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ANKARA: Are The Same Turks And Armenians Who Were Just Yesterday Ins

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  • ANKARA: Are The Same Turks And Armenians Who Were Just Yesterday Ins

    ARE THE SAME TURKS AND ARMENIANS WHO WERE JUST YESTERDAY INSEPARABLE TODAY ENEMIES?

    Today's Zaman
    May 2 2011
    Turkey

    Turkey, which was made aware of the sensitivity surrounding the
    Armenian issue throughout the world through attacks by the Armenian
    Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), continues to be
    caught unprepared every year as to how to shape its approach towards
    the events of April 24.

    Turkey, which is on the verge of losing this particular battle,
    at least in the academic sense, has carried on with this struggle
    mostly through closing its borders and engaging in verbal clashes
    with the Armenian diaspora. And now it is quite clear that neither
    of these tactics have gained much for Turkey. As for Turkey's efforts
    with its neighboring countries and with the Armenian diaspora, these
    have only resulted in the entrance of new genocide bills onto the
    agenda as well as more pressure from various countries interested
    in Turkey. In particular, the annual increase in curiosity and
    expectations concerning what approach the US will embrace on the
    issue is literally exhausting the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    Another factor pushing Turkey into a dead end in the international
    arena is its lack of public diplomacy efforts aimed at Armenia, as well
    as the fact that it has not created alternative Turkish lobbying groups
    in countries where the Armenian lobby is already strong. The fact that
    April 24 fell on the same day as Easter this year gave Armenians a
    great opportunity to show their religious and national feelings even
    more strongly than usual. And in Turkey, the influential rallies that
    have taken place with regard to this matter show that it is now time
    to take up the issue with some prudence and level-headedness.

    Can the healthy communication skills lacking between Turkey and Armenia
    instead be formed between Turkey and the latter's diaspora population?

    Mutual efforts

    In countries where the Armenian lobby and diaspora are influential,
    there are frequent Turkish efforts to hold joint festivals, programs
    and other sorts of meetings with these Armenian groups. Even though it
    is not constant, Turkey quite regularly tries to create an atmosphere
    of dialogue with certain Armenian groups. And though political
    efforts can only go so far, it is the wide network of civil society
    organizations that can pick up the slack here, succeeding where states
    are unable. In the very near future, civil society organizations look
    set to show their influence in helping to find solutions to shared
    problems. We, too, with our initiatives in the civil society branch
    of things, are closely examining the Armenian community in the US
    and working to help create a joint dialogue.

    The shared thoughts of most Armenians, regardless of when they arrived
    in the US, has to do with Turkish acceptance of its historic mistakes,
    and opening up the way forward for regional cooperation. Lawyer and
    writer Mark Mustian, whose forefathers came around 200 years ago
    from Ottoman soil to the US, also thinks this way. The fact that
    his ancestors, who came to the US to take advantage of the wealth of
    opportunity there, preserved, at least to some extent, their Armenian
    identities is what imbues Mustian today with a sense of responsibility
    towards his fellow Armenians. Mustian, who practiced law for many
    years in Florida, started writing a novel some years ago about the
    breaking asunder of the Turkish and Armenian communities. The novel,
    titled "The Gendarme," was finished in seven years and then published
    in the US, France, Spain, Greece, Israel, Italy, Brazil and the UK.

    Mustian, who says the reason he wrote this book was his own personal
    sense of discomfort with how the Armenian community in the US lives
    in ignorance regarding its own history and identity, notes 70 percent
    of the Armenian diaspora constantly brings historical matters onto the
    agenda, while another 10 percent live completely ignorant of what the
    Armenian identity really is. He notes also that the other 20 percent
    or so maintain moderate approaches to historical matters and identity
    questions. Mustian, who says he has visited Turkey but has never had
    the chance to go to Armenia, asserts that he loves Turkey very much
    and when it comes to the question of relations with Armenia -- both
    Ankara and Yerevan must act on their own accord. He also believes open
    borders between Turkey and Armenia will improve cultural interactions
    and that many problems would be solved faster than currently believed.

    Vasken Hagopian and Zohrap Hovsapian are two Armenians who live in
    Florida and embrace moderate approaches to the topic of relations
    with Turkey. Hagopian, whose ancestors are from Adana, still works
    as a professor at the Florida State University in the department of
    physics and astronomy. During World War I, Hagopian's family lost many
    of its members, and the family migrated from Turkey to Syria, Lebanon,
    France and Greece. His father had worked in churches on Ottoman soil
    and wrote many of his memories of this period in a book. Hagopian
    characterizes the relations between Armenia and its diaspora as being
    "ongoing based on assistance," and also notes he finds it unlikely
    Turkey will be admitted to the European Union. Hagopian also says he
    finds it unthinkable that these two ancient civilizations and peoples
    could be living right next to one another but be unable to develop a
    dialogue. He also asserts that it is simply not possible that Armenia
    could politically make any demands for land from eastern Anatolia.

    Not without dialogue

    As for Hovsapian, his family comes from Silvan in the province of
    Diyarbakır. The five people from his family that survived the war
    era emigrated from Syria to France. The elders in his family not
    only published their own memories of this period, but also changed
    their surname from Keshishian, which they had used on Ottoman soil,
    to Hovsapian. As Hovsapian sees it, today's world is impossible to
    live in for anyone unwilling to enter into dialogue. Hovsapian, who
    also asserts that the Soviet Union eliminated national consciousness,
    says that for him Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points are very important.

    These principles stress that for nations of people to offer up their
    fates to states or to have their fates taken from their hands by these
    same states is very unfair. Hovsapian, who we learn has many friends
    in Turkey, believes that it is of vital importance that Turkey develop
    its relations with Armenia in the near future, and that both countries
    get involved in shared projects. He is quite sure that Turkey and
    Armenia, working together, can achieve great success. In the end, both
    of these men state that peace without dialogue is impossible and that
    everyone must do their part in bringing about progress on this front.

    Over time, these two communities of Turks and the Armenians, who have
    been so closely linked -- as neighbors, countrymen, classroom friends,
    in-laws and work colleagues -- have experienced a distancing from one
    another as a result of a 100-year break, but this break has not managed
    to erase the traces of 1,000 years of togetherness. The preconceptions
    brought about by political approaches on both sides have invested
    both sides with much hesitation as to which steps to take. On one
    hand, you have nations of people unable to form dialogues, while on
    the other hand you have diaspora groups that cannot seem to meet in
    the middle; these factors are causing the whole matter to continue
    as a sort of an incurable syndrome. To rid itself of this syndrome,
    Turkey needs to increase its public diplomacy towards Armenia, as
    well as take steps that will work for Armenians in both the East and
    the West. Because what Armenia really needs these days are words
    on the topic of possible cooperative efforts, not on conflict or
    disagreement. In any case, it is quite clear to whom all this enmity
    is really causing damage and to whom it is advantageous.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    * Mehmet Fatih Oztarsu is a writer for the Aravot newspaper in Armenia.




    From: A. Papazian
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