TURKEY’S ARMENIANS DEMAND APOLOGY FROM ERDOGAN
Ara Khachatourian
03/30/turkey%e2%80%99s-armenians-demand-erdogan%e2 %80%99s-apology/
Tue, Mar 30 2010
To minimize the damage caused by his threats to deport Armenians
working illegally in Turkey, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan met with what his office called "the leader of the Armenian
community in Turkey" on Fri., March 26.
Except, that person does not represent the Armenian community nor
its institutions.
Berdos Sirinoglu, the president of the Board of Trustees of the
Armenian Holy Savior Hospital, told reporters following talks with
Erdogan that no good could come out of bringing up what happened a
century ago, and that what happened between Turks and Armenians was
a fight "among friends."
"This was 100 years ago. There is no point in digging further into
the past. I cannot understand why some people try to keep it open,"
added Sirinoglu, who said his own grandfather died in the 1915 events.
"There is no need to call the events genocide either."
Angered by these statements and the apparent effort to unilaterally
represent and speak for the Armenian community of Turkey, the relatives
of slain journalist Hrant Dink kicked off a petition Tuesday distancing
themselves from Sirinoglu and his comments.
The petition, entitled "We live in a different Turkey," has received
wide support and prompted a wave of protests by Armenians in Turkey,
who say that Sirinoglu and his vice-chairman Herman Baloyan, who also
attended the meeting, do not represent or speak for the community.
"Sirinoglu is not the leader of Turkey’s Armenian community," read
the petition announcement, as reported by the Istanbul-based Agos
newspaper. Dink was the editor of Agos before his murder in January
2007.
Sirinoglu "is the president of the Holy Savior Hospital and that
position does not give him the right to make announcements on behalf
of the Armenian community. Thus, Sirinoglu’s announcements only
reflect his personal opinions. We expect those who are creating
confusion in the community to immediately correct their mistakes,"
added the announcement.
Sirinoglu also said that Armenians felt safe in Turkey and had no
complaints to that effect. "Those people who have been away from
their country for a long time should come and see Armenian property
and schools, they should see how Armenians live in Turkey, and then
they should decide," he said.
"Hearing Sirinoglu’s announcement that ‘Armenians feel safe in
Turkey-Have you ever heard any complaints from them?’ prompts us
to think that perhaps we live in a different Turkey," the petition
continued.
"Sirinoglu may feel safe in this country. But, that’s a lie," added
the petition, which went on to stress that Armenians are subjected
to racial and ethnic discrimination and are being used for political
goals.
"We expected Sirinoglu to remind the prime minister of the murder
of Hrant Dink three years ago and demand that those responsible are
brought to justice," emphasized the announcement.
Sirinoglu said most of the 1.5 million Armenians who were living in
Anatolia when the massacres began migrated to other countries-Lebanon,
Syria, Iraq, the United States, France, etc. "I am not saying nothing
happened, but there is no benefit in digging deeper into the past. If
we do this, our future will remain in the dark," he said.
Sirinoglu went as far as taking the blame for the inflated figure
of 100,000 illegal Armenians announced by Erdogan in his deportation
threat earlier this month. "We gave the figures to the prime minister.
Since he trusted us deeply, he did not check it with other sources. We
apologize for this," said Sirinoglu, adding that the correct figure
was about 20,000.
"Sirinoglu’s apology for the inflated figures raises suspicion,"
the petition read. "We believe that all of this was staged and was a
coordinated effort to portray the Turkish government as a benevolent
entity."
"We condemn the prime minister’s announcement and express that we do
not share Bedros Sirinoglu’s views," read the petition, which also
called on Erdogan to issue an apology.