Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir's Call and Armenian Snub

The Citadel of Diyarbakır

An interesting dialogue occurred between some members of two nations co-living with Turks, that is Kurds and Armenians, in pursue of their unrealistic causes last week. Osman Baydemir, Mayor of Diyarbakır, --one of Southern Eastern cities of Turkey-- invited Armenians, whose grandparents had to leave their homeland in 1915, to come back and apologized for 1915 tragic deportation calling the event a cruel massacre. There were 56,166 Armenians living in Diyarbakır before the war.

Grand Mosque, Diyarbakır

Baydemir said "Kurds, Armenians, Chaldeans, Yezidis and all the ethnic groups that once lived in Diyarbakır took part in the construction of Diyarbakır’s city walls. ... So all of these people have a right to this city. Hürriyet Turkish Daily News reported that one of Baydemir's biggest dreams was to construct a common monument in memory of all of those who were lost in the region, including Armenians, Turks, Kurds, Assyrians and Chaldeans up until the 1930s. “I would like to visit this monument with Turks, Armenians and Kurds all together and cry for our lost ones all together. Turks, Kurds, Persians, Arabs – we all have to succeed in negotiation and dialogue in order to be able to live with each other.”^[1]  I appreciate his approach since he recognizes that all who live and lived in the region have all suffered and has a right on this land including Turks. But I think he did not need to apologize since Armenians do not accept to apologize mutually. Additionally why does he want to cry for those lost until 1930 only? We are still losing lives there. Every soul lost deserves to be remembered. 

Ara Sarafyan, the founding director of the Gomidas Institute in London, and whose family’s origins lie in Anatolia, was one of those who reacted to Baydemir’s invitation  saying  “Baydemir’s call is not enough. ...  Why should they return to the city they left with great pain?”^[2]

Sarafyan's Gomidas  Institute publishes books about alleged Armenian Genocide of 1915. The latest book he has published is written by Anne Elizabeth Elbrecht and is titled Telling the Story: The Armenian Genocide in the Pages of The New York Times and Missionary Herald which covers news of 1914-1918 concerning the Eastern Question. A good choice for Sarafyan's cause because as earlier covered on this blog, American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, Henry Morgenthau's main assignment was to send reports and news which would persuade the American public opinion to support Wilson to intervene in WWI.

Comparison of papers of the time easily reveals how biassed have always been the news of warfare. In 2010 a compilation of news from İstiklal Harbi Gazetesi [The Newspaper of War of Independence] issues 1 - 131 for the period of 15 May 1919 - 11 October 1919 was republished in modern Turkish alphabet. In one of the news of 15 May 1919 it was reported that  Dr. Gates,  Director of Robert College was taken from his post because in a speech he declared that Turks were right and atrocities by Turks on Armenians were exaggerated. Upon complaints of Armenians he was called back to the US.^[3] An easy check of whether news are given on choice or not would be to see if you remember reading a news item similar the news below on 16 September about anti-war demonstarion in Hatay:

"More than 5,000 protesters staged on Sunday a massive anti-war protest against the Turkish government intervention against Syria in Antakya, capital of Turkey's eastern province of Hatay.
Protesters called on the government to stop the intervention against Syria and urged to stop providing aids to the military camps of Syrian freedom army in the border region between the two countries.
Shouting slogans like "Muslims are friends" and "We want peace, not war", the protesters walked along the street and drawed acclamation from many locals. "We want Turkey and Syria to be friends again. We want the Syrian militants outside of Turkey's territory."
Organized by the Turkey Workers Party, the protest called for the end of war and re-establishment of peace between Turkey and Syria.
Local residents joined the protest and complained that Turkey harbors Syrian militants or even terrorists in Hatay, which has caused social unrest to the local communities.
More than 2,000 policemen were deployed on the spot and claimed the protests illegal. They intervened the protests by firing tear gas while high-pressure canon vehicles driving the protesters away.
A few people were injured and some were arrested in the event.
Since the breaking out of the war, about 80,000 refugees have rushed to its neighbor of Turkey, mostly in Hatay province."^[4]

 In the compilation by Ellbrecht I don't know if news of how Hunchakian Party decided to cooperate with Russia and how Armenians joined the Russian army under leadership of Armen Garo taking the horses and weapons of the Ottoman Empire with them on the Eastern Front to come back to kill their childhood friends is covered or not. In Western resources the war on Eastern Front is mentioned as if such a war has not happened but is an assertion of Turks. Can you imagine a fictitious war? It is incomprehensible how the United Nations accepted Lemkin's report which described deportation, which was a measure to secure back of the front during the war, as a genocide.

Kazım Karabekir Pasha, 1882-1948

Why Armenians start their modern history from 1915, veiling their upsurge in 1890s copying what Greeks had done in 1820s.When they upsurged starting killing and expelling Muslims they hoped that Europe would similarly support them as they supported the Greeks. Despite all killings the ethnic cleansing was not successful because the balance of population was incomparable. When Genearl Harbord visited Erzurum on  25 September 1919 and was met by Turkish children holding placards with Wilson Principles on, was taken aback. As mentioned in General Kazım Karabekir's memoirs Mayor's response to his query was "above and underneath the earth it is all Turks here" and the evidence came from visits to the small Armenian cemetery and the contrasting vast Muslim cemetery.

Erzurum is a Turkish city since the Seljuk Turks settled in Anatolia after the decisive battle at Manzikert in 1071. It has been  almost a millenium. How Eastern Anatolia was dared  to be regarded as an Armenian region in early 1900s and how dare some  circles intend to regard it as a Kurdish region today? Without knowledge of the local facts those who decide who should own where on maps will fail once again.

I recently met a Kurdish Turk young woman lawyer from Urfa. When I mentioned this blog she was interested and told me that her grandmother used to tell that the Hamidiye Troops were established after Armenians upsurged and attacked on Muslims for protection of the local people. Baydemir apparently has not listened to his grandmother, otherwise he would not apologize unless he receives a reciprocal apology. Does he turn a  blind eye on his killed ancestors for the sake of political interests to get support of Armenians or is he genuinely trying to be kind opening a new page?

1) "Come back, Diyarbakır mayor tells Armenians". Hürriyet Turkish Daily News. September/28/2012  http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/come-back-diyarbakir-mayor-tells-armenians.aspx?pageID=238&nID=31096&NewsCatID=338. Accessed: 29.09.2012

2) "Armenians snub mayor’s call for return". Hürriyet Turkish Daily News. September/27/2012 
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Default.aspx?pageID=238&nID=31177&NewsCatID=338. Accessed: 29.09.2012

3) Kurtuluş : İstiklal Harbi Gazetesi. Ankara: Mercek Gazetesi, 2011.

4) Anti-War Protests Break out in Eastern Turkey. http://english.cri.cn/6966/2012/09/16/3141s722616.htm  2012-09-16 23:18:43. Xinhua   Accessed: 29.09.2012

5) Karabekir, Kazım. 1917-20 arasında Erzincan'dan Erivan'a Ermeni mezalimi [Armenian Atrocities from Erzincan to Yerevan between 1917-20] compiled by Ömer Hakan Özalp. İstanbul: Emre Yayınları, 2000.


Armenian Holocaust:My Story blog by Selma Aslan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Gayriticari-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.