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IS TURKEY'S CONSUL UNHAPPY THAT NOT ALL ARMENIANS WERE SLAUGHTERED LIKE SHEEP?
Harut Sassounian
Panorama.am
04/05/2010
Hakan Tekin, the young and inexperienced Turkish Consul General in
Los Angeles, is trying hard to earn brownie points with his bosses in
Ankara by countering any reference to Armenians in the U.S. media. He
went overboard last week by sending an offensive letter to the Los
Angeles Times.
Tekin was displeased with Patt Morrison's interview with me published
by the Times in its op-ed page on April 23. The article was titled,
"Harut Sassounian: True to the Past."
In his brief letter, Consul General Tekin made several misjudgments.
The first was to criticize the L.A. Times' Pulitzer-Prize winning
veteran journalist Patt Morrison, alleging that there were "many
misleading elements" in her interview, without naming a single one.
Judging from the text of the Consul General's letter, it was probably
drafted by one of the many American public relations firms hired by
the Turkish government at great cost. While the words may have been
written by Americans, the thoughts are definitely those of a Turkish
denialist! P.R. firms don't really care how silly their letters
sound, as long as their employer is satisfied and compensates them
handsomely. Here is a piece of free advice that the Turkish government
and the Consul General should keep in mind before taking on again
the free press in a free country: "Never pick a fight with someone
who buys ink by the barrel."
Tekin is behaving as if he is still in Turkey, where the media is
routinely suppressed by such fascist tactics as throwing journalists
in jail or physically eliminating them. He is vainly trying to import
Turkey's undemocratic "gag rule" into the United States by trying to
silence the L.A. Times!
The Consul General goes on to attack me for the photograph that
accompanies the L.A. Times article, in which I am holding the
picture of my grandmother "garlanded with a bandolier of bullets." I
am very proud of grandma Gadar, because at a time when more than a
million Armenians were being marched to their deaths by the genocidal
rulers of Tekin's ancestors, she and her fellow Zeitountsis -- men,
women and children -- defended themselves valiantly and refused to
be slaughtered like sheep. Had she not fought to save her life, I
would not have existed today, which may have made the Consul General
happier! Is Tekin upset that the Turkish government was unable to
finish the job of exterminating every last Armenian?
Consul General Tekin then criticizes me for my "relentless opposition"
to the infamous Armenia-Turkey Protocols. He has no one else to blame
than his own government for not ratifying these Protocols which have
been collecting dust in the Turkish Parliament for more than six
months. Armenians are indeed fortunate that Turkey's leaders have
inadvertently protected Armenia's national interests by not ratifying
the Protocols, so that they could extract more concessions from the
Armenian government!
Incredibly, Tekin ends his pathetic letter by admonishing me to
be more like William Saroyan, who he claims was "compassionate"
toward Turks! May I remind the Turkish Consul of Saroyan's well-known
statement castigating the Turks for having destroyed Armenia and its
people. Here is the original version of that quotation, as it was
published in Inhale & Exhale, New York: Random House, 1936: "Go ahead,
destroy this race. Let us say that it is again 1915. There is war in
the world. Destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them from their
homes into the desert. Let them have neither bread nor water. Burn
their houses and their churches. See if they will not live again. See
if they will not laugh again. See if the race will not live again when
two of them meet in a beer parlor, twenty years after, and laugh, and
speak in their tongue. Go ahead, see if you can do anything about it.
See if you can stop them from mocking the big ideas of the world,
you sons of bitches, a couple of Armenians talking in the world,
go ahead and try to destroy them."
Could it be that the Turkish Consul General is trying to denigrate me,
because I have rejected his repeated invitations to get together, and
Harut Sassounian
Panorama.am
04/05/2010
Hakan Tekin, the young and inexperienced Turkish Consul General in
Los Angeles, is trying hard to earn brownie points with his bosses in
Ankara by countering any reference to Armenians in the U.S. media. He
went overboard last week by sending an offensive letter to the Los
Angeles Times.
Tekin was displeased with Patt Morrison's interview with me published
by the Times in its op-ed page on April 23. The article was titled,
"Harut Sassounian: True to the Past."
In his brief letter, Consul General Tekin made several misjudgments.
The first was to criticize the L.A. Times' Pulitzer-Prize winning
veteran journalist Patt Morrison, alleging that there were "many
misleading elements" in her interview, without naming a single one.
Judging from the text of the Consul General's letter, it was probably
drafted by one of the many American public relations firms hired by
the Turkish government at great cost. While the words may have been
written by Americans, the thoughts are definitely those of a Turkish
denialist! P.R. firms don't really care how silly their letters
sound, as long as their employer is satisfied and compensates them
handsomely. Here is a piece of free advice that the Turkish government
and the Consul General should keep in mind before taking on again
the free press in a free country: "Never pick a fight with someone
who buys ink by the barrel."
Tekin is behaving as if he is still in Turkey, where the media is
routinely suppressed by such fascist tactics as throwing journalists
in jail or physically eliminating them. He is vainly trying to import
Turkey's undemocratic "gag rule" into the United States by trying to
silence the L.A. Times!
The Consul General goes on to attack me for the photograph that
accompanies the L.A. Times article, in which I am holding the
picture of my grandmother "garlanded with a bandolier of bullets." I
am very proud of grandma Gadar, because at a time when more than a
million Armenians were being marched to their deaths by the genocidal
rulers of Tekin's ancestors, she and her fellow Zeitountsis -- men,
women and children -- defended themselves valiantly and refused to
be slaughtered like sheep. Had she not fought to save her life, I
would not have existed today, which may have made the Consul General
happier! Is Tekin upset that the Turkish government was unable to
finish the job of exterminating every last Armenian?
Consul General Tekin then criticizes me for my "relentless opposition"
to the infamous Armenia-Turkey Protocols. He has no one else to blame
than his own government for not ratifying these Protocols which have
been collecting dust in the Turkish Parliament for more than six
months. Armenians are indeed fortunate that Turkey's leaders have
inadvertently protected Armenia's national interests by not ratifying
the Protocols, so that they could extract more concessions from the
Armenian government!
Incredibly, Tekin ends his pathetic letter by admonishing me to
be more like William Saroyan, who he claims was "compassionate"
toward Turks! May I remind the Turkish Consul of Saroyan's well-known
statement castigating the Turks for having destroyed Armenia and its
people. Here is the original version of that quotation, as it was
published in Inhale & Exhale, New York: Random House, 1936: "Go ahead,
destroy this race. Let us say that it is again 1915. There is war in
the world. Destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them from their
homes into the desert. Let them have neither bread nor water. Burn
their houses and their churches. See if they will not live again. See
if they will not laugh again. See if the race will not live again when
two of them meet in a beer parlor, twenty years after, and laugh, and
speak in their tongue. Go ahead, see if you can do anything about it.
See if you can stop them from mocking the big ideas of the world,
you sons of bitches, a couple of Armenians talking in the world,
go ahead and try to destroy them."
Could it be that the Turkish Consul General is trying to denigrate me,
because I have rejected his repeated invitations to get together, and