Nermin Aydemir
Thursday , 21 December 2006
I am quoting, Miss Hilda Darian’s email with my replies attached to it, in italics.
By this opportunity I want to thank Miss Darian very much for her interest and valuable contribution. Wishing that her email will start a fruitful discussion, from which we might find the possibility to improve our relations as two neighbor nations.
“Miss Aydemir,
In reference to your article on the Turkish Weekly, I have a few comments for you which I would have liked to have posted on the website. You’re looking for answers, well here they are. You ask:
“We have evidences of the Holocaust and see it as among the worst, maybe the worst case in humanity. But do we really have such proofs regarding the Armenian issue? What if, the Armenians were not tortured?!”
The evidences are of the Armenian Genocide are quite easily found.
Photographs, telegrams, survivors’ testimonies and testimonies of people such as Henry Morgenthau, U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. The fact that the Turkish people and it’s so-called Government CHOOSE to ignore it is a different story. There is more than enough evidence and proof to aid the “Armenian Question” but it can only be seen by people with their eyes and minds actually open.”
If such a serious allegation is made, then it needs to be justified with clear, proper and concrete evidence. However, people have tendencies to assert their feelings as the ultimate truth and to see what they want to regardless of the facts. It was a great disaster that Armenians died in the late years of the Ottoman Empire. But a clear distinction needs to be made between the incapability of a state to provide safe conditions for its citizens in the severe war conditions and an ambition to kill all the members of an ethnic group. It seems highly contradictory to send people away if Ottomans really wanted to kill all Armenians. The second and more important contradiction is the fact that Armenians lived for hundreds of years together with Turkish people in quite prosperous conditions (There were thousands of merchants and many high diplomats) and still continue living, mostly as the elites of their society (Turkey). Many Turks died, as well. And also millions of other people all around the world, not because of genocide but because of wars and severe conditions in these years. Armenians died in those years but not because of a genocide against them. If Just photographs, telegrams, testimonies are enough for claiming a genocide; Turks can also allege Armenians. Besides these, it carries great significance to keep respecting the sovereign rights of states no matter how much one is angry with what these have done. Turkish government is not a “so called” one but a fully established executive.
“Another interesting question that you asked was: “Thousands of people die in Sudan right now, Israel killed thousands of other just two months before. People died in Rwanda, former Yugoslavia and many other places for just being a member of a particular group. Why do we turn blind eyes to all these and are so much insistent on punishing people denying an unproven case?”
The answer to this is quite simple. History tends to repeat itself. As Hitler so arrogantly stated after he was asked how he thought he was going to get away with the Holocaust of the Jews “After all, WHO remembers the Armenians today?” This is the reason why it is so vital for the Turkish Government to admit to their ancestors’ crimes. As arrogant as Hitler was, so is the deteriorating Ariel Sharon and his present government. The Turkish Government has persecuted not only Armenians, but Greeks and Kurds for centuries and has taken no responsibility for their actions, just as present day Israel does not take responsibility for it’s crimes and inhumane treatment of the Palestinian people and the Lebanese civilians as well. Israel has stated that it was “in a state of war” to defend it’s over-excessive use of force in South Lebanon. Sound familiar? I completely agree with you, a blind eye should NOT be turned to these people, and NOR to the Armenian Genocide. If Turkey had been held accountable for it’s crimes against humanity and not have denied it for almost a century, it makes me wonder if maybe these other atrocities might not have occured and history would not have repeated itself.”
I fully agree that the horror of a genocide can never be wiped away if only it is the case.
I am still wondering why claimers of the so called genocide have kept themselves silent for a century despite all the opportunities they had in such a long time frame. I really want to know how could the claimers of the so called genocide forgotten the ugliness if it really was the case.
Nevertheless, only being stuck with the so called genocide claims after a hundred year just on the edge of Turkey’s EU accession raises my doubts.
Moreover, Turkey might have made mistakes. But picturing an entire nation as barbarians, torturing whomever they have in their country is far from being realistic. More than 15 millions of Kurds live in this country. There are many marriages between Kurds and Turks as well as many Kurdish politicians (presidents, prime ministers, ministers, etc., and Kurdish millionaires. [1]
“You say that:
“The Turkish side has opened all its archives and is very much eager to form common committees for searching the issue.” It’s quite intriguing that you would make a statement like this, especially considering the fact that people in present day Turkey are arrested and put on trial for showing support for the Armenian Genocide. Most recently, Orhan Pamuk, winner of a Nobel Peace Prize was tried earlier this year on charges of insulting his country for acknowledging the mass killing of Armenians in World War I. The charges were eventually dropped over a technicality. How do you expect people to openly discuss the topic of the Armenian Genocide and voice their opinions of the matter? If I were a Turk living in Turkey, I would be afraid to voice my opinion as well.”
Despite having problems, picturing Turkey as such a repressive state is far from being fair. During my university education in this country, I had right to say whatever I wanted to, which I missed a lot in the later years of my education away from Turkey. I want to remind the Armenian conference, held in Istanbul, in the summer of 2005. Almost all the speakers in this conference were either defending the so called genocide, or sympathetic to it. And they could say what they wanted to. Actually I would love to see such an organization in Armenia.
If one is really for the improvement in democratic rights in Turkey, he/she can encourage the steps taken in this country in the recent years. Turkish government now works on the 301st article. Moreover, people are not put into jails and tortured due to their ideas as in the “Mid Night Express”. And Orhan Pamuk is still doubtful about the so called genocide although acknowledging a significant number of Armenian deaths.
We need to remember that the French parliament has recently voted for a legislation BANNING any kind of denial of the so called genocide. IF THE LEGISLATION PASSES, PEOPLE WILL BE JAILED JUST FOR SPEAKING AGAINST THE SO CALLED GENOCIDE CLAIMS. Indeed, a Turkish politician, Dogu Perincek, was arrested last year, in Sweden for denying the claims.
“I urge you and your people to not allow your country to use the techniques that they have mastered over the course of this century to mislead, misinform and scare you into believing their truth. Their “truth” being that there was no Armenian Genocide; the World’s Truth being that the Armenian Genocide of 1915 did in fact occur, 1.5 million innocent lives were shattered and destroyed, and the Turkish Government still hasn’t the decency to admit their wrongdoing against humanity.”
People would go to courts and would have the chance to base their arguments on judicial decisions if only they also believed in these claims wholeheartedly.
Taking into consideration the deficiencies in documentation in those years, one should be careful before making speculations on numbers. Moreover, numbers are not consistent with each other. Turkish side gives the number around 400-450 thousands of Armenians.
All in all, 1-1, 5 million people is tremendously high. This is something, which could not be hidden if it really was the case. If a number of 1-1, 5 million people were killed, all the Eastern territory would be teemed with mass graves, which are not been seen so far.
“Hilda Darian
December 11, 2006”
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[1] Ismet Inonu, the second name of the Turkish independence war; Turgut Ozal, one of the most popular politicians in the Turkish political history (pm and president); Abdulkadir Aksu, the current minister of interior; Emine Erdogan, PM R. Tayyip Erdogan’s wife; Halis Toprak, owner of one of the biggest companies in Turkey, and many others.
Yorumlar kapatıldı.