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ANKARA: Oktay Eksi: A Real Shame

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  • ANKARA: Oktay Eksi: A Real Shame

    OKTAY EKSI: A REAL SHAME

    Hurriyet
    March 4 2008
    Turkey

    It's a great thing to know your own history. And an equally wonderful
    thing to pass the pages of this history on to younger generations.

    But is the only condition necessary for knowing or passing on this
    history to brutify it, simplify it, and even make it more primitive?

    Isn't there a more civilized way to do it?

    Is it right to vaccinate our younger generations with hatred and
    enmity, or with civilization and peacefulness?

    You will know what I am talking about if you have seen the photographs
    printed in today's Hurriyet of the 90th anniversary of the liberation
    of Erzurum's Askale township from occupation.

    According to news provided about the ceremonies, as part of the
    program, children were shown a fake mosque being burnt, in an attempt
    to depict the disrespect shown by the Armenian gangs of the period
    towards Islam and of course its important symbol, the mosque. Quite
    pointedly, the message of "Armenians are our enemies. Don't forget
    it!" was placed in the minds of students between the ages of 7-14.

    Later in the ceremony, there was a depiction of an imam being hung
    by Armenian forces.

    Look closely at the photographs. You can see how frightened those
    youngsters are by the tableau presented to them. Such a brutal and
    primitive tableau, that you can only wonder what kind of guidance
    and advice the teachers who have brought their students there are
    getting. Isn't it an embarrassment though for all of us who are
    members of this society?

    Don't you see now how we have raised youngsters like the one who
    murdered Priest Santoro in Trabzon, or who came to Istanbul to kill
    Hrant Dink, who raided the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya and
    killed 3 men there for publishing Christian books?

    Don't you understand now what Hrant Dink's widow, Rakel Dink, was
    talking about when she noted at his funeral last year "We cannot
    do anything until we question those who are creating killers out
    of babies." We always say it, and we'll repeat it again: the most
    important condition placed on all of us is to be civilized. And that
    is a value which has nothing to do with how much money you have in your
    pockets, but instead with the universality of the values in your mind.

    Are we aware though that we move a bit further away from this state
    every passing day, with the strengthening of that mentality on display
    at the Erzurum ceremonies?
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