NO GENUINE PEACE WITHOUT RESTITUTION
Team Keghart Editorial
13 May 2010
In late April welcome torrent of news and opinion related to the
Genocide of Armenians and President Serge Sargsyan’s pullback from
the Armenia-Turkey negotiations, an odd and probably original thought
was expressed by an Armenian activist regarding Armenian-Turkish
relations. To wit: Before negotiating with Turkey, Armenians should
understand the psychology of Turkey and Turks; Armenians should know
where Turks and Turkey are "coming from" before we present our list
of just demands.
The activist elaborated his suggestion by reminding Armenians
that Ottoman Turkey once ruled a large mass of land from Yemen to
Yugoslavia [there was no Yugoslavia then, but let that pass], from
Mesopotamia to Morocco… Ottoman armies reached the gates of Vienna
in the 1680s… Thus, since the demise of the unlamented Ottomans,
Turkey feels bereft, left only with Asia Minor and a small slice of
Europe west of the Bosporus.
The activist was historically and geographically accurate, but that’s
not where his observation should end. There’s more to the story.
In the Middle Ages Turkish marauders, from Central Asia, conquered
by sword what wasn’t theirs. They soaked in blood the people of the
Middle East and others around most of the Mediterranean littoral.
After oppressing the conquered peoples for five hundred to a thousand
years, Turks were driven out by indigenous Greeks, Bulgarians, Arabs
and other nations. Turkey didn’t withdraw from these lands willingly.
Unrepentant to the last, it withdrew to Asia Minor only when it had
run out of options.
Turkey lost its empire long before 1915. The Sick Man of Europe started
shrinking in the early 18th century as Russian armies began to push
Turks out of Crimea and Ukraine. The shrinkage continued as Greece,
Egypt, Bulgaria continued to push back the demonic empire.
Turkey lost the largest chunk of its conquered lands during the
First World War because of its misconceived alliance with Imperial
Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Young Turks entered the war hoping
they would regain the lands they had lost and possibly conquer
more lands, thanks to German and Austrian largesse. Unluckily for
Turkey, it lost the war. But once the war had ended, a defeated
Turkey, under Mustafa Kemal, the self-styled "Father of the Turks",
attacked-unprovoked-nascent Armenia, which was already suffering
from mass starvation, in addition to other depredations. Bloody Kemal
simply wanted to strangle the just-born Armenian republic. In this,
he proved himself a rightful successor to Tala’at, Enver and Jemal.
This brings us to our just demands.
When we demand, our assertions need no qualification, let alone
apology. We will look into their eyes and in plain language demand
that they return what doesn’t belong to them. And until we obtain
what’s rightfully ours, there can’t be genuine peace between the
Armenian nation and Turkey. The border might open, ambassadors might
be exchanged, soccer matches might be held in Yerevan and in Ankara,
we might buy cheap consumer goods from Turkey, but the outcome will
be a cold peace, a phony peace-like the one between Egypt and Israel.
No Armenian can forget the Genocide; no Armenian heart can abandon
captured Ararat, the churches of Ani, Lake Van. If we accept a
shambolic peace, if we abandon the lands of our forefather Armenia
will be a truncated welfare state dependent on the kindness of
strangers. And as our history has taught us well, there’s no future
in that.