An Armenian Prespective on the Flotilla: Euh, Erdoğan,WHAT?
For the past week we have been tweeting, blogging, talking, shouting about the freedom flotilla, restless, hurt, and enraged. Hands tied staring at the horizon and thinking, but all of this is just a few kilometers away. A few hours after the massacre, a friend sent me photographs of the manifestation in Beirut, all one could see were gigantic Turkish flags. I smiled and told myself: this is not the time for you to be critical, if this is what it takes for Gaza to be free then it’s OK, suck it up and let the Turkish flags fly.
But all of this doesn’t make sense, this sudden Turkish-Arab loving as pieces of countries like Iraq are swallowed up by fractions from the north and the east and the south as well as the investments and money of the same people called heroes.
Clearly for the past many months Turkey is getting more and more involved in our politics and in defining its role in the region no longer only as an Israeli ally but as a very good friend to the Arabs from a very populist perspective specially after failing to be part of the E.U. The main door to do so? The question of Palestine. Our population needs a “Hero” so bad and by Erdogan standing up to Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos last year and the latest events surrounding the flotilla massacre, he became the “man” par excellence, the keeper/restorer of dignity, specially after Arab leaders have failed to do so miserably.
Most of the comments sparked during the past week on forums and blogs and posted by Zionists have been pointing fingers at the Turkish people and reminding them of the Armenian cause and Turkey’s hypocritical stand. Now I don’t have a problem with them doing so, but hello Zionism! You have been denying the genocide for decades when it suited you to suck up to Ankara or make a case of your tragedy and holocaust as the only tragedy that befell the world in the past century!
So no thank you, I don’t need your solidarity.
No! Just because Israel is suddenly the enemy of Turkey, I will not stand with my enemy’s enemy. It cannot work that way and will not work that way. I have read a lot of posts by Armenians online siding with Israel using that kind of logic. I would like to remind them that when we were deported and starving with nowhere to go, we ended up on these lands and built ourselves a new life. For those who ended up in Palestine, it was the Palestinians that opened up their arms and not the Zionists. It was the latter however that threw us out later on forcing us into another exile, while our parents hadn’t even recovered from the first.
We talked a lot about the BDS (boycott divest and sanction Israel) campaign and its relevance after the flotilla massacre. Personally I boycott and sanction Turkey, I boycott and sanction it for its denial of genocide, for its treatment of Kurdish, for its betrayal of Iraqi borders, for its murder of Hrant Dink. Turkey talks about Gaza’s blockade but what about its 17 years blockade of Armenia? And no we cannot choose, we cannot be picky, we cannot say one murder is more tolerated than another and one blockade more logical than another and this is why I also boycott Israel.
I have great esteem for the flotilla, great esteem for the people who resisted and those who took the streets but I have no respect for the nationalist tone it has all taken and I feel threatened by the propaganda mission through which a man such as Erdogan literally becomes the poster child in camps and in the occupied territories, it pains me.
On June 3rd an Armenian youth conference was supposed to take place in Jordan Amman and got canceled just one day before it took place. Why? Because of Turkish Jordanian relations, because during this meeting the Armenians were going to talk about community building, about the Armenians in Turkey and about Hrant Dink and his legacy.
A month ago in Beirut, Lebanon, a place I supposedly think of as my home, Eileen Khatchadourian‘s song Zartir Vortyag was banned from the airwaves. Goodness forbids the Lebanese to offend the Turks. The song is a call of a mother to go fight the enemy, the enemy is not named but the Lebanese general security feared that the Turks might consider it as an Armenian uprising, pathetic to say the least, and no I am not surprised none of you haven’t heard of this.
I am impressed by how easily the Lebanese forget, no stages of grief no nothing. Just call everything 7awedis* and move on and a few decades after Jamal Pasha al Jazar, transform your martyr’s square into a car park and pretend all is good in the world.
I do not wish direct or indirect control by any government. I do not wish for Turkish UNIFIL to protect MY south, I do not wish for Erdogan to speak in MY name, I do not wish anything other than for us to wake up and understand that our history, our causes, our survival, our struggles and even our deaths are just a piece of the bait used to lure power and control.
*7awedis: Lebanese slang for “incidents”
Category: activism
I can´t say thank you enough! I´ve been meaning to write something but never found the right sentences. Then I was hoping for someone to do so, and here it comes. You have put it so beautifully and so intensely. Thank you, and very good job. I will send it around.
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You don’t have to be a Zionist to point out Turkish hypocrisy. That’s just like the Jews say you’re anti-Semitic for criticizing Israel.
But why is it that Lebanese people conveniently forget all of the atrocities the Turks have committed over history? It’s not just the Armenian genocide, either. The Turks treated the Bulgarians so badly that Bulgarians now shake their heads for yes and nod for no, as it was a way to avoid converting to Islam when the Turks asked them. Why is there never any mention of how the Turks let 300,000 Lebanese people starve to death during World War I because they took all their food to feed their soldiers, or how bad the Turks colonized Lebanon for centuries?
There is zero logic with Lebanese bigotry and hatred. Now Hizbollah sympathizers are saying FU to Lebanon and risking starting another war with Israel by traveling to Gaza. They know full well that Israel could use it as an excuse to start another war, but they don’t care. (Not to mention the hypocrisy of “supporting Palestinians” in Gaza while forcing them to rot in concentration camps in their own country.)
Excellent piece ~ from the personal to the political ~ these are difficult questions we grapple with.. lol @ hello Zionism!
Also, I think us Arabs should stop searching for heroes and leaders.. sha3b ma na2so shee..
Welcome to Sawt!
indeed! welcome to sawt
Well said! thank you for the article.
Many Arabs, and many of those who are leftists, and may Palestinians who are leftists fell in this simplistic formula of Turkey vs. Israel! not engaging with a better analysis of the situation! Turkey is another oppressive country in the ME oppressing Armenians (history and present) and Kurdish (history and present).
Thank you for this statement.
Je pensais bien tout ce que tu as si merveilleusement ecrit, mais je ne savais pas le decrire. Voila, tu l’as fait, mille merci. Je ne sais pas cependant exprimer de commentaire. Tout ce qui se passe devient de plus en plus insense. Un agresseur qui se plaint ou qui passe pour heros, ca depasse la logique. Au moins la mienne.
shi bi fesh l khele2 bi kel ma3na l kelme! merci
Fazee3a C. It’s a great piece. 3alleh sawtik, 3alleh.
Turkey is so delusional and hypocritical, they are getting involve in problems that they their self are not connected or affected to in anyway. And by doing this they will create more problems and issues (especially in the mid east), I reacted to what Turkey said about Israels actions and called for a stop of massacre against the Palestinians, but Turkey their self wouldn’t recognise the massaccre and oppressing behavour they had in the past and still today against the thousands or millions of Armenians, Kurds and other minorites living in Turkey but also now abroad with Turkeys involvement in the middle east.
Thank you peepz for the support and am glad alot of people have been asking the same questions .
@Cruella,I was not saying you have to be Zionist to point out Turkish hypocrisy, I was describing what was happening online in the past weeks and how alot of Zionists used the Armenian Genocide after decades of denying it and lobbying against it to have armenians side with them and shift the world’s attention from one matter to another. As much as I want the recognition of the genocide, it being used by the US. E.U. Israel etc. for strategic purposes appalls me.
And yes it’s not just the armenian genocide, it’s the Bulgarians, Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds… but from a personal perspective, I as an Armenian Lebanese feel threatened by what is currently going on in the region, I feel we are being silenced, pushed to the side and not to mention even bullied by politicians ( specially during elections and such, there are very creepy discourses … )
Thanks again for reading and the comments, keep them coming.
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wow excellent… i love the angri feel to it. i didnt know they banned the Khatchadourian song. please keep writing and as J said, khalleh sawtik 3aleh
Thank you so much for this excellent piece. Indeed “we cannot say one murder is more tolerated than another and one blockade more logical than another and this is why I also boycott Israel.”
I cannot agree…
ok great. so let’s boycott sudan, china, pakistan and so on… is turkey an apartheid state? in order for us to boycott israel we need to boycott all these countries? why not boycott egypt as well? what about the first war criminal christopher columbus, let’s boycott italy. the zionists are feeding on the criticism to turkey in the case of denial of armenian genocie… did israel just realize that? this is NOT to deny and criticize all those governments, what i am saying is that, as a comrade pointed out to me, should there be a pre-requisite to boycott apartheid?
@Ghazzawiya , Hi
I didn’t say that in order for you to Boycott Israel you need to boycott all these countries, and I am not one to push my ideology on you, however I personally as an Armenian AND and Arab ( I won’t go into my family history here ) have two struggles that are dear to me and they are more and more interconnected NOW with the different countries at play.
Furthermore I personally view struggles as interconnected and that is my choice to do so, the pre requisites to Boycott are those I decide, because even in the case of boycott i will not let decision be dropped on me from above or anywhere else.
You mixed alot of countries and struggles but if you go back to my piece, it is quite limited to the Armenian experience within an arab context post flotilla massacre and Turkish praise. A reaction also to what was ongoing online.
Finally, I like to think of BDS as a grassroots movement, I do not think apartheid needs prerequisites so one boycotts it, apartheid is apartheid. And I don’t think a country needs to necessarily be an apartheid state 3alanan so you boycott it, Turkey’s intentions, past, and current treatment of minorities, erasure of ethnic presence in Anatolia etc. make me boycott it. Not to mention being descendant of survivors of the genocide… So what I wonder is, is one of those prerequisites that you mention , the label? must we label the country as apartheid state first before we can boycott it or stand against its treatment of minorities etc?
Perhaps I didn’t understand the message correctly, would love to know more. Thanks a bunch.
Good read.
This is a very accurate and well written piece that I find it very difficult to point out any flaws or mistakes in it.
Thank you,
However I have just one remark that is not specifically related to the subject, but is rather related to the general framework in politics.
What I mean is that Ideals are extremely important, but history taught us before that they “bend” in the face of reality.
So as I totally agree with what you said, but I think that this turn in Turkey’s relationship with Israel is very positive, if it proved to be permanent.
It is positive on several levels if I might explain.
Firstly, any new enemy of Zionism is welcome, this doesn’t mean that it becomes automatically our ally and friend, as the waves of populism spreading throughout the Arab (and Islamic) word. But because it deprives Israel from an important asset. I believe that the demise of Zionism, as a racist ethno-religious ideology, helps the developments of our societies and the reconciliation between the peoples of our region. Zionism represents the remnants of European colonialism and direct intervention in our region, with all the evils it brought with it. (I am not saying that everything was perfect in our region before, but Europeans did aggravate the situation to a rupture, directly and indirectly)
Secondly, The ruling Turkish party, the AKP made some efforts (regardless of how sufficient they are) to reconcile with its Armenian neighbor. One can assume (and hope) that this attempt coupled by political activism in Turkey (such as the flotilla) for the oppressed, might effectively bring Turkey closer to admit its crimes against the Armenians.
Thirdly, Politics is a dirty game, and I think that it is very important for Armenia not to be tempted by the “Israeli Card” to gain favors in the US or for military and economic support, there doesn’t seem to be any indicators for this, but the Israeli press has started stirring up the subject. Another thing that is more related to regional politics is Armenia’s relationship with Turkey’s brethren in Azerbaijan.
Finally, the Arabs should realize that they by no means should compromise the situation of Arab Armenians in order to please “Turkey”. At the same time, They might try to end the animosity between Turks and Armenians thanks to the Armenian communities in Arab countries.
Thanks again
The legacy of AtaTurk and the extreme nationalism he preached (basicly racism actually) is the reason to why Turks deny the genocide on armenians. The Zionist among the turks (those that hate arabs because they think that arabs destroyed the turkish empire and hence prefer to support israel, they are ignorant of their own sides involvement in toppling the empire) are those who tend to be the most vocal in denying the genocide on Armenians.
As for the kurds, Its the kemalists that were/are against everything kurdish and what did their ally israel do about that? They trained the PKK to kill turks.
Turkey is currently undergoing change and i believe we will see a real change in attitute towards kurds and Armenians in the future as the ideology of ataturk is coming to light and many have started to reject it. Turkey has been like a dictator state even though we have democracy because of the legacy of ataturk.
Turkey is changing and Erdogan is only the start of that change. When he threatned to expel the armenians in turkey (those who live there without permit), he did so to please the kemalists. The next anti-zionist turkish leader will learn from the misstakes of erdogan and contribute even more to the change and withdraw recognition of the zionist state of israel, improve ties with the armenians and form a joint turkish-armenian comitte to investigate the armenian genocide and give the armenians a closure. Dont be surprised if you find that those who carried out the genocide were also the same turks who collaborated to end the ottoman empire and infiltrated the ottoman army and control and whos later followers were those who were in the firstline of racism against arabs, kurds and armenians while at the same time being pro-israel and among the first to recognize israel.
Thanks for this.
@Han of course the changes in the Turkish Israeli relationship are a good thing and I hope it lasts, and anything is better than old school Kemalists for sure, but domestically the difference between them and the AKP is still superficial and I hope we won’t be waiting for changes to fall from the sky.
Even forgetting the relationship with ethnic minorities, the insulting Turkishness laws have got to go; that’s crucial and without it nothing else we’re talking about will ever happen. I mean we’re talking about Turkey admitting its crimes when it doesn’t even let other people, inside or outside the country, say what they want about its history. Maybe a good consequence of all this rebuilding of ties with the Arab world is we can also build links with and support Turks who care about the same things we do. With Turkish Kurds, too, cause as far as I understand there were a lot of Kurds on the flotilla and I don’t think enough people are aware of that.
Anyways, if Israel wants to play the Armenian or the Kurdish card the best thing to do, besides rejecting them, is take the oppourtunity to raise the Palestinian issue back at them and the points they have in common. I have my doubts about how far they will go with that though: the US needs Turkey so long as they have troops in Iraq and knows they can’t really afford to piss them off too much. We talk about Eastern/Western orientations so much but really Turkey is a state looking out for itself, like most states.
@Turk, I hope you’re right!
Hello! I’m elated to find this discussion site and agree with so much; but right now, and being of both Armenian and Sephardi-Jewish origins from Turkey–living in the USA for over a half century, I must say that it is vitally important to support all efforts to end the suffering of the Palestinians NOW. I know what cruelty happened to the Armenians through my own family, those who died and those scattered throughout the world, and I’m astonished that no one lifted a finger to end the genocide… let us not fall for the manipulative Zionist state’s PR using the Armenian genocide–which Israel is/was always major conniver & obstacle in US and UN, and will continue to deny once the smoke clears (remember, only Jewish suffering is most important, yeah right!!)–to to deny the Palestinian’s human rights. Can you forget the wanton bombing of Lebanon, Gaza, the murder of civilians?? How can we stand by and watch the horror over and over–the deliberate murder of innocent people, deny food, water, children’s minds and bodies stunted forever, deny emergency health care, divert drinking water to fill Israeli settler swimming pools??? Yeah, let’s keep blabbing amongst ourselves while people are dying. That’s what the world did while Armenians were being massacred–and the Israelis are counting on using the issue now and this blowing over once they push it off the front pages! They don’t give a damn about you or what the world thinks. Boycott–BDS–now, that’s all the Israelis care about!!!
There’s no ‘share’ button
what do you mean karim?
Great Article, Great Analysis..
Sigh……
Unfortunately, Palestine is used by all leaders in the Arab world in similar ways, to gain popular support while avoiding to address local injustices and discrimination. Hypocricy and double standards persist.
This mobilization along religious lines (Muslim vs Jewish) that Turkey is engaged in is also scary and ocunterproductive for those of us who believe justice and rights have no religious color and statehood and nationality should not be based on ones supposed religious membership. Increased antagonism against the Jewish community in Turkey resulted after the demonstrations along with the threat of violence. This is dangerous and should not be tolerated. There will be more casualities as Turkey redefines its national identity and polices its internal and external borders once again…Amnesia reigns not just in Lebanon unfortunately, everywhere it seems…
To this ignorant activist, you know nothing about the Armenians who ended up in Israel/Palestine if you truly knew about this country you would know that these Zionists Mizrahi Jews were in Israel BEFORE 1948 and it was a HASSIDIC family from Hebron who let my family stay in their homes when my grandparents had just arrived there and that righteous family was later murdered by Arabs in the 1929 Hebron Massacre. And this was not the only Hassidic family who let Armenians stay in their homes. I live in Holon, Israel and have many friends who are Jews and most of the PEOPLE in Israel recognize it, they even protested against the government for not accepting it. So if you have a problem go take it with the President not with an entire race. You also probably grew up with Arabs and grew up with the hate you were taught. Many Armenians know about you Armenians in Arab lands and you are not really liked let me tell you that, you are a shame to judge. AMOT KETZEE
I have to say, I only approved your comment Hasvart, so that people would see how zionists manage to manipulate history, and by history i mean Armenian genocide.
Um Sarah are you Armenian? I don’t think so, the one who wants to manipulate history here are Arabs like they have always tried to hide the history of Jews being there first in their land, they deny the 2 million Armenians killed. And my OWN family experienced this so if you are not Armenian I suggest you do not talk on behalf of one. Read Hebron Massacre, Read about the Mizrahi Jews, etc. Amot Ketzee. Asvats bae Israel yev Hayastan!!