Turkey/Ankara – Prime Minister ErdoÄ=9Fan among those offended by
`We are all Armenians’ slogan of hundreds of thousands.
Sendika.org
Labornet Turkey
January 27, 2007
_ _no=3D9479_
( hp?yazi_no=3D9479)
Showing solidarity with the Armenian minority who were able to survive
from the 1915 genocide and condemning the murder of an Armenian
journalist by a Turkish nationalist, hundreds of thousands had marched
last week shouting`We are all Armenians.’ This brotherly demonstration
has shocked the Turkish nationalists who claim either the genocide was
justified, never happened or that Armenians are a `loyal’ minority who
should accept Turkishsuperiority. Some even went so far as warning all
oppositionists to Turkish superiority would face the same fate the
Armenian journalist received.
Turkish prime minister Erdogan found the funeral march for the
slain Armenian journalist Hrant Dink remarkable, yet, he found the
solidarity slogan shouted by hundreds of thousands, `We are all Hrant
Dink, We are All Armenians’ offensive. He spoke against the slogan
aimed at bringing two different religious groups of Turkish citizens
together, saying, `This type of slogan, indicating we are all
Armenians may spark off a reactionary event. We needto prevent such
reactions. That is why that slogan is wrong.’
The words used by the prime minister were exactly the same ones used
by the racist nationalist front who have been screaming that `they
were being provoked’ by such slogans.
The right wing press has been targeting the solidarity slogan last
week. The right wing Tercuman’s headline was, `If you can’t say you
are a Turk, then get the hell out!’ Cumhuriyet, on the other hand, a
pro-military nationalist daily wrote, `Due to this slogan, Turks, the
real owners of this land, have fallen to the level of minorities in
their own land.’ This approach demonstrates the mentality of the
nationalists, pretending to be leftists,which places the Greek,
Armenian and Kurdish nationals in Turkey as only being guests and not
equal citizens of Turkey.
The Fotospor daily paper wrote in support of the Turkish soccer
player, Emre Bebeloglu , who is on trial for racism in England, on
its headline the day after the funeral, `We are all Turkish, we are
all Emre,’ showing the open racist, nationalist mentality.
These were followed by the collective attack on the slogan by the
right wing. The head of the fascist-nazi party, BBP, Yazıcıoglu, who
is involved in the assassination, joined forces with the other
fascist-nazi party MHP’s leader Bahçeli and others, saying, `Where we
are from is very obvious,’ rejecting the solidarity call of `We are
all Armenians.’
It was reported that those who attacked the brotherhood of both
nations claiming to be the `real Turks’ are the ones who have soiled
the Turkish identity the most.