Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Nov 20 2009
The way to peace
Friday, November 20, 2009
HASAN CEMAL
BOSTON ` The Sevan Bakery is located in Watertown, where the Armenian
population is high. As you enter the store, you feel as if you are in
a grocery store in Anatolia.
Harry’s father is from Bünyan in Kayseri, a central Anatolian
province. `I was born in this house. My dear father was sitting
beneath this tree and thinking about the homeland. We were eating the
best pastrami,’ he says, pointing at a photograph.
Zadik, Varujan, Armenians in Istanbul… They are a total different story.
When I was about to wrap up my speech at a sports arena in Watertown,
during a panel organized by the Friends of Hrant Dink, a tall, old man
with gray hair and a beard approached me. He had liked my speech. The
man was from Bünyan, Kayseri.
He spoke without letting go of my hand after the handshake:
`I was in primary school in Bünyan. I think it was 1942 or 1943. There
were flag ceremonies at school. I enjoyed these ceremonies. One day I
wanted to hold the flag. But the headmaster didn’t allow me. `You are
not a Turk, you cannot hold it,’ he said. I was so offended that I’ve
never forgotten this story. My heart was broken. Toward the end of the
1950s, we moved here…’
As a journalist, I try to write people’s stories so that they are able
to pour their hearts out, to penetrate each other’s lives and to
understand each other’s pain and sorrow, so that, I think, we can live
in a better world. But having a dialogue is not easy. It is difficult.
I know that the pains of the Armenians are deep. Especially in the
diaspora, the feeling gets deeper… Such sorrow shouldn’t lock them
in the past, but some Armenians are living in the past.
It is as though they don’t want to open the door to the future. That
feeling should be defeated. On Monday evening, as we were in a
discussion session following the panel at Harvard, a handsome young
man took his turn. He said that he is a Turk from the city of Denizli
and is studying economics.
`I see, I understand, that my ancestors did terrible things to
Armenians in the past… But what do they want from me today?’ he
said. Laughter broke out in the hall.
The question this naïve and sincere young man asked actually
underlined the facts about Turkey. Turks are unaware of the Armenian
question, just like they are of the Kurdish conflict. They are in the
dark.
This is the way they have been taught. Some problems are kept from
them. For this reason, I believe, everyone should light a candle and
look into the dark instead of cursing the darkness.
That’s why I place importance on dialogue and cultural dialogue
programs. That’s why the Friends of Hrant Dink association established
in Washington is so important. During the book-signing event at the
arena, someone asked: `Will Turkey accept the genocide?’
Another added: `Will Turkey give a piece of land?’
Yet another one continued: `If there hadn’t been any ASALA, the
Armenian question wouldn’t have been on the agenda. We couldn’t get
anywhere with peaceful demonstrations.’
I remember another question from a conversation at Harvard:
`We are moderate Armenians. You tell us, would it be better or worse
if the genocide bill is adopted in the U.S. Congress?’
There is more than one diaspora!
Conversations and the questions asked have revealed this. There are
many Armenian diasporas. The common denominator is, without a doubt,
`genocide.’ However, they have serious differences of opinion on how
they should deal with Turkey and which direction they should take.
Hrant Dink’s death and developments such as the Turkish apology
campaign have made them confused. The diaspora seems confused and
split.
For instance, some of them have placed a great deal of importance in
the protocols signed between Turkey and Armenia in Zurich last month,
while some have reservations and some completely refute them. That’s
OK. Change is not easy!
Turks will change too. So will Armenians. This is a painful process.
In order to feel less pain, in order to facilitate the process, we
must have plenty of discussions. We have no other way but to stare
into each other’s eyes and communicate if we want to transform the
dark into daylight… The past will, of course, not be forgotten.
But we cannot bury ourselves into the past if we want to build a peace
for the future. Let’s not forget: The path to peace and democracy
involves destroying some walls…
* Hasan Cemal is a columnist for daily Milliyet, in which this piece
appeared Friday. It was translated into English by the Daily News.