TURKISH DEFENSE MINISTER UNWITTINGLY CONFESSES TURKEY’S GUILT IN THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Appo Jabarian

Novembe r 2008

Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul made a scandalous public
statement on Armenians and Greeks in Brussels on November 10. He said:
"If Greeks continued to live in the Aegean and Armenians continued
to live in many places in Turkey, I wonder whether there would be
today’s nation-state. …

I don’t know how to tell you about the importance of this exchange. But
if you look at the old balances, the importance of this would very
clearly arise."

Armenians and Greeks worldwide should thank the Turkish Defense
Minister for unwittingly confessing Turkey’s guilt in the Armenian
Genocide and the Genocide of the Constantinople, Pontus, and Smyrna
Greeks.

Turkey’s genocidal campaigns of 1915-23 against the Armenians in
Turkish-occupied Western Armenia and Cilicia, has made Armenians in
the Diaspora and Eastern Armenia more vigilant.

Recently the head of the Armenian National Security Service
Lieutenant General Gorik Hakobian told Jane’s Intelligence Digest:
"We are concerned with the possibility of a recurrence of the Armenian
genocide because of the intensive militarization of Azerbaijan and the
recurring official statements of our neighbours concerning their plans
to regain Nagorno-Karabakh by military fo rce, which legitimately
gained self-determination. The very recent attempt at militarily
opposing the self-determination of the people of South Ossetia proves
that there are no alternatives but peaceful and political ways to
resolve conflicts in the South Caucasus. And Azerbaijan’s threats to
start a new war over Karabakh are not helpful in this regard."

In the light of this most disturbing statement by the Turkish
Defense Minister, and the continuing Azeri intentions to militarily
"regain control" over Artsakh, one may ask, what is the remedy of
the Turkish-Azeri appetite for another genocide against the Armenians?

The implementation of the right to Self-Determination in Artsakh;
and the expanding of the role of the Armenians everywhere for the
dual purpose of 1) defending what is already in existence – Armenian
and Artsakh, and 2) what should be accomplished in terms of the
re-establishment of the Western Armenian homeland.

At the cost of repeating what many activists previously said, we
should move beyond the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. We should
actively endeavor for 1) The restoration of the Western Armenian
homeland and 2) The compensation by Turkey for the loss of real and
personal properties in Western Armenia and Cilicia.

Some members of the community may be skeptical. To those skeptics’
attention, I would like to bring the historic moment, when the Soviet
Union=2 0collapsed and the Artsakh Liberation War broke out. And at
the cost of heavy human and material losses, Armenians were able to
liberate the Armenian Territories of Artsakh, which were forcibly
carved out of the 1921 Soviet Armenia during Soviet dictator Stalin’s
rule. The process of "Stalinization" of the Armenian territories was
remedied by the reversal of that process by way of de-Stalinization.

At the height of the Soviet power from 1921 through 1991, how many of
us actually visualized the arrival of the day when the Soviet system
would collapse and Artsakh would be liberated?

Now, at the height of Turkish power how many of us can actually
visualize Turkey’s demise and further dismemberment?

Those of us who are very much aware of the impending political
implosion of Turkey have solid grounds for doing so.

Today’s Turkey is the last vestige of the Turkish Ottoman Empire which
underwent an incomplete disintegration process after World War I. The
process of the Ottoman Empire’s disintegration was artificially halted
by the neo-cons of that period.

Now, decades later, the incomplete process of disintegration is heating
up again. No matter what else Turkish officialdom says or does, the
inevitable is knocking on the door of the contemporary "Sublime Port"
in Ankara.