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  • Second-Class Citizens In A 'Democratic' Country

    SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS IN A 'DEMOCRATIC' COUNTRY

    EDITORIAL | AUGUST 6, 2013 4:05 PM
    ________________________________

    By Edmond Y. Azadian

    As the current Islamic administration tries to dismantle Ataturk's
    legacy, much dirt is being unearthed in Turkey.

    The fallout from that ideological warfare has been benefitting the
    minorities, albeit, inadvertently.

    Recently a document has surfaced revealing the racist nature of
    Turkey's successive administrations following the establishment of the
    Turkish Republic by Ataturk in 1923. The official document, prepared
    by the Istanbul Provincial Education Directorate, states that Turkey's
    population administration system has been recording citizens who have
    Armenian, Jewish or Anatolian Greek origins with secret "race codes."

    For example, citizens of Armenian origin are coded with the number 2,
    while Greeks were given the code of 1, and Jews, 3.

    An official from the Population Administration has told Radikal
    newspaper that the practice was being conducted "to allow minority
    groups use of their rights stemming from the Lausanne Treaty." This
    official Turkish explanation very much resembles the justification
    efforts by Turkish authorities - until today - that during World War
    I, the government was so concerned with the safety of the Armenian
    minority that it deported members of that group to "safer zones,"
    meaning the Der Zor desert, where, of course, they perished.

    Armenians did not have to wait for this document to surface to find
    out that they were treated as second-class citizens.

    But as the taboos are being broken (though not removed), politicians
    have begun to question these tactics and the treatment of minorities:
    Altan Tan, a member of parliament from the Peace and Democratic
    Party, has stated that "for a long time those allegations had been
    circulating, but they were denied by the authorities."

    Tan urged Interior Minister Muammer Guler to make a statement on the
    issue. "If there is such a thing going on, it is a major disaster. The
    state illegally profiling its own citizens based on ethnicity and
    religion, and doing this secretly, is a big catastrophe," Tan said.

    Even after the Genocide, the remaining Armenians in Turkey experienced
    the brunt of this discriminatory racist policy. One expression of
    that policy was the "wealth tax" (varlik vergisi), which was levied
    on Armenians, Jews and Greeks in the 1940s; those who were unable to
    pay the exorbitant taxes were sent to labor camps to perish.

    Another policy which exists to this day is the appointment of Turkish
    assistant principals at Armenian schools. The community is free to
    hire an Armenian principal, but the power resides in the hands of the
    assistant principal, who must be an ethnic Turk. In reality, Turks
    serving in that capacity are the official government spies, placed
    there to enforce restrictive government policies and to report to
    higher-ups if any Armenian history is being taught secretly in those
    schools. That is why young people graduating from Armenian schools
    and emigrating to the West are dumbfounded to discover there is such
    a thing called Armenian history.

    The Kurds do not have any race codes because they had been designated
    for assimilation. Beginning with Ataturk, who perpetrated the Dersim
    pogroms against the Kurds, successive administrations have been trying
    to convince the Kurds that there is no distinct ethnic group known
    as Kurd; that the Kurds better consider themselves as "mountain Turks."

    Despite all atrocities and persecutions, no Kurd was ever convinced
    to be anything but a Kurd.

    The Kurdish minority - which accounts for one third of Turkey's
    population - is on the verge of emancipation. The establishment of
    Iraqi Kurdistan has fueled aspirations of the Kurds throughout the
    region and especially in Turkey. It looks like in the bloodbath of the
    civil war in Syria, another autonomous region for Kurds is shaping up.

    Painfully aware of the writing on the wall, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
    Erdogan is engaged in a guessing game with the Kurds. He has already
    cut a deal with the jailed leader of the Kurds, Abdullah Ocalan,
    to move the Kurdish guerillas out of Turkish territory. The Kurds
    have accomplished their side of the deal and are waiting impatiently
    for the government's move: knowing Mr. Erdogan's duplicity he will
    either offer some cosmetic changes in the status of the Kurds or,
    holding the unarmed population hostage, he will resort back to his
    old habit of trying to impose a military solution to the Kurdish issue.

    Without a question the Armenian community in Turkey is breathing
    easier. Sixteen percent of confiscated community assets are promised to
    be returned to the community. Newspapers like Agos are writing freely
    about democracy which will benefit all the citizens of the country.

    But Armenians are very cautious based on their historic experiences.

    Once burnt, twice shy. The years 1909-1914 brought a period of hope
    and expression of cultural freedom to all minorities in the Ottoman
    Empire, only to be followed by the Genocide.

    Later, during the 1950s and 60s, when Adnan Menderes was democratically
    elected as prime minister (1950-1960), the dictatorial instincts of
    the authorities were tamed. The Armenians, along with other minorities,
    engaged in some freedoms. A representative of the Armenian community -
    Mugurditch Shellefian - was even elected to the parliament.

    But then the 1960 military coup sent Menderes to the gallows,
    along with all the liberties that he had brought. Minorities again
    experienced the brunt of the repression.

    The last coup was staged by Kenan Evren in 1980 and the constitution
    promulgated by his military regime in 1982 is still enforced in Turkey.

    During Evren's iron-fisted rule (1980-1989), Turkey's minorities
    experienced the worst period of repression.

    At age 96 that tyrant is still alive in Turkey and very recently
    boasted that after the military coup his hands did not shake when he
    signed the death warrants of 35 politicians and said he would repeat
    his act again at any time.

    Recent documents also surfaced in which this bloodthirsty despot
    justified the murder of 1.5 million Armenians as a "necessary" and
    "legal" act.

    Even the minister of defense in Erdogan's previous cabinet had asked
    the rhetorical question if Turkey would have enjoyed its present
    vast territory if it had not deported its minorities. And yet the
    West embraces Turkey as a "model democracy" for the Islamic world.

    The Paris-based Reporters without Borders has referred to Turkey as
    "the world's biggest prison for reporters" and ranked it 154th out
    of 179 countries, behind Iraq and Russia, in its 2013 ranking of the
    world press index.

    Turkey continues to be a minefield for the Armenians. They cannot
    breath freely, despite current illusive trends. They know they have to
    be cautious, as long as those bloodhounds are around and live freely
    in the country.

    They realize their race code 2 is still in force and they know they
    are second-class citizens.

    - See more at:
    http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2013/08/06/second-class-citizens-in-a-democratic-country/#sthash.eTKPS1lS.dpuf

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