Astarjian: Yes We Can! (Part II)

So this is Turkey, inside out, with the inside being its underbelly: exposed, soft, and vulnerable. Despite its genuine structural weaknesses, institutional Turkey continues to colonize the non-Turkic inhabitants of Turkey—the Kurds and other minorities, who suffer ethnic, cultural, and educational oppression.

For nearly a century we have been in a wake, mourning our 1.5 million dead in the genocide, but have forgotten, mostly ignored, our living dead: a million or so Armenians who were forcefully converted to Islam, carrying the ID of a Turk.

For nearly a century we have ignored the cries of these people—”please save us!”—which resonated in our post-genocidal conscience. Our nation, which had barely survived the genocide and was in shell shock, could barely care for itself, let alone rescue the lamb from the jaws of the wolf. Despite that, there were some rescues, but not from Turkey. Some Arab tribes, mainly the Mujhhims (Shammars), saved some Armenian children from the Syrian Desert, Der Zor. My uncle by marriage, Dickran, was an accomplice in kidnapping some of these girls from their Arab “savers” and bringing them to Mosul, Iraq.

That was a triumph, but that was all. There were some similar, sporadic anecdotes, but not more.

As time passed, their cries echoed fainter and fainter, until now, when, despite the loudness of their cry “please save us!” it faintly echoes in the empty chambers of our memories.

The diaspora is oblivious to their calls, and the leadership is ignorant, more correctly inept, in handling the problem. They are busy pursuing the cause of the dead in a bloody genocide, ignoring the cause of the victims of the bloodless genocide (my uncle would call it the Red Genocide and White Genocide), ignoring their inherent duty to do something, something that could take many forms.

We have to learn from others: the United States Armed Forces do not leave any soldier, dead or alive, behind. Israel has one captive soldier with Hamas, and they are raising hell to get him back. The issue holds a prime importance in their conduct of diplomacy to bring Shalit home. They are negotiating the release of a many Palestinian prisoners in return for the release of their one soldier.

In Kurdish American meetings, which I have attended, at least two dozen Kurds have anonymously confided in me that their grandmother, sometimes grandfather, is Armenian, and they consider themselves both Kurds and Armenians. They invariably have questioned, rhetorically, “What have we gained from being Muslims?” These few words speak volumes. Kemal, a polite Turk, confided that his mother was Armenian, but said, please keep it a secret; even though he had become a naturalized American, he was afraid of some kind of retaliation against his relatives in Turkey. A doctor friend of mine from Elazig (Kharpert) told me that his grandmother was Armenian, and that the only word he had learned from her was paregam (friend). There are the Hemshin in the Trabizon area who have collectively converted to Islam, but they are Armenians.

Demographic diversity in Turkey—unlike the United States where it is an asset—spells disaster for the country, because of the Turkish hegemony and colonization of its minorities, especially of the not-so-minor population of Kurds who constitute approximately one third of Turkey’s population.

The persecution of this large segment of the population creates nothing less than resentment, hatred, contempt, and armed struggle—the way it has been conducted by armed Kurds. The dynamics of their rebellion is the same as that of the Armenians who had no choice but to bear arms to defend their hamlets and villages.

Another persecuted notable group is the Alevis, the Shi’a, not Sunni Alevis who gladly accepted the converted Armenian into their Islamic fold.

There is no doubt that the converts to Islam, though half or quarter Armenian, would, given the freedom that they deserve, claim their ethnic origin as theirs and join forces with the Kurds to reclaim their land. The Kurds realize, and I have articulated this in my speeches to the Kurdish Parliament in Exile (Brussels), that our causes meet and that our causes are intertwined, that we have a common enemy, that we are a de-facto presence in Anatolia, and that our rights on the land is reserved by the Sevres Treaty, which also gave us the Wilsonian map. It is clear that a unilateral rapprochement between the Kurds and the Turks must not be at the expense of Western Armenia. Given all that, we should have no problems with the Kurds.

It is incumbent upon our leadership to pursue the matter in earnest and fight for it as if the White Genocide is the continuation of the Red Genocide. We are already a century late.

Some say it takes a miracle. Others who have the faith say, Yes we can! Yes we can take back Western Armenia, but only if we have the resolve, if we have the guts, and if we mobilize our forces. Yes we can succeed in recreating Western Armenia, which then can fulfill the promise of a Miatsial, Azad, Angakh Hayastan (a United, Free, and Independent Armenia) in earnest. Until then, the title remains as it is: a slogan.

Dr. Henry Astarjian

Dr. Henry Astarjian

Dr. Henry Astarjian was born in Kirkuk, Iraq. In 1958, he graduated from the Royal College of Medicine and went on to serve as an army medical officer in Iraqi Kurdistan. He continued his medical education in Scotland and England. In 1966, he emigrated to the U.S. In 1992, he served as a New Hampshire delegate to the Republication National Convention in Houston, Texas. For three years Astarjian addressed the Kurdish Parliament in Exile in Brussels, defending Armenian rights to Western Armenia. For three consecutive years, he addressed the American Kurds in California and Maryland. He is the author of The Struggle for Kirkuk, published by Preager and Preager International Securities.
Dr. Henry Astarjian

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6 Comments

  1. I wrote this letter to Amnesty International to stop torture.
    ______________________________________________

    If  President Obama cannot recognize First Genocide (1915-1923),
    The slayers will never stop will continue slaying the innocents. 
    The seed of slaying started from that date
    And will continue till the world end.
    He should not listen to any other than
    His clever Hearted-Mind.
    Can vanish the Slaying Genes.
    Every  honest educated human know Obama.
    He can achieve impossible tasks.
    With his real ‘Talented- Kind’ genes.
     

  2. 100 ar hareur asiga makour mdadzelagerb m@n eh. Amenen lav pajhin@ hedevyaln er:
    “We have to learn from others: the United States Armed Forces do not leave any soldier, dead or alive, behind. Israel has one captive soldier with Hamas, and they are raising hell to get him back. The issue holds a prime importance in their conduct of diplomacy to bring Shalit home. They are negotiating the release of a many Palestinian prisoners in return for the release of their one soldier.”
    ===================================================================
    Indeed, im undanik’s MORTETSIN!
    (my family tree)
    – many beheaded or driven into deserts where, as Dr. Astarjian once wrote, “Caravans of camelas could not survive, let alone caravans of humans!”
    75% dead
    12.5% penniless refugees in foreign nation’s orphanages
    12.5% stolen by Turks, Kurds and Arabs!
    (Forcibly changing religions of abducted children is Genocide by U.N. convention)
     
    This article is a clear C G E major chord across the finely-tuned piano
    with resonation that is neurally – pleasing
    since it is ringing of something we rarely hear so loud and clear
    . . . THE TRUTH!

  3. 100 ar hareur asiga makour mdadzelagerb m@n eh. Amenen lav pajhin@ hedevyaln er:
    “We have to learn from others: the United States Armed Forces do not leave any soldier, dead or alive, behind. Israel has one captive soldier with Hamas, and they are raising hell to get him back. The issue holds a prime importance in their conduct of diplomacy to bring Shalit home. They are negotiating the release of a many Palestinian prisoners in return for the release of their one soldier.”
    ===================================================================
    Indeed, im undanik’s MORTETSIN!
    (my family tree)
    – many beheaded or driven into deserts where, as Dr. Astarjian once wrote, “Caravans of camels could not survive, let alone caravans of humans!”
    75% dead
    12.5% penniless refugees in foreign nation’s orphanages
    12.5% stolen by Turks, Kurds and Arabs!
    (Forcibly changing religions of abducted children is Genocide by U.N. convention)
     
    This article is a clear C G E major chord across the finely-tuned piano
    with resonation that is neurally – pleasing
    since it is ringing of something we rarely hear so loud and clear
    . . . THE TRUTH!

  4. Dear Henry,
    About the Alevi’s, there are not “Sunni Alevi’s”. The Sunni’s have historically massacred the Alevi’s. There are Turkic Alevi’s, there are Kurdish Alevi’s… some Alevi’s consider themselves to be part of Islam, other consider themselves to be something else. The Alevi’s themselves do not agree about what they are. Yes, there are elements of Shi’ism because for the Alevi’s, Ali is extremely sacred. Alevi’s differ in their religious practice from Muslims in many ways. They do not pray five times a day, the do not go to mosque, the do not read the Koran, they do not fast at Ramadan (but do for Ashura). The Turkish government has steadily been trying to assimilate them by building mosques in or around Alevi villages.  Alevi’s are pressured to go to mosque by coworkers and neighbors in mixed or majority Sunni areas. During the 80’s and 90’s when there were forced migrations to the cities, Alevi’s lived in fear– many would get up and turn the lights on when the early morning call to prayer was heard so that neighbors would think they were praying like every one else. At times they were marked and massacred. Unfortunately, some Alevi’s aligned themselves with Kemalists, thinking that “secularism” protected them from the Sunni’s– some even seeing Ataturk as their protector, in spite of the fact that he ordered the operations (and genocide) of Dersim.
    for good information on the Alevis, see Martin Van Bruinessen’s work: http://www.let.uu.nl/~Martin.vanBruinessen/personal/publications/Alevi_revival.htm
    If you google “A journey to Dersim” you will also find a great article written by some travelers for the Royal Geographical society. Their report was published in 1914, but their travels were a few years earlier. They interview an Armenian Bishop who thinks the Alevi’s were Armenian (I find this assertion a bit comical, but it shows the closeness the two communities felt for each other.

  5. First I did not understand word ‘Alevi’ but when you mentioned their culture I was able to understand well.The correct  pronunciation  in Arabic is ‘Allawi’  probably with double Aa,  ‘Aallawi.’
    Like the same for name Saladin Al-Ayoobi , should be ‘Salah Aldeen’, in Arabic language they write it sepretly never a one word.

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