Turkey’s prime minister needs to relocate himself to humanity instead of threatening to expel Armenian workers in response to international recognitions of the WWI genocide.  

Angry with parliamentarian moves in Sweden and the US to recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide as such, Turkey’s leader, prime minister Erdogan, has threatened to deport (and international media are surprisingly reporting it) what he counts as 100,000 citizens of Armenia working without documentation in Turkey.

Like his predecessors  –   and much of Turkey’s nationalist base –  Erdogan has been denying that the deportation and mass killings of Ottoman Turkey’s indigenous Armenians, that reduced the number of the Armenian community from 2 million to a few thousand, was genocide. His even more radical colleagues even refuse to accept the deportations as such by using the term “relocation” instead. Here are a few rhetorical questions for him.

Mr. Erdogan, don’t you see how your unhealthy reference proves that your predecessors –   who you claim couldn’t commit genocide because Muslims, let alone Turks, are incapable of that crime – could have easily exterminated an entire community (that had been one of the most loyal and the most industrious in an empire they hadn’t consented to being a part of) during a world war when you are threatening to deport their descendents – who are the indigenous people of Turkey and have as much right – if not more –  to live and work in that country than you or your family do – for mere nonbinding western resolutions?

Mr. Erdogan, don’t you know that the thousands of illegal Armenians in Turkey are there because, in part, your government has helped worsen their lives by blockading already landlocked Armenia – a country unsustainable even without your blockade since it has no access to sea or other resources thanks to the genocide your predecessors committed in western Armenia with a follow-up war against the tiny first Republic of Armenia which was made even tinier after you stole more land from it?

Mr. Erdogan, don’t you know that most of Armenia’s residents are descendants of genocide survivors whose indigenous lands your predecessors stole, whose families your predecessors raped and killed, and who want nothing from you but a mere courage to recognize historic injustices?

Unfortunately, Mr. Erdogan, you know all of the above. You helped restore one of Turkey’s most beautiful churches in historic Armenia (alas, thousand others are wiped out or in ruins) a few years ago; so maybe you have some heart. What you don’t know is where to find courage – and help your mislead society do the same – to depart your factory of history and deport yourself back to humanity.

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is live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/futebol-online (for free)

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“Who controls the past controls the future;” party slogan states in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, “Who controls the present controls the past.”

While hopes are high that – despite a hostile history – Armenia and Turkey will establish diplomatic relations and that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan may finally be solved, the problem of how to deal with the official Turkish/Azerbaijani factory of history is not being addressed.

Djulfa, Nakhichevan: the worst documented case of history fabrication; Azerbaijani soldiers destroying the largest Armenian medieval cemetery in the world (December 2005) – the site is now a military rifle range

It’s not merely Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s denial of the Armenian Genocide that makes the reconciliation quite difficult, to say the least, but also the official Turkish thesis, with its roots in the Young Turkish movement (that carried out the Armenian Genocide) and formalized by Ataturk, that Turks/Azeris are indigenous to their current homelands and that Armenians, in the best case, are unwelcome immigrants.

While the Turkish fabrication of history can be dismissed as an issue of “internal consumption” – meaning a convenient myth to boost Turkish/Azeri pride in their respective countries (with the dangerous slogan “Happy is the man who can say I am Turk”) – the implications of flip-flopping history are right there in the middle of the current developments in the region. Here is a most recent case.

Turkey’s ceremonial president Abdullah Gul is currently visiting Nakhichevan (or Nakhchivan as Azerbaijan prefers), the region of Azerbaijan which it got from the communist regime in Moscow as another gift at the expense of giving out Armenian lands. Moreover, a treaty that Soviet Armenia was forced to sign from Moscow made Turkey the “guarantor” of Nakhichevan in the 1920s.

Gul is visiting Nakhichevan with other heads of “Turkic-speaking countries” (most of them in Central Asia) to talk about common issues. Sounds like a normal political event, and nothing to protest about, especially since Armenia has no official claims toward Nakhichevan. But read the rest.

As there are no Armenians left in Nakhichevan (thanks to a Soviet Azerbaijani policy of nonviolent ethnic cleansing which attracted little attention at the time) and not a trace of the rich Armenian heritage (the most precious of which, the Djulfa cemetery, was reduced to dust by Azeri soldiers in December 2005 – see the videotape), Armenia has no claims to Nakhichevan and perhaps rightly so. Yet, apparently, the history factory in Nakhichevan is still cooking.

While Armenia restraints itself from claiming its indigenous lands, and particularly Nakhichevan, taken away from it without its consent, Turkey and Azerbaijan must discontinue their unhealthy fabrications of history. Instead…

According to Trend news agency based in Azerbaijan, Turkey’s visiting president has “noted that Nakhchivan, whose name means ‘world view’, is the native and valuable for both Azerbaijan and Turkey.”

Putting the “native” side aside for a moment, the distortion of not just basic history but of linguistics is sickening. Save for the disputed proposal that Nakhichevan comes from the Persian phrase Naqsh-e-Jahan (image of the world), every other explanation of the name of the region has to do with Armenians (see Wikipedia for the several versions), let alone that the word itself has two Armenian parts to it: Nakh (before or first) and ichevan (landing, sanctuary) – referring to Noah’s coming out of the Ark from (another holy Armenian symbol) Mount Ararat – next to Nakhichevan now on Turkish territory.

Ironically, and as almost always in history fabrication, the Azeri/Turkish distortion of “Nakhichevan” is inconsistent. According to an official Azerbaijani news website, there are discussions in Nakhichevan that admit that the word has to do something with Noah (of course after saying that it had to do with a mythical Turkish tribe that lived there thousands of years ago): “The Turkic tribes of nakhch were once considered as having given the name to it. Other sources connect Nakhichevan with the prophet Noah himself, as his name sounds as nukh in Turkic.” Moreover, as an official Nakhichevani publication reads, “There is no other territory on the earth so rich with place-names connected with Noah as Nakhichevan. According to popular belief, Noah is buried in southern part of Nakhichevan, and his sister is buried in the northwest of the city.” Hold on. Did you notice that the language uses (at least its official English translation) the Armenian taboo name of the region: Nakhichevan (as opposed to Turkified Nakchivan)? Maybe there is hope, but not really. Azerbaijan still denies that it didn’t destroy the Djulfa cemetery because, well, it didn’t exist in the first place.

A skeptic would ask what the fuss is about. The answer is that Nakhichevan’s distortion is not the first. The sacred Armenian places of Ani, Van, and Akhtamar in Turkey all have official Turkish explanations to their meanings, while those places existed for hundreds – if not thousands – of more years before Turks colonized the homeland of the Armenians.

More importantly, the changing of toponyms is not done to meet the social demands of Turks/Azeris and in order to make it easier for the locals to pronounce geographic names. Distortion is done to rewrite history in order to control the future. But it’s not the right thing to do. And both Turkey and Azerbaijan embarrass themselves when it comes to legal discussions.

Immediately prior to voting for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007, for example, the Turkish delegation at the United Nations made it clear that its “yes” vote was cast with the understanding that there were no indigenous peoples on Turkey’s territory. If there were indigenous peoples on the territory, the Turkish representative stated, then the declaration didn’t challenge states’ territorial integrity. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, abstained from voting.

The reservation on the UN document came from both countries who claim that there are the indigenous heirs of the lands they occupy and that their main enemy, Armenians (and also Kurds) are not only indigenous but are recent immigrants.

One version of Azerbaijan’s ridiculous inidigenousness claim is written on the website of one Azerbaijani Embassy: “The ancient states of Azerbaijan, which maintained political, economic and cultural ties with Sumer and Akkad and formed part of the wider civilization of Mesopotamia, were governed by dynasties of Turkic descent. The Turkophone peoples that have inhabited the area of Azerbaijan since ancient times were fire-worshippers and adherents of one of the world’s oldest religions – Zoroastrianism.”

Armenians (and to a large extent the Kurds, Assyrians and Pontiac Greeks) have their share of fault in the debate. Constantly repeating their indigenousness in what is now Turkey and Azerbaijan, Armenians have helped create the defensive Turkish/Azeri attitude that they, and not Armenians or others, are the indigenous peoples of the land. But when it comes to fabricating history of their own, there is little blame for Armenia.

As Armenia struggles to defend the victory it won over the Karabakh conflict, most Armenians use the Turko-Persian name for Nagorno-Karabakh (Karabakh meaning black garden, Kara – black in Turkish and bagh – garden in Farsi). While some Armenian nationalists prefer using the indigenous name of the region, Artsakh, many others indirectly admit that diverse history of Nagorno-Karabakh by keeping its Turkified name.

Like Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan must also defend what they see as their rights but not at the expense of unhealthy history fabrications. Moreover, Azeris and Armenians are genetically closer to each other than Azeris and their “brethren” (Uzbeks, Turkmen, etc.) in Central Asia. This means that, physically but not culturally speaking, both are interconnectedly indigenous.

While Turkey ad Azerbaijan must come to terms with history, Armenia must accept that Turks and Azeris are there to stay. All the nations in the region have equal rights to existence, but not so at the unhealthy price of fabricating history.

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Turkey has been bullying the United States against recognizing the Armenian genocide by threatening all kinds of sanctions. But Russia, who has recognized the Armenian genocide, is Turkey’s biggest single trading partner.

There is no G-factor, thus, in Turkish-Russian relations.

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Threatening to cut diplomatic ties and kick out US bases has been one of Turkey’s predicted means of pressure against America when it comes to the formal recognition of Ottoman Turkey’s 1915 genocide against indigenous Armenians. How about threatening with a sex tape?

Bribing the former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who now works for the Turkish lobby, is one thing. Making another member to drop support for Armenian genocide resolution by threatening to reveal her private sex secrets – is another story.

The sex story just broke, years after former FBI translator Sibel Edmunds – a whistleblower of Turkish decent, shared her allegations of corruption in the federal government.

The Brad Blog reports:

[...]

[After she left the testimony] I asked [Edmunds] if she specified whether the sitting bi-sexual, married Congresswoman who had been taped sleeping with a woman, without knowing, and then bribed by Turkish interests with the tape, to vote against the Armenian Genocide resolution had been a Democrat or a Republican. She said she is a Democrat, and that she testified to that during her deposition.

[...]

It is unclear whether Sibel Edmunds mentioned the person by name, but one website (most likely very wrongly) claims it is an Illinois congresswoman.

Ironically, Sibel Edmunds might not have testified on this issue without the Turkish lobby which is seeking legal action against Armenian-American politician David Krikorian. As the Armenian Weekly summarizes:

[...]

David Krikorian is the Democratic candidate in the 2010 elections for Ohio’s 2nd Congressional district. The seat is now held by Republican Jean Schmidt, who was the largest recipient of money from the Turkish lobby in the 2008 elections. Schmidt also fought the Armenian Genocide Resolution.

When her challenger, David Krikorian, pointed out that she was receiving blood money from Turks for helping deny the Armenian Genocide, Schmidt complained to the Ohio Elections Commission. Representing Schmidt and the Turkish American Defense Fund at the deposition on Aug. 8 was none other than the attorney and longtime voice of the Turkish lobby, Bruce Fein.

[...]

Things get bad when people deny genocide.

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A May 13, 2009 Associated Press wire, carried by hundreds of newspapers around the world, reads:

Police say an Armenian teenager was killed after a dispute on a popular social networking Web site.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sayat Shirinian said Wednesday that 17-year-old Tigran Tadevosian died in a hospital shortly after being assaulted by four teenagers on April 26.

He said Tadevosian was attacked after he insulted a young woman in a chat room on Odnoklassniki.ru, a widely popular Russian version of Facebook.

Police have arrested one suspect in the attack in the western city of Gyumri.

Odnoklassniki.ru claims to have more than 35 million users in Russia and other former Soviet republics.

Tert.am, writing in Armenian, says it has received a letter from the dead teenager’s family who say that the “insult” was “gna qo…” (“go your…”) which, if said entirely, could be “go you, motherf***er” or “f**k off.” According to a user of an Armenian forum, though, the teenager only said “gna Q” – intending to say “go” and add a smile, but got a Q instead.

Hetq, the Investigative Jouralists of Armenia, details the killing with some shocking information. Apparently, Tigran died 12 days after the beating. The day of the beating, his mother went to the police station to get Tigran (who, despite horrible health conditions), had only been treated by a nurse.

At the station, his mother was forced to write a statement that Tigran had “fallen.” While unaware of the real details, the mother wanted to get her son home as soon as possible. On the way to their home, Tigran told his mother that he had been beaten by four men. When four young men (Sergei, Samvel, Valerik and Edgar) attacked him, Edgar recalled, he tried to escape. The four men, nonetheless, got on the taxi and followed Tigran.

Finding out the truth, Tigran’s relatives took him to the hospital where he lived on for 10 days. There, he was visited by the assailants’ seven relatives leaving with him several hundreds of dollars worth money.

After that, police officers showed up at the hospital – they wanted Tigran’s mother to change the initial statement by saying that she had not picked up her son from the police station but from the street.

For the second time, Tigran’s traumatized mother was forced to write another false testimony. This time, the statement had already been written by the police – she only had to sign it.

After Tigran died in the hospital, according to Hetq’s information, only one assailant Samvel, had been questioned by the police.

Samvel is the boyfriend of Lida Yedigaryan, the young woman who had her four male friends “avenge” Tigran’s Odnoklassniki message.

This tragic story speaks to many problems in Armenia: a culture of violence, uneven relationship between men and women (where the latter often seek “protection” from other men), and a failed police system.

It would be unjust to use this story to generalize Armenia, but there is a pattern of violence in the society whether starting online or in real life. Several years ago, for instance, an acquaintance at the time from Gyumri (the city where Tigran was killed) told me about his friends’ online “heroism:” straight men, posing as gay, would find online hookups, make a date with the real gay guy, show up with a gang and assault him. In Armenian chat rooms, men start “fighting” or “defending” a girl and then meet up for fights.

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Barack Obama didn’t pronounce “Armenian Genocide” in Turkey, but he said the following in front of the Turkish parliament:

…An enduring commitment to the rule of law is the only way to achieve the security that comes from justice for all people. Robust minority rights let societies benefit from the full measure of contributions from all citizens.

I say this as the President of a country that not too long ago made it hard for someone who looks like me to vote. But it is precisely that capacity to change that enriches our countries…

Another issue that confronts all democracies as they move to the future is how we deal with the past…our country still struggles with the legacy of our past treatment of Native Americans.

Human endeavor is by its nature imperfect. History, unresolved, can be a heavy weight. Each country must work through its past. And reckoning with the past can help us seize a better future. I know there are strong views in this chamber about the terrible events of 1915. While there has been a good deal of commentary about my views, this is really about how the Turkish and Armenian people deal with the past. And the best way forward for the Turkish and Armenian people is a process that works through the past in a way that is honest, open and constructive…

Earlier in Turkey, during a press conference, Obama had the following Q&A with his hometown newspaper Chicago Tribune’s Christy Parsons:

Q Thank you, Mr. President. As a U.S. senator you stood with the Armenian-American community in calling for Turkey’s acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide and you also supported the passage of the Armenian genocide resolution. You said, as President you would recognize the genocide. And my question for you is, have you changed your view, and did you ask President Gul to recognize the genocide by name?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, my views are on the record and I have not changed views. What I have been very encouraged by is news that under President Gul’s leadership, you are seeing a series of negotiations, a process, in place between Armenia and Turkey to resolve a whole host of longstanding issues, including this one.

I want to be as encouraging as possible around those negotiations which are moving forward and could bear fruit very quickly very soon. And so as a consequence, what I want to do is not focus on my views right now but focus on the views of the Turkish and the Armenian people. If they can move forward and deal with a difficult and tragic history, then I think the entire world should encourage them.
And so what I told the President was I want to be as constructive as possible in moving these issues forward quickly. And my sense is, is that they are moving quickly. I don’t want to, as the President of the United States, preempt any possible arrangements or announcements that might be made in the near future. I just want to say that we are going to be a partner in working through these issues in such a way that the most important parties, the Turks and the Armenians, are finally coming to terms in a constructive way.

Q So if I understand you correctly, your view hasn’t changed, but you’ll put in abeyance the issue of whether to use that word in the future?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: What I’d like to do is to encourage President Gul to move forward with what have been some very fruitful negotiations. And I’m not interested in the United States in any way tilting these negotiations one way or another while they are having useful discussions.

While some Armenians seem unhappy with Obama’s statement – there is now a SHAME ON YOU OBAMA Facebook group – I find Obama’s words tactfully affirmative. He indirectly said that genocide took place but that he won’t use the word “genocide” in Ankara as far as Turkey can demonstrate that there are fruitful negotiations for “full” normalization with Armenia which will itself, hopefully, result in genocide recognition. Specifically, he stated that 1) You know that I think Turkey committed genocide but I won’t use the word genocide since 2) there seems to be real hope for normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations, 3) but Turkey needs to demonstrate that the normalization is process is real and that the normalization is a “full normalization”, and (4) the latter should automatically include genocide recognition by Turkey. In Turkish professor Taner Akcam’s words, “[Obama] really pushed the borders, in a very positive and very smart way.”

Moreover, his comparison of the Native American experience – which is clearly an experience of genocide in the eyes of Turks – was also to the point (not mentioning that it was exactly what I had suggested to do in an earlier post ).

There can be a lot more said about Obama’s handling of the situation. I am personally satisfied with the way he handled the issue given the place and time restrictions.

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Today marks the the first anniversary of post-election violence in Armenia that left 10 people dead…
May the victims rest in peace.
Some of our last year’s coverage:

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/15/armenia-catholicos-rejection-rumor-confirmed/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/14/european-parliament-resolution-on-armenia-unrest/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/13/armenia-youtubecom-ban-lifted/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/10/armenia-youtubecom-blocked/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/10/armenia-video-shows-servicemen-shooting-on-protesters/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/08/armenia-online-mourning-the-dead/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/07/official-report-by-republic-of-armenia-ombudsman-human-rights-defender/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/07/new-york-times-editorial-on-armenias-post-election-unrest/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/05/armenia-opposition-leader-publishes-column-in-washington-post/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/05/armenia-reflections-on-unrest/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/04/russia-pravda-column-suggests-us-role-in-armenian-unrest/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/04/armenia-rumors-says-deaths-underreported-police-blame-opposition/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/04/armenia-soldiers-shave-on-streets/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/04/uk-response-to-post-election-unrest-in-armenia/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/03/armenia-information-blockade-continues-amid-state-of-emergency/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/03/armenia-opposition-conference-attended-by-foreign-media-only/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/03/armenia-public-tv-video-on-march-1-2008-post-election-protest/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/03/human-rights-watch-police-beat-peaceful-protesters-in-yerevan/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/03/banned-in-armenia-election-protests-continue-in-southern-california/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/02/armenia-four-dead-identified/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/02/armenia-police-confirm-eight-deaths/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/02/in-pictures-armenia-protests/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/02/armenia-opposition-blames-government-agents-for-looting-and-riots/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/02/armenia-unrests-the-good-end/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/02/us-state-department-statement-on-political-unrest-in-armenia/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/02/los-angeles-armenian-americans-urged-to-call-congress/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/02/armenia-media-stop-reporting-protests-after-state-of-emergency/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/02/armenia-opposition-media-comply-with-censorship/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/01/armenia-the-state-of-emergency-text/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/01/armenia-situation-getting-worse/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/01/armenia-authorities-deny-deaths/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/01/armenia-protest-deaths-rise/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/01/armenia-there-will-be-blood/

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/01/armenia-reports-of-ongoing-police-brutality/

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Today marks the anniversary of the Armenian takeover of the city of Khojalu in 1992, as a result of which several hundred Azerbaijani civilians were killed.

Caught in the war of words between Armenia and Azerbaijan (one side blaming the other for the massacre), the memory of the killed Azeris in Khojalu has been reduced to a political tool.

Everyone is writing about the “truth about the Khojalu,” whether Armenian or Azeri bloggers.

I don’t know what other’s “truth” is, but innocent people were killed in Khojalu – and whether Azerbaijan’s army had a role in it is not important when it comes to commemorating children who died in a war.

So on the anniversary of Khojalu, I commemorate the victims of all massacres and pogroms during the Nagorno-Karabak war – whether Armenian or Azeri.

May the killed in Sumgayit, Baku, Maraga, Khojalu and many others that we may never hear about, rest in peace. These massacres are not the shame of the “enemy.” These massacres are the shame and loss of all us. May dead Azeris and Armenians rest in peace.

And in commemorating Khojalu, I also would like to remember Azerbaijan’s most famous journalist, Eynulla Fatullayev, who is in prison in Azerbaijan for having visited the town of Khojalu (after the war) and suggesting that Azerbaijan’s army, along with Armenian militias, also had a role in the massacre.

Fatullayev is also a victim of Khojalu – one caught in the war of words and one who has tried to bring Armenians and Azeris together. He is the true hero in the unholy propaganda between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Khojalu and other pogroms/massacres during the Nagorno-Karabakh war.

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Assyrians around the world are protesting what they consider to be Turkey’s attempt to oppress and eventually close the oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox church on Earth.

Mor Gabriel Monastery, founded in 397, has survived centuries of oppression, including the World War I genocide against indigenous Assyrians and Armenians by Ottoman Turkey. Its remote location, perhaps, is one reason.

But with rising Turkish nationalism – and increasing Assyrian demands for recognition of their genocide – Mor Gabriel Monastery is facing challenges. In the words of a Turkish newspaper:

[...]

A local prosecutor in August 2008 initiated a separate court case against the monastery after mayors of three villages complained the monks were engaged in “anti-Turkish activities” and alleged they were illegally converting children to the Christian faith. Monks say the mayors are instigating anti-Christian feelings by accusing Mor Gabriel of being against Islam. Villagers in neighboring Çandarlı, a settlement of 12 humble houses with no paved roads, said they had nothing against Christians and accused the monastery of taking land they need for cattle.

“There is a continued campaign to destroy the backbone of the Syriac people and close down the monastery,” said Daniel Gabriel, director of the human rights division of the Syriac Universal Alliance, a leading Syriac group based in Sweden. “These proceedings cannot take place without the sanction of the Turkish government. If the government wanted to protect the Syriac Christian community, it would stop this case,” he said.

Many churches and monasteries in southeast Turkey — known to Syriac Christians as Turabdin or “the mountain of worshippers” — are now abandoned and in ruins. “You need people to have a church. Without the community, the church is only a building,” said Saliba Özmen, the metropolitan, or bishop, of the nearby city of Mardin.

[...]

Photos from a recent demonstration in Europe are available at a Germany-based website.

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