Özdemir Asaf
says, in his wonderful verses “Do not talk with lies in your mouth!”; and he
seems like addressing to those who are foaming lies when talking about the
Armenian genocide!
The lies of
the liers are self-evident; but what of those who consociate with those lies,
as if attesting the saying, “When ignorance is innocence!”
So numbered
are those who are described by Gilles Deleuze in the terms: “The power invests
in the oppressed; traverse them with their help, is supported by them.”
Whatever
people say; the negation of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 is an oppression
which holds the society to ransom within the clutches of the official ideology;
true this is. But it is more than this: It is the banalization of fascism
within a anomie which encourages impunity.
The
condemnation of a brother nation to an unexampled catastroph in the name of
Tukefication of capital is not a tale to be related in the past perfect tense.
Because
genocide is our today, as is attested by the reality “One and a half million +
Hrant” (or Sevag); it is as actual as the chauvinistic cries during the
national football games: “Those who do not stand u pare Armenians!”
Nobody can
negate this: The killers and their collaborators who partook in the killing of
our Brother Hrant or in the concealing of the killers are rewarded by the
Turkish state. The course of the trial has clearly revealed this fact. The
killers of Hrant were protected, encouraged and rewarded by the State; just
like the perpetrators of the Genocide. This fact is clearly illustrated by the
infamous article 301 of the Turkish penal code…
And this is
not surprising at all. For no attempt is made to face with the reality of the
Genocide in its 98th anniversary; while an impenetrable silence is stil the
official position in matters of confiscated and plundered Armenian goods and
the kidnapped Armenian women and children.
And this too is not a surprise. Because the
Armenian Genocide is a collectif crime. Each and every section of the dominant
nation has in a way benefited from this crime. Honore de Balzac is right in
stating: “Behind every great wealth lies a great crime.”
At this point,
the attempt at exculpation in the German style “gnade der späte geburt” (to be
lucky not to have been born at a certain time in history) is nothing but a
liberal delirium, invalid for the Armenian genocide as well.
The past is is the yesterday living in
today, as is expressed in the verses of Neyzen Tevfik: “The song is the
same song, only the chord has changed; the fist is the same fist only the hand
has changed.”
So nobody can
be acquitted, nobody can wash his/her hands by saying “I was not/we were not
born in 1915” ;
especially when sitting and living on Armenian goods confiscated by his/her
forefathers. This apology is equated to perpetuating the past in the present.
To face the
dark phases of history means primarily to get rid of the extensions of the
criminals and their crimes still in force today. To shun away from talking
about the confiscation and pillage of
Armenian goods or other autrocious acts of the Kemalist regimde is not a
sincere manner of confrontation, which will forever distort the future.
At this point,
we are once more coming together, to face the realities of the Armenian
Genocide; with the clear conscioussness that the “Yes” of those who do not know
to say “No” is meaningless; and that the social conscience is an infallible
judge. We take the the saying of Eduardo Galeano as our mentor: “I am another
you – You are another I”.
And this, in
the Turkey where the project of the
transliteration of the Ottoman land registries into modern Turkish to be issued
in the internet was barred by the National Security Council in 2005.
