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An Open Letter to the Prime Minister [Erdogan] and Bulent Arinc

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  • An Open Letter to the Prime Minister [Erdogan] and Bulent Arinc

    An Open Letter to the Prime Minister [Erdogan] and Bulent Arinc
    By Asbarez
    Mar 19th, 2010

    BY TANER AKCAM
    >From Taraf, Saturday, March 13, 2010

    There is something I have difficulty understanding. You, who have put
    an end to ninety-five years of the "there are no Kurds, they're just
    Turks who wander around the mountains" lying policies by the state;
    who have removed the military's guardianship over politics, the same
    military that since the beginning of this Republic has decided who
    lived and who died and that initiated coups at the drop of a hat; how
    is it that you who have made such important inroads into this
    democracy insist on continuing the ninety-five years of denialist
    policies when it comes to the subject of 1915?

    All of us believed that when you signed those protocols with Armenia
    in October 2009, the ninety-five years of lies surrounding 1915 were
    coming to an end, just as they had on the Kurdish issue. Could it be
    that when you signed those protocols you believed that you were going
    to come to a resolution while you continued the ninety-five year old
    policies of denial? Doesn't seem possible....Could you have found a way
    out of the Kurdish problem by continuing to insist that "There are no
    Kurds, they're just Turks who wander around mountains"? If you had
    stayed loyal to the logic of the problem solving methods of the
    military when it came to the Kurds, whereby they were equated with
    terrorist organizations, treating the Kurds as "nails" and the
    military as the "hammer," would you have found a way out of the
    impasse?

    Well, it seems to appear that you seriously think you are going to
    find a resolution to the Armenian problem by continuing the
    ninety-five year old lie. Anyone opposing this view on the Armenian
    issue is the "nail" and you are the "hammer"....trying to intimidate the
    U.S., posturing like a bully...is this how you're going to remove a
    ninety-five year old gangrene? Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arýnç, if it
    could have been fixed this way, don't you think it would have been,
    long ago? Heck, who even needs you then...Þükrü Elekdað [the former
    Turkish ambassador to the U.S.] would have fixed it; Veli Küçük [a
    retired major general linked to Hrant Dink's assassination] would have
    found a neat solution...right?

    So, what happens if tomorrow Obama decides it's time to call your
    bluff and gives you a taste of your own medicine? What if he comes out
    with a statement saying "You want to shut me up or get me to tell a
    lie by threatening me! You're trying to force me to deny what I
    believe to be true with threats! Shame on you! Aren't you the
    slightest bit embarrassed to be threatening me like that? I'm not
    lying any more....I am going to state what I believe about 1915. It was
    genocide." What are you going to do then?

    When the protocols were signed in Switzerland, we believed that it
    marked the end of ninety-five years of the policies of lies and that
    it was the death knell for the Gündüz Aktan [a former member of the
    Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission , Þükrü Elekdað and Yusuf
    Halaçoðlu [the head of the Turkish Historical Society] era. Not only
    was the border going to be opened, but commissions devoted to making
    recommendations on how to resolve the issues stemming from history
    were going to be established. It seems likely that while the Swiss
    were mediating the agreement, they tried to convince both you and the
    Armenians by pointing to the "Bergier Commission" which had been
    established in 1996, as an example of a "Commission of Independent
    Experts." This commission had been formed to research the role that
    Switzerland had played in the Jewish Holocaust. After five years of
    work, it presented a final report in 2001, but during those five
    years, twenty-five research papers were published covering almost
    11,000 pages of information.

    There is, however, a fact that is even more important. One year before
    the commission was formed, in 1995, the Swiss government apologized to
    all Jews in the world for its policies during the Second World War. In
    actuality, the commission was formed as a result of that apology.
    There is no possible way that you could not have known that one of the
    conditions for the establishment of the commission was an apology to
    the Jews. Even if the Swiss hadn't mentioned it to you, it was a well
    known fact and we believed that you signed the protocols with full
    knowledge of this, and this heralded the beginning of change in
    ninety-five years of the policy of denial.... "an apology to the
    Armenians is on its way," or so we thought. Apparently, this wasn't
    the case; instead you had some "oriental inscrutability" in the works.
    You were going to continue the ninety-five year old policy of denial
    while fabricating a resolution to the problems that have plagued our
    relationship with Armenia. This is hard to believe, but it is apparent
    from everything that you have done thus far.

    Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arýnç, I ask that you put this bit of
    information somewhere in the corner of your minds: you will never
    resolve the problem of 1915 by repeating a lie that has been memorized
    over ninety-five years. If it could have been resolved by rote
    repetition, there were those before you - who were much louder - who
    would have already achieved it. A black stain was smeared on the brow
    of the Turkish nation in 1915. The ones who did this were the Unionist
    murderers. If you don't identify that stain and if you don't put some
    distance between yourselves and those who placed that stain upon the
    brow of the Turkish nation, you won't be able to take a single step
    forward on this issue. Don't even bother trying.

    Mr. Prime Minister, you've called what happened in 1938 in Dersim a
    massacre. It's true we don't know exactly how many were killed, but
    you are acting like a bully towards those who condemn what happened in
    1915, an event that involved at least ten to fifteen times more human
    beings than those who perished in Dersim. On the subject of war crimes
    committed by Israel against the residents of Gaza, you have shown your
    displeasure and lifted your voice in opposition, with justification.
    But when the subject of 1915 comes up, an event that involved killings
    on a level that can't even begin to be compared with the violations of
    human rights in Gaza, you made absurd remarks like "No one can force
    me to admit that Moslems commit murders. My forebears were not
    murderers." Don't you think others are going to look at that and say,
    "Who is he kidding?"

    You are the ones who have changed the traditional line that's been
    followed on the Kurdish question. You are the ones who have fought to
    push the military out of political life. Why are you parroting the
    same ninety-five year old lies that have been told by this military
    and this bureaucracy? Let me give you an example. You weren't able to
    make any progress on the Kurdish and military matter by siding with
    the ones who called those involved in the Þemdinli event [a bombing of
    a bookshop in the town of Þemdinli suspected to be a false flag
    operation] "our boys." (2) You were only able to make progress after
    so many painful experiences, once you put distance between those "good
    boys" and yourselves. The subject of 1915 is no different.

    "Our boys" are the ones who continue to deny that Armenians were
    annihilated in 1915! They're the ones forming the Talat *****
    Committees and organizing the memorial meetings for Kemal, the
    murderous Mayor of Boðazlayan. And, let's not forget, they are the
    same ones who have planned assassinations against you and have tried
    to overthrow your administration...Don't you realize that you will never
    be able to solve anything regarding 1915 by holding onto the same
    position of those who want to dig your graves?

    Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arýnç, the answers to the problems that are
    the legacy of 1915 can't be found in the denialist policies of Veli
    Küçük, Doðu Perinçek [leader of the nationalist Workers' Party], Þükrü
    Elekdað and Yusuf Halaçoðlu. Don't search for the answers there. You
    won't get anywhere repeating the chorus they've been singing for
    ninety-five years. They are your adversaries on the issue of 1915,
    just as they are when it comes to the Kurdish issue and the issue of
    the military's place in politics. You cannot construct your response
    to 1915 by holding rank with those who want to drag the country into
    chaos, who murdered Hrant Dink, who have planned massacres against
    Christians, and who have been plotting coups against you.

    If you are going to respond to 1915, you need to search for that
    answer in a place that is different than the answers given by
    Ergenekon [an alleged Kemalist terrorist organization] or by the ones
    who plotted the coups. For this, you should follow your Moslem roots
    in Anatolia that have risen alongside your party and take a closer
    look at what these roots did during 1915.

    Mr. Arýnç, these words are for you. With reason, you were angered by
    the way the women of CHP in Mersin tore up the Muslim veil. (2) Do you
    realize, however, that with the position that you have taken you have
    torn the deep fabric of Anatolian Islam, have ripped apart the
    cultural legacy of Anatolian Moslems who can walk head held high for
    bravely challenging the murders of 1915? Do you know that when the
    Unionist gangs were murdering Armenians in 1915, the ones who put up
    the biggest fight, who challenged them the most were the Moslems of
    Anatolia? Did you have any idea that it was the Moslem community of
    Kastamonu that marched upon the Governor's office demanding "we won't
    stand for our neighbors being murdered"? Or that it was the Moslems of
    Yozgat who opposed Killer Kemal of Boðazlayan yelling "there's no
    place in the Koran for the murder of innocents!"? Have you never heard
    of the important role played in the hanging of Killer Kemal by the
    written testimony of the Grand Mufti of Boðazlayan, Abdullahzade
    Mehmed? Did you know that in opposing the murders being committed by
    Killer Kemal, this Moslem Mufti said "Allah stands above us all. I
    fear his wrath"?

    Mr. Arýnç, are you aware of the order given by Kamil ***** of the
    Third Army in 1915? He stated, "Who ever tries to hide Armenians in
    their homes will be executed before his front door and his home will
    be burned to the ground." Despite this order, do you know that Haji
    Halil, a Moslem from Urfa, hid an Armenian family of eight in the
    attic of his home, in the market of Urfa for one full year despite the
    threats of death and burning? Go to Eastern Anatolia and ask the
    members of parliament from your own party. They'll tell you dozens,
    hundreds of stories like this.

    I don't need to make the point that when the Unionists were massacring
    Armenians in Anatolia, pious Moslems opposed what was happening and
    saying that the murder of innocents has no place in the Koran.
    Whenever I'm talking with Armenians today, they tell me, "If we are
    alive today, it is without a doubt because of the aid of some
    Moslems." But they'll also add, "Because of your government's policy
    of denial, we can't talk about it openly."

    Mr. Arýnç, you can't build a future on the backs of murderers. You can
    build a future on the backs of those righteous Moslems in Anatolia who
    challenged the murderers. In the same way that you can't resolve
    today's problems by supporting Hrant's murderers, the "Samats" and the
    "Veli Küçüks", you won't get anywhere supporting the murderers of the
    Hrants of the past. The answers to 1915 can't be found in the answers
    of Doðu Perinçek or Veli Küçük. They are members of the Ergenekon gang
    that killed Hrant Dink; it's natural that they defend the murderers of
    the Hrants of the past. Let the "Veli Küçüks" defend the murderer
    Samat of today and the murderers Talat, Enver and Kemal of yesterday.
    Your place is not at the side of Veli Küçük. Your duty is to stand by
    the side of the "Haji Halils," to stand up for those Moslems who put
    themselves and their families at risk opposing the massacres.

    I would like you to recognize one more thing. Because of the
    ninety-five years of denialist policies and the defense of murderers,
    there is, from an international perspective, a second stain on the
    brow of Turkishness and Islam, next to the one created by 1915.
    Because of the policies followed by the Þükrü Elekdaðs and the Veli
    Küçüks, Turks are perceived as a people who enjoy murdering, who
    defend murders. We need to rescue Turkishness and Islam from the
    Talats and the Envers of yesterday and the Samats of today and to not
    allow the Elekdaðs and the Küçüks to define it. Turkishness and Islam
    are identities that are too honorable to be left at the hands of
    murderers and their defenders. I have an Armenian friend, and he once
    said to me, "Until yesterday, when I heard Turkish, I felt a hatred
    for it. I called it the language of my enemy. But since getting to
    know you, I've begun to say it's the sound of my friend, a Turk."

    We need the honest and honorable cry of Turkishness and Islam. Let
    Doðu Perinçek, Veli Küçük and the ones who planned your assassination
    defend the murderers of yesterday and today. You must see, by now,
    that the ones who defended Talat, Enver and Dr. Nazým in the past are
    the same people who defend Oðün Samat today.

    If we can walk with a shred of self-respect today, head held high,
    it's because we can point to Hrant's killer and call him what he is.
    You need to see that once we acknowledge the murderers of the Hrants
    of 1915, we will walk with our heads held high, self-respect intact.
    Nazim Hikmet has the best words for describing what needs to be done
    in connection with 1915. I'd like to conclude this letter with him.

    Grocer Garabed's lights are on
    He hasn't forgiven, this Armenian citizen,
    The way his father was slaughtered in the Kurdish mountains
    But he loves you because you haven't forgiven either
    The stain that's been drawn on the brows of the Turkish people

    Mr. Prime Minister, I know that you like to read poetry. The Turkish
    person and the Moslems of the Middle East want to hear these verses
    from you!

    NOTES:
    [1] This references an incident where a book store in a Kurdish city
    was bombed. Officers in the Turkish military were suspected of having
    planned and/or executed the deed. The Chief of the General Staff was
    quoted as saying the officers were "our good boys."
    [2] This is in reference to an incident during "International Women's
    Day" where women members of the CHP (Republican People's Party) tore
    up the headscarf of a Moslem woman.
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