Email a copy of 'Gunaysu: Yes, Peace, but Between Whom, for What, and in What Context?' to a friend
Loading ...
Ayse Gunaysu
Ayse Gunaysu is a professional translator, human rights advocate, and feminist. She has been a member of the Committee Against Racism and Discrimination of the Human Rights Association of Turkey (Istanbul branch) since 1995, and is a columnist for Ozgur Gundem. Since 2008, she writes a column titled "Letters from Istanbul," for the Armenian Weekly.
Latest posts by Ayse Gunaysu (see all)
- Fatih Altayli: Male Chauvinist, Owner of Usurped Armenian Property - September 24, 2014
- Gunaysu: Exhibition of Bitlis Armenians Held in Tatvan - March 27, 2014
- Turkey: An Action Movie without a ‘Good Guy’ - January 17, 2014
It’s a question of peace vs. piece. Will Kurds demand a true peace or compromise to get their piece?
Gunaysu quotes Ocalan as saying (whether by coercion or on his own volition):
“This is an ongoing, thousand-year tradition.” He had added, “After the Islamization of Anatolia, there has been Christian anger that has lasted a thousand years. Greeks, Armenians, and Jews claim rights to Anatolia. They don’t want to give up their gains under the pretext of secularism and nationalism.”
This is not a statement advocating peace. It is a pretext for reinvigorated xenophobic sentiment based on a twisted reading of history. It is practically a call to war. When exactly was the so-called ‘Islamisation of Anatolia’ accomplished? I thought the Turks prided themselves in their long history of allowing Ottoman Christian and Jewish communities to govern themselves. There were many millions of un-Islamized Anatolians attending the thousands of ancient churches and synagogues that dotted the landscape well into the 20th century. It took genocide to ‘Islamize’ Anatolia, and it only happened in the last one hundred years or so. But Ocalan is right about one thing; we are quite angry about that! Will Kurds align themselves with a struggle for justice for a genocidal campaign that they first participated in and subsequently found themselves victims of, or will they make peace deals to get their piece of the Anatolian pie, and others be damned?
“I thought the Turks prided themselves in their long history of allowing Ottoman Christian and Jewish communities to govern themselves.”
.
Well if you turn a blind eye to or deny every aspect of your history that shows how xenophobic and homicidal you can be/were, all you’re left with is the tolerance you’ve shown… at some point… long ago.. that went away… and hasn’t ever returned…
I believe we must be careful went we speak about the Assyrians as though they were a monolithic block. It is for us to remember there is the very ancient and pious church of Assyria which in the USA is called: The Assyrian Church of the East. The mother church is in San Jose California, and it is here their bishop resides.
The Patriarchal See of the Holy Apostolic Assyrian Church of the East is located in Chicago not San Jose.
The Patriarchal See was forced out of Mesopotamia in 1933, soon after the Massacre of Assyrian Christians at the hands of the newly independent Iraqi army. Before the Assyrian Genocide, the See was located in the ancient Assyrian village of Qoshanas, which was located just south of Lake Van.
Boyajian
No one including Kurds or Armenians can carve out a small piece of land from Anatolia with ever getting stronger Turkey in this millenia. Trust me, If this peace deal doesn’t work, People of turkey won’t take this crap any more for a long time
Thank you for this explanation my great grand father is from Qoshanas and I was looking for it on the map, Now all is clear regarding the Assyrians .
Thanks again
It’s sad to say, but humanity generally tends toward the lowest common denominator, in this case as dramatically evidenced by the Armenian (also Pontic Greek and Assyrian) Genocide aka the Chrisitan Holocaust, perpetrated in the name of Islamic Jihad.
So here we go again… the fraternal Islamic Brotherhood. As an Armenian, I’m completely fed up with such euphenisms. Bottom line is that the coming of Islam to Anatolia has been over a thousand years of hell for Armenians and other Christians in Anatolia. So now the Kurds have a choice, to saddle up with their so called Islamic Turk brothers, or to liberalize themselves to ideas of basic human dignity, where all people, despite their race or religion are treated equally and with respect.
If Kurds do choose the archaic Islamic brotherhood then let there be no mistake, Armenians will respond in like kind, and this time around, unlike in 1915, we Armenians are not to be led like sheep to slaughter. Rather, as survivors of genocide, we know that to not fight is to most assuredly die. This so called Islamic Brotherhood made a huge mistake by starting the Armenian Genocide and not completing it. Now they are left with the absolute burning anger of Armenians with a set agenda… that is Hay Tad – the Armenian Cause and come hell or high water, we Armenians intend to acheive it!
#Robert
A Turkish proverb “Sharp vinegar only damages its container”..
This is a trick the Turkish government is playing with the Kurds. Unable to defeat the Kurdish armed rebellion for the last thirty years, uneasy about the total loss of control over the east and the southeastern provinces, and faced with threats from neighboring countries in turmoil, such as Syria, Iraq and Iran and heavily populated by the Kurds, the Turks are trying to con the Kurds into laying down their arms and to desert their strongholds from the Kurdish areas so the Turks can move in to take their places to secure the artificial eastern borders of Turkey.
This is not the first time the Turks have tricked the Kurds. The Turks were successful in tricking the Kurds into joining the Hamidieh cavalry especially created and formed by Sultan Abdulhamit II in the 1890s to exterminate the Armenians in return for Armenian territories and assets. Once the Turks were done using the Kurds to accomplish their genocidal task to wipe out the Armenians and secure Western Armenia for the Turks, they turned around and began suppressing their Kurdish comrades-in-arms now turned into victims, ironically.
The content of Ocalan’s letter is a proof that Armenians must never trust the Kurds without verification of their intent in regards to the eventual Armenian repatriation to their ancestral homelands currently under Turkish occupation and primarily populated by the Kurds. Having no recourse and wanting to save his own neck, Ocalan is cornered and pushed against the wall to make peace with the enemy he has been fighting for the last several decades. A true leader would sacrifice himself instead of sacrificing his own people at the hands of the cunning Turkish enemy that only knows to make “peace” with his perceived adversary through trickery, reprisal and brutal force.
You tunnel-visioned Armenians. Living in both western countries and in your own dreamworld. Hatching such silly, unreal ideas as Hay Tad. When are you going to wake up from your silly dreams? It is almost a century since Anatolia was cleared of you and other non-moslem peoples. You lost. Be thankful that you are still alive, grow up and shaw at least enough intelligence not to play with fire. You have no place in Anatolia any more. Setting up a church in Diyarbakir, crying over your old, decrepit churches is as stupid as it can get. you make it as though others/the world owes you something. In a world of lies, deceit and illusions you cry for justice; as though the world operates in truth and justice. Isn’t it about time you woke up from your dreamings? If you think that you will again be a part of the fabric of Turkey, you have rocks in your brainbox. You may be good in making money or acquiring technical skills, but you have no horse sense. The fight is between Turks and Kurds, two Islamic peoples. You try to interfere you’ll be minced meat.
To Xunsap’ha
So it seems fairly clear from your statement, “It is almost a century since Anatolia was cleared of you”, that you not only admit to the Armenian Genocide, but likely wish you could have participated. Just remember something about a people that have been subjected to genocide, have passed through the fire so to speak – they will make sure it never happens again!
Oh… and one more bit about… how do you say, ‘to again be a part of the fabric of Turkey’… that country that you seem so proud of… the country whose history is so much about rape and pillage… that is so hated by essentially all of it’s neighbors… oh yeah sure… that’s a country we Armenians want no part of. Not! What we Armenians want is what Turks stole through genocide… pure and simple. And about your threats of minced meat… there’s a big difference in killing defenseless women and children in the Genocide versus facing off with those that will fight back. Through the Young Turks lies and treachery, we gave up our young fighting men. Read the history of what happens when Armenians fight back. We may not of always won, but you can be sure, we don’t make it easy. To quote the famous Armenian General Antranik… “had we not allowed the Turks to decieve us into giving up our young men, we would have driven them back to the gutters of Contantinople where they came from”.
So now is about the time I would imagine when you start to beat your chest and claim the great Tamerlane, or is it Ghenghis Khan, or no… don’t tell me… Atilla the Hun. I would say to you… check out your most recent history of how well you did suppressing the Kurds. Great job there for the might Turkish armed forces. A little more of a budge I think and the your entire house of cards falls to pieces. Anyone up for the Sevres syndrome… the one feared by Turks where all of it’s enemies come closing in?
#robert
it seems to me that you are xunsap…you are creating a racist turk image and replying to him to make people believe that turks accept the genocide term and have racist ideology…Xunsap and Robert both of them have a similar writing style …BTW Turks never use a nickname starting with X..
Robert
The Turkish army couldn’t beat a few thousand of PKK terrorists. Why do not the Armenian army take a chance to beat and get back the Western Armenia as they have more than a 50K to 60K instead of talking constantly ha?
Xunsap’ha, whether a real person or a fictional character, is a cheerleader for the darkest elements of this world. He clearly is no true follower of Islam, for any true adherent of the Koran would disavow such hateful ideology. I agree with him on one thing: this world is full of, ‘lies, deceit and illusions.’ But it is also a place of justice and truth. The forces of good and evil have been battling since the beginning of creation. This battle between Turks and non-Turk Anatolians is more of the same. If we Armenians and other non-Turk Anatolians stop struggling against the xenophobic, pan-Turkic evil that was unleashed on us 100 years ago, then we deserve what we get. Ocalan may allow Kurds to be lured into making a dirty deal with Turks (I hope it doesn’t happen), but Armenians should not be surprised. It has happened before…
Armenians, compatriots, friends:
Let us all stop using the Turkic denialist term ‘Anatolian’ when referring to us Armenians. We are not Anatolians, non-Turk or otherwise.
Let us stop helping our enemies in erasing our own traces from our own ancestral lands.
I am well aware of the Greek origin of the word ‘Anatolia’. But denialist, Genocidal Turks have corrupted it to serve their own evil purposes.
It is now used by them to erase any traces of indigenous peoples of Asia Minor: even mentioning their names.
Induced amnesia: to manufacture the myth that Anadolu Turks are indigenous to Asia Minor, and that there was nobody else there before.
We are not Anatolians: we are Armenian Highlanders.
There is no Anatolian family.
There is no Anatolian culture: Armenian, Greek, Assyrian culture.
There is no Anatolian alphabet: Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, Turkish alphabet.
There is no Anatolian language: Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, Turkish language.
And the pan-Turkic evil was not unleashed on us 100 years ago: it reached its apex 100 years ago.
But the evil was unleashed on us about 1000 years ago, when nomadic Turkic warrior tribes, who had travelled about 3,000 kilometers from East and Central Asia, invaded our indigenous, civilized paradise.
To Bennu:
Well this is kinda funny actually to be thought of being the same person as Xunsap’ha. Meaning no disrespect to him, I can assure you that Xunsap’ha are not the same person and that I am Armenian. With that said, while I may disagree with Xunsap’ha’s views, he does make logical arguments, albeit based on assumption for which I am not of the same opinion.
Further to my opinion, I for one do not wish war between Turks and Armenians, Turks and Kurds, Kurds and Armenians, or war period. It’s my very strong belief that if we humans are to survive as a species then we better get beyond war and I think by extension, the archaic legacy of nationalism. This is not to say we can’t appreciate each other’s race, culture, and religion. Rather it’s to say that we respect each other’s differences and stop this naive bantering over scraps of land.
Some may call it a dream, but can you imagine a place called Anatolia, a region of the world where Turks, and Kurds, and Armenian all could call home and respect each other’s right to call it home? Is that really so hard to imagine? Now of course, until that dream we all feel the need to fight it out, so to speak. We Armenians will do our part, as I’m sure will the Turks and the Kurds.
As an Armenian, I would much rather not make war, especially on innocent noncombatants. With that said though, everyone needs to understand that we Armenians went through the hell of genocide and yes… we are leary to trust Moslems in Anatolia, especially when they tell us that our time is through there. Can you blame us? But in the final analysis, would you not agree, that the better appproach is for Turks, Kurds, and Armenians, to sit down together, share some food and drink, and agree to mutual respect for each other?
“In order to be the peacemakers now, they must refuse Öcalan’s offer of a so-called “peace” between Turks and Kurds…”
.
I’m so glad you are in the extreme minority in this. Achieve peace through rejecting peace? Yes, the Islamic brotherhood played a role in Kurdish complicity in the Armenian genocide. And a hundred years later, it can play a role in Turkish-Kurdish peace. That’s the reality of the situation, let’s just deal with it Would you rather have continued fighting, bloodshed, and death if it meant that one day, MAYBE, your own version of “real peace” could be realized? Selfish. How about peace first, and then justice- for all.
Bennu, first things first, get my name right!! I am not “xunsap”. My name is Xunsap’ha, with a capital X. Secondly, stop insulting my intelligence, by claiming that I am Robert the dreamer. I am not. The only similarity between me and Robert is the fact that, hopefully we both have one head, two arms and two legs; (I do). I live on planet Earth. Robert and his ilk live in Lalaland. Similar writing?? What a coincidence!! We both seem to use the Latin alphabet. Robert, I don’t care about Turks, Kurds, Armenians etc. You all have the same mentality; just packaged and stamped differently. Do I admit to the Armenian genocide? Of course I do! That’s a fact!! Do I wish I had participated? I missed the boat; too late to wish anything of the sort. Comrade, how are you going to make sure the genocide will never happen again? Can you reveal your magic formula? Will the Americans or the Russians or maybe the Europeans come to your rescue? will they guarantee it for you? Surely, you are not counting on that corrupt puppet called Sargsyan in Yerevan to stop a future genocide; or are you? He and his cronies care only for one thing – MONEY!! They would gladly sell their mothers and sisters for money, grab the loot and scram out of the country if they could. “What we Armenians want is…”. Keep wanting for all eternity if you can. When I was a baby I wanted the moon. I cried a lot and hard. When I realized I couldn’t get it, I stopped wanting the moon. Quoting a dead, buried, gone general of yours. The guy is history. “Could have, would have, should have”. Wakey, wakey!! History means, the past; that’s not going to come back. Unlike you, I don’t beat my chest; I am not a moron to live in the past; I don’t even think of Tamerlanes, Gengis khans or the Atillas of the history either. Get a life, and live your life. Stop dreaming of the future or the past. Even if 500 years down the track your lot conquers the world, how will that help you? You’ll be dead and long since gone. Stop dreaming. Come down to earth and get a life before you kick the bucket!!
Boyajian, I saw myself in the mirror this morning so I concluded I am real. Unlike you, my definition for “dark elements” doesn’t seem to match “realism”. But then I don’t live in your dreamworld. If I am a “false” follower of Islam, is it your place to teach me the true teachings? Realism = “hateful ideology”; so true for your ilk, because of the “glasses” you are wearing. Take them off, so you can see the real world for a change. Just like you, Alice also travelled to “wonderland” and found out that most things are upside down and back to front in that world. That is your world, but not mine. Does it really make sense to you that the world is “full of lies, deceit and illusion” at the same time as justice and truth? Think first before you respond. We live in a world where MIGHT IS RIGHT; and you expect so-called “justice and truth” in such a world? You lost it!! Admit it and move on, for your own sake, instead of fantasizing your “unreal reality”. You speak of the “forces of good and evil”. Are you the good and your opponents evil? You’d better not get involved in the “battle of the Turks and non-Turk Anatolians”, lest you become history. Be thankful you still exist as a nation, and try not to bite more than you can chew. Wake up and realize that your struggle amounts to no more than throwing cotton balls at your opponents. I say, get a life and enjoy your lives . As they say “life is short”.
To Xunsap’ha:
To live in, and make the most of the present… definitely agree with you 100 percent on that. With that said though, what is wrong with dreaming, aka making plans, about improving one’s future situation?
You mention wanting the moon as a child, but as I’m sure you know, against great odds man set foot on the moon in 1969. Sure it was a lot of work and there was great risk involved, but the dream was made into reality.
We Armenians, being subject to countless invasions over the centuries, have not given up our hope, and yes dreaming, of a better future. Perhaps it’s that part of our character, thank God, that has allowed us to survive as a people for over 2,000 years now. Do you know the old saying, ‘without a vision… the people will perish’? We Armenians, like our ancestors before us, choose to keep that vision, that hope, that dream!
To John the Turk:
Rather than a war, wouldn’t you agree that it’s far better for Turkey and Armenia as neighbors to work out relations peacefully? I mean war only tends to beget more war.
As I mentioned to you in another post, with enough effort from both Turks and Armenians, I beleive it’s possible to reach a negotiated settlement of issues related to the events of 1915 – 23, what I view as genocide but for which I’m willing to allow others to think different, i.e. it’s a free world and people can think what they want.
Now regardless of one’s views on the Genocide, I think most would agree that Armenians lost a lot during that time. So why not work out a deal where Armenians are compensated, but for which Turks can also benefit. For example, imagine a scenario whereby diaspora Armenians are reassigned properties lost during 1915 – 23. In such a scenario it’s not to hard to further imagine that those diaspora Armenians would put money into those properties, the net result being an improvement in the areas invested and yes… taxes paid to Turkey. Further, this renewed Armenian presence could help to stabilize relations between Turks and Kurds in the area.
Bottom line here… how about we get past the archaic nationalism of the 20th century and years past? Lets move on together as neighbors into the 21st century and beyond.
Sorry to comment that, but it seems true-at least to me. Well, looking at what is said and intended, unless there will be a miraculous change in the minds of Armenians and Turks, there won’t be a smooth and easy relationships between these two geographical neighbors.
We don’t have much to do other than waiting, to see what the days ahead may bring about. I want to be but am not much hopeful.