Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Astarjian: 'Yalanci Dolma' Diplomacy

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Astarjian: 'Yalanci Dolma' Diplomacy

    ASTARJIAN: 'YALANCI DOLMA' DIPLOMACY
    By Henry Astarjian

    http://www.armenianweekly.com/2009/12/0 2/astarjian-yalanci-dolma-diplomacy/
    December 2, 2009

    Yes, it was a meeting, but not a "historic meeting" as posted by the
    Friends of Hrant Dink, the organizers of an academic event entitled
    "Closing the Divide."

    The event was designed to build cultural bridges between the Armenian
    Diaspora on one side and the Turkish people on the other, to traverse
    a colossal gorge, not divide, created by centuries of slavery, abuse,
    colonization of Western Armenia, and pogroms, which peaked with the
    infamous genocide of 1915-23.

    The meeting took place in, of all places, the Armenian Cultural and
    Educational Center (ACEC) in Watertown, Mass., a hub of the Armenian
    cultural activities.

    The luminary in this event was the principle speaker, Hasan Cemal,
    who was to talk about his "recent trip to Yerevan and the memories
    about his grandfather [Jemal Pasha]." Additional reflections were
    to be articulated by two professors, Taner Akcam of Clark University
    and Asbed Kotchikian of Bentley University.

    I am not sure what the organizers were trying to accomplish. Some 25
    million of Turkey's population, the Kurds, knew firsthand about the
    genocide because they witnessed it, actually committed the killings,
    or else kidnapped our daughters and later married them to their sons.

    Most Turks are aware of the genocide, and they rationalize it because,
    as Ataturk's propaganda has it, the genocide was a necessary policy
    carried out to protect the Vatan (Fatherland) from Russian invasion
    (which was supposedly exploiting the rebellious Armenians to divide
    and defeat Turkey).

    Yes, the people of Turkey-the Turk, the Kurd, the Lezgis, the Chechen,
    the Greek; the Sunnis, Shiites, and the Alevis-all know about the
    Armenian Genocide. Most importantly, the governments of Turkey have
    known about the genocide from the beginning, yet have refused to face
    the reality, and have muzzled the Turkish intelligentsia and people
    of conscience from discussing Turkey's criminal past.

    Inhabitants of Turkey know about the genocide. They all felt it on
    their skin when their doctors, pharmacists, professors, architects, the
    artisans and other skilled workers were no longer there, overnight. The
    same was felt in Iraq, when the Jews left to Israel in 1949.

    I know a Turkish doctor from Elazig (Kharpert region, Mamourat el-Asiz)
    who swore to God he overheard this conversation between two elderly
    Turks, sitting outside a mosque chatting about old times. One of
    them said: "I asked Avedis to come to my house for protection. Me
    and my friend killed this giavour oghlu giavour (infidel, son of
    infidel). I took his jacket and my friend took his shalvar, and we
    dumped the body."

    It is accurate to say that the Armenian Diaspora knows Turkey better
    than Turkey knows the Diaspora. Armenians do not trust Turks and
    the Turkish government. Their so-called "Europeanization" is only a
    veneer; the real Turkey has been exposed in many ways, many times. In
    the early 90's, they let the people of Armenia freeze to frost when
    they prevented oil from reaching the country. People cut trees to
    cook and get some warmth to avoid hypothermia. The Turks blockaded
    passage of international food aid to starving Armenia; and when they
    gave in to international pressure, they exchanged the donated good
    quality wheat with a cheaper one, before it got to Armenia.

    Turgut Ozel, the president of Turkey at the time, contemplated "hitting
    Armenia with a couple of missiles, and claiming mistakes for doing
    it." Two days later he died, and Armenian folklore considers that as
    God's punishment.

    These are only a fraction of the facts that paint Turkey's portrait
    with us; there is much more. The Turkish government and people of
    Turkey must come clean; they must wash their hands of Armenian blood.

    People-to-people dialogue, though well intentioned, will not bridge
    the gorge, despite Cemal's attempts to find common ground. Shared
    food recipes for dolma and chigkufta, make a weak bridge leading to
    a recipe for yalanci dolma (fake, meatless, stuffed grape leaves):
    It is a naive diplomacy. The message, which is noble in itself,
    is not practical because rapprochement between our two peoples,
    does not and will not change the policies of the Turkish government,
    which is driven by its own agenda of hegemony of the region, and by
    the big power's designs over the Caucasus.

    It is evident that the issue is political. The dynamics of this game
    will change in favor of understanding and friendship, if Turkey quits
    resisting the recognition of the genocide and acknowledges its reality,
    and if Turkey quits de-facto support of the Azeris on Karabagh. After
    that, we can talk about the borders.

    Hasan Cemal, who has been badgered by Turkey because of his book The
    Kurds, is the wrong messenger for the message he is advocating. First,
    he is in the wrong place; he should sell his ideas in Turkey, not in
    the Armenian Diaspora. Second, intellectuals can never change policy;
    neither can he. Intellectuals rarely get to a governing power anywhere
    (an exception is Vaslav Haavel in Czechoslovakia). Similar writers
    and intellectuals in Turkey-like Yasar Kemal, Ayse Nur, and her
    husband Ragip Zarakolu, even the lighthearted Aziz Nesin, to name a
    few-suffered and still suffer the wrath of the reactionary governing
    establishment. Third, he carries a big chip on his shoulder. He is the
    grandson of a war criminal "Sakalli (Bearded) Jemal Pasha," who as the
    third member of a criminal gang formed of Enver, and Talat, members of
    the Ittihad ve Tarraqi (CUP-Committee of Union and Progress), shared
    the responsibility of implementing the genocide. He also committed war
    crimes against the Arab intellectuals in Aleppo by holding kangaroo
    courts, then hanging 12 of them headed by Dr. Abdul-Rahman el-Khalil,
    within 24 hours of the lower court's decision; he did not allow them
    appeal, as required by law, and did not wait to obtain the approval of
    Istanbul, as required. In the Arab annals, he is known as the saffah
    (blood-thirsty, indiscriminate executioner).

    Now, I am not naive enough to saddle Hasan with his grandfather's
    criminal past. I have no doubts about his decency and sincerity;
    however, that enigma will never disappear if he does not condemn
    his grandfather's deeds, outright. That is a bitter pill to swallow,
    but that is the means to fortify his message. Otherwise this whole
    project could be construed as being Yalanci Dolma Diplomacy.
Working...
X