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TURKISH JOURNALIST: PEOPLE ARE PERSISTENT, THEY WILL NOT STOP
Protests for Gezi Park continue on Teksim Square of Istanbul. We met
and talked to the Turkish photojournalist Umud Vedat visiting Armenia
Umud, thousands of Turkish citizens took to the street against the
project of mall in the place of Gezi Park. Is the Arab spring in the
air or is it an awakening of civil consciousness?
If we compare developments in Turkey with the Arab spring, we will see
several differences. First, there is not an economic issue because the
Turkish economy is developing equally. For the first time in the past
one hundred years people felt they want to resist dictatorship. The
public was fighting against the Kemalist dictatorship for 90 years,
resisted Islamic dictatorship for ten years. Now the society has
stood up against dictatorship, wants to get involved in democracy,
become a democratic country. The next difference is that the armed
forces are not engaged.
On these days the Turkish press has been reporting "ears" of the West
behind the protests for Gezi park. What is your impression?
It is an old argument. In fact, the West or the United States are
somehow involved because they regulate the world system but they
cannot be the main reason of the problem.
Mashtots Park which is next to us was liberated from boutiques one
year ago, thousands of people stood up to protect the public park and
defeated the oligarchy. Can we say that the Turkish society took to
the street with the same consciousness?
In fact, this is civil consciousness, people are persistent, they
will not stop.
Erdogan stated that construction of the mall will continue? Will it
trigger a wave of fury all over Turkey? Recently 34 bloggers have
been arrested who are suspected of organizing rallies via Facebook
and Twitter.
In fact, in the beginning they were trying to politicize the
issue, especially when Erdogan was absent in the country but they
understood later that it is impossible to politicize the issue, the
representatives of all the layers of the society have come together
for one purpose and are under one umbrella and have set aside all the
political issues and are fighting for the same goal. If you remember,
on the fourth day of the rallies Erdogan stated that there are hardly
four or five capulcu (tramps), and people changed their Facebook
account names to capulcu. It made obvious that hundreds of thousands
of people have joined the movement, including intellectuals from all
parts of the world.
There were such mini-fights in the past three years, and if formerly
the owners of shops, five-star hotels used to close their buildings
to block entry to protesters, this time they have opened the doors to
protesters and closed the doors to the police. Everyone has joined in.
Will the state machine crack?
The government is cracking. Some people are acting good policemen,
others bad policemen, the cracks are seen everywhere. Now the
demonstrators have taken a time out because they have run out of
explosives. As soon as they import explosives from France, they
will resume attacks. The evaluation of this movement is similar to
Occupy Wall Street when people used Facebook to inform people what
was happening, what the media did not report.
A civil society is formed in both Turkey and Armenia? Will their
publics eventually resolve this issue?
It would be good. In fact, if the issue is left up to the societies,
it will be resolved more quickly.
I know you are studying Armenian nationalism comparing it to Turkish
nationalism? What differences have you found?
I have met with hundreds of people over this week. People in Turkey
have lost their history, a lot of people are not aware of the
genocide, and since they would not kill a person because he or she
is an Armenian, they think their grandfather would not have killed
either. The government has been trying to hide it for one hundred
years. Armenians do not know that the Turks do not know the truth. I
want to resolve the issue, you want to resolve the issue, and we must
communicate and understand the problem.
I was trying to meet with the Armenian nationalists. In Turkey
nationalism is associated with ethnic minorities, here nationalism
cannot be associated with minorities because there are no minorities.
My purpose was to find out what the Armenian nationalists are against,
only Turkey or... And I understand that not only Turkey, but it
is the topic of my documentary. It is on assimilation issues. I
met with nationalists, I apologized. It is possible to resolve the
problem at the emotional level, the resolution of the issue requires
communication. It's been proven that one documentary will not force
Turks to recognize the genocide. There are hundreds of films, thousands
of books but it is important to have Turks understand the sorrow. As
soon as they understand, they will understand the related problems. The
Turks cannot understand that they have lost a lot due to the genocide,
and had the two cultures united, they would have ruled the world.
Imagine Turkey recognizes the Armenian genocide. What will it change
in the life of the two societies?
Both societies need peace. As soon as there is peace, the issue will
be resolved automatically.
Siranuysh Papyan 21:46 10/06/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/interview/view/30107
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Protests for Gezi Park continue on Teksim Square of Istanbul. We met
and talked to the Turkish photojournalist Umud Vedat visiting Armenia
Umud, thousands of Turkish citizens took to the street against the
project of mall in the place of Gezi Park. Is the Arab spring in the
air or is it an awakening of civil consciousness?
If we compare developments in Turkey with the Arab spring, we will see
several differences. First, there is not an economic issue because the
Turkish economy is developing equally. For the first time in the past
one hundred years people felt they want to resist dictatorship. The
public was fighting against the Kemalist dictatorship for 90 years,
resisted Islamic dictatorship for ten years. Now the society has
stood up against dictatorship, wants to get involved in democracy,
become a democratic country. The next difference is that the armed
forces are not engaged.
On these days the Turkish press has been reporting "ears" of the West
behind the protests for Gezi park. What is your impression?
It is an old argument. In fact, the West or the United States are
somehow involved because they regulate the world system but they
cannot be the main reason of the problem.
Mashtots Park which is next to us was liberated from boutiques one
year ago, thousands of people stood up to protect the public park and
defeated the oligarchy. Can we say that the Turkish society took to
the street with the same consciousness?
In fact, this is civil consciousness, people are persistent, they
will not stop.
Erdogan stated that construction of the mall will continue? Will it
trigger a wave of fury all over Turkey? Recently 34 bloggers have
been arrested who are suspected of organizing rallies via Facebook
and Twitter.
In fact, in the beginning they were trying to politicize the
issue, especially when Erdogan was absent in the country but they
understood later that it is impossible to politicize the issue, the
representatives of all the layers of the society have come together
for one purpose and are under one umbrella and have set aside all the
political issues and are fighting for the same goal. If you remember,
on the fourth day of the rallies Erdogan stated that there are hardly
four or five capulcu (tramps), and people changed their Facebook
account names to capulcu. It made obvious that hundreds of thousands
of people have joined the movement, including intellectuals from all
parts of the world.
There were such mini-fights in the past three years, and if formerly
the owners of shops, five-star hotels used to close their buildings
to block entry to protesters, this time they have opened the doors to
protesters and closed the doors to the police. Everyone has joined in.
Will the state machine crack?
The government is cracking. Some people are acting good policemen,
others bad policemen, the cracks are seen everywhere. Now the
demonstrators have taken a time out because they have run out of
explosives. As soon as they import explosives from France, they
will resume attacks. The evaluation of this movement is similar to
Occupy Wall Street when people used Facebook to inform people what
was happening, what the media did not report.
A civil society is formed in both Turkey and Armenia? Will their
publics eventually resolve this issue?
It would be good. In fact, if the issue is left up to the societies,
it will be resolved more quickly.
I know you are studying Armenian nationalism comparing it to Turkish
nationalism? What differences have you found?
I have met with hundreds of people over this week. People in Turkey
have lost their history, a lot of people are not aware of the
genocide, and since they would not kill a person because he or she
is an Armenian, they think their grandfather would not have killed
either. The government has been trying to hide it for one hundred
years. Armenians do not know that the Turks do not know the truth. I
want to resolve the issue, you want to resolve the issue, and we must
communicate and understand the problem.
I was trying to meet with the Armenian nationalists. In Turkey
nationalism is associated with ethnic minorities, here nationalism
cannot be associated with minorities because there are no minorities.
My purpose was to find out what the Armenian nationalists are against,
only Turkey or... And I understand that not only Turkey, but it
is the topic of my documentary. It is on assimilation issues. I
met with nationalists, I apologized. It is possible to resolve the
problem at the emotional level, the resolution of the issue requires
communication. It's been proven that one documentary will not force
Turks to recognize the genocide. There are hundreds of films, thousands
of books but it is important to have Turks understand the sorrow. As
soon as they understand, they will understand the related problems. The
Turks cannot understand that they have lost a lot due to the genocide,
and had the two cultures united, they would have ruled the world.
Imagine Turkey recognizes the Armenian genocide. What will it change
in the life of the two societies?
Both societies need peace. As soon as there is peace, the issue will
be resolved automatically.
Siranuysh Papyan 21:46 10/06/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/interview/view/30107
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress