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Serovpian to Akcam: Cemal Should `Listen and Understand' first

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  • Serovpian to Akcam: Cemal Should `Listen and Understand' first

    Serovpian to Akcam: Cemal Should `Listen and Understand' Before Lecturing

    http://www.armenianweekly.com/2009/11/2 6/serovpian-to-akcam-cemal-should-listen-and-under stand-before-lecturing/
    November 26, 2009

    By Marga Serovpian

    On Nov. 18, Hurriyet Daily News published the English translation of a
    column written by Hasan Cemal in Milliyet on his talk at Harvard
    University. Below, I comment on some of the things he said in the
    column. Some of my comments also address the Mouradian-Akcam
    discussion on Cemal's lecture in Watertown.

    `I said the biggest mistake while seeking peace is to give into sorrow
    and the past.' (H. Cemal)

    And I, and others, say that seeking peace without first dealing with a
    denied genocide is bound to fail - that is, if `seeking peace' is your
    priority (there may be other desirable priorities). Being against
    violence and hostility doesn't imply wanting peace at all costs (at
    the cost of justice, truth, and respect for the dead and their
    offspring).

    I would like to humbly suggest that Hasan Cemal - and other Turkish
    citizens who claim they are knowledgeable enough to `explicate Turks,
    Armenians, and pain' - instead of determining what is needed with Hrant
    Dink's posthumous blessing, and conveying it to an Armenian public
    that has so many reasons to feel cheated and exasperated, they simply
    ask ordinary Diaspora Armenians of various generations `to feel at
    peace with us/me, to have a sincere, quiet, friendly relationship with
    us/me, what do you need?'

    What do you do in everyday life when you detect suffering and are
    genuinely concerned? Don't you ask your depressed child or sibling
    what makes him or her suffer, and what could help, instead of asking
    them to understand your divorce or your stomach ulcer? This is partly
    an answer to Taner Akcam, who says that Cemal is able to listen and
    understand. He is welcome to listen and understand, but it might be
    wise to do so before giving a lecture or writing an article,
    especially on such issues.

    ***

    `I added that we need free discussions. With that, I mean, through
    cultural dialogues, Turks and Armenians will get closer. For this
    reason, focusing over genocide discussions wouldn't help. That would
    even put free talks into a deadlock and only fanatics and nationalists
    on both sides would be happy.' (H. Cemal)

    We know the tune of `fanatics and nationalists on both sides,' so no
    comment. But does Cemal realize that even if the genocide is left
    aside during the free cultural discussions he advocates, in most if
    not all cases (I cannot speak for everyone) it is constantly there, at
    the back (or the fore) of the minds of Armenians, Assyrians,
    Chaldeans, and Greeks? We can't help but think: Why is Cemal meeting
    Armenians at Harvard instead of in Erzerum or Smyrna? What are we
    doing, speaking of dolmas with a Turkish journalist or professor in
    Paris, Los Angeles, or Buenos Aires, if not living the very physical
    consequence of the genocide - which mustn't `be focused on,' not because
    `it wouldn't help' (come on), but because it is denied? And what can
    stop this uncontrollable awareness in most of the descendents of the
    dead, except the recognition of the crime, which can allow it to
    finally find its place in history and in the past, instead of being
    our present?

    My experience is that only with Turks who recognize the horror can I
    almost instantly focus on other subjects. Otherwise, while we are
    politely chatting about cuisine, music, tourism, or Marxism, I am
    constantly at odds with these sweet `intellectuals.' I personally see
    them as `opinion makers' who, though they may have several agreeable
    activities on their agendas, are aiming to avoid recognizing the
    genocide - unlike Akcam. By the way, if Cemal admires Akcam that much,
    why not follow his example or that of other Turkish and Kurdish
    scholars? Many have seen how, once acknowledgement and recognition of
    the genocide is clearly uttered, friendship, even a certain closeness,
    develops almost immediately - and logically. For, if in the current
    political context I can trust a Turk on such a critical issue as the
    genocide, how could I not trust him or her with lesser subjects, like
    family life, children, health problems, etc.?

    Joint cultural events, pleasant evenings, encounters, and
    conversations are all useful, but only as an addition to the very
    basic thing - recognition - that is needed, and has so far been largely
    impossible to get. These intellectuals are not very useful if their
    only purpose is to feel good (`See, I am a Turk who speaks and drinks
    with Armenians') or to show that `Look, Armenians and Turks speak
    together and no one has drawn a knife, so leave the genocide issue to
    the civil society - for yet another century.'

    As others have stressed, genocide recognition is not an obstacle to
    peaceful relations, and it is disturbing to hear people suggest that
    it might be.

    I now wonder: Is it commonplace in Turkey that when someone harms you,
    he suggests friendship without recognizing what he did, without
    apologizing, and without offering some compensation, and you are the
    bad guy if you want all of the latter before shaking hands and
    accepting his coffee and baklava? Is this how Turkish society
    functions?

    ***

    `Dear Hrant had said: `Understanding comes first, not denial or
    acknowledgment...'' (H. Cemal)

    Sorry, but so what? Hrant Dink, who is not allowed to rest in peace,
    said a lot of things, and it was his right to do so. But as some of us
    remarked when he was still alive, he was not appointed by millions of
    Armenians to speak in our name. Nor have others, like the Catholicos,
    Charles Aznavour, party leaders, Armenia's president, NGO
    representatives. They haven't been elected by the masses. The fact
    that Hrant Dink was another Armenian assassinated by a Turk earns him
    respect and empathy, and still hurts, but it doesn't automatically
    make him everyone's spokesman.

    Besides, if the Turkish intellectuals (whose statements many of us
    question) were so sure of the ethical foundations of what they are
    doing and saying, would they need to use quotations from Hrant Dink
    (conveniently an Armenian)? Whatever the context surrounding the words
    above, it is a fact that denial has come first, and is still there - in
    Turkish schools with Sari Gelin, and imported in European and American
    schools and universities. Now, not yesterday. So for many Armenians
    (if not for certain politicians) yes, acknowledgment must come first,
    just as it probably would in a one-to-one relationship with a
    neighbor. (Just try to apply this rhetoric to other cases. Take a nice
    Japanese journalist, send him to make a similar speech to Korean
    `comfort women,' and let's see if they applaud.)

    I don't have a problem with Cemal as a person; rather, I have a
    problem with what he says and does. He is certainly a kind man, who
    liked Hrant Dink sincerely, and I appreciate the fact that he visited
    the Genocide Museum in Yerevan. However, the destruction of a people
    and of the future of its offspring needs something different. Before
    addressing Armenians, he might use his reputation and his pen to
    demand that Talat's Mausoleum be destroyed, that no streets be named
    after Talat, and - why not - that his government face the past. There is
    no doubt that his actions will be more relevant within Turkey, as
    other readers of the Armenian Weekly have pointed out.

    Finally, I don't agree with Akcam that Cemal `paid for others.'
    Especially after reading Cemal's own column, I think he `paid' for
    what he himself said, for which he and he alone is responsible. I have
    no doubt that as a columnist and a `public person,' he is able to take
    responsibility for what he says, and to accept criticism. Cemal also
    `paid' for not learning from so many similar occurrences in the past.
    I won't name names but many other Turkish opinion makers (and that's
    the problem - they speak to a public, not to one or two individuals)
    have made similar statements before and have gotten similar responses.
    So the responses, not just Khatchig Mouradian's, were perfectly
    predictable, if, that is, one were really willing to listen and learn.

    And the next one who asks Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians (who, it
    seems, have been forgotten thanks to the protocols) to `understand'
    Turkish pain first or drink raki first, will be welcomed with even
    more frustration indeed. In addition, I don't believe that Mouradian's
    frustration is with `Turkish intellectuals,' but with certain Turkish
    intellectuals. And I find it perplexing that several of the
    journalists who deal with the Armenian-Turkish issues do so while
    being in the process of learning (we hear); and yet they are the ones
    educating a Turkish audience! Is this supposed to be normal? Imagine a
    first year medical student `who is still in the process of learning'
    writing columns in national newspapers to explain what to do in case
    of a heart attack, or epilepsy, or when you suspect your baby has
    appendicitis? Would you like your children to be taught how to drive
    on a motorway by an instructor who himself is still in the process of
    learning how to drive?

    How can anyone be able to `explicate Turks, Armenians, and pain' when
    they are still learning? Again, the problem is not the person; it is
    what is said, written, published, and disseminated. Maybe the next
    article will be just great, who knows?

    And now, a very simple question: Suppose tomorrow morning, Turkey
    wakes up and discovers that during the night, the Turkish president
    and prime minister have officially recognized the `Armenian, Assyrian,
    Chaldean, Syriac, and Greek Genocide carried out in the Ottoman
    Empire.' Imagine they have apologized for it publicly, have pledged to
    examine the compensation issue and to remove all denialism from
    textbooks. (Just think of the money Turkey would save!) Then suppose
    Cemal is invited to speak to Armenians again. (And the same for other
    Turkish opinion makers, especially the designers of the apology
    statement.) Would they repeat the same things, word for word? `Medz
    Yeghern,' `mutual suffering,' `Balkan Turks'?

    ***

    In a book called Dialogue sur le tabou arménien, by Ahmet Insel and
    Michel Marian (Liana lévi, 2009), Ahmet Insel says, `Dans 20 ans, dans
    2 ans, dans 6 mois, un jour, j'utiliserai peut-être le terme génocide
    parce que j'aurai de nouvelles informations. Tu sais, j'ai déjà pas
    mal évolué.' (pp. 123-4). ('In 20 years, in 2 years, in 6 months, one
    day, maybe I'll use the term `genocide' because I'll have new
    information. You know, I have already progressed quite a lot!'). This
    too is an indirect answer to Akcam and others: What Insel is saying
    is that until he finds that last bit of information, he is going to
    continue teaching his audiences and his readers that `it' was a lot of
    awful things, but not genocide.

    Yet in an interview to Nouvelles d'Arménie Magazine
    (http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_ article=54617) he conceded
    that according to Lemkin's definition, what happened in 1915-16 was
    genocide, but added that the word `blocked' discussion in Turkey. He
    did not say, however, that he needed more information.

    One is amazed: every 6 months, or 2 months, depending on Ahmet Insel's
    changing views on the matter, should the Turkish public learn a
    different lesson about a historical event that concerns its past and
    present? Should the very fact of what Ottoman Christians were
    subjected to change like the pictures of a kaleidoscope? A little
    twist, and the `events' become `incidents,' another one and you have
    `massacres,' then `crime against humanity,' then a `Great
    Catastrophe,' and another effort, oh, OK `genocide'... and two months
    later, again a twist and what? `Disaster'? `Big inconvenience'?

    Do Turkish journalists deal with everything - biology, economics, law,
    cars etc. - in this way?

    ***

    I leave you with one last thought over `Turkish intellectuals' and
    `leave it to the civil society': I don't know what the judiciary
    system is like in Turkey, but in the west, the most serious crimes are
    judged by a jury of `ordinary' people, not by professional judges. If
    a mechanic, a nurse, or a grocer is competent enough to examine a
    criminal case and sentence someone to life in prison, he or she must
    also be competent to have an opinion about the killing of an entire
    population. I do not understand why `civil society' seems to exclude
    such people, whose sensitivity and ethics may be as fine-tuned as
    those of university graduates - provided they do not teach others what
    they haven't yet learned.

    The last word to Cemal: `If we really want peace and calm, let's not
    be afraid of history.'

    OK, but hurry up.

    Marga Serovpian is a Weekly reader based in Marseille, France.
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