I thought this would be the best way to “honor” him on the occasion of his May 19th birthday.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, how grandiose, how pathetic, how sad, how destructive, and most of all, how massive a missed opportunity to pull all the peoples of the Armenian Highlands and Anatolia out of the murderous mire that was the Ottoman Empire.
When “dismantling” the Ottoman Empire to “construct” Turkey, “modern” Turkey, Ataturk allowed many of the former members of the CUP (Committee of Union and Progress, the “Young Turks”, Talaat, Enver and Jemal’s party) to take positions of power in the “new” system. Heck, he had been a member, too. All that evil is what nurtured the early days of the new state formally established in 1923.
Ataturk allowed stolen Armenian wealth (in whatever form – money, lands, factories, etc.) to be retained by those who had taken it. The state knew where that wealth had gone, or was itself responsible for its “redistribution” as is now being documented by scholars, mostly Turkish ones. Some of the richest families in Turkey today owe their “start” to what their predecessors stole form our, Armenian, predecessors.
Under Ataturk’s rule, Turkey committed massacres, Sultan Abdul Hamid-style massacres, of Kurds and Alevis whose turn had come to be “subdued” since the Armenian “problem” had been “eliminated” by his former party (again, the CUP).
And if all this is not sufficient proof of how hate-filled Ataturk was, then the suppression of the identity of the many groups, tribes and nations that populated the peninsula of Asia Minor, west of the Armenian Highlands (and even in them) ought to be enough to convince anyone. All these peoples have been, and continue to be, coerced into believing they are Turks. All this has been done in the name of Turkish nationalism. Of course, it wasn’t nationalism, but a perversion of it. The objective was to create “Turks” as a nation, an identity, that, really, had never existed before. This was chauvinism on steroids. It was one of the most heinous manifestations of hate ever perpetrated by humans.
Lest anyone be concerned that Ataturk’s hate died with him, fear not. It lives on both in the state he was pivotal in creating and Azerbaijan, Turkey’s ideological twin.
The remaining Armenians of the “new” Turkey, those who had returned after the genocide were not digestible by this artificially concocted nation. They had too much history, awareness and Ottoman-inflicted pain. So, they too were driven out, a second deportation. Later, when France decided to curry Ataturk’s favor with World War II looming, it ceded part of Syria, the Sanjak of Alexandretta/Iskenderoun/Hatay (despite this Turkey largely supported Germany). To no one’s surprise, Armenians living there were also driven out. This happened 20 years after WWI had ended and about the same time as Ataturk’s death. Even as he was expiring, he couldn’t avoid manifesting the hate that festered in and filled his heart.
Let’s also not forget that even Jews, whom Turkey has used to gain a better footing in Washington, DC, were also abused and persecuted during Ataturk’s watch. Perhaps the best example of this is the 1934 pogrom that occurred in Thrace.
Lest anyone be concerned that Ataturk’s hate died with him, fear not. It lives on both in the state he was pivotal in creating and Azerbaijan, Turkey’s ideological twin. The most recent evidence being the video reported by Asbarez in which Azeri children identify Armenians as their enemies.
Please, let us all help “Turks” “celebrate” Ataturk’s legacy of hate. Perhaps that will shock them into awareness of what a difficult road lies ahead for Turkey.
Garen Yegparian
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A criminal who thus far has received a pass from history. Completed the Armenian Genocide , finished off the Pontic Greeks , drove thousands out to the west, Symrna, , Kurds……endless . The republic built on the graves of Christians and the theft of their wealth. The West loved his secular reform and ignored his genocidal crimes.
I am proud to support ANCA as before against turkey’s wrong policies as i agree with Armenian policies . Thanks for your news against erdogan’s wrong policies !
To hate something or a group one has to see them as an equal or a threat. Armenia is neither. However, I as a Turk owe your people gratitude and thanks. If it was not for Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijan today the Turkic nationalism there would be no different than Turkmenistan or the other Turkic countries east of the Caspian. The nationalistic awakening your people have given them cannot be paid. So thank you. Other than that, you are an afterthought…
Have read several accounts of what the Turks did from the late 19th century onwards. Our world bears a hopeless responsibility for nor having intervened. The Americans under Morgenthau were heroic but that alone was far from adequate as a response to the fanatical cruelty of Hamid, Talat and Enver.
Why did this happen? The easy simple answer is Islam, but even deeper factors are detectable.- human nature ganging up on minorities, greed, opportunism and ethnic hatred.
“The Americans under Morgenthau”, were certainly not heroic. Instead of putting an end to the genocide that was taking place against the Armenians in 1915, they instead supplied the Ottoman Turks with 200 thousand rifles and 400 million bullets in December of 1915. Moreover, following the conclusion of World War One, America totally forgot about the Armenians and instead assisted the Turks in creating a country by the name of “Turkey”.
As for Henry Morgenthau (who turned out to be a traitor), he had urged businessmen to invest in the Ottoman Empire, back in early 1916. In addition to that, he had also attempted to arrange with the Ottoman Turks for a population swap, in which the remaining Armenians would be removed from the Western Armenian provinces, and relocated to Germany in exchange for the German Jews replacing them in Western Armenia. Therefore, if Henry Morgenthau had succeeded in accomplishing this, then as a result, the “homeland of the Jews” would’ve been established in the western part of the Armenian homeland, as opposed to being established years later in the Palestinian homeland.
Again, Islam could not possibly have been the reason behind the Ottoman Empire’s attempt to wipe out its non-Muslim population. First of all, no genocide was ever committed against the Jewish population of the former Ottoman Empire. And second of all, the members of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) were never Muslims; they didn’t belong to any particular religion.
Even if Armenia had not adopted Christianity, but had instead adopted Islam, that would not have saved the Armenian people from the 1915 genocide. Not a chance! No matter what, the Ottoman Turk leaders were determined to never allow the February, 1914 Armenian Reform agreement to take place. No matter what, the Ottoman Turk leaders were determined to never allow the Armenians of Western Armenia from obtaining any kind of reforms, nor obtaining the slightest bit of autonomy. The Ottoman Turk leaders, developed the extremely false belief that the Armenian population constituted a threat to the existence of the already crumbling Ottoman Empire. As a result, the Ottoman Turk leaders were determined to completely empty out the six Western Armenian provinces of their entire Armenian population, which by doing so, would also eliminate the Armenian Question.
The experience of the Kurds show that Islam cannot be the reason for the CUP-led massacre. The massacres of Abdul Hamid was born out of paranoia that the Russians and British would use Armenians and Assyrians to slice parts of his realm. These are all results of ruthless political calculations, not religious fanaticism (which may have some role in coaxing the local Turkish and Kurdish populations to support the government measures).
Mr. Yegparian: I like your writing very much. I am on page 190 of Ronald Suny’s book on the Armenian Genocide…not easy or pleasant reading, but I must know more about these horrible events. I am a Protestant Christian born in the USA who lives in Korea. I certainly stand with the Armenians. I would love to visit Yerevan someday.
Please do your research properly before you talk about history. The birth date of Ataturk is not May 19, I would advise you to research what happened on May 19 and why it was significsnt.
Secondly, saying that a race like Turks does not exist, again if properly researched you would see that the Turkish language has existed since BC.