COMMENTARY: WELCOME TO TURKEY’S TACTIC OF "CASTING A SHADOW OF DOUBT"
By Tavit Asdvadzadourian
2010/03/24 | 11:43
society
The whole world heard the Turkish Premier Erdogan threatening to
expel illegal Armenians from Turkey during his BBC interview. The
international community witnessed it; they documented it, taped it
and analyzed it.
Yet Mr Erdogan adamantly and categorically denies it, saying he did
not threaten those poor illegal Armenians, mostly women, who were in
Turkey to earn a living doing domestic work. He even went further to
interpret his threatening remarks as a show of good will.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "There are 170,000
Armenians in my country, of which 70,000 are my citizens. We’re
turning a blind eye to the other 100,000. However, tomorrow, if it
becomes necessary, I would say to those 100,000, go back to your
country. Why? Because they’re not my citizens; I’m not obliged to
keep them in my country."
Neither Armenia nor or the world community should be surprised
if Turkish government proposes to form a committee of historians
to review the facts of this BBC interview and to see if he really
threatened to expel the illegal Armenian from Turkey or it was just
typical Armenian allegation .
Welcome to the tactics of casting a shadow of doubt. Turkey has been
exercising this stratagem towards Armenians for the last century by
questioning everything – to create doubt, confusion, and debate. To
eventually change history.
How can Armenia, the Armenian Diaspora and the international community
trust such a person – an elected official and the leader of such a
large country – with the historic investigation of the 1915 Genocide
as stipulated in the Armenian Turkish Protocols.
By constantly applying this tactic of casting a shadow of doubt over
the Armenian genocide, Turkey dreams and hopes to change the history
of Anatolia and the Armenians forever , to rewrite what the whole
civilized world knows , what the historians of the early 20 century
have documented, what ambassadors their governments as the genocide
was actually taking place, and what the international newspapers have
reported during atrocities of 1915 to 1923.
Just the thought of the deliberation of the Armenian Genocide at the
international level, makes Turkey upset, irritated and angry against
countries such as United States, Sweden, Catalonia and soon Bulgaria.
Therefore Mr Erdogan declares war. But the war is not declared against
Armenia or these countries but against the poor illegal immigrants
who earn 100 Euros a week for domestic work in the employ of the high
class Turkish bourgeoisie.
It is a very familiar scenario – in the middle of the night, on the
eve April 24, 1915, the Ottoman police arrested, interrogated and
handcuffed the Armenian intellectuals. These were the writers, the
poets, the lawyers, the editors, the politicians, and the businessman
of the nation. The Ottomans executed them in one single night. That was
the powerful Ottoman Empire against the unarmed Armenian intellectuals.
The Ottoman government apprehended all men between the ages of 15 and
65 and, in the name of the Ottoman Army, put them on trains, took
them away from their home and shot them dead in large groups. That
was the powerful Ottoman Army against the unarmed Armenian citizens
who lived on the land for four thousand years.
Then, as a final blow the Ottoman Government ordered the rest of the
population, the children, the women and the elderly to leave their
homes and march toward Syria. That was the powerful Ottoman Empire
against the weak and helpless.
And now, after 95 years, the powerful Mr. Erdogan is after the few
poor illegal Armenian domestic workers.