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Founder of new Turkish party eyes building bridges with Armenians Vercihan Ziflioðlu

Founder of new Turkish party eyes building bridges with Armenians

Wednesday, December 8, 2010
VERCÝHAN ZÝFLÝOÐLU
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Numan Kurtulmuþ (C), the head and founder of the newly formed People’s Voice Party, or HSP, shakes hands with Bedros Þirinoðlu, president of the Armenian Yedikule Surp Pirgiç Hospital Foundation. 

Numan Kurtulmuþ, founder of the People’s Voice Party, or HSP, visited Tuesday the Armenian Yedikule Surp Pirgiç Hospital Foundation in Istanbul in a symbolic move to enhance dialogue with members of Turkey’s minorities.

“Throughout the history of the Republic, many [social] ruptures have occurred,” Kurtulmuþ said. “Because of these, minorities living in these lands felt as though they were aliens. It is time to break [this cycle].”

Kurtulmuþ told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that his visit was specifically designed to enhance relations with the Armenian community.

The significance of the hospital-foundation, which is widely regarded as one of the most important institutions of the city’s Armenian community, has been growing in recent years as many prominent politicians, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, have paid visits to highlight the community’s importance.

Kurtulmuþ met Bedros Þirinoðlu, the president of the foundation and a prominent businessman, visited the hospital’s museum and spoke with the elderly residents of the attached nursing home.

“[Turkey] wants to know more about the communities it calls minorities,” Þirinoðlu told the Daily News, adding that the country also wanted to take steps to close the gap between the majority and its minorities.

The HSP leader, a veteran Istanbul politician, also said both the events of 1915 and the Sept. 6-7, 1955, pogroms were “extremely painful events” and “provocations.”

“With Armenians, with Greeks and with all our ethnic backgrounds, we are a garden of roses,” he told the Daily News. “All these provocations were aimed at destroying this garden.”

The Sept. 6-7 1955 pogroms targeted Istanbul’s Greek minority and involved nationalist riots triggered by false rumor that the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, Greece – the house where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born in 1881 – had been bombed by the Greeks. The rioters, however, also targeted Armenians and Jews. In the aftermath of the provocation, thousands of minorities left Istanbul and Turkey in fear.

No more ‘gavur’

Kurtulmuþ said his party was working to draft a constitutional reform package.

“When we come to power, we will take steps to make sure all our citizens are constitutionally equal,” he said, promising that the derogatory term “gavur” (infidel), which is used for non-Muslims, would be banned under an HSP government.

Þirinoðlu said the visit was “extremely important” for the Armenian community. “But what is really important is the policy that will be implemented in power,” he said. “I hope [a possible HSP government] will have the tolerance and vision that the AKP [Justice and Development Party] government has toward minorities.”

Kurtulmuþ and his supporters recently split from the Saadet (Felicity) Party and the “National View” line led by veteran Islamist politician Necmettin Erbakan. The HSP is regarded by some circles as a “Muslim left” organization, though the party denies the label

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