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Opinion: Kurdish issue resolution may help tackle Armenian question
May 4, 2013 - 16:12 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Hopes that Turkey could ever solve its almost
intractable Kurdish issue have never been as high as they were in the
first quarter of 2013. If this peace process can continue with all its
ups and downs but without rupture, it could that suggest that another
perennial issue as old as the Kurdish issue, the Armenian question,
can also be tackled, Turkish journalist Cengiz Çandar says in `No
Incentive for Turkey, Armenia To Normalize Relations' article
published by the Assyrian International News Agency.
`Of course, there is a fundamental difference. The Kurdish issue
directly concerns 15 million people living in Turkey as Turkish
citizens and more than 30 million other Kurds living in the region and
majority populations of tens of millions living in those countries.
The Armenian question is about the perishing of a national community
on the land they have been living for time immemorial. Today, the
question is more about its deep psychological scars rather than its
physical aspects,' he says.
`For the Armenians, a large part of historical Armenia, what they call
Western Armenia, covers a substantial portion of today's eastern
Turkey. It is not unusual for countries and lands to change names but
for the Armenians and Turkey, the issue is more than losing land but
the almost total annihilation of a nation on the land where they used
to live,' he says.
`In the meanwhile, we have to remember that the assassination in 2007
of Turkey's most influential and best known democratic figure,
Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, constituted a breaking point in
Turkey's Armenian issue that heralded the emergence on the political
stage of the "Turkish Armenian" identity, even though they are but a
60,000-strong minority living only in Istanbul, down from 1.5 million
in 1915,' Çandar continues.
`Since that time, an increasing number of Turks and Kurds of Turkey,
in solidarity with Armenians, began to discuss the Armenian issue and
to observe April 24 as Genocide Remembrance Day, first in the center
of Istanbul and then, this year, in many provincial capitals, led by
Diyarbakir.
Turkey faces a complex structure of Armenia-Diaspora-Turkey's
Armenians. For the late Hrant Dink, normalization of relations between
Turkey and Armenia was a life mission. A year and half after his
assassination we came very close to his ideals,' Çandar says.
`2015 will be the 100th anniversary of the genocide, and Armenian
mobilization in the international arena in 2015 will be a potential
irritant for Turkey. But, then, Turkey's own domestic developments and
bringing in the Diaspora to share April 24 observances, also means
that genocide will no longer be something Turkey owes to Armenia. In
other words, the need for closure of the Genocide File is no longer an
incentive or sine qua non for normalization of Turkey-Armenia
relations. No Turkey-Armenian normalization is detected in the
horizon. And there won't be unless there are mutually enticing and
strong incentives,' he concludes.
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/157084/
May 4, 2013 - 16:12 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Hopes that Turkey could ever solve its almost
intractable Kurdish issue have never been as high as they were in the
first quarter of 2013. If this peace process can continue with all its
ups and downs but without rupture, it could that suggest that another
perennial issue as old as the Kurdish issue, the Armenian question,
can also be tackled, Turkish journalist Cengiz Çandar says in `No
Incentive for Turkey, Armenia To Normalize Relations' article
published by the Assyrian International News Agency.
`Of course, there is a fundamental difference. The Kurdish issue
directly concerns 15 million people living in Turkey as Turkish
citizens and more than 30 million other Kurds living in the region and
majority populations of tens of millions living in those countries.
The Armenian question is about the perishing of a national community
on the land they have been living for time immemorial. Today, the
question is more about its deep psychological scars rather than its
physical aspects,' he says.
`For the Armenians, a large part of historical Armenia, what they call
Western Armenia, covers a substantial portion of today's eastern
Turkey. It is not unusual for countries and lands to change names but
for the Armenians and Turkey, the issue is more than losing land but
the almost total annihilation of a nation on the land where they used
to live,' he says.
`In the meanwhile, we have to remember that the assassination in 2007
of Turkey's most influential and best known democratic figure,
Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, constituted a breaking point in
Turkey's Armenian issue that heralded the emergence on the political
stage of the "Turkish Armenian" identity, even though they are but a
60,000-strong minority living only in Istanbul, down from 1.5 million
in 1915,' Çandar continues.
`Since that time, an increasing number of Turks and Kurds of Turkey,
in solidarity with Armenians, began to discuss the Armenian issue and
to observe April 24 as Genocide Remembrance Day, first in the center
of Istanbul and then, this year, in many provincial capitals, led by
Diyarbakir.
Turkey faces a complex structure of Armenia-Diaspora-Turkey's
Armenians. For the late Hrant Dink, normalization of relations between
Turkey and Armenia was a life mission. A year and half after his
assassination we came very close to his ideals,' Çandar says.
`2015 will be the 100th anniversary of the genocide, and Armenian
mobilization in the international arena in 2015 will be a potential
irritant for Turkey. But, then, Turkey's own domestic developments and
bringing in the Diaspora to share April 24 observances, also means
that genocide will no longer be something Turkey owes to Armenia. In
other words, the need for closure of the Genocide File is no longer an
incentive or sine qua non for normalization of Turkey-Armenia
relations. No Turkey-Armenian normalization is detected in the
horizon. And there won't be unless there are mutually enticing and
strong incentives,' he concludes.
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/157084/