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Reflections from Diyarbakir: Delivering the Message of ARF Youth

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  • Reflections from Diyarbakir: Delivering the Message of ARF Youth

    Reflections from Diyarbakir: Delivering the Message of ARF Youth

    By Rupen Janbazian // December 28, 2013

    (Special to the Armenian Weekly)

    `Yes, I am Armenian. Fourth-generation Dikranagerdtsi...'

    Things seemed to come full-circle when I heard these words come out of
    his mouth, albeit translated from the language I was brought up to
    hate.

    Janbazian and Sarkis Degirmenjian delivering their speech.

    Navaf came rushing to the stage as we were coming off, ready to greet
    us with this piece of amazing news he had wanted to share for a long
    time now. My friend and I had just finished addressing the first youth
    conference of the Peace and Democracy of Turkey (BDP) in Diyarbakir
    (Dikranagerd). The mostly Kurdish crowd of supporters, upwards of
    30,000, had watched in astonishment as two representatives of the ARF
    Youth and Student Organizations addressed the crowd first in Armenian
    and later in Turkish. (Read the report on the conference here.)

    Although I had briefly studied the Turkish language during my
    university days, something within me, instinct perhaps, had never
    allowed me to become fluent; and so, I had the honor of addressing the
    crowd in Armenian. In a brief meeting with the conference organizers a
    day earlier, we had described why we'd be sharing our message in our
    native tongue. Our Kurdish counterparts said that the city of `Amed'
    hadn't heard Armenian being spoken from a stage in almost a century,
    and agreed that it was time.

    The participants in the BDP Youth Conference

    One would assume that a stadium full of Kurds who don't understand
    Armenian would be bored, uninterested, and ultimately
    indifferent - especially since we were speaking as representatives of a
    people who once called these lands `home.' Yet, we witnessed the exact
    opposite that day. As I read out loud what we had written in the
    Western Armenian dialect of my forefathers, the audience watched and
    listened attentively. It almost seemed like they understood everything
    I said. As if the words that had so eloquently been spoken in the
    streets of that city nearly a hundred years ago still had meaning for
    these people who were gathered there for a common, unifying purpose.

    Growing up in Toronto, I was lucky to have attended Armenian school
    from kindergarten through high school. After graduating, I made an
    extra effort to immerse myself in everything Armenian, in an attempt
    to not become a victim of what some call the jermag chart (`white
    genocide'). I read as much as possible about our history, and I did my
    best to keep up with the latest in Armenian news in Armenia and the
    diaspora. But when I learned that I'd be traveling to historic Armenia
    to meet with Kurdish youth, I realized I knew very little about
    Armenian-Kurdish relations. All I could recall from my 15 years of
    Armenian education was that a Kurdish representative had been elected
    to the Armenian Parliament during the first republic.

    When speaking about the Kurdish people, Armenian generally recall the
    darkest pages of our common history - they remember the days of the
    Armenian Genocide and brush off the Kurds as the `ones who really
    killed our ancestors.' It is true that local Kurdish tribes were armed
    to attack the Armenians in many towns and villages across the Ottoman
    Empire during the genocide.

    What is interesting, however, was that nearly a century after the
    genocide began, the descendants of those Kurds not only accepted our
    delegation in Dikranagerd with open arms, but actually apologized,
    time and time again, for the part some of their ancestors had in the
    genocide - something Armenians across the world wish to hear from the
    government of Turkey.

    I couldn't allow myself to be jaded by the negative narrative, so
    before making the trek to Dikranagerd I began reading up on the
    history of the Kurdish struggle in Turkey. What I quickly discovered
    was a story of a common history between our two peoples. I also
    learned about the good relations between Armenians and Kurds
    immediately after the genocide. From collaborations between the
    Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) and the Kurdish organization
    Khoyboun during the Kurdish rebellions in Dersim and Ararat, to the
    establishment of Kurdish radio broadcasts and newspapers in Soviet
    Armenia, it was amazing how intertwined the modern histories of our
    two people actually were.

    But what was truly eye opening and humbling was the way we were
    welcomed to the now mostly Kurdish-populated city that many of our
    ancestors inhabited. From the moment we were greeted at the airport,
    our hosts made it a point to make us feel at home. To make us feel
    like we had never left.

    Hospitality is a trait Armenians have been known to value for
    millennia, but what we experienced in our six days in Dikranagerd was
    something I had, quite unfortunately, never felt in Armenia nor in the
    Armenian Disapora, not to that extent, anyway. These people, who I had
    heard only negative things about from so many of my compatriots, were
    not only taking us to all the sites of Armenian civilization and
    culture in the city, but were giving us the factual, unadulterated
    history behind these places.

    They were ready to find common ground.

    Falling in the narrative trap can go both ways. It's always important
    to remember the past, to be cautious, and not take everything
    presented at face value. However, our time in Dikranagerd proved that
    there is a group of people there (who happen to constitute an
    overwhelming majority of the city) ready to build a common
    understanding between Armenian and Kurds. Moreover, they accept the
    validity of the Armenian Genocide and are brave enough to openly
    criticize the Turkish government's policy of denial - in Turkey.

    The Middle East is at a very significant juncture today. There is
    pressure for change, and the Kurdish people are central to these
    potential changes; this is a fact that all must accept. It is our duty
    as Armenians, regardless of where we may live, to have a vested
    interest in, for lack of a better term, the Kurdish Cause. Yes, for
    some it may seem too early or premature to develop a new
    Armenian-Kurdish global alliance, but it would be wrong not to begin
    the process of mutual understanding, of finding ways for our two
    people to cooperate rationally. We must at least speak to each other,
    face to face, based on mutual respect and consideration of the
    interests of both peoples.

    Navaf was only one of the dozens who approached us that day after our
    talk, so eager to tell us about his Armenian roots and embrace us as
    if we were family. These people were proud of their origins. And they
    were proud to still be on the lands we've been taught to one day
    reclaim.

    We should never forget the dark pages of our shared history with these
    people, but we should also not allow years of negative rhetoric to
    prevent the possibility of the realization of our people's rightful
    cause. Let's not let the `bad blood' stand in the way of something
    bigger.



    Rupen Janbazian was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is
    a graduate of the University of Toronto, where he completed a double
    major in history and Near and Middle Eastern civilizations. He has
    served on the local and national executives of the Armenian Youth
    Federation (AYF) Canada and Hamazkayin Toronto, and served as the
    administrator of the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Toronto.
    Janbazian also taught Armenian history and creative writing at the
    Armenian Relief Society (ARS) Armenian School of Toronto. He recently
    relocated to Yerevan, where he works on a number of organizational and
    personal projects.

    http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/12/28/reflections-from-diyarbakir-delivering-the-message-of-arf-youth/

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