Mouradian: The Good, the Bad, and the Destitute: Erdogan Stereotypes Armenians

On Nov. 9, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave an interview to the Turkish-Armenian “Jamanak newspaper,” in which he praised the country’s Armenian community as an “important and valuable” part of Turkey, talked about “leaving history to the historians” and looking to the future with official Yerevan, and chastised “a segment of the Armenian Diaspora” for not sharing his vision and obstructing peace.

The front page of Jamanak (Nov. 11) featuring the interview with Erdogan.

The distinction Erdogan made in his evaluation of Armenians in Turkey, Armenia, and the diaspora is a dismal attempt at nuance that Turkish politicians and commentators regurgitate incessantly. It is, in fact, one of the core problems of discourse in Turkish political and intellectual circles, according to which there are three kinds of Armenians: the good, the bad, and the destitute.

The Armenians living in Turkey (mainly in Istanbul) comprise the first group. They are regarded as “our Armenians” or the “good Armenians”—in Erdogan’s words the “important and valuable” Armenians—as long as they do not talk about the Armenian Genocide, their inequality, and the continued discrimination they face.

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated in 2007 because he was a critic of the Turkish establishment and called for the recognition of the suffering of Armenians. In no way a radical, Dink was murdered for occasionally venturing out of the discourse space permitted for the “good Armenians.”

The citizens of Armenia are the “destitute Armenians.” According to the dominant discourse in Turkey, they are the neighbors who are under difficult economic conditions, and do not mind forgetting the past and moving on (“leaving history to the historians,” so to speak), if it weren’t for a third group: the Armenian Diaspora.

Ermeni Diasporasi” is the mythical geographic space that “bad Armenians” call home. The discourse portrays the “bad Armenians” as Turkey’s sworn enemies. These malicious, ghastly beings level accusations of genocide against Turks and try to undermine Ankara’s every step at peace. Needless to say, they do not share Erdogan’s “vision.”

In recent years, discourse in Turkey has further differentiated between two camps in the diaspora: the hawks and the doves. The doves are those who are satisfied with the discourse space more or less acceptable to the Turkish state. They engage in “Dolma Diplomacy,” the central tenet of which is: We lived together in peace and harmony for centuries, we ate the same food, so let’s forget the past and look to the future together.

The hawks, on the other hand, are the “radical,” “extremist,” even “terrorist” Armenians. To qualify as a hawk, it would suffice that one dislike the dolma discourse, and employ terms like “justice,” “recognition,” and “reparation.” This is the “segment of the Armenian Diaspora” that Erdogan complains about in the interview.

As long as these stereotypes continue to dominate the discourse in Turkey, and politicians and diplomats continue to insist on defining what Armenians are entitled to say, all the dolma in the world will not be able to bring about Turkish-Armenian conciliation.

Dr. Khatchig Mouradian

Dr. Khatchig Mouradian

Khatchig Mouradian is the Armenian and Georgian Area Specialist at the Library of Congress and a lecturer in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University. He also serves as Co-Principal Investigator of the project on Armenian Genocide Denial at the Global Institute for Advanced Studies, New York University. Mouradian is the author of The Resistance Network: The Armenian Genocide and Humanitarianism in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1918, published in 2021. The book has received the Syrian Studies Association “Honourable Mention 2021.” In 2020, Mouradian was awarded a Humanities War & Peace Initiative Grant from Columbia University. He is the co-editor of a forthcoming book on late-Ottoman history, and the editor of the peer-reviewed journal The Armenian Review.

20 Comments

  1. Erdogan and his Turkish friends are talking about “terrorist Armenians”.  He forgets that the real terrorists were their muslim Ottoman Turk ancestors who chastized the innocent christian Armenians almost a 100 years ago …!

  2. Thought the same things once I read Erdogan’s words during Kocunyan’s visit.. I could sign under this piece, clever analysis. Hats off!

  3. Turkey’s leaders are, of course, liars.  That’s #1.

    However, they are able to get away, to some extent, with their divide and conquer tactics against Armenians because Armenia itself does immediately blow those tactics out of the water.

    Perhaps it is time for Armenians to themselves employ some divide and conquer tactics by pointing out the divisions both within and between the made-up country of “Turkey” and its fantasy playmate, “Azerbaijan.”  

    For example, Turks themselves simply took over land and renamed it Turkey.  By what right is the place even called Turkey?  Think about it.

    And as author Reuben Galichian has pointed out, Azarbayjan was always just a geographical term that designated a region to the south of the mythical “republic” known by the name of Azerbaijan.  What, may I ask, is an “Azeri”?  Does anyone really know?  I don’t think so.

    Turks and “Azeris” simply invade existing countries, give them new names, and everyone else is supposed to accept them. 

  4. The irony of the situation is Erdogan’s freewheeling use of the term ‘diasporans’ to refer to the Armenians he doesn’t like, completely ignoring what the term implies about the history of his own country.  What comes through is: the worth of Armenians to Turkey is directly proportional to how few and how quiet they are, which brings us painfully close to the logic of the Genocide. Not much progress in 100 years.

  5. I am so surprise this newly crowned Ottoman Sultan, is in love with his “disciplined” Loyal Millet…one year ago this time he wanted to deport them all…
     

  6. Mr. Mouradian,
    Instead of theorizing about how the Turkish government stereotypes Armenians, look at the steryotypes of Turks in the Diaspora and in your beloved Armenia! See the rod in your own eyes first!

  7.     Very important message offered by Mr. Mouradian. As we engage further in the pursuit of justice and the truth begins to prevail, the Turkish government will enhance its attempt to weaken the cause of the Armenian people. As their long standing policy of denial runs out of gas, they will continue to try and create divisions in the greater Armenian nation. The most obvious form of this attempt is to isolate the diaspora asnot working in the interests of the Armenian people. By neutraizling the effect of the diaspora, Turkey can influence Armenia by utilizing its regional geopolitical and economic power. That’s their approach. We have other plans…..
                We must never let the Turkish government create a gap, perceived or real, between the Armenian diaspora and the Republic(or even the Turkish Armenians for that matter). It is especially ironic that the very segment of our nation that Turkey is responsibility for creating, as a result of the genocide, is now the voice of our silenced ancestors. We should anticipate that as desparation grows, their efforts will increase and become more creative. Turkey is changing from within and even Erdogan can not stop the progress(as slow as it may seem to us). Every day more Turks realize that “leaving history to the historians” is denial and they have been denied the truth about their own history. Attempts to disunify the Armenian people on these issues simply will not work

  8. Turkish Bostonian, the only ‘stereotype’ we have is that Turks deny the Armenian Genocide. We don’t oppose Turks because of who they are; we oppose them because of what they do. This can’t be said of the Young Turk regime in 1995 regarding the Armenians.So please don’t hide behind cries of ‘racism’ when such cries are in fact transparent projections of your own habits.

  9. Turkish Bostonian,

    You mention stereotypes of Turks in the Diaspora, and I encourage you to do some due diligence on this front. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

    I encourage you to meet and come to know Armenians. Maybe visit the Churches or indulge the Church food festivals. Have an Armenian friend introduce you. You will learn that while some Diasporans have negative things to say, an equal or greater number are open minded or even somewhat positive about Turks as people.

    Those who have travelled to Turkey usually have positive things to say about the people they meet, although here and there visits to western Armenia to see the ancestral lands can be troubling: for example, many who visit are befriended by local Turks and Kurds who think the visitor can tell them where our ancestors hid the gold.

    Armenians as a rule openly acknowledge that those who survived the Genocide often had help from Turks as well as Kurds and Arabs. Sometimes help came in the form of a warning, or in generous shelter, other times the help came at a price. But we have a saying that the Turks were once the best men at our weddings.

    As for those of us and countless others who insist upon reognition of the mass state murder of our ancestors, the destruction of their unique civilization, and the theft of lands and property, you will find every effort to limit indictment to those in overall command who were guilty in the period 1894-1939 of crimes, and not Turkish people in general.  If anything, scholars tend to underplay the “willing executioners” to be found among common Turkish citizens in this period, and in my opinion the common man often did murder his Armenian, Pontic, Greek and Assyrian neighbor, with the the zeal with which Polish, Ukraininan, and Croatian militias murdered Jews. These are in my family stories. Destitute Armenian caravans were often attacked not only by Gendarmes and Special Killing Units manned by escaped prisoners, but often by villagers who beat Armenians to death with farm implements and took their belongings. Then as now, there was a great apetitite for Armenian Voski – gold. 

    You speak of stereotypes of Turks. I agree that Turks and Armenians alike suffer from Orientalist sterotypes in the minds of third parties.  But please look at your own culture, which freely considers the term Armenian to be a street insult likely to result in violence by the recipient Muslim or, as we see in the case of Gul, two successful defamation litigations.

    Look also at the ATAA, and its leader Mr. Kirlikovali, who has polluted the internet with attacks on the character of all Armenians, those in 1915, and those of today, in language Goebbels used; that they are vermin, all liars, murderers, that they wish to kill any Turk they see on sight, the list is as endless as are his dozens of thousands of writings. 

    Every culture has a saying along the lines of ‘Physician, heal thyself.’ Before you tell Armenians of the Diaspora, what and how to say things, find out what they actually do say. And then, take responsibility for the overt, daily and well-funded racism in your Diaspora, e.g. Mr. Kirlikovali and those supporting him.

  10. correction: the prisoners did not escape. They were released by the state, beginning in 1913, for the purpose of killing Armenians.

  11. David Boyajian, you Armenians have a religious belief that a land must be owned by a nation because of some holy reason. Europeans also invaded the lands of American Indians, they have built countries called USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil. They speak English, Spanish, Portuguese. So should they leave these continents or start speaking native languages?
    Believe it or not, we are happy to be Turks and Azeris. Even if our ancestors were Greek or Armenian or whatever. Just get over it. We have a strong feeling of identity, even if it’s “made-up”.

  12. Hey Turkish pep, do not you understand? There is no other way. It is a policy. TURKISH HATRED is only way to keep together Diaspora Armenians all the world… Not so fast my friends not sooo fast!!!

    do not waste your time! & and  DO NOT FORGET “strongest is always right”

    Best Wishes!

  13. Enver,
    Kindly read what I wrote above. There is no hatred for Turks as people. There is hatred for state policies of genocide denial. I would argue that you and Murat demonstrate hatred and stereotyping when you say things like “Diaspora Armenians hate Turks,” or “you Armenians have a belief…”
    Also, if “strongest is always right,” doesn’t that mean that Armenians are ‘right’ in Karabagh?

  14. I’d be ashamed to post under the pen name “Enver Pasha,” one of the three notorious Ottoman mass murderers. But for the Turks, it seems to be OK. That’s why they are Turks, and we are Armenians. You’re talking about Turkish hatred… How would you feel if almost all of your nation were slaughtered, starved, raped, burned and buried alive? Happy? Compassionate? Forgetful? Yes. We are filled with hatred and righteous indignation, but not towards modern-day Turks. It’s directed against your state, your distorting, unrepentant governments. Is it so hard to understand. Besides, with all ancient nations, like Armenians, there is much more that keeps together Armenians in Armenia and all over the world. As a relatively young made-up nation, Turks appear to have a difficulty to understand the depth and the significance of several millennia of collective memories that keep Armenians together, not just hatred for the heinous crime of the Ittihadist regime. As Turks, you have superficial way of thinking and evaluating things, all because your nation is artificial and your history is short. You need to be pitied, not hated… That is why a motto “strongest is always right” is so in line with your thinking. Is that the apex of Turkish intellectual abilities? Will you repeat the same, if any other nation would do the same to the Turks, just as they did to Armenians? Will you repeat “strongest is always right” when your mother will be raped in front of your eyes?! What a primitive, primordial mentality… Again, that’s why you’re called Turks, and we are called Armenians…

  15. Turk leaders say: leave the history for the historians.  Obviously turks cannot have the world history record history and then all the world shall have knowledge of the truths.
    Since turks have not any of their own history, it figures the turks compel that all other  peoples of the world shall not know the truths of the Turkish Genocide of the Armenian nation, the ancient and advanced nation which Turks stole to claim historically!
    Too, lately the turks have been forward in their efforts to destroy too the historical memoriam to President Woodrow Wilson… a memoriam created by the citizens of the United States of America which turks have been funding for many years in all manners to demean and destroy.  For, historically
    President Wilson had been for the Armenians against the cruelties of the turks… and now, so many years later, the turks have ‘gotten back’ at this exemplary leader of the
    USA, again, to ‘eliminate’ his memorium IN WASHINGTON DC, IN THE USA by the citizens of the USA…  The turk has not a history and cannot bear any history… thus the turks inhumanity, again, today funding efforts to destroy our Wilson’s memorial…
    using great amounts of monies… turk’s goals in the USA –  still getting away with murder… the murder of a memorian of a fine leader of the USA – turkish style!
    Manooshag

  16. Hey, turkish bostonian,

    Before saying “Instead of theorizing” to Mouradian, read Erdogan’s words.  Mouradian didn’t make up a thing — all comes from Erdogan’s wordings and attitudes.  Go back to your 1915 archives (before your government cleaned it)!!! This would be real “instead”.  My four grandparents lost seven siblings: the oldest was 9.  I repeat SEVEN children were killed, burned, lost.  “InsteEEEead”…, yeah…  You are rod in your own eye.

  17. Hye, donot the turkish leaderships know, does it ever occur to them that it was the Turkish Genocide of the Armenians that led the Survivors of that Genocide to flee to
    the safe havens of the civilized nations of the world.
    Does it ever occur to the turkish leaderships that they CREATED THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA ALL ACROSS THE WORLD.
    Does it ever occur to the turkish leaderships that the Armenian Survivors passed on to all their generations following them the legacy to pursue justice, reparations and more
    certainly due/owing to the Armenians – or does committing Genocide absolve the turk of all the murders, rapes, tortures and more… and the turk shall never be meted justice??
    Manooshag 

  18. Pasha, no, it is the vile Turkish Genocide of the Armenian nation,the slaughters, rapes, tortures and more of my grandparents, their children, and all my other relatives that were lost to me… they,  who suffered the inhumanity of your leaderships – even until today – that assures me that the turk shall be meted justice… Armenians will gain their homeland and all that which was stolen by the turks – one way or another… and the world over, we Armenians have come back – stronger and stronger than ever, and too, we are being joined by many nations who see the turk for what the turk can never become… a member of the civilized societies, nations of the world. Manooshag

  19. Murat and other Turks….you guys love to compare your uncivilized Islamized tribes with well advanced European invaders of Americas…Turks occupied well advanced Christian civilizations that even in today’s standard their Churches and monument is proven as a successful civilization, just like Hagia Sophia or Ani Cathedral…Byzantine Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldean lost their civilization by Jihadist invaders from Central Asia!!

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