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ASSAULTING ARMENIANS IN TURKEY: THIS TIME IT'S OLD LADIES
Christopher Atamian
Writer, director, producer, and translator
Posted: 01/31/2013 2:12 pm
Turkey , Armenian Genocide , Adiyaman , Alevis , Armenians , Assyrians
, Constantinople , Istanbul , Kurds , Samatya , Shabin-Karahisar ,
World News
There are few things more deleterious to human peace and mutual
understanding than knee-jerk reactionary nationalism or ethnic
generalizations. That being said, I have been shocked by the attacks
in the past few weeks that have been perpetrated in the Samatya
neighborhood of Istanbul on elderly Armenian women, one of them as she
was on her way to church. Is this the increasingly tolerant Turkey
that we keep reading about in the press and in white papers at
conferences around the world? Granted, this may be the work of one
isolated crazed killer; its effects are nonetheless chilling.
Although the Turkish police has apparently sent countless plainclothes
officers to parole the Samatya area, not enough has been done to decry
these cowardly attacks or to publicize them in the Turkish press --
the Armenian-Turkish publication Agos notwithstanding. What kind of a
coward attacks eighty- and ninety-year-old women on their way to
church, stabbing them to death in one case and beating another
senseless in the other? Coming as this does on the heels of the sixth
anniversary of Turkish-Amenian journalist and human rights activist
Hrant Dink's assassination in front of Agos headquarters, these
attacks are particularly alarming. And given the history of
subjugation and persecution that Christians faced during the Ottoman
Empire and the upcoming 100th memorial of the Armenian genocide of
1915 -- which also saw the annihilation of Turkey's Assyrians and
Pontic Greek populations -- these aggressions are particularly
shameless. The Armenian community of Istanbul, called Bolsahays in
Armenian, are understandably alarmed and cowed. As a result they have
stayed largely silent about these latest attacks on their community.
But they shouldn't stay silent. The Bolsahays must not let the forces
of xenophobia and hatred win out. They should form neighborhood
watches and escort their elderly to and from market and church if
necessary. Along with the equally persecuted Alevi and Kurdish
minorities, they must make their voices heard as much as they can in
official and unofficial Turkish channels and become agents of change.
Easy to say, writing from the safety of the Upper West Side, some
might snicker. But the alternative is to appear defenseless and to
invite more attacks.
I happen to be a great fan of Turkish culture and the Turkish
language, and a true lover of Istanbul, once one of the world's great
cosmopolitan cities. My Turkish friends always encourage me to visit,
to spend time, even to come back and live in Turkey as my ancestors
once did. But I need more than just these righteous few and their
welcome encouragement in order to believe that there exists a safe
haven in Turkey for people such as myself, descendants of Armenian
genocide victims deported form their homes in Shabin-Karahisar and
Adiyaman and a myriad of other villages into the Syrian desert. I need
-- the entire world needs -- for Turks to rise up en masse and say
enough! No more violence against our Christian, Kurdish or Alevi
minorities. We need the Turkish government to come clean and make
reparations for 1915 and we need their ongoing campaign of hatred --
in Turkish schoolbooks and on TV and in the written press -- to end,
once and for all. Then Turkey can claim its rightful place as a great
country and become cosmopolitan and tolerant, one fully cognizant of
the fact that it is a country -- like the United States -- in fact
made up of a mosaic of interwoven and beautifully different yet
similar ethnicities and religions. It has been almost 100 years since
the Armenians of Anatolia disappeared into a haze of brutal pillage
and destruction. Turkey can transform itself from a denialist state
into a beacon of hope for the Middle East, but it must start now and
act quickly. There can be no more dithering. Time is of the essence.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-atamian/hunting-armenians-again-turkey_b_2562371.html
From: A. Papazian
Christopher Atamian
Writer, director, producer, and translator
Posted: 01/31/2013 2:12 pm
Turkey , Armenian Genocide , Adiyaman , Alevis , Armenians , Assyrians
, Constantinople , Istanbul , Kurds , Samatya , Shabin-Karahisar ,
World News
There are few things more deleterious to human peace and mutual
understanding than knee-jerk reactionary nationalism or ethnic
generalizations. That being said, I have been shocked by the attacks
in the past few weeks that have been perpetrated in the Samatya
neighborhood of Istanbul on elderly Armenian women, one of them as she
was on her way to church. Is this the increasingly tolerant Turkey
that we keep reading about in the press and in white papers at
conferences around the world? Granted, this may be the work of one
isolated crazed killer; its effects are nonetheless chilling.
Although the Turkish police has apparently sent countless plainclothes
officers to parole the Samatya area, not enough has been done to decry
these cowardly attacks or to publicize them in the Turkish press --
the Armenian-Turkish publication Agos notwithstanding. What kind of a
coward attacks eighty- and ninety-year-old women on their way to
church, stabbing them to death in one case and beating another
senseless in the other? Coming as this does on the heels of the sixth
anniversary of Turkish-Amenian journalist and human rights activist
Hrant Dink's assassination in front of Agos headquarters, these
attacks are particularly alarming. And given the history of
subjugation and persecution that Christians faced during the Ottoman
Empire and the upcoming 100th memorial of the Armenian genocide of
1915 -- which also saw the annihilation of Turkey's Assyrians and
Pontic Greek populations -- these aggressions are particularly
shameless. The Armenian community of Istanbul, called Bolsahays in
Armenian, are understandably alarmed and cowed. As a result they have
stayed largely silent about these latest attacks on their community.
But they shouldn't stay silent. The Bolsahays must not let the forces
of xenophobia and hatred win out. They should form neighborhood
watches and escort their elderly to and from market and church if
necessary. Along with the equally persecuted Alevi and Kurdish
minorities, they must make their voices heard as much as they can in
official and unofficial Turkish channels and become agents of change.
Easy to say, writing from the safety of the Upper West Side, some
might snicker. But the alternative is to appear defenseless and to
invite more attacks.
I happen to be a great fan of Turkish culture and the Turkish
language, and a true lover of Istanbul, once one of the world's great
cosmopolitan cities. My Turkish friends always encourage me to visit,
to spend time, even to come back and live in Turkey as my ancestors
once did. But I need more than just these righteous few and their
welcome encouragement in order to believe that there exists a safe
haven in Turkey for people such as myself, descendants of Armenian
genocide victims deported form their homes in Shabin-Karahisar and
Adiyaman and a myriad of other villages into the Syrian desert. I need
-- the entire world needs -- for Turks to rise up en masse and say
enough! No more violence against our Christian, Kurdish or Alevi
minorities. We need the Turkish government to come clean and make
reparations for 1915 and we need their ongoing campaign of hatred --
in Turkish schoolbooks and on TV and in the written press -- to end,
once and for all. Then Turkey can claim its rightful place as a great
country and become cosmopolitan and tolerant, one fully cognizant of
the fact that it is a country -- like the United States -- in fact
made up of a mosaic of interwoven and beautifully different yet
similar ethnicities and religions. It has been almost 100 years since
the Armenians of Anatolia disappeared into a haze of brutal pillage
and destruction. Turkey can transform itself from a denialist state
into a beacon of hope for the Middle East, but it must start now and
act quickly. There can be no more dithering. Time is of the essence.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-atamian/hunting-armenians-again-turkey_b_2562371.html
From: A. Papazian