Second of two parts
[Editor’s Note: This essay comes to us via reader Hovsep Fidanian, who appends this note: “This short history of Armenian-Turkish relations is a must-read for anyone interested in the Armenian quest for justice and proper compensation.”]
Re “Turkey: A Permanent Threat to Armenia”
Dateline Belmont, MA – Turkey regards itself as the leader of not only its former colonies in the Middle East and Balkans but also the entire Muslim world. Turkey is investing heavily in those regions.
Its Education Ministry recently released multi-media material that shows Armenia, Cyprus, and parts of Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Iraq, and Syria as being part of Turkey.
Turkey claimed it was just a mistake.
“You are the grandchildren of the Ottomans. It will be the Ottomans who will make the world tremble again. If the Ottomans do not come back, the unbelievers will never be brought down to their knees.” A Turkish clergyman thundered those words to a frenzied Turkish rally in Belgium two decades ago.
In attendance were his admirers: Necmettin Erbakan, soon to be Turkey’s Prime Minister and the latter’s protégés, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s current Prime Minister and President.
Far from renouncing its bloody Ottoman past, such examples illustrate that Turkey embraces and wants to recreate it. Consequently, its threats against Armenia must never be taken lightly.
Turkish Threats
During the Artsakh/Karabagh war, Turkish President Turgut Özal repeatedly threatened Armenia. Armenians, he warned, “had not learned the lessons” of World War I – that is, the genocide.
According to Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, former Greek ambassador to Armenia, U.S. and French intelligence sources confirm that Turkey was poised to invade Armenia in 1993.
Ruslan Khasbulatov, a Chechen who was Speaker of the Russian Supreme Soviet and an opponent of Russian President Yeltsin, secretly had given Turkey the go-ahead to invade Armenia if he toppled Yelstin. Fortunately, Yelstin survived the challenge.
If not for the Armenian-Russian alliance of these past two decades, Turkey and Azerbaijan would have jointly attacked Armenia, with catastrophic consequences.
Despite Turkey’s hostile record, some Armenians have fallen victim to the constant drumbeat of propaganda that Turkey is “reforming.”
Turkish Non-Reforms
Some even believe that acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide would be tantamount to Turkey’s having “reformed.” That’s absurd, a serious mistake.
An acknowledgment, which would almost certainly be incomplete, insincere, or reversible, could psychologically disarm Armenians into letting down their guard. By not owning up to the genocide, therefore, Turkey may unwittingly be doing Armenians a favor.
Turkey’s actual record is one of repression, followed by mass violence, interspersed with so-called “reforms.”
In the 19th century, large-scale massacres of Armenians, particularly those of the 1890s, followed Ottoman “reforms” such as the Tanzimat (anti-discrimination decrees).
The Young Turk “reform” revolution of 1908 – cheered in the beginning by Armenians, Greeks, and other national groups – was followed by the 1909 Adana massacres, the 1915-23 extermination, and genocidal attacks on Russian Armenia and the Republic of Armenia.
Then along came the new “reformed, modern” Turkey of 1923.
It confiscated Armenian property, destroyed Armenian churches, and Turkified Armenian city and village names. In 1943, Turkey unleashed its malicious Capital Tax program against Armenians, Greeks, and Jews.
Later came the devastating Istanbul riots of 1955.
Did we mention Turkey’s massacre of Greek Cypriot civilians and ongoing occupation of northern Cyprus?
The death squads and torture chambers?
The repression, deportation and massacre of Kurds and other minorities, and the jailing of dissidents and journalists?
All the while, we are told that Turkey is “reforming.”
Turkish Syndrome
In addition to Turkey’s policies, its political leaders pose a danger because of what one may term Turkish Political Personality Syndrome.
This syndrome is on full display today in “modern” Turkey’s constant threats, chest-beating, belligerence, malignant narcissism, hypocrisy, extortion, despotism, cruelty, crudeness, lies, broken pledges, and, of course, the use of violence.
One cannot think of even one positive Turkish political quality.
The countless victims of Turkish violence down through the centuries are proof of Turkish leaders’ disordered state of mind.
There is little indication that either Turkey’s policies toward Armenians or their leaders’ disorder will ever change. Indeed, they may grow more threatening.
Yet Armenians still hope that Turkey will change.
How to make them aware that the Turkish threat is here to stay?
Education
Young people will, of course, become the adults who conduct the political, economic, cultural, and military affairs of Armenia. They must be equipped intellectually and psychologically to deal with Turkey.
From a young age, Armenian students must study – but not in Turkish schools – Turkish history, geo-politics, and language, and their application to present-day Armenian-Turkish relations.
The Turkish political personality, its violent and deceitful tendencies must be dissected and understood.
This is not easy, for two reasons.
• First, Armenians are bombarded by pro-Turkish and “reconciliation” propaganda from around the world, even by some Armenians.
• Second, we Armenians are unlike Turks, and we often have difficulty understanding their political culture.
Ultimately, future generations of Armenians will have to choose whom to believe.
Will it be the allegedly “reformed, modern” Turkey?
The international media that kowtows to Turkey?
Countries that historically have betrayed Armenia?
Or will Armenians learn from the past and the hard-earned wisdom of their forebears?
Their decision may determine whether Armenia lives or dies.
Mr. Fidanian may be contacted at fidan@charter.net
