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ANKARA'S MEDDLING IN OUR COMMUNITY MUST BE REJECTED
Wednesday, May 14th, 2014
Genocide denial
BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
Months before the Turkish Prime Minister's now infamous and patronizing
April 23 "condolence message" to Armenians, the wheels were in
motion here in Southern California to organize another "dialogue"
between Turks and Armenians to promote "understanding" between the
two societies.
The common denominator of these efforts is to circumvent the fact of
the Armenian Genocide and to create an atmosphere of pseudo cooperation
in an effort to water down the importance of Genocide recognition and
its immediate consequences. This credo, advanced by Ankara and the US
State Department, reared its ugly head in the dangerous Turkey-Armenia
Protocols, as well as in the failed Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation
Commission--TARC.
These esoteric efforts to bring Armenians and Turks together around a
table to "dialogue" are futile and those Armenians participating in
these efforts are playing into the hands of a dangerous policy that
is being advanced by official Ankara to demonstrate that Turks are
a peace-loving people who just want to get along.
Erdogan's April 23 message--a rebranding of Ankara's denialism--should
have raised red flags for all Armenians who have circled this and
other such "dialogue" initiatives and prompted them to immediately
distance themselves from these efforts.
These well-meaning and sometime-active members of the Armenian
community believe that by participating in such efforts and
articulating anti-denialism sentiments they will send a decisive
message to organizers and Turks. Instead they are playing right into
the hands of the orchestrators of this policy who use these events
as talking points to derail any and all decisive efforts vis-a-vis
the Genocide, such as advancing recognition resolutions in Congress
and the discussion of the Genocide in legitimate international arenas.
Unwittingly, these individuals are engaging in a debate on the veracity
of the Genocide--a guiding tenet of Turkey's policy.
The latest of such "dialogue" effort is slated to take place this
weekend at the University of California in Irvine where the Center
for Citizen Peacebuilding at UCI and the Turkish Economic and Social
Studies Foundation, known as TESEV, are hosting public forums and
closed-door "dialogue" meetings with Turkish and Armenian individuals
who somehow have been picked as spokespeople or experts on the matter.
The individuals on the Armenian side who have been duped to take part
in this initiative in no way or form represent the collective interests
of the community or the national aspirations of the Armenian people.
Let's begin with Ankara's attempt to insert itself in our community
as a stakeholder. This policy, which has been in effect for several
years, was articulated in 2012 by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu in an interview with the Turkish Milliyet newspaper, the
details of which were outlined in a July 13, 2012 article in Asbarez.
Davutoglu's "simple" plan is to redefine what he calls the "Turkish
diaspora" to include all people who were "Ottoman subjects" and by
waving his magic wand empower Turkish representations and Ankara
agents to stage "dialogues" with, in this case, Armenians and Turks.
"We consider all those who emigrated from those lands, and not only
the Turks, to be the diaspora--the Armenians, Jews, Greeks, the people
called El Turco in Latin America, and the Arabs in Argentina... Those
are our people... Those are people whose culture and language resemble
ours," Davutoglu outlined in the Millyet article.
Based on these "redefined criteria," Turkish representations around
the world "will now open their doors to those people who were once
Ottoman subjects, they will contact them, and they will even invite
them to national days. The contacts with the Armenian diaspora are
said to have already started," according to the Milliyet article.
On April 3, 2012, via an article in Asbarez, community members were
warned of this strategy because the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles
was making active strides to engage so-called Armenian community
representative in "friendship-building dialogue."
The recent and rabid engagement by UCI in advancing this issue is
troubling for an academic institution, which is funded and run by the
State of California. It seems the recent uptick in Turkish and Azeri
population in Irvine and Orange County is dictating that institution's
academic modus operandi and turning this venerable institution into
a special interest group.
These "dialogue" initiatives are framed as apolitical. This misses the
entire point of the Turkish-Armenian conflict, which by its definition
is political since at the center of it is the Armenian Genocide and
Turkey's subsequent and ingrained denial. Turning a blind eye to this
reality is to become complicit in Turkey's ongoing efforts at denial
and perpetuation of the crime of Genocide.
By the same token, the sole schism within the Armenian and Turkish
societies stems from Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide. So,
those who believe that by holding hands and singing Kumbaya the
issue of recognition, reparations and restitution for the Genocide
will come to a just resolution, are only doing a disservice to the
Armenian Cause, their immediate community and not to mention themselves
as Armenians.
It would be so much less complicated--if not easy--if we could ignore
the realities of the Armenian Genocide and build dialogue channels
between Armenian and Turkish societies, but that would be a dangerous
short-cut that would only serve Turkey to advance its interests and
cut short the aspirations of the Armenian Nation.
Without the proper recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the
willingness to address the issue of reparations, there can be no
dialogue, whether that is between the states or societies. Let us
not fall prey to Turkey's blatant efforts to silence the reality,
or those who are shepherding that cause on behalf of Ankara.
http://asbarez.com/123080/ankaras-meddling-in-our-community-must-be-rejected/
Wednesday, May 14th, 2014
Genocide denial
BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
Months before the Turkish Prime Minister's now infamous and patronizing
April 23 "condolence message" to Armenians, the wheels were in
motion here in Southern California to organize another "dialogue"
between Turks and Armenians to promote "understanding" between the
two societies.
The common denominator of these efforts is to circumvent the fact of
the Armenian Genocide and to create an atmosphere of pseudo cooperation
in an effort to water down the importance of Genocide recognition and
its immediate consequences. This credo, advanced by Ankara and the US
State Department, reared its ugly head in the dangerous Turkey-Armenia
Protocols, as well as in the failed Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation
Commission--TARC.
These esoteric efforts to bring Armenians and Turks together around a
table to "dialogue" are futile and those Armenians participating in
these efforts are playing into the hands of a dangerous policy that
is being advanced by official Ankara to demonstrate that Turks are
a peace-loving people who just want to get along.
Erdogan's April 23 message--a rebranding of Ankara's denialism--should
have raised red flags for all Armenians who have circled this and
other such "dialogue" initiatives and prompted them to immediately
distance themselves from these efforts.
These well-meaning and sometime-active members of the Armenian
community believe that by participating in such efforts and
articulating anti-denialism sentiments they will send a decisive
message to organizers and Turks. Instead they are playing right into
the hands of the orchestrators of this policy who use these events
as talking points to derail any and all decisive efforts vis-a-vis
the Genocide, such as advancing recognition resolutions in Congress
and the discussion of the Genocide in legitimate international arenas.
Unwittingly, these individuals are engaging in a debate on the veracity
of the Genocide--a guiding tenet of Turkey's policy.
The latest of such "dialogue" effort is slated to take place this
weekend at the University of California in Irvine where the Center
for Citizen Peacebuilding at UCI and the Turkish Economic and Social
Studies Foundation, known as TESEV, are hosting public forums and
closed-door "dialogue" meetings with Turkish and Armenian individuals
who somehow have been picked as spokespeople or experts on the matter.
The individuals on the Armenian side who have been duped to take part
in this initiative in no way or form represent the collective interests
of the community or the national aspirations of the Armenian people.
Let's begin with Ankara's attempt to insert itself in our community
as a stakeholder. This policy, which has been in effect for several
years, was articulated in 2012 by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu in an interview with the Turkish Milliyet newspaper, the
details of which were outlined in a July 13, 2012 article in Asbarez.
Davutoglu's "simple" plan is to redefine what he calls the "Turkish
diaspora" to include all people who were "Ottoman subjects" and by
waving his magic wand empower Turkish representations and Ankara
agents to stage "dialogues" with, in this case, Armenians and Turks.
"We consider all those who emigrated from those lands, and not only
the Turks, to be the diaspora--the Armenians, Jews, Greeks, the people
called El Turco in Latin America, and the Arabs in Argentina... Those
are our people... Those are people whose culture and language resemble
ours," Davutoglu outlined in the Millyet article.
Based on these "redefined criteria," Turkish representations around
the world "will now open their doors to those people who were once
Ottoman subjects, they will contact them, and they will even invite
them to national days. The contacts with the Armenian diaspora are
said to have already started," according to the Milliyet article.
On April 3, 2012, via an article in Asbarez, community members were
warned of this strategy because the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles
was making active strides to engage so-called Armenian community
representative in "friendship-building dialogue."
The recent and rabid engagement by UCI in advancing this issue is
troubling for an academic institution, which is funded and run by the
State of California. It seems the recent uptick in Turkish and Azeri
population in Irvine and Orange County is dictating that institution's
academic modus operandi and turning this venerable institution into
a special interest group.
These "dialogue" initiatives are framed as apolitical. This misses the
entire point of the Turkish-Armenian conflict, which by its definition
is political since at the center of it is the Armenian Genocide and
Turkey's subsequent and ingrained denial. Turning a blind eye to this
reality is to become complicit in Turkey's ongoing efforts at denial
and perpetuation of the crime of Genocide.
By the same token, the sole schism within the Armenian and Turkish
societies stems from Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide. So,
those who believe that by holding hands and singing Kumbaya the
issue of recognition, reparations and restitution for the Genocide
will come to a just resolution, are only doing a disservice to the
Armenian Cause, their immediate community and not to mention themselves
as Armenians.
It would be so much less complicated--if not easy--if we could ignore
the realities of the Armenian Genocide and build dialogue channels
between Armenian and Turkish societies, but that would be a dangerous
short-cut that would only serve Turkey to advance its interests and
cut short the aspirations of the Armenian Nation.
Without the proper recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the
willingness to address the issue of reparations, there can be no
dialogue, whether that is between the states or societies. Let us
not fall prey to Turkey's blatant efforts to silence the reality,
or those who are shepherding that cause on behalf of Ankara.
http://asbarez.com/123080/ankaras-meddling-in-our-community-must-be-rejected/