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ANKARA: Armenian Community Split Over Businessman's Remarks

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  • ANKARA: Armenian Community Split Over Businessman's Remarks

    ARMENIAN COMMUNITY SPLIT OVER BUSINESSMAN'S REMARKS

    Hurriyet
    April 1 2010
    Turkey

    Bedros Sirinoglu speaks to journalists after meeting with Prime
    Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on March 26. AA photo

    Angered by a Turkish-Armenian representative's failure to emphasize
    the group's suffering in 1915 during a recent meeting with the prime
    minister, community members have demanded "civilian" leadership within
    the community through an online petition.

    The intra-communal split stems from a March 26 meeting in Ankara
    between Bedros Sirinoglu, president of the Yedikule Surp Pırgic
    Armenian Hospital Foundation, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    During their conversation, Sirinoglu, who is also a prominent
    businessman, described the events of 1915 as "a fight between two
    brothers," and said Armenians in Turkey have no problems whatsoever.

    Furious at the remarks, some members of the Armenian
    community have started an online petition campaign at
    bizbaskabirturkiyedeyasiyoruz.blogspot.com, a domain name that means
    "We are living in another Turkey." The petition had been signed by
    378 individuals as the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review went to
    press Thursday.

    Speaking to the Daily News, Sirinoglu said he was deeply sorry
    about the issue. "I do not deny what was experienced, but calling it
    'genocide' does no good to anyone," he said.

    On his being described as the representative of the Armenian community,
    he said he "does not need any titles."

    "The people are unfortunately unaware of one fact: Anybody who is the
    president of the Yedikule Surp Pırgic Armenian Hospital Foundation
    has been described as a community representative since Ottoman times
    and has special protocol status in Ankara," he said. "It is not a
    title exclusive to me. I am not glued to this chair either - anybody
    who wants to become president can do so when my term ends."

    Rakel Dink, the widow of assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist
    Hrant Dink, and other Dink family members are among those who have
    signed the online petition. Signatories see the petition as a first
    step on the path toward "civilianizing" the community.

    Pakrad Oztukyan, editor at the weekly Agos, where Dink once worked,
    is among the signatories. "This is the reaction of the Armenian
    people, a denominational stance and a first step on the path toward
    civilianization," he told the Daily News.

    Oztukyan claimed Sirinoglu is the president of the foundation "only
    because he is wealthy" and "makes donations to community foundations."

    "He is ... someone who has 'bought' the position," Oztukyan said.

    "Sirinoglu cannot speak in the name of the people."

    Other Turkish Armenians, however, have kept their distance from
    the dispute. Arsen AÅ~_ık, a retired academic from Bogazici
    University, said both sides are "making superficial criticisms"
    without understanding each other. "Both sides have valid points,
    but they also have wrong points," he said.

    Erdogan's outburst

    The dispute, however, is not limited to the petition and is the
    result of events that have occurred within the community over the
    past five months.

    In November 2009, prominent community members met with the prime
    minister under the direction of the spiritual leader of the Armenian
    Patriarchate of Turkey, Aram AteÅ~_yan, at Dolmabahce Palace in
    Istanbul.

    Sirinoglu was among those who attended the meeting, which apparently
    laid the foundation for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's outburst
    against undocumented Armenians during a BBC interview on March 16,
    in which said there were "170,000 Armenians in Turkey," and threatened
    to expel the undocumented ones, which he said totaled 100,000.

    "This figure that the prime minister pronounced was the result of the
    meddling of a friend of ours at the November meeting," Sirinoglu said.

    "Our friend said there were 100,000 undocumented Armenians from Armenia
    in Turkey and 70,000 Turkish Armenians. Yet, I was held responsible
    for that remark."

    Although there is no exact figure, the number of undocumented Armenian
    workers in Turkey is no more than 14,000, according to recent research.

    The number was not discussed during the Ankara meeting, Sirinoglu said.

    "We had just asked for an appointment as a foundation. We have serious
    [legal] issues about the properties of the foundation and its income.

    We have conveyed our complaints on those matters. The media assumed
    we were in Ankara because of the prime minister's remarks, but that
    is not the truth," he said.

    "My grandfather was a priest in Bahcecik in Ä°zmit. He was murdered in
    1915. His throat was slit because he would not cut his beard. Traces of
    half my family are unknown. I do not deny what has been experienced. I
    have told my story to the prime minister as well," Sirinoglu said.

    "What has been experienced between Turks and Armenians was a fight
    among brothers; a scenario prepared by the West. I could have described
    what happened as genocide, but that would do no one any good," he said.

    Sirinoglu also told the Daily News that the Armenian community is
    experiencing a chaotic period due to of the illness of Patriarch
    Mesrop II.

    "Everybody wants to become prominent and be recognized by the masses,"
    he said. "There are those who are even using the illness of Mesrop
    II to their own advantage. The patriarchy elections were interrupted
    because of that. [The community is waiting for] the approval from
    the Patriarchy and [the Ministry of the] Interior for an election
    date. If Istanbul Armenians continue to play tricks, they will endure
    great harm."
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