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WHAT THE COLLECTIVE TURKISH MEMORY REFUSES TO RECALL
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
March 13 2013
We have no means to know what box office figures the popular film
"Valley of the Wolves: Palestine" would have produced had it been
shot in the year 1982, but judging from today's powerful "Palestine
fetish," it seems that the Turks' collective (and selective) memory
refuses to recall the events of 1975-1982.
Why Turks wholeheartedly subscribe to the Palestinian cause although
most of them cannot point the Palestinian territories out on a map is
a near-mystery. Why do the Turks, when they take to the streets for
political demonstrations, just carry placards written in Turkish but
in the case of Palestine the protest lingua franca suddenly converts
to Arabic and Quranic script is another near-mystery. Perhaps the
latter near-mystery explains the former.
At its heyday, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia
(ASALA) killed 46 people and injured 299 in 84 incidents of attacks
and assassination. Of the victims, 36 were Turkish diplomats.
Historically, there is detailed evidence regarding ASALA's connections
with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the darling
of Turks since time immemorial. The evidence also produces ASALA's
irrefutable love affair with George Habash's Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Naif Hawatme's Democratic Front
for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), two terrorist organizations
devoted to the cause a majority of Turks wholeheartedly subscribe to.
It is a well-documented fact that ASALA had established itself under
the patronage of the PLO, with links also to Hamas's present day
rival Fatah and, in Lebanon, to the Lebanese Arab Army.
ASALA's headquarters were situated in Beirut, in an area controlled
by the DFLP. ASALA members were trained under the aegis of Fatah's
men and camps, including a site at Hamuriah in Syria. The group,
listed as a terrorist entity by the U.S., also had offices and bases
in Tripoli, Damascus and South Yemen.
The four ASALA militants who attacked the Turkish embassy on
Sept. 24, 1981 were trained by the Palestinians. The squad which
attacked Esenboga Airport in Ankara on Aug. 7, 1982, killing nine
civilians and injuring 82, were trained at Hamuriah. The Palestinian
organizations also assisted ASALA with weapons, sabotage materials,
counterfeit passports and other logistics.
There is so much detailed evidence for these links reminding one of
the darker side of the moon that the curious reader could even read in
detail how ASALA's leader, Hagop Hagopyan (his nom de guerre), broke
up with the PLO in 1982 and allied his organization with Abu Nidal,
the anti-PLO leader responsible for much of anti-American terrorism.
About three decades after this dark episode, every Turk remembers,
with deep abhorrence, the days of ASALA. Many would mentally associate
ASALA's terrorism with "every living or dead Armenian," and hence the
collective hatred that shows itself in the cheerful April 2012 placard
at the heart of Istanbul that read "You are all Armenians. You are all
bastards!" Similarly, the murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink was perhaps a pathetic expression of the same hatred
for ASALA.
None of that is agreeable, but all of it is understandable. What,
however, does not fit the entire picture is the Turks' historic love
affair with groups that evidently and substantially assisted ASALA
in its attacks and assassinations of Turkish targets.
Were the Turks happy that their Palestinian brothers helped ASALA
kill Turks? Are they happy that their Palestinian brothers did so? How
would they, with a thick lens of religion with which they view world
affairs, explain Muslim brothers assisting Christian assassins for
the deaths of Muslim Turks? A true love affair, it seems.
Turkey does not have an ambassador to Israel and, according to news
reports, it will soon have an ambassador to Palestine, the land of
our brothers who, until less than three decades ago, were ASALA's
brothers in arms.
March/13/2013
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/what-the-collective-turkish-memory-refuses-to-recall.aspx?pageID=449&nID=42848&NewsCatID=398
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
March 13 2013
We have no means to know what box office figures the popular film
"Valley of the Wolves: Palestine" would have produced had it been
shot in the year 1982, but judging from today's powerful "Palestine
fetish," it seems that the Turks' collective (and selective) memory
refuses to recall the events of 1975-1982.
Why Turks wholeheartedly subscribe to the Palestinian cause although
most of them cannot point the Palestinian territories out on a map is
a near-mystery. Why do the Turks, when they take to the streets for
political demonstrations, just carry placards written in Turkish but
in the case of Palestine the protest lingua franca suddenly converts
to Arabic and Quranic script is another near-mystery. Perhaps the
latter near-mystery explains the former.
At its heyday, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia
(ASALA) killed 46 people and injured 299 in 84 incidents of attacks
and assassination. Of the victims, 36 were Turkish diplomats.
Historically, there is detailed evidence regarding ASALA's connections
with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the darling
of Turks since time immemorial. The evidence also produces ASALA's
irrefutable love affair with George Habash's Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Naif Hawatme's Democratic Front
for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), two terrorist organizations
devoted to the cause a majority of Turks wholeheartedly subscribe to.
It is a well-documented fact that ASALA had established itself under
the patronage of the PLO, with links also to Hamas's present day
rival Fatah and, in Lebanon, to the Lebanese Arab Army.
ASALA's headquarters were situated in Beirut, in an area controlled
by the DFLP. ASALA members were trained under the aegis of Fatah's
men and camps, including a site at Hamuriah in Syria. The group,
listed as a terrorist entity by the U.S., also had offices and bases
in Tripoli, Damascus and South Yemen.
The four ASALA militants who attacked the Turkish embassy on
Sept. 24, 1981 were trained by the Palestinians. The squad which
attacked Esenboga Airport in Ankara on Aug. 7, 1982, killing nine
civilians and injuring 82, were trained at Hamuriah. The Palestinian
organizations also assisted ASALA with weapons, sabotage materials,
counterfeit passports and other logistics.
There is so much detailed evidence for these links reminding one of
the darker side of the moon that the curious reader could even read in
detail how ASALA's leader, Hagop Hagopyan (his nom de guerre), broke
up with the PLO in 1982 and allied his organization with Abu Nidal,
the anti-PLO leader responsible for much of anti-American terrorism.
About three decades after this dark episode, every Turk remembers,
with deep abhorrence, the days of ASALA. Many would mentally associate
ASALA's terrorism with "every living or dead Armenian," and hence the
collective hatred that shows itself in the cheerful April 2012 placard
at the heart of Istanbul that read "You are all Armenians. You are all
bastards!" Similarly, the murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink was perhaps a pathetic expression of the same hatred
for ASALA.
None of that is agreeable, but all of it is understandable. What,
however, does not fit the entire picture is the Turks' historic love
affair with groups that evidently and substantially assisted ASALA
in its attacks and assassinations of Turkish targets.
Were the Turks happy that their Palestinian brothers helped ASALA
kill Turks? Are they happy that their Palestinian brothers did so? How
would they, with a thick lens of religion with which they view world
affairs, explain Muslim brothers assisting Christian assassins for
the deaths of Muslim Turks? A true love affair, it seems.
Turkey does not have an ambassador to Israel and, according to news
reports, it will soon have an ambassador to Palestine, the land of
our brothers who, until less than three decades ago, were ASALA's
brothers in arms.
March/13/2013
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/what-the-collective-turkish-memory-refuses-to-recall.aspx?pageID=449&nID=42848&NewsCatID=398
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress