16.5.13

The Turkish-Hating Poison Continues to Poison

Pakrat Estoukian
 Translated by Vartan Matiossian

The agenda of this week [April 24] forces us naturally, or perhaps automatically, to think on Armenian issues. There are events organized for every day, where we participate sometimes and speakers and sometimes as correspondents. We have to say that, unlike Diasporan Armeninas, the organizer or the driving force of events of this nature in our country is not the local Armenian community, but the non-Armenian people of the country. Also, unlike the previous years, this years the public gatherings have expanded to the interior of the country. According to the news that have reached us, so far there have been meetings and marches organized, besides Istanbul, in Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Diyarbekir, Adana, Malatia, Bodrum, Dersim and other places.

Among the society, the idea that this issue of the genocide is related to the Turkish society as much as to Armenians is becoming more popular. The idea stems from the conviction that all unpunished crimes produce repetition. This is a justified interpretation, since after 1915, if not with the same extension, but with the same nature, many massacres, plunders or, with a more accurate word, crimes against humanity were executed in Turkey.
During all those years, it was not difficult to repeat some kind of Turkish-hating refrain, since we had our understanding and the panorama of backward Turkey justified that understanding. But in the last years, it is more and more difficult to classify Turkey among backward countries. At its turn, this subverts completely our ingrained convictions.
Perhaps we have to look within this contradiction the attack of Armenian Argentineans over the posters of Turkish Airlines in the streets of Buenos Aires. Recently, Turkish Airlines, which is on a continuous way of development, started flights to Buenos Aires via Sao Paulo. (*) The company promoted those flights through its posters. But this development appeared very hurting to Armenian Argentineans. They tried to mangle or make the posters illegible by pasting other legends over them.
A similar wave of protests had come out when the same company, after the direct flights to Los Angeles, had intended to utilize the figure of the world-famous basketball star Kobe Bryant. This had triggered a strong reaction from the Armenian American community. They had organized a campaign, intending that Bryant resigned from publicizing the Turkish company.
It is a pity that the Armenian Diaspora, which mangle posters or block development, had nothing to say when the Armenian airline went shamefully bankrupt for the second time.
Let's remember once again, with a broken heart, Hrant Dink, who advised the Armenian world to get rid of its poisoning Turkish hate and to look for wise means to contribute to the development of newly independent Armenia. It is a pity that, still, we are quite far from that awareness.

"Agos," April 25, 2013


(*) Turkish Airlines opened the route Istanbul-Sao Paulo-Buenos Aires-Sao Paulo-Istanbul in December 2012 with four weekly flights. On May 16, 2013 it was announced that those flights will become daily starting July 2013 ("Armeniaca").

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