Elif SAFAK
Since the publication of my article “When Silences Speak,” I have received many e-mails from numerous Armenians living in countries such as Lebanon, France, Canada and, of course, all over the United States. Most of these letters touched me deeply with their sincerity, sorrow and amity. But there is one especially that I still cannot forget. I want to go ahead and publish this particular letter together with the answer which I give her today.
Dear Elif Shafak,
It is with a heavy heart I am writing you this short note.Someone forwarded me your article from the Turkish Daily News, “When Silences Speak.”It was such a moving article that it gave me chills as I read … I have been told the story by parents, uncles, aunts, etc. about what had taken place in 1915 or thereabouts.Personally, I feel that governments make these horrible decisions to do away with other beings for whatever reason they have at the time. It is still happening today as we turn on the TV and see the bloodshed of poor innocent people no matter what side of the fence you are on…What bugs Armenians around the world is that the Turkish Government is in denial and will not admit, for whatever reason, genocide took place…I know for a fact the Turkish people are very humble, hospitable, warm people. I have not been to Turkey but I did visit Iran many years ago. I felt the same about them. I still do…We are very moved that someone has the courage to write about us even if the grandmothers are not speaking aloud as you said they have a message and a heavy heart about what their eyes saw in 1915…As a proud Armenian Grandmother I personally thank the grandmothers that are whispering in a low voice and kiss your hands for writing this story for us.
Sincerely, Diana Tatevossian
Dear Diana Tatevossian,
I have read your words with a heavy heart; thank you so much for writing to me. It is my pleasure to meet this proud Armenian Grandmother, and I hope one day we will also have the chance to meet in person.
I agree governments have their own agenda and their own selective interpretation of the past. But we as ordinary individuals can come forward and critically reread this history, in our own way, with our own means. There is an internal conflict between amnesia and memory. As a writer whose stories always trace back to the past and as the child of a family with too many silences, I know firsthand the undeniable significance of memory and the enormous pain its absence can cause. I personally do not believe that the past is a bygone. To the contrary, it lives within the present. And in this regard I believe the task of “remembering” falls upon the Turks.
However, the transformation from the multiethnic Ottoman Empire to the supposedly homogenous, modern, secular Turkish Republic has been a hastened, yet exceptionally complicated, process in our history and the new generations have been abruptly cut off from their past, from anything that happened pre-1923. Even the language itself is not the same anymore. Modern-day Turkey cannot read the manuscripts of the Ottoman heritage or the tombstones of their grandfathers, for that matter. The alphabet, the language, the culture have been reshaped. Knowledge and images were lost on the way because there existed no matching words.
Turkey is a very interesting country with beautiful minds, an amazingly rich heritage and an enormous potential for change. The people are always more heterogeneous than and ahead of their governments. Nevertheless, it is equally true that today the whole nation’s ties with their past are loose, sometimes to the extent of collective amnesia. Turkey has modernized with an amazing determination and unusual pace, yet at the expense of too many historical ruptures. Oftentimes, people do not know much about even their own family lines, and the usage of the word “genocide” blocks any possibility for further dialogue.
Ever since I started writing and teaching in the United States, I have had the good fortune of having most precious friends in the Armenian diaspora who have shared their personal stories with me and trusted me. I have read numerous testimonies of the survivors in addition to historical studies and analyses. I have also watched some of the interviews with the survivors in the archives in Canada and taken part in academic workshops to develop critical dialogue between the Armenian and the Turkish intellectuals … With each story I learned at each stage, my sorrow increased and so did my feeling about the need to step outside pre-given truths.
I want you to know that I deeply respect and share your grief. I mourn with you the losses of the past, and I am truly sorry for all the pain my ancestors might have caused to your ancestors and to you personally.
Since the government elite all over the world are bound to have their own agendas both at the domestic and international level, and since apparently “apology” is such a hard word to swallow for many among the political elite and among the world of the diplomats, please accept my apologies as a writer and a Turkish citizen.
Warm regards,
Yorumlar kapatıldı.