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TURKEY MUST LOSE ITS IDENTITY
Siranuysh Papyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/interview27568.html
Published: 16:35:08 - 01/10/2012
Interview with Aris Nalci, IMC TV company, ex-editor of the
Turkey-based Agos Newspaper
Aris, IMC TV company broadcasts programs on ethnic minorities. Since
Turkey is the second in the world by arrests of reporters, how do
you protect yourself from duress?
First, we have three offices in Istanbul, Germany and England. Two
years ago when the idea of setting up a TV company occurred, the
purpose was to act as a bridge for Armenian-Turkish relations. The
footages are mainly in the Armenian-Turkish relations. Now the bridge
is there even without the protocols but the issue of minorities is
already spoken about. The purpose is to prepare a private program about
minorities. By the way, we do not introduce ourselves as minority
because the minorities - Armenians, Greeks, Kurds, Christians -are
not minorities here anymore, they are the master of this country.
Isn't it dangerous to state so?
It is certainly dangerous but we must use the right word at last
because the Armenians, Greeks, Jews must not be presented as minorities
because this is the goal that the Turkish government pursues. If
you say that you are a minority, everything can happen to you but
when you say you are the master of this country, it means this is
your country. Such programs change the language and consciousness of
people. There is some progress. More and more people get interested,
we are in the focus of the mass media. We act as a bridge. Look,
when we started reporting more Armenian news, the other TV channels
started making inquiries with us, for example, how to contact Levon
Aronyan, they asked for our help to hold an interview with him. We
can already make two or three reports a day about the Greek, Armenian,
Jewish communities and even Turkish programs have started telephoning
Armenians for comments, involving them in the process. Turkey has
drafted a new regulation for students, and if we host three teachers,
one is a Turk, the second is a Kurd, the third is an Armenian. In
this way, the TV channels learn that there are Armenian schools,
Armenian teachers. I visited Diyarbakir a few days ago, and everyone,
including the hotel staff, said they follow our programs. We will
thus extend our audience, the program becomes more valuable. Now we
already get phone calls, everyone raises an issue worth coverage.
Did the freezing of the Armenian and Turkish protocols further deepen
the crisis between the two countries? Turkish journalists say on these
days they do not care for them and the Armenian-Turkish normalization
is not in focus.
I think, although there is no process of bureaucratic matters and
politeness any more, a lot has been achieved at the level of publics,
people got to know more about each other, the Armenians have started
speaking about the Armenian genocide more often on the Turkish media,
someone of Armenia, for example, wrote about ethnic genocides in
Turkey. And they started thinking that reflections are not only on
the protocols but there are other issues which need coverage and
comments. For this reason, I think we should not be worse but better
because the Armenian community of Turkey has even become a little
more active, a lot is being done in this direction. Five members of
the staff of the municipality of Diyarbakir are Armenians, which
is an important circumstance. They are aware of the importance of
having Armenian employees on board because now we are in Diyarbakir,
a week ago another Armenian group was there, and earlier another
group had come so they start getting in touch with Armenia, and the
mayor respects Armenians. This is highly important for establishing
relations.
However, the contacts were not effective for Armenian-Turkish
normalization, were they?
Yes, in terms of normalization, probably they weren't, there are no
results, the Kurdish side is more proactive regarding the Armenian
genocide and ahead of the parliamentary election 2014 it must be more
interested in having Armenian representatives to the National Assembly
and establish relations with Armenia. The Kurdish Peace and Democracy
Party has included the Turkish-Armenian normalization in its papers,
which is the first case among political parties. The important question
is how Armenians are treated. They started to study. It is impossible
that families do not have Armenian roots.
What should be done about those people? OK, you are an Armenian but
you should not necessarily be a Christian. The important thing is
that you escaped from the genocide but if you are an Armenian, you
are one of us. If we think this way, there are 2.5 million Armenians,
and these two and a half million Armenians are very important for the
normalization. Meanwhile, according to official data, there are 45,000
Armenians. Imagine what will happen if 2.5 million people speak about
their Armenian origin.
There are families some members of which confess their Armenian
origin while the other members deny. Turkey must lose its identity
for the investigation to confirm it later. The biggest issue in the
Turkish history is the genocide of 1915. There is another fact. Some
teachers already refuse to teach false history, they don't want to
falsify history but not all the schools do. Hasan Cemal's1915.
Armenian Genocide got a strong reaction because Cemal Pasha's grandson
is speaking about the genocide of 1915. He is Cemal's grandson so they
will not punish him, but had someone else written it, he would undergo
duress. He turned taboo into an issue and he even set to write about
it, serving as a model for common people not to fear their identity.
What part of the Turkish population of 80 million knows about the
genocide?
70% have heard the word genocide but they know what happened and how
it happened. Intellectuals are hardly 40%.
Siranuysh Papyan
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/interview27568.html
Published: 16:35:08 - 01/10/2012
Interview with Aris Nalci, IMC TV company, ex-editor of the
Turkey-based Agos Newspaper
Aris, IMC TV company broadcasts programs on ethnic minorities. Since
Turkey is the second in the world by arrests of reporters, how do
you protect yourself from duress?
First, we have three offices in Istanbul, Germany and England. Two
years ago when the idea of setting up a TV company occurred, the
purpose was to act as a bridge for Armenian-Turkish relations. The
footages are mainly in the Armenian-Turkish relations. Now the bridge
is there even without the protocols but the issue of minorities is
already spoken about. The purpose is to prepare a private program about
minorities. By the way, we do not introduce ourselves as minority
because the minorities - Armenians, Greeks, Kurds, Christians -are
not minorities here anymore, they are the master of this country.
Isn't it dangerous to state so?
It is certainly dangerous but we must use the right word at last
because the Armenians, Greeks, Jews must not be presented as minorities
because this is the goal that the Turkish government pursues. If
you say that you are a minority, everything can happen to you but
when you say you are the master of this country, it means this is
your country. Such programs change the language and consciousness of
people. There is some progress. More and more people get interested,
we are in the focus of the mass media. We act as a bridge. Look,
when we started reporting more Armenian news, the other TV channels
started making inquiries with us, for example, how to contact Levon
Aronyan, they asked for our help to hold an interview with him. We
can already make two or three reports a day about the Greek, Armenian,
Jewish communities and even Turkish programs have started telephoning
Armenians for comments, involving them in the process. Turkey has
drafted a new regulation for students, and if we host three teachers,
one is a Turk, the second is a Kurd, the third is an Armenian. In
this way, the TV channels learn that there are Armenian schools,
Armenian teachers. I visited Diyarbakir a few days ago, and everyone,
including the hotel staff, said they follow our programs. We will
thus extend our audience, the program becomes more valuable. Now we
already get phone calls, everyone raises an issue worth coverage.
Did the freezing of the Armenian and Turkish protocols further deepen
the crisis between the two countries? Turkish journalists say on these
days they do not care for them and the Armenian-Turkish normalization
is not in focus.
I think, although there is no process of bureaucratic matters and
politeness any more, a lot has been achieved at the level of publics,
people got to know more about each other, the Armenians have started
speaking about the Armenian genocide more often on the Turkish media,
someone of Armenia, for example, wrote about ethnic genocides in
Turkey. And they started thinking that reflections are not only on
the protocols but there are other issues which need coverage and
comments. For this reason, I think we should not be worse but better
because the Armenian community of Turkey has even become a little
more active, a lot is being done in this direction. Five members of
the staff of the municipality of Diyarbakir are Armenians, which
is an important circumstance. They are aware of the importance of
having Armenian employees on board because now we are in Diyarbakir,
a week ago another Armenian group was there, and earlier another
group had come so they start getting in touch with Armenia, and the
mayor respects Armenians. This is highly important for establishing
relations.
However, the contacts were not effective for Armenian-Turkish
normalization, were they?
Yes, in terms of normalization, probably they weren't, there are no
results, the Kurdish side is more proactive regarding the Armenian
genocide and ahead of the parliamentary election 2014 it must be more
interested in having Armenian representatives to the National Assembly
and establish relations with Armenia. The Kurdish Peace and Democracy
Party has included the Turkish-Armenian normalization in its papers,
which is the first case among political parties. The important question
is how Armenians are treated. They started to study. It is impossible
that families do not have Armenian roots.
What should be done about those people? OK, you are an Armenian but
you should not necessarily be a Christian. The important thing is
that you escaped from the genocide but if you are an Armenian, you
are one of us. If we think this way, there are 2.5 million Armenians,
and these two and a half million Armenians are very important for the
normalization. Meanwhile, according to official data, there are 45,000
Armenians. Imagine what will happen if 2.5 million people speak about
their Armenian origin.
There are families some members of which confess their Armenian
origin while the other members deny. Turkey must lose its identity
for the investigation to confirm it later. The biggest issue in the
Turkish history is the genocide of 1915. There is another fact. Some
teachers already refuse to teach false history, they don't want to
falsify history but not all the schools do. Hasan Cemal's1915.
Armenian Genocide got a strong reaction because Cemal Pasha's grandson
is speaking about the genocide of 1915. He is Cemal's grandson so they
will not punish him, but had someone else written it, he would undergo
duress. He turned taboo into an issue and he even set to write about
it, serving as a model for common people not to fear their identity.
What part of the Turkish population of 80 million knows about the
genocide?
70% have heard the word genocide but they know what happened and how
it happened. Intellectuals are hardly 40%.