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ANKARA: Blood Is Silent

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  • ANKARA: Blood Is Silent

    BLOOD IS SILENT
    By Ergun Babahan

    Turkish Press
    Dec 19 2008

    SABAH- Yesterday we unfortunately neglected a statement by Canan
    Aritman in which the Republican People`s Party (CHP) Izmir deputy
    linked President Abdullah Gul`s statement about the `apology campaign`
    concerning Armenians to his mother`s ethnicity. This is a clear example
    of fascism. This mentality, which attributes a person`s criticism of
    unfair treatment to ethnicity alone, also claims that the group the
    critic feels attached is given a free pass on mistakes. But people
    espousing all sorts of ideologies live in countries. When one of these
    people comes to power and makes a mistake, the whole nation can`t be
    held responsible, because the person holding state power monopolizes
    all sorts of power.

    The deportation of Armenians (during World War I) is something which
    happened in this land, just like the capital tax, the Thracian
    incidents, the massacre in Kahramanmaras, etc. To confront these
    incidents, one doesn`t need to be an Alawite, Greek Cypriot, Jewish
    or communist, but rather a democrat, someone who believes in the rule
    of law and defends human rights and dignity. A member of a Turkish
    party which calls itself `social democrat` and which claims to be
    promoting reconciliation through welcoming members wearing chadors
    thus questioned a historical incident through a racist stance. Aritman
    linked the stance about the Armenians` deportation to having Armenian
    blood in one`s veins.

    Our nation has people of many different ethnicities. We shouldn`t
    judge a person by the ethnicity of their grandparents, but on their
    humanitarian stance and position on racism. Being a human requires
    questioning the mass deportation of a group of people. Whether it was
    right to do this is another question. But it`s disgraceful to fail
    to acknowledge the right to question it, along with a racist stance
    towards people who respect this right. We can say only one thing to
    Mrs. Aritman: Blood is silent, but the conscience speaks volumes.
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