for a telecom startup, and a City of LA employee most recently (in three different departments so far). Plus, he's got delusions of breaking into electoral politics, meanwhile participating in other aspects of it and making sure to stay in trouble. His is a weekly column that appears originally in Asbarez, but has been republished to the Armenian Weekly for many years.