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Today's Zaman, Turkey
Jan 27 2015
April 24 and Turkish worries
DOÄ?U ERGÄ°L
January 27, 2015, Tuesday
April 24, 1915 is the date when the Ottoman (Young Turk) government
arrested 250 Armenian intellectuals in Ä°stanbul and banished them to
Çankırı and AyaÅ?, both close to Ankara, on the grounds that they had
participated in subversive activities against the state. One-hundred
seventy-four of them never came back. This date has been acknowledged
as the beginning of the `genocide' of the Armenians and an official
reflex of defensive nationalism by the Turks.
Differences in opinion and historiography that subsequently ensued
have shaped the psyches of both nations. For Armenians, the fatal
measures of the Ottoman government against them have ended in the
destruction of the Armenian presence in Anatolia. They were left
bereft of a homeland and a history. Families were destroyed either by
extermination or deportation. Children were separated from their
families. Those who remained had to convert and change their ethnic
identities. The remaining Armenians hid themselves within other
collective identities (Sunni Muslim, Kurdish or Alevi). Altogether,
this havoc was named Medz Yeghern, or the "Great Calamity."
Armenians believe this painful past is further rendered unbearable
because the Turks have not acknowledged what happened 100 years ago
and instead have systematically denied any responsibility. They could
have at least condemned the government of the time and those who took
part in the execution of orders that put an end to the presence of
Armenians in Anatolia. Their expectations were never satisfied
formally.
World War I descended on the Ottoman Empire as an impoverished polity
fighting to hold onto its disintegrating periphery composed of
conquered lands and peoples. The choice of the Young Turk leaders to
participate in the war was not out of expected spectacular triumphs,
but was aimed at preserving what was left of the empire with the help
and support of the shining German war machine and its imperial
ambitions in the East.
The Russians and the British were obstacles to Germany's expansion
toward the East. Rising Turkish nationalism idealized an all-Turkish
union with Turkic peoples of Asia (the Turan utopia). This made
removing Russia as an obstacle all the more important.
Enver PaÅ?a, the strongman of the Young Turk triumvirate, decided to
conduct a surprise attack on the Russian Caucasian army in January
1915 to open the way to Central Asia. The attack ended in disaster,
and a whole army was defeated by cold, frost and bad judgment.
While imposing an air-tight news ban on the disaster in the eastern
front, Enver PaÅ?a and his accomplices wanted to cover up their flop by
accusing the Armenians of siding with the enemy and engaging in
fifth-column activities. The rest was a human disaster.
Halil PaÅ?a, the uncle of Enver PaÅ?a and the man in charge of Ottoman
forces in Persia, is on record saying, `The Armenian nation, which I
had tried to annihilate to the last member of it, because it tried to
erase my country ¦ in the most horrible and painful days of my
homeland ¦' This became the official view of Turkey and later
generations have been greatly affected by it.
While Turkish officials acknowledge that many Armenians died during
World War I, they present this misfortune as part of a wider war and
say massacres were committed by both sides.
The argument is as follows: The campaign of Gallipoli in 1915
coincides with the time of the Armenian debacle in Anatolia. Faced
with the Western onslaught, both the Ottoman Turks and the Armenians
suffered the dire consequences of war.
Some commentators call this strategy `comparing and/or racing pain.'
In accordance with this strategy, the government is organizing an
ostentatious commemoration of the Gallipoli campaign on the same day
of the accepted date of the Armenian Genocide (April 24).
What is odd is that there are two important dates in the
aforementioned battle: March 18 is the day of the naval battle when
the passage of the Allied fleet was aborted. The other is the landing
of ANZAC forces on the peninsula on the April 25, 1915.
Starting the commemorations on April 24 is a totally arbitrary move to
associate Armenian losses with that of the whole country. The focus of
attention is to be put on the fallen soldiers, among whom there were
Armenians.
The invitation of Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan to Çanakkale on
the same day he is expected to pay homage to the victims of Medz
Yeghern at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan may reflect an
amateurish evasion of empathy with a suffering nation.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/dogu-ergil/april-24-and-turkish-worries_370969.html
From: Baghdasarian
Jan 27 2015
April 24 and Turkish worries
DOÄ?U ERGÄ°L
January 27, 2015, Tuesday
April 24, 1915 is the date when the Ottoman (Young Turk) government
arrested 250 Armenian intellectuals in Ä°stanbul and banished them to
Çankırı and AyaÅ?, both close to Ankara, on the grounds that they had
participated in subversive activities against the state. One-hundred
seventy-four of them never came back. This date has been acknowledged
as the beginning of the `genocide' of the Armenians and an official
reflex of defensive nationalism by the Turks.
Differences in opinion and historiography that subsequently ensued
have shaped the psyches of both nations. For Armenians, the fatal
measures of the Ottoman government against them have ended in the
destruction of the Armenian presence in Anatolia. They were left
bereft of a homeland and a history. Families were destroyed either by
extermination or deportation. Children were separated from their
families. Those who remained had to convert and change their ethnic
identities. The remaining Armenians hid themselves within other
collective identities (Sunni Muslim, Kurdish or Alevi). Altogether,
this havoc was named Medz Yeghern, or the "Great Calamity."
Armenians believe this painful past is further rendered unbearable
because the Turks have not acknowledged what happened 100 years ago
and instead have systematically denied any responsibility. They could
have at least condemned the government of the time and those who took
part in the execution of orders that put an end to the presence of
Armenians in Anatolia. Their expectations were never satisfied
formally.
World War I descended on the Ottoman Empire as an impoverished polity
fighting to hold onto its disintegrating periphery composed of
conquered lands and peoples. The choice of the Young Turk leaders to
participate in the war was not out of expected spectacular triumphs,
but was aimed at preserving what was left of the empire with the help
and support of the shining German war machine and its imperial
ambitions in the East.
The Russians and the British were obstacles to Germany's expansion
toward the East. Rising Turkish nationalism idealized an all-Turkish
union with Turkic peoples of Asia (the Turan utopia). This made
removing Russia as an obstacle all the more important.
Enver PaÅ?a, the strongman of the Young Turk triumvirate, decided to
conduct a surprise attack on the Russian Caucasian army in January
1915 to open the way to Central Asia. The attack ended in disaster,
and a whole army was defeated by cold, frost and bad judgment.
While imposing an air-tight news ban on the disaster in the eastern
front, Enver PaÅ?a and his accomplices wanted to cover up their flop by
accusing the Armenians of siding with the enemy and engaging in
fifth-column activities. The rest was a human disaster.
Halil PaÅ?a, the uncle of Enver PaÅ?a and the man in charge of Ottoman
forces in Persia, is on record saying, `The Armenian nation, which I
had tried to annihilate to the last member of it, because it tried to
erase my country ¦ in the most horrible and painful days of my
homeland ¦' This became the official view of Turkey and later
generations have been greatly affected by it.
While Turkish officials acknowledge that many Armenians died during
World War I, they present this misfortune as part of a wider war and
say massacres were committed by both sides.
The argument is as follows: The campaign of Gallipoli in 1915
coincides with the time of the Armenian debacle in Anatolia. Faced
with the Western onslaught, both the Ottoman Turks and the Armenians
suffered the dire consequences of war.
Some commentators call this strategy `comparing and/or racing pain.'
In accordance with this strategy, the government is organizing an
ostentatious commemoration of the Gallipoli campaign on the same day
of the accepted date of the Armenian Genocide (April 24).
What is odd is that there are two important dates in the
aforementioned battle: March 18 is the day of the naval battle when
the passage of the Allied fleet was aborted. The other is the landing
of ANZAC forces on the peninsula on the April 25, 1915.
Starting the commemorations on April 24 is a totally arbitrary move to
associate Armenian losses with that of the whole country. The focus of
attention is to be put on the fallen soldiers, among whom there were
Armenians.
The invitation of Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan to Çanakkale on
the same day he is expected to pay homage to the victims of Medz
Yeghern at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan may reflect an
amateurish evasion of empathy with a suffering nation.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/dogu-ergil/april-24-and-turkish-worries_370969.html
From: Baghdasarian