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Gunaysu: My Views on Post-Genocidal Turkey
by Ayse Gunaysu
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/01/02/gunaysu-my-views-on-post-genocidal-turkey/
January 2, 2013
Below is the full text of a speech delivered by Armenian Weekly
columnist Ayse Gunaysu during a panel discussion at the Grotowski
Institute in Wroclaw, Poland on Nov. 10. For more about the event,
A scene from the panel discussion
I thank the Grotowski Institute for inviting me, and for their
generous hospitality. And I thank you, dear audience, for taking the
time and coming to listen to us. I feel privileged to be here with
you.
I'm a Muslim Turk by birth. In other words a descendant of the
perpetrators of the Genocide of Ottoman Armenians, Assyrians and
Greeks. I'm not a historian, not a scholar, or a writer. Just a human
rights activist. So I can only share with you my feelings and my views
about post-Genocidal Turkey.
Now... I ask you to imagine that I am a German woman, coming from Germany.
But imagine that Germany was not defeated in the WWII, on the contrary
it was the victorious side and therefore was not caught red-handed in
the crimes it committed. The world didn't have the chance to see the
films of gas chambers and the heap of dead bodies. And imagine that
Germany used all the technology and industrial power it had to cover
up and deny the Holocaust. Imagine the Holocaust/Shoah is denied in
Germany officially, publicly, socially, culturally, in every sense.
Of course denial is not only to say `no, that did not happen.' Imagine
that the whole state apparatus and the social life is organized around
this denial. The text books, the mainstream media, the academia, the
civil society, internet all say the same thing, trying to justify the
extermination of Jews and others. They say it was not without reason.
It was inevitable. We had to do that for the survival of our nation.
Moreover it was not us who butchered them. They butchered us.
Imagine museums, encyclopedias, exhibitions in Germany all tell these
lies and what's much more terrible, almost all German people believe
the government wholeheartedly, with no doubt at all.
Imagine that the remaining Jews are targeted by German racists, and
hate speech against Jews is a normal thing in Germany. Imagine Jews
live under such conditions in Germany.
A question: With such a Germany and such a denial of the Holocaust,
would Europe be the same? Would Poland be the same? Would there be a
Grotowski Institute?
I asked you to imagine this to once again think on how a denial of
Genocide would change life itself.
In such a life objective reality means NOTHING. Just nothing.
Objective reality doesn't count at all. What determines life is the
subjective reality - i.e. what people sincerely believe.
This is exactly the case with Turkey in the context of Armenians and
the Armenian Genocide. This is the Turkey where I come from.
Recognition, repentance humility, feeling shame make one a human. In
the absence of this, a people, a country is liable to commit new
crimes, to normalize violence, in fact makes violence a way of life -
just is the case with Turkey. In the absence of these there is no room
for a sort of catharsis, repentance and cleaning oneself off the
guilt. This is the case with Turkey since the Genocide. The successive
governments went on and still go on committing new crimes.
Now a few words about me. I hope my story will offer some kind of
insight into the reality of Turkey. I was a Marxist-Leninist, a
Communist, a secret member of the outlawed Communist Party of Turkey
between 1970-1985.
We were devoted anti-imperialists, particularly anti-American. For us
Turkey was under imperialist oppression and exploitation. So national
independence of our country was one of our top priorities. In other
words the `evil' was outside of us. We didn't see the evil within our
country. The enemy was far away, so cursing and shouting slogans
against the far-away enemy was much more easy and convenient than
fighting the evil right beside us.Despite our outspoken
internationalism, we were surely nationalists without being aware of
it.
We were anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist believing in class
struggle but we became anti-fascist, only after the para-military,
government-backed ultra-nationalist mobs started to kill us in the
street, in our homes, in factories, at schools in the late 1970's.
But fascism was for us an anti-communist movement. We never woke up to
see that fascists were racist Turks as well reflecting the racist
essence of the Turkish state, the extension of the Genocidal Ottoman
Empire.
Oh yes, we, the Turkish left, were - undoubtedly, surely and
vehemently anti-racist.
But which racism? The racism in the United States and in the South
Africa - again far away from us. Racism had nothing to do with our
country! We were totally blind to the very racist environment we were
living in. Denial of Genocide, hate speech against Armenians and
non-Muslims in general, discrimination, portraying non-Muslims as
potential traitors were all around us and we didn't see it! We were
like fish living in a sea of racism without being aware of it.
Our blindness was so much so that we didn't even think of campaigning
against the Nazi-like `oath' children were made to chant every morning
at school. Generations of children started and are starting today
classes every morning with that `Oath,' chanted together as loud as
they can: that we were proud of being Turks and we were ready to
sacrifice our own existence for the sake of the existence of
Turkishness! Every morning! Together with a handful of our non-Turkish
and non-Muslim class-mates: Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Kurds!
This went on and on for decades. Non of our `international',
Marxist-Leninist selfless comrades - including myself - initiated a
campaign against this Nazi-like practice at schools.
OK, we were `internationalists' But what kind of an internationalism was it?
We would give our lives for the national liberation wars in Africa and
Asia. We sang Latin American revolutionaries' songs, memorized their
slogans, we shed tears for Angola. But we were unaware of what was
happening under our nose. We knew nothing and said nothing about the
Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians - tiny communities, the children of
the genocide victims doomed to live in a racist environment. And Kurds
in Kurdish provinces who were subject to practically different
legislation - under a permanent state of emergency law.
We were masters of the history of the Soviet Communist Party in every
detail, Trotsky's fight against Stalin, the history of the Vietnamese
fight against America, but we didn't know the true history of our own
country. But why?
Because of a very successful disinformation and manipulation of
Turkish republic's founding ideology and the founding myths. The
history re-written by the Kemalist leadership, in a totally misleading
way. Let's not go into details - it will take a lot of time.
What happened to Turkey after 1915? Turkey found no peace ever after,
no real democracy, no real development. Once the developed urban West
Armenia with colleges, theaters, rich cultural life became a barren
land, a land of blood and tears. Kurdish uprisings followed one
another repressed with huge bloodshed and forced displacements.
Military interventions followed one another. The one in 1980 was a
disaster. Tens of thousands of people were jailed, unimaginable
methods of torture was used, many died in prison and 36 people were
executed. Despite formal restoration of democratic institutions the
Constitution in force today is essentially the Constitution adopted by
the military rule.
Now a war is going on in the southeast Turkey, the historical Western
Armenia and Kurdistan. It is estimated that 50 thousand people died,
most of them Kurds. Now 10 thousand Kurdish human rights activists,
municipal workers, politicians, people engaged in a total peaceful
struggle are in jail. And a massive hunger strike is under way.
Genocide denial is the destruction of all collective values, all
ethics, all sense of justice, in one word the hearts and minds of the
entire nation.
You may hear that things are cha
nging in Turkey as regards the Armenian `issue' as they say. Yes, but
very slowly, very irregularly and very disappointingly.
Thank you for listening to me.
by Ayse Gunaysu
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/01/02/gunaysu-my-views-on-post-genocidal-turkey/
January 2, 2013
Below is the full text of a speech delivered by Armenian Weekly
columnist Ayse Gunaysu during a panel discussion at the Grotowski
Institute in Wroclaw, Poland on Nov. 10. For more about the event,
A scene from the panel discussion
I thank the Grotowski Institute for inviting me, and for their
generous hospitality. And I thank you, dear audience, for taking the
time and coming to listen to us. I feel privileged to be here with
you.
I'm a Muslim Turk by birth. In other words a descendant of the
perpetrators of the Genocide of Ottoman Armenians, Assyrians and
Greeks. I'm not a historian, not a scholar, or a writer. Just a human
rights activist. So I can only share with you my feelings and my views
about post-Genocidal Turkey.
Now... I ask you to imagine that I am a German woman, coming from Germany.
But imagine that Germany was not defeated in the WWII, on the contrary
it was the victorious side and therefore was not caught red-handed in
the crimes it committed. The world didn't have the chance to see the
films of gas chambers and the heap of dead bodies. And imagine that
Germany used all the technology and industrial power it had to cover
up and deny the Holocaust. Imagine the Holocaust/Shoah is denied in
Germany officially, publicly, socially, culturally, in every sense.
Of course denial is not only to say `no, that did not happen.' Imagine
that the whole state apparatus and the social life is organized around
this denial. The text books, the mainstream media, the academia, the
civil society, internet all say the same thing, trying to justify the
extermination of Jews and others. They say it was not without reason.
It was inevitable. We had to do that for the survival of our nation.
Moreover it was not us who butchered them. They butchered us.
Imagine museums, encyclopedias, exhibitions in Germany all tell these
lies and what's much more terrible, almost all German people believe
the government wholeheartedly, with no doubt at all.
Imagine that the remaining Jews are targeted by German racists, and
hate speech against Jews is a normal thing in Germany. Imagine Jews
live under such conditions in Germany.
A question: With such a Germany and such a denial of the Holocaust,
would Europe be the same? Would Poland be the same? Would there be a
Grotowski Institute?
I asked you to imagine this to once again think on how a denial of
Genocide would change life itself.
In such a life objective reality means NOTHING. Just nothing.
Objective reality doesn't count at all. What determines life is the
subjective reality - i.e. what people sincerely believe.
This is exactly the case with Turkey in the context of Armenians and
the Armenian Genocide. This is the Turkey where I come from.
Recognition, repentance humility, feeling shame make one a human. In
the absence of this, a people, a country is liable to commit new
crimes, to normalize violence, in fact makes violence a way of life -
just is the case with Turkey. In the absence of these there is no room
for a sort of catharsis, repentance and cleaning oneself off the
guilt. This is the case with Turkey since the Genocide. The successive
governments went on and still go on committing new crimes.
Now a few words about me. I hope my story will offer some kind of
insight into the reality of Turkey. I was a Marxist-Leninist, a
Communist, a secret member of the outlawed Communist Party of Turkey
between 1970-1985.
We were devoted anti-imperialists, particularly anti-American. For us
Turkey was under imperialist oppression and exploitation. So national
independence of our country was one of our top priorities. In other
words the `evil' was outside of us. We didn't see the evil within our
country. The enemy was far away, so cursing and shouting slogans
against the far-away enemy was much more easy and convenient than
fighting the evil right beside us.Despite our outspoken
internationalism, we were surely nationalists without being aware of
it.
We were anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist believing in class
struggle but we became anti-fascist, only after the para-military,
government-backed ultra-nationalist mobs started to kill us in the
street, in our homes, in factories, at schools in the late 1970's.
But fascism was for us an anti-communist movement. We never woke up to
see that fascists were racist Turks as well reflecting the racist
essence of the Turkish state, the extension of the Genocidal Ottoman
Empire.
Oh yes, we, the Turkish left, were - undoubtedly, surely and
vehemently anti-racist.
But which racism? The racism in the United States and in the South
Africa - again far away from us. Racism had nothing to do with our
country! We were totally blind to the very racist environment we were
living in. Denial of Genocide, hate speech against Armenians and
non-Muslims in general, discrimination, portraying non-Muslims as
potential traitors were all around us and we didn't see it! We were
like fish living in a sea of racism without being aware of it.
Our blindness was so much so that we didn't even think of campaigning
against the Nazi-like `oath' children were made to chant every morning
at school. Generations of children started and are starting today
classes every morning with that `Oath,' chanted together as loud as
they can: that we were proud of being Turks and we were ready to
sacrifice our own existence for the sake of the existence of
Turkishness! Every morning! Together with a handful of our non-Turkish
and non-Muslim class-mates: Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Kurds!
This went on and on for decades. Non of our `international',
Marxist-Leninist selfless comrades - including myself - initiated a
campaign against this Nazi-like practice at schools.
OK, we were `internationalists' But what kind of an internationalism was it?
We would give our lives for the national liberation wars in Africa and
Asia. We sang Latin American revolutionaries' songs, memorized their
slogans, we shed tears for Angola. But we were unaware of what was
happening under our nose. We knew nothing and said nothing about the
Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians - tiny communities, the children of
the genocide victims doomed to live in a racist environment. And Kurds
in Kurdish provinces who were subject to practically different
legislation - under a permanent state of emergency law.
We were masters of the history of the Soviet Communist Party in every
detail, Trotsky's fight against Stalin, the history of the Vietnamese
fight against America, but we didn't know the true history of our own
country. But why?
Because of a very successful disinformation and manipulation of
Turkish republic's founding ideology and the founding myths. The
history re-written by the Kemalist leadership, in a totally misleading
way. Let's not go into details - it will take a lot of time.
What happened to Turkey after 1915? Turkey found no peace ever after,
no real democracy, no real development. Once the developed urban West
Armenia with colleges, theaters, rich cultural life became a barren
land, a land of blood and tears. Kurdish uprisings followed one
another repressed with huge bloodshed and forced displacements.
Military interventions followed one another. The one in 1980 was a
disaster. Tens of thousands of people were jailed, unimaginable
methods of torture was used, many died in prison and 36 people were
executed. Despite formal restoration of democratic institutions the
Constitution in force today is essentially the Constitution adopted by
the military rule.
Now a war is going on in the southeast Turkey, the historical Western
Armenia and Kurdistan. It is estimated that 50 thousand people died,
most of them Kurds. Now 10 thousand Kurdish human rights activists,
municipal workers, politicians, people engaged in a total peaceful
struggle are in jail. And a massive hunger strike is under way.
Genocide denial is the destruction of all collective values, all
ethics, all sense of justice, in one word the hearts and minds of the
entire nation.
You may hear that things are cha
nging in Turkey as regards the Armenian `issue' as they say. Yes, but
very slowly, very irregularly and very disappointingly.
Thank you for listening to me.