ASTARJIAN: YES WE CAN! (PART II)
By Henry Astarjian
Armenian Weekly
January 20, 2010
So this is Turkey, inside out, with the inside being its underbelly:
exposed, soft, and vulnerable. Despite its genuine structural
weaknesses, institutional Turkey continues to colonize the non-Turkic
inhabitants of Turkey¡½the Kurds and other minorities, who suffer
ethnic, cultural, and educational oppression.
For nearly a century we have been in a wake, mourning our 1.5 million
dead in the genocide, but have forgotten, mostly ignored, our ÅÍiving
dead¡¦: a million or so Armenians who were forcefully converted to
Islam, carrying the ID of a Turk.
For nearly a century we have ignored the cries of these people¡½Å±lease
save us!¡E¡½which resonated in our post-genocidal conscience. Our
nation, which had barely survived the genocide and was in shell
shock, could barely care for itself, let alone rescue the lamb from
the jaws of the wolf. Despite that, there were some rescues, but not
from Turkey. Some Arab tribes, mainly the Mujhhims (Shammars), saved
some Armenian children from the Syrian Desert, Der Zor. My uncle by
marriage, Dickran, was an accomplice in ÅÌidnapping¡¦ some of these
girls from their Arab ÅÔavers¡¦ and bringing them to Mosul, Iraq.
That was a triumph, but that was all. There were some similar,
sporadic anecdotes, but not more.
As time passed, their cries echoed fainter and fainter, until now,
when, despite the loudness of their cry űlease save us!¡¦ it faintly
echoes in the empty chambers of our memories.
The diaspora is oblivious to their calls, and the leadership is
ignorant, more correctly inept, in handling the problem. They are busy
pursuing the cause of the dead in a bloody genocide, ignoring the
cause of the victims of the bloodless genocide (my uncle would call
it the Red Genocide and White Genocide¡¦), ignoring their inherent
duty to do something, something that could take many forms.
We have to learn from others: the United States Armed Forces do not
leave any soldier, dead or alive, behind. Israel has one captive
soldier with Hamas, and they are raising hell to get him back. The
issue holds a prime importance in their conduct of diplomacy to bring
Shalit home. They are negotiating the release of a many Palestinian
prisoners in return for the release of their one soldier.
In Kurdish American meetings, which I have attended, at least two
dozen Kurds have anonymously confided in me that their grandmother,
sometimes grandfather, is Armenian, and they consider themselves both
Kurds and Armenians. They invariably have questioned, rhetorically,
Ÿhat have we gained from being Muslims?¡¦ These few words speak
volumes. Kemal, a polite semi-educated ŵurk,¡¦ confided that his
mother was Armenian, but said, űlease keep it a secret¡¦; even though
he had become a naturalized American, he was afraid of some kind of
retaliation against his relatives in Turkey. A doctor friend of mine
from Elazig (Kharpert) told me that his grandmother was Armenian,
and that the only word he had learned from her was ÅÑaregam¡¦ (friend).
There are the Hemshin in the Trabizon area who have collectively
converted to Islam, but they are Armenians, and proud of it too.
Demographic diversity in Turkey¡½unlike the United States where
it is an asset¡½spells disaster for the country, because of the
Turkish hegemony and colonization of its minorities, especially of
the not-so-minor population of Kurds who constitute approximately
one third of Turkey¡Cs population.
The persecution of this large segment of the population creates nothing
less than resentment, hatred, contempt, and armed struggle¡½the way
it has been conducted by armed Kurds. The dynamics of their rebellion
is the same as that of the Armenians who had no choice but to bear
arms to defend their hamlets and villages.
Another persecuted notable group is the Alevis, the Shi¡Ca, not
Sunni Alevis who gladly accepted the converted Armenian into their
Islamic fold.
There is no doubt that the converts to Islam, though half or quarter
Armenian, would, given the freedom that they deserve, claim their
ethnic origin as theirs and join forces with the Kurds to reclaim their
land. The Kurds realize, and I have articulated this in my speeches to
the Kurdish Parliament in Exile (Brussels), that our causes meet and
that our causes are intertwined, that we have a common enemy, that we
are a de-facto presence in Anatolia, and that our rights on the land
is reserved by the Sevres Treaty, which also gave us the Wilsonian
map. It is clear that a unilateral rapprochement between the Kurds
and the Turks must not be at the expense of Western Armenia. Given
all that, we should have no problems with the Kurds.
It is incumbent upon our leadership to pursue the matter in earnest
and fight for it as if the White Genocide is the continuation of the
Red Genocide. We are already a century late.
Some say it takes a miracle. Others who have the faith say, Yes we
can! Yes we can take back Western Armenia, but only if we have the
resolve, if we have the guts, and if we mobilize our forces. Yes we
can succeed in recreating Western Armenia, which then can fulfill
the promise of a Miatsial, Azad, Angakh Hayastan (a United, Free,
and Independent Armenia) in earnest. Until then, the title remains
as it is: a slogan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
