ASTARJIAN: ‘YALANCI DOLMA’ DIPLOMACY
By Henry Astarjian

2/astarjian-yalanci-dolma-diplomacy/
December 2, 2009

Yes, it was a meeting, but not a "historic meeting" as posted by the
Friends of Hrant Dink, the organizers of an academic event entitled
"Closing the Divide."

The event was designed to build cultural bridges between the Armenian
Diaspora on one side and the Turkish people on the other, to traverse
a colossal gorge, not divide, created by centuries of slavery, abuse,
colonization of Western Armenia, and pogroms, which peaked with the
infamous genocide of 1915-23.

The meeting took place in, of all places, the Armenian Cultural and
Educational Center (ACEC) in Watertown, Mass., a hub of the Armenian
cultural activities.

The luminary in this event was the principle speaker, Hasan Cemal,
who was to talk about his "recent trip to Yerevan and the memories
about his grandfather [Jemal Pasha]." Additional reflections were
to be articulated by two professors, Taner Akcam of Clark University
and Asbed Kotchikian of Bentley University.

I am not sure what the organizers were trying to accomplish. Some 25
million of Turkey’s population, the Kurds, knew firsthand about the
genocide because they witnessed it, actually committed the killings,
or else kidnapped our daughters and later married them to their sons.

Most Turks are aware of the genocide, and they rationalize it because,
as Ataturk’s propaganda has it, the genocide was a necessary policy
carried out to protect the Vatan (Fatherland) from Russian invasion
(which was supposedly exploiting the rebellious Armenians to divide
and defeat Turkey).

Yes, the people of Turkey-the Turk, the Kurd, the Lezgis, the Chechen,
the Greek; the Sunnis, Shiites, and the Alevis-all know about the
Armenian Genocide. Most importantly, the governments of Turkey have
known about the genocide from the beginning, yet have refused to face
the reality, and have muzzled the Turkish intelligentsia and people
of conscience from discussing Turkey’s criminal past.

Inhabitants of Turkey know about the genocide. They all felt it on
their skin when their doctors, pharmacists, professors, architects, the
artisans and other skilled workers were no longer there, overnight. The
same was felt in Iraq, when the Jews left to Israel in 1949.

I know a Turkish doctor from Elazig (Kharpert region, Mamourat el-Asiz)
who swore to God he overheard this conversation between two elderly
Turks, sitting outside a mosque chatting about old times. One of
them said: "I asked Avedis to come to my house for protection. Me
and my friend killed this giavour oghlu giavour (infidel, son of
infidel). I took his jacket and my friend took his shalvar, and we
dumped the body."

It is accurate to say that the Armenian Diaspora knows Turkey better
than Turkey knows the Diaspora. Armenians do not trust Turks and
the Turkish government. Their so-called "Europeanization" is only a
veneer; the real Turkey has been exposed in many ways, many times. In
the early 90’s, they let the people of Armenia freeze to frost when
they prevented oil from reaching the country. People cut trees to
cook and get some warmth to avoid hypothermia. The Turks blockaded
passage of international food aid to starving Armenia; and when they
gave in to international pressure, they exchanged the donated good
quality wheat with a cheaper one, before it got to Armenia.

Turgut Ozel, the president of Turkey at the time, contemplated "hitting
Armenia with a couple of missiles, and claiming mistakes for doing
it." Two days later he died, and Armenian folklore considers that as
God’s punishment.

These are only a fraction of the facts that paint Turkey’s portrait
with us; there is much more. The Turkish government and people of
Turkey must come clean; they must wash their hands of Armenian blood.

People-to-people dialogue, though well intentioned, will not bridge
the gorge, despite Cemal’s attempts to find common ground. Shared
food recipes for dolma and chigkufta, make a weak bridge leading to
a recipe for yalanci dolma (fake, meatless, stuffed grape leaves):
It is a naive diplomacy. The message, which is noble in itself,
is not practical because rapprochement between our two peoples,
does not and will not change the policies of the Turkish government,
which is driven by its own agenda of hegemony of the region, and by
the big power’s designs over the Caucasus.

It is evident that the issue is political. The dynamics of this game
will change in favor of understanding and friendship, if Turkey quits
resisting the recognition of the genocide and acknowledges its reality,
and if Turkey quits de-facto support of the Azeris on Karabagh. After
that, we can talk about the borders.

Hasan Cemal, who has been badgered by Turkey because of his book The
Kurds, is the wrong messenger for the message he is advocating. First,
he is in the wrong place; he should sell his ideas in Turkey, not in
the Armenian Diaspora. Second, intellectuals can never change policy;
neither can he. Intellectuals rarely get to a governing power anywhere
(an exception is Vaslav Haavel in Czechoslovakia). Similar writers
and intellectuals in Turkey-like Yasar Kemal, Ayse Nur, and her
husband Ragip Zarakolu, even the lighthearted Aziz Nesin, to name a
few-suffered and still suffer the wrath of the reactionary governing
establishment. Third, he carries a big chip on his shoulder. He is the
grandson of a war criminal "Sakalli (Bearded) Jemal Pasha," who as the
third member of a criminal gang formed of Enver, and Talat, members of
the Ittihad ve Tarraqi (CUP-Committee of Union and Progress), shared
the responsibility of implementing the genocide. He also committed war
crimes against the Arab intellectuals in Aleppo by holding kangaroo
courts, then hanging 12 of them headed by Dr. Abdul-Rahman el-Khalil,
within 24 hours of the lower court’s decision; he did not allow them
appeal, as required by law, and did not wait to obtain the approval of
Istanbul, as required. In the Arab annals, he is known as the saffah
(blood-thirsty, indiscriminate executioner).

Now, I am not naive enough to saddle Hasan with his grandfather’s
criminal past. I have no doubts about his decency and sincerity;
however, that enigma will never disappear if he does not condemn
his grandfather’s deeds, outright. That is a bitter pill to swallow,
but that is the means to fortify his message. Otherwise this whole
project could be construed as being Yalanci Dolma Diplomacy.