ADMINISTRATIONS DID NOT LIKE HRANT, BUT THEN HE BECAME A HERO
Hurriyet
April 1 2010
Turkey
Turkey’s image in Armenia has changed progressively.
Once, the Azerbaijanis and Turks used to be put in the same basket.
And we used to say "Two countries one people," and for the Armenians,
Turkey and Azerbaijan used to be the same thing: both were Turkish,
they used to say both treat us like their enemy.
This has started to change.
Turkey is being taken more seriously nowadays. No matter how many bad
memories there existed in the past, Turkey is perceived differently.
But the Azerbaijanis are perceived negatively.
What I was curious about the most was how Hrant Dink was perceived
here.
How do they perceive him?
Like a hero?
"Until Dink was murdered people here did not like him much by the
administrations. Kocaryan even looked at him with suspicion. The reason
was that he did not adopt formal views. He had his unique views that
were not much appreciated," says a famous person of a local TV channel
and continues as follows:
"We were shocked when he all of a sudden was deified. Treated like a
hero. He had died by a bullet of the brutal Turks. People wrote about
Turks who could not stand their own citizen of Armenian origin. People
said, ‘There, you see? Turks are murderers like that.’"
I asked the same question to students and other Armenians. "What did
you think about the many people out on Istanbul’s streets after Hrant
was murdered shouting, ‘We all are Armenians! We all are Hrant!’ Or
did the message not reach you?"
The reply to this question was very interesting.
Those in favor of conspiracies did not trust this scene. They concluded
the Turkish state was window dressing.
I also met people saying, "No one would have hit the streets if the
Turkish state didn’t want them to." But general response was, "We were
shocked. We did not expect this and couldn’t believe our eyes. We
watched this scene over and over again. We started to realize that
the attitude of the Turkish people toward Armenians slowly started
to change."
To be honest, what Hrant Dink could not do alive he was able to do
after his death. He managed to draw two countries closer to each
other. To be more precise, he reminded them to recognize each other.
Hrant played a critical role in the changing image of Turkey here.
Two more people changed Turkey’s image
Just like Hrant Dink was able to change Turkey’s image among Armenians,
to an important extent there are two more people mentioned in the
same way.
One of them is Abdullah Gul.
No one expected the president to show up for the football game.
"We were much surprised when we heard about it. And especially his
greeting the tribunes was very effective. For, there were people who
never ever saw a Turk before," say students of the Yerevan University
and mention that Gul’s speeches regarding the Armenians have been
followed closely, even articles in this respect have been cut out
and preserved.
Now it was my turn to be stunned.
While chatting with academics the same subject came up.
According to them Abdullah Gul is the one who especially adapted to
the Armenian initiative, followed by Davutoglu. When looked upon from
this point of view, Erdogan does not qualify the same way. The prime
minister seems to be perceived like a brisk and superficial leader.
Many people have even asked when will Gul take matters into his own
hands. In a suitable manner I tried to tell them that it is known that
our prime minister won’t be willing to share these subjects and thus
it would be very difficult for Gul to try and take matters into his
own hands. I’m not sure if I was able to make the nuance clear to them.
The other person is Orhan Pamuk.
A famous TV talk show host said, "People here are fanatic and perceive
Turks as uncivilized. In TV chats they always reflect the same image.
Then one day we heard that Orhan Pamuk received the Nobel Prize. Again
we started to fight." I asked this TV host, "So then what did they
say?"
The answer I received was hilarious.
"They started saying Orhan Pamuk is not a Turk."
Orhan Pamuk with the Nobel Prize and his attitude in respect to Armenia
has found a way into their hearts. At the same time he provided for
a change in the image of Turkey.
Correction:
In my column the other day in respect to Karabakh’s condition I
said that Haydar Aliyev revoked its autonomous status in 1988. In
1988 Haydar Aliyev was not in the administration of Azerbaijan, and
Karabakh’s autonomous status was revoked by the Azerbaijani Parliament
in 1989. In 1993 Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory
including Karabakh.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
