Tweet
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Jan 18 2015
'Eight years have become a hundred'
YAVUZ BAYDAR
January 18, 2015, Sunday
Only days after this newspaper was launched with great hopes of
advancing Turkey's sui generis "glasnost" and democratization -- the
date was Jan. 16, 2007 -- we all found ourselves in the worst kind of
nightmare ever imaginable.
On Jan. 19, the news hit us like a thunderbolt that Hrant Dink, our
dear colleague and a main driving force for taking Turkey gently by
the hand to face its dark past, was assassinated by a gunman in broad
daylight, in front of the newspaper, Agos, he had built. The price he
paid for his many messages urging Turks and Armenians to listen to
each other, to build bridges by taking huge risks, as it were, was to
make himself a target of all the indocibility and sheer enmity of
those who either do not want to heed his advice or simply get doves
like him out of the way.
Eight years of unbearable pain and grief have passed since that dark,
grey day. The judicial process launched was slowly left to rot, while
those who were behind this apparently premeditated organized crime
were emboldened, decision after decision in the courts, and encouraged
to believe they could enjoy the same sort of impunity others in the
state apparatus had. (Have no illusions and make no mistake: In all of
the court cases launched during the Justice and Development Party
[AKP] rule, the number of those found guilty of crimes against
humanity, say summary executions or others, was zero.)
Meanwhile, the Dink family was left to face one humiliation after another.
As a result of a typically "a la Turka black-out," every day that has
passed since then, every single day, Hrant was murdered again, and
again. And again.
This was what I feared the most. When I attended the first court
hearing of the murder, I had enough "data" to lose all faith that any
outcome would reflect justice.
I have absolutely none today, either. Why? Because the lawyer of the
Dink family tells us that we are facing a murder that is the result of
a "joint agreement" between various elements of the state apparatus.
The state of Turkey has never, ever, allowed its staff to be held
accountable for wrongs committed, however horrible they may be. Eight
years ago, this newspaper was launched in the general mood that it
would change things, but today when the AKP embraces the role of being
a party at one with the state, this trial will simply be more leverage
in manipulating infighting and never satisfy the conscience of the
public.
Otherwise, this year would be a perfect opportunity, as optimists have
said, to honor Hrant and his legacy. It would be a year for Turkey to
rise with the image of a "new" country, where justice, at last, has an
impact.
"Not only eight years have passed, but a hundred," wrote Dink's
beloved Agos in an editorial the other day. "Jan. 19, 2015 is the
eighth anniversary of Hrant Dink's assassination. But for us, this is
also the beginning of the centennial anniversary of the death march
the Armenian intellectuals were forced to take from Ä°stanbul on April
24, 1915. That year is the history of the annihilation of the
Anatolian Armenians and, in some areas, their Assyrian, Chaldean
neighbors."
As of today the fact of the matter is that the mood of Armenians in
Turkey about 2015 is only gloom. The process of bringing closer two
nations -- and the diaspora -- is left only to tiny pockets of civil
society, while Ankara is busy distributing funds to some of its
pro-government think tanks to find ways not to deliver a proper
message of remorse for the horror of 1915. Neither central nor local
authorities seem to be engaged in activities of reconciliation. One
example is utterly telling: An exhibition organized by the Ä°stanbul
Metropolitan Municipality on the centennial of World War I depicts
Ottoman Armenians as "traitors" and Greeks as "draft dodgers."
What's worse than anything else, President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an's
recent invitation to his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sargsyan, to
commemorate World War I in Gallipoli on the very day of April 24 -- he
added that we should all mind the "significance of the date" -- will
not only deepen Turkey's "precious solitude" but also have a
contagious effect at home: the continuation of denial by copycat
behavior and further demonization of all the peaceful efforts against
it.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/yavuz-baydar/eight-years-have-become-a-hundred_370191.html
From: Baghdasarian
Jan 18 2015
'Eight years have become a hundred'
YAVUZ BAYDAR
January 18, 2015, Sunday
Only days after this newspaper was launched with great hopes of
advancing Turkey's sui generis "glasnost" and democratization -- the
date was Jan. 16, 2007 -- we all found ourselves in the worst kind of
nightmare ever imaginable.
On Jan. 19, the news hit us like a thunderbolt that Hrant Dink, our
dear colleague and a main driving force for taking Turkey gently by
the hand to face its dark past, was assassinated by a gunman in broad
daylight, in front of the newspaper, Agos, he had built. The price he
paid for his many messages urging Turks and Armenians to listen to
each other, to build bridges by taking huge risks, as it were, was to
make himself a target of all the indocibility and sheer enmity of
those who either do not want to heed his advice or simply get doves
like him out of the way.
Eight years of unbearable pain and grief have passed since that dark,
grey day. The judicial process launched was slowly left to rot, while
those who were behind this apparently premeditated organized crime
were emboldened, decision after decision in the courts, and encouraged
to believe they could enjoy the same sort of impunity others in the
state apparatus had. (Have no illusions and make no mistake: In all of
the court cases launched during the Justice and Development Party
[AKP] rule, the number of those found guilty of crimes against
humanity, say summary executions or others, was zero.)
Meanwhile, the Dink family was left to face one humiliation after another.
As a result of a typically "a la Turka black-out," every day that has
passed since then, every single day, Hrant was murdered again, and
again. And again.
This was what I feared the most. When I attended the first court
hearing of the murder, I had enough "data" to lose all faith that any
outcome would reflect justice.
I have absolutely none today, either. Why? Because the lawyer of the
Dink family tells us that we are facing a murder that is the result of
a "joint agreement" between various elements of the state apparatus.
The state of Turkey has never, ever, allowed its staff to be held
accountable for wrongs committed, however horrible they may be. Eight
years ago, this newspaper was launched in the general mood that it
would change things, but today when the AKP embraces the role of being
a party at one with the state, this trial will simply be more leverage
in manipulating infighting and never satisfy the conscience of the
public.
Otherwise, this year would be a perfect opportunity, as optimists have
said, to honor Hrant and his legacy. It would be a year for Turkey to
rise with the image of a "new" country, where justice, at last, has an
impact.
"Not only eight years have passed, but a hundred," wrote Dink's
beloved Agos in an editorial the other day. "Jan. 19, 2015 is the
eighth anniversary of Hrant Dink's assassination. But for us, this is
also the beginning of the centennial anniversary of the death march
the Armenian intellectuals were forced to take from Ä°stanbul on April
24, 1915. That year is the history of the annihilation of the
Anatolian Armenians and, in some areas, their Assyrian, Chaldean
neighbors."
As of today the fact of the matter is that the mood of Armenians in
Turkey about 2015 is only gloom. The process of bringing closer two
nations -- and the diaspora -- is left only to tiny pockets of civil
society, while Ankara is busy distributing funds to some of its
pro-government think tanks to find ways not to deliver a proper
message of remorse for the horror of 1915. Neither central nor local
authorities seem to be engaged in activities of reconciliation. One
example is utterly telling: An exhibition organized by the Ä°stanbul
Metropolitan Municipality on the centennial of World War I depicts
Ottoman Armenians as "traitors" and Greeks as "draft dodgers."
What's worse than anything else, President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an's
recent invitation to his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sargsyan, to
commemorate World War I in Gallipoli on the very day of April 24 -- he
added that we should all mind the "significance of the date" -- will
not only deepen Turkey's "precious solitude" but also have a
contagious effect at home: the continuation of denial by copycat
behavior and further demonization of all the peaceful efforts against
it.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/yavuz-baydar/eight-years-have-become-a-hundred_370191.html
From: Baghdasarian