Turkish-American to Become Coca-Cola CEO
Turkish-American Muhtar Kent will become the CEO of the Coca-Cola Company on July 1, 2008. The announcement and his previous work with Coca-Cola are listed at the company’s official website.
Mr. Kent, as quoted in the newsletter of a Turkish group in Colorado, has said it is his “desire is to see more Turkish people at the top levels of International Organizations.”
I wish Mr. Kent used the word “qualified Turkish individuals” instead of “Turkish people.”
When I heard a few years back that Coca-Cola had lobbied the U.S. Congress in 2000 not to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide as such reportedly arguing that the affirmation would hurt American companies in Turkey, I was quite confused. I certainly hope Mr. Kent won’t use his position to advance an ultra-nationalist agenda.
Serdar on 03 Feb 2008 at 5:24 am #
hi all,
can you expand the meaning of the phrase ” “qualified Turkish individuals” instead of “Turkish people.” “, sorry if I missed smt but I would like to get your thoughts about this phenomena indeed (if you wrote smt about it before, a link provided for this would be useful too). If you would prefer to write an e-mail about this (I mean if you find it unrelated as a comment for this entry) I would surely accept this too 🙂 take care..
serdar
p.s. I hope you don’t refuse to contact with me as a collocutor just because I was born as a Turk 🙂
Blogian on 03 Feb 2008 at 5:54 am #
Hi Serdar and thank you for your message.
I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. All I was saying was that, to make another example, if I am Armenian I shouldn’t want any Armenian occupy an important position only because that person is from my same ethnic group. I’d love the person to occupy the position if s/he is qualified for the responsibility and, if that is indeed the case, I will then be very glad that an Armenian has reached higher. So my wish is that others, including Mr. Kent, think the same way.
I have Turkish friends, Serdar, and my great-grandmother was saved by a Turkish woman during the Genocide – I have no problem communicating with a Turkish person.
Thanks for reading Blogian!
Serdar on 04 Feb 2008 at 12:09 am #
Dear Blogian =) (instead of using a name, “Blogian” nickname is prettier I think)
thanx for your reply.. The reason why I thought you would hesitate not to write a reply to me is ,as every nation has nationalists, there is a chance that you would be an Armenian nationalist too (perhaps the term “ultra-nationalist” would be much more suitable in that case.).. Especially when there is a sad occasion like this one, people would tend to have more nationalistic instincts which would force them to behave in an vulgar way. On the other hand I would like to draw a thin line between nationalism and being a part of a community(a nation in case) that you did not choose when you were born.
I talked too much as an introduction for this message 🙂 When I first read the “phrase” (qualified Turkish people thing) I thought that you distinguish Turks into two parts, “the ones that are vulgar, barbar in some other way, ultra nationalists, the ones that are against human rights and civilized society” and the other one, “qualified” Turks.. The reason why I thought like that is maybe, because I think you would have been considering Turkish people like that 🙂 or I’ve prejudgements about you of having prejudgements on Turks.Anyway, now I understand what you mean when you say “qualified Turks”.
It’s been a month or smt like that since I’ve been following your blog since Hrant’s assasinnation anniversary.. I think lack of empathy is the main problem between Turkish and Armenian people when it’s the 1915 case.. I’m against and hate ultra-nationalist bullshit things in Turkey however I am not convinced(I didn’t want to say “against” 🙂 ) about the “Genocide”(!) case.. So that’s the reason why I am trying to follow up Armenian articles that makes sense about this issue.. Maybe I want to learn the truth about the 1915 occasions.. One of the reasons that makes me irritated is that many of Armenian “Genocide”-claimers claims Turks for being ultra-nationalist, however sometimes,not sometimes, frequently they behave in an ultra-nationalist way.. I’m sorry to say that, I think “Blogian” blogs sometimes in such a way too =) Whatever, that was just a comment of me, main topic is not that..
sorry for the long answer =) thanx if you’ve read it all :))
as I said, empathising each other is a key to understand and describe what had happened in Eastern Anatolia in 1915.. I don’t say bad things have not happened in 1915 but claiming this as a genocide is really a big deal..
I look forward for your new entries in future days, which would lead us to talk about the “genocide” claims and rejects. I also see this as a way to destroy my prejudgements, whether rejecting or accepting them..
have a nice day.
Blogian on 04 Feb 2008 at 2:11 am #
Merhaba, Serdar!
Thank you for your letter.
My name is Simon Maghakyan – as mentioned in this blog (see http://blogian.hayastan.com/about/).
I appreciate that you took the time to clarify what I said and find out for yourself that I hadn’t intended to insult Turks.
I also appreciate the fact that you seem to be working to think “outside the box” and outside the official Turkish discourse in regards to what happened to Armenians in 1915.
If you read the earlier posts in my blog, starting in 2005, you can see how much I have changed myself. I am open to change, and I am happy to see others who are open too.
Growing up in Armenia, I was a nationalist myself in my first years of High School. It is very difficult to live in an ethnocentric society and not take a subjective look at the world. So in some sense you are doing more than I was myself able to do – you still live in Turkey but you are thinking of learning more about the other side.
There are many Turks who read this blog – some of them good friends. I hope that you will continue reading this blog and leave comments. And I hope you will continue being open to change – and facing tough history. It is hard. Few Armenians would admit the massacre against Azeri civilians in Khojalu. Although what happened in Khojalu can hardly be compared to the Armenian genocide, we need to have universal approaches in discussing history and nationalism.
You are absolutely right that there are Armenian nationalists who “condemn” Turkish nationalists for denying the Genocide. And I understand how you feel when you see these individuals hatefully bashing Turkish nationalists when they themselves are not too different from their Turkish counterparts. But I also invite you to consider thinking about the “power” relation between Armenian and Turkish nationalists – especially in the historical context of Armenian-Turkish relations.
It is time to face, challenge our history and ourselves. And I invite you to have in your mind, as you read this blog, that this blog wouldn’t have existed if a Turkish woman didn’t save my great-grandmother during 1915. And I hope you will choose to find pride in that Turkish woman’s action and not in the actions of an evil regime that ruled Turkey during World War I.
With hope for sustainable peace,
Simon
Serdar on 04 Feb 2008 at 5:12 am #
Barev Simon ;
I know your name, I saw that “about” page, however I liked “Blogian” that also sounds good I think =) Anyway, I can use any one you would prefer.
thanx for your appreciations, as Daniel Fried says about the situation in Balkans “Nationalism is like cheap alcohol. First it makes you drunk, then it makes you blind, then it kills you.” in a world better than this and achieving to reach a sustainable peaceful environment (that sentence looks alike miss america contest sentence 😛 ), we should be careful about this nationalism hazards..
Turkey and the Turkish people are really strange, Turkey is a strange place to live.. people hates and protests Erdogan’s and AKP’s political stand, over 1.5 million people attends to a meeting against AKP in the capital city, Ankara; however they achieve to get 47% of the votes in the elections. Another but this time a counter-example, ultra-nationalist propaganda through TV shows are made, nationalism is pumped to the brains throughout the media, and as a result, Hrant was shot in a vulgarly way. But half a million people attends his funeral, condemning racism.. nearly more than 20 years I have been living in this country, but I can not say that I know my country well 🙂 however, one thing is certain that, no matter what the situation is, no matter in which condition you are in, everybody loves the land they were born.. That’s why, although both in Armenia and in Turkey or anywhere on earth, there are ultra-nationalist, or any kind of dumb people who do not act in a “civilized” manner, this does not prevent us to love our land.. (what I mean as I say “land” is that the land where we think our soul belongs to.) Sorry, I lost the axis of my main subject of the letter. When I start writing, things go like that =) Hrant, as an Armenian-Turkish, has been a milestone in Armenian-Turkish relationships(not in political but between folks) I think, one of the key points that explains what Armenians and Turks intends to say. (again, when I say Armenians and Turks, I mean the folks)
Anyway, when I find time, I will try to read and comment on your writings, your entries, and sometimes challenge with the Genocide-denier,-claimer subjects in order to learn from ourselves how to look in a different point of view..
I’m glad that your generation have survived from 1915 occasions, any action taken -for- human rights is unquestionably positive and without doubt, appreciative.. I do not say that in 1915 anything inhuman haven’t happened; I censure everything diabolical that have happened during World War I whether the cause of it was Turks, Armenians, Greeks, English, French …etc..
together, to the hope of sustainable peace..
from Turkey with sympathy -and of course- empathy =)
Serdar
p.s. I couldn’t find a place to enter this question to the letter, so sorry for the p.s. (= can you expand the meaning of “the “power” relation between Armenian and Turkish nationalists – especially in the historical context of Armenian-Turkish relations.” ? The reason why I ask frequently about expanding the meanings is to frustrate any kind of misunderstandings and to be able to understand you much. take care 😉
Blogian on 04 Feb 2008 at 7:37 am #
Serdar (or should I call you Blogoglu 🙂 ?), thank you for your comments.
Yes, Turkey is quite uniqe I must agree. And even with an institutionalized attempt for homogenization there is still much diversity there – at least in terms of ideas and regional cultures.
Coming to the “power” relationship, I will bring the example I once used in my Psychology of Cultural Diversity class where some white American students were arguing that racism by black Americans against white Americans should of the same level of concern as white racist against blacks.
(Keep in mind that I am making the example to demonstrate my view on Armenian-Turkish nationalisms of the Ottoman era – not Armenian Diaspora – Republic of Turkey relations).
I invited my classmates to consider the power relationship of blacks and whites while thinking of racism. Since white are the majority and hold much of the power in the United States, their racism is dangerous because it can (and has in the past) become institutionalized. While racism by blacks, although worth to be condemnded, is a mostly an outcry against historical dehuminization and suffering.
This is not to say that Armenian nationalism was entirely justified in the Ottoman Empire, but in realpolitik nationalism of an oppressed minority group with less rights than of the majority is no true danger to the majority since it usually comes as a reaction to majority’s institutionalized nationalism.
There is power relationship between the majority and the minority – the latter having less advantage, dependant on the former and way more vulnerable.
A similar example can be drawn by Native Americans and white settlers. I had a racist philosophy professor who spent an entire classtime showing drawings of white settlers murdered by Native Americans more than a century ago.
Although no one denies that white settlers were killed by some Native American groups, such as the Dog Soldiers, it is sinister to spend an entire class time arguing that a people who have faced genocide were the “true criminals.”
Or, with another example, it would be wrong to talk of Jewish nationalism in Nazi Germany as though it had something to do with the Holocaust or stands on the same ground as the German racism. Herschel Grynszpan, a young Jew, for instance, killed Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat in Paris, before the Holocaust started. The act was followed by damage to Jewish synagogues, but today scholars don’t talk of “Jewish nationalism” in the context of the Holocaust because of the “power relation” that I mentioned.
I will be glad if you challenge my usage of “genocide denier” as far as your concern is the term “genocide” and who is denier and who is not and NOT the history of institutionalized dehuminization and extermination of Ottoman Turkey’s Armenian population. For instance, I wouldn’t call Baskin Oran a genocide denier because he doesn’t refuse the crime that was committed against Armenians; he just finds the term “genocide” politically overused, misused and exploited and a harm to the democratization movement in Turkey.
I hope I made myself clear. And I hope you will get a copy of Taner Akcam’s new book in Turkish – that came out in Turkey two weeks ago – and read it.
Thanks,
Blogian 🙂
Serdar on 04 Feb 2008 at 9:16 pm #
Dear Simon,
thanx for the clarifications. I understand what you mean, although I don’t agree with some of the parts. The power relation concept you describe is pretty good however when the people being murdered are innocent people, the picture becomes blur again. Let me give an example, there may be people who are being behaved badly individually just because their identities, for example homo-sexuals. or let me give a clear example, also as a minority, Kurds are being treated badly by some people (some of these people may be members of paramilitary forces). anyway, any kind of inhuman treats against people what I’m trying to say.. But these unnatural way of treating does not mean that PKK(a terrorist organisation a.k.a. Kurdistan Workers Party) terorist attempts would be taken as legitimate. That does not give a reasonable explanation to us that PKK has the right to plant bombs to the heart of metropolis’, any important cities in Turkey, such as Istanbul, Ankara or any touristic centers such as Bodrum, Marmaris.. I disagree with this “blade-to-blade” mentality which would bring nothing but harm to both sides.. Another example is that ASALA assassinations directed to Turkish diplomats.. I think there is no difference between them and Hrant’s assassination..
about the “Genocide” deniers issue, I think I believe in a similar way to Baskin Oran’s, I do not refuse anything bad happened to Armenians in 1915, however the situation should be considered in a way that anybody responsible for the deaths or anthing inhuman should be damned by people who want sustainable peace in the future.. I mean, ARF’s (Tashnagtsutiun) activities that shall had resulted in murder or any kind of flagrant result has to be considered too.. that’s why I have questions in my mind about “really what has happened” in 1915.. The way to learn this, I think, passes through sharing our historical facts (both the lies and the truths our governments imposes us to.. because every nation writes the history for themselves) .
another thing that, the term “Genocide” has two meanings I think, one is historical, and one is political.. Political meaning is pretty much “powerful” (I do not know whether the word “powerful” suits here or not) than the historical one I think, and that’s the reason which makes the term “Genocide” a big deal.. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that makes Armenian ultra-nationalists behave in a vulgar way and Turkish “deniers” to claim that nothing has ever happened to Armenians in 1915.. (I find it silly both.)
I hope I’m able to clarify what I think well =)
take care Blogian 🙂
Blogoglu 🙂 (yep, I like it also 😛 however I would like to possess this nickname if I start blogging about Turkish-Armenian Issues anytime in the future but not yet 🙂 )
Defmall on 16 Mar 2008 at 5:54 am #
You know, with all of the “Yummie! Soda is Good!” blog posts out there, it was refereshing to see a blog post, and a series of replies, that had some ‘meet’ on them!
This is an intelligent conversation about an intelligent company. I was a huge fan of Roberto Goizueta, and I am hoping COke’s success with ‘non-WASP’ CEOs continues.
This link will absolutely get props on http://www.Squidoo.com/CokevsPepsi!