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Cihan News Agency, Turkey
April 25 2014
The meaning of condolences to Armenian grandchildren
TR_ISTA - 25.04.2014 09:06:48
The statement issued by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan offering
condolences to the grandchildren of Ottoman Armenians will serve to
open a new page in Turkish-Armenian relations only one year ahead of
the centennial of the events of 1915.
He has achieved yet another first.
It was a first when he apologized for Dersim [the massacre of Tunceli
residents in the 1930s] under Parliament's roof.
Similarly, it was a first when he, in a speech in Diyarbakır,
acknowledged the existence of the Kurdish question, and the resolve he
displayed to find a settlement was also a first.
In the Kurdish question, the policies of denial that the state had
traditionally maintained gave way to policies of acceptance and
recognition.
The settlement process is, essentially, nothing but a policy of ending denial.
Turkey has been incorrectly depicted recently in a way that it does not deserve.
There were even attempts to create the image that the prime minister
and the country should stand trial before the International Court of
Justice in The Hague. Some of the West's best-known writers have even
accused Turkey of staging massacres and chemical attacks that were
committed by Bashar al-Assad, without producing any solid evidence.
It is in exactly these circumstances that the prime minister,
referring to the historical conditions of 1915, reminds us of the
grief these conditions caused the peoples that lived inside the
Ottoman Empire and offers his condolences to the surviving
grandchildren of the Armenians that had to experience that suffering.
Those who act on their prejudices immediately tried to dismiss this
historic statement and portray it as a statement that the current
situation had made obligatory.
However, it is obvious that the West is not in a position to force
Turkey to make such a statement. The West is no more preoccupied today
with the Armenian question and the agony Armenians experienced at the
start of the last century than it was yesterday.
The Armenian diaspora, in its enclaves from the US to the EU, was
never able to reach the political and intellectual power of the Jewish
diaspora.
Turkey is trying to put the Armenian question onto the right track,
just as it did in the case of the Kurdish question -- an issue that it
had to deal with during the republican era and one that exhausted all
its resources -- by pursuing a national policy, and its message is
pointing toward a new historic milestone.
The nationalists' rush to denounce the statement and the wrong
diagnosis of the main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) --
suggesting that the prime minister's message was "putting a historical
problem into the field of politics -- are not enough to hide the
truth.
The fact is that the prime minister is not using history to do
politics. On the contrary, by ending the policy of denial, he is
upending societal prejudices regarding the issue and emancipating
discussions about the Armenian question from this point forward.
This way, the Erdoğan government has shown that it can take steps on
the Armenian question similar to those it took on the Kurdish
question.
Indeed, if there were Armenians who were Ottoman citizens who lost
their lives in 1915 and the prime minister of the Republic of Turkey
is affirming their historical presence and offering his condolences to
the grandchildren of Armenians who died because of forced deportation,
that means that we will talk about and try to understand the
legitimate and natural expectations, such as citizenship, of these
Armenian grandchildren.
This historic move by a leader who is the most frequently mentioned
name for the presidential nomination -- who also, naturally, will rely
on nationalist votes if he runs for president -- coming only four
months before the election can only be explained as courage and
sagacity.
Turkey is trying to move past one of the biggest tragedies and traumas
in its history, a heavy burden it has carried on its back for a long
time.
It is impossible to correctly understand and interpret Prime Minister
Erdoğan's message without realizing this fact.
ORHAN MİROĞLU (Cihan/Today's Zaman)
April 25 2014
The meaning of condolences to Armenian grandchildren
TR_ISTA - 25.04.2014 09:06:48
The statement issued by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan offering
condolences to the grandchildren of Ottoman Armenians will serve to
open a new page in Turkish-Armenian relations only one year ahead of
the centennial of the events of 1915.
He has achieved yet another first.
It was a first when he apologized for Dersim [the massacre of Tunceli
residents in the 1930s] under Parliament's roof.
Similarly, it was a first when he, in a speech in Diyarbakır,
acknowledged the existence of the Kurdish question, and the resolve he
displayed to find a settlement was also a first.
In the Kurdish question, the policies of denial that the state had
traditionally maintained gave way to policies of acceptance and
recognition.
The settlement process is, essentially, nothing but a policy of ending denial.
Turkey has been incorrectly depicted recently in a way that it does not deserve.
There were even attempts to create the image that the prime minister
and the country should stand trial before the International Court of
Justice in The Hague. Some of the West's best-known writers have even
accused Turkey of staging massacres and chemical attacks that were
committed by Bashar al-Assad, without producing any solid evidence.
It is in exactly these circumstances that the prime minister,
referring to the historical conditions of 1915, reminds us of the
grief these conditions caused the peoples that lived inside the
Ottoman Empire and offers his condolences to the surviving
grandchildren of the Armenians that had to experience that suffering.
Those who act on their prejudices immediately tried to dismiss this
historic statement and portray it as a statement that the current
situation had made obligatory.
However, it is obvious that the West is not in a position to force
Turkey to make such a statement. The West is no more preoccupied today
with the Armenian question and the agony Armenians experienced at the
start of the last century than it was yesterday.
The Armenian diaspora, in its enclaves from the US to the EU, was
never able to reach the political and intellectual power of the Jewish
diaspora.
Turkey is trying to put the Armenian question onto the right track,
just as it did in the case of the Kurdish question -- an issue that it
had to deal with during the republican era and one that exhausted all
its resources -- by pursuing a national policy, and its message is
pointing toward a new historic milestone.
The nationalists' rush to denounce the statement and the wrong
diagnosis of the main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) --
suggesting that the prime minister's message was "putting a historical
problem into the field of politics -- are not enough to hide the
truth.
The fact is that the prime minister is not using history to do
politics. On the contrary, by ending the policy of denial, he is
upending societal prejudices regarding the issue and emancipating
discussions about the Armenian question from this point forward.
This way, the Erdoğan government has shown that it can take steps on
the Armenian question similar to those it took on the Kurdish
question.
Indeed, if there were Armenians who were Ottoman citizens who lost
their lives in 1915 and the prime minister of the Republic of Turkey
is affirming their historical presence and offering his condolences to
the grandchildren of Armenians who died because of forced deportation,
that means that we will talk about and try to understand the
legitimate and natural expectations, such as citizenship, of these
Armenian grandchildren.
This historic move by a leader who is the most frequently mentioned
name for the presidential nomination -- who also, naturally, will rely
on nationalist votes if he runs for president -- coming only four
months before the election can only be explained as courage and
sagacity.
Turkey is trying to move past one of the biggest tragedies and traumas
in its history, a heavy burden it has carried on its back for a long
time.
It is impossible to correctly understand and interpret Prime Minister
Erdoğan's message without realizing this fact.
ORHAN MİROĞLU (Cihan/Today's Zaman)