ARA SARAFIAN: THE DARLING OF DENIALIST TURKISH MEDIA
By Appo Jabarian
Noyan Tapan
Dec 15, 2008
Ara Sarafian, the head of the London-based Gomidas Institute,
has become the darling of the denialist Turkish media. The
November 24 issue of Hurriyet ("Liberty"), a Turkish secular,
conservative-nationalist broadsheet daily newspaper, and notorious for
its Armenian genocide denialism, has made a headline of Mr. Sarafian’s
anti-Armenian comment: "We cannot compare the Armenian genocide with
the Holocaust. Those who were banished from their land suffered a
lot but survived."
Mr. Sarafian sounds more like a denialist than an Armenian that is
devoted to the pursuit of justice for his people. In reality, the
Armenian Genocide does differ from the Jewish Holocaust. While Jews
were killed en masse in foreign lands — Germany and Vichy France —
Armenians were systematically annihilated in their ancestral lands in
Western Armenia and Cilicia. But sadly, that’s not what Mr. Sarafian
is pointing out. He is effectively saying that no Genocide occured
in Turkish-occupied Western Armenia and Cilicia.
If this is the result of his numerous Ankara-funded trips to the
Turkish archives, one can tell what’s in store for Armenians
through the Turkish-promoted joint commission of Armenian and
Turkish historians that Sarafian, a self-proclaimed reconciliator,
so enthusiastically proposes in the Hurriyet article.
Mr. Sarrafian and his likes need to be reminded that Ankara has long
been willing to recognize the Armenian Genocide provided that the
Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora do not demand the return of
the Turkish-occupied Armenian territories.
By "offering" to form a "joint commission" of historians, Turkey is
effectively plotting to undermine the political gains achieved in the
Diaspora and to reduce the international recognition of the genocide
to "he said, she said" type of political dead-end which can reverse
all the achievements by the Diaspora to the benefit of denialist
Ankara. And I am sorry to remark that Sarafian seems to be all too
willing to become a tool in the hands of these denialists.
Sarafian also said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offer
to Armenia to establish a commission of historians to resolve the
Armenian issue was positive, but Armenia was the wrong address. The
solution should start from the diaspora.
Denialist Turkish Officialdom knew that, but what they didn’t know
and were pleasantly surprised to know that there is a member of that
"huge and influential diaspora" who would be willing to sell out his
people’s Cause.
For some time, Ankara has been working diligently to recruit certain
elements of the diaspora that are willing to trade their own lands
for a ‘horse.’
A few days ago, just before I left for France, I visited with an
Armenian beef jerky ("abukhd" or "basturma") manufacturer in Hollywood,
California.
The " abukhd" ("basturma") maker joyfully said how proud he was
because the Consul General of Turkey in Los Angeles had visited his
store and bought some beef jerkys and "kissed" his hand. I told him:
"If things continue the way they’ve been evolving in the diaspora,
and the Armenians continue to consolidate their political and economic
power, he would one day kiss other parts of your body as well. "
It seems like Ara Sarafian has already become one of the few Diaspora
recipients of these "kisses."
In contrast to Sarafian’s and his denialist handlers’ actions, just
recently, notable Turkish conservative historians and other professors
have publicly apologized for the Armenian genocide of 1915 but have
fallen short of calling on the state to do the same.
Even then, righteous historian Ayse Hur said apologizing is the duty
of those who were responsible for the act or for those who share
their arguments. "It seems that a very elite group discussed that
petition, because I learnt about this petition from the media and I
was surprised, …
I approach these types of events as a scientist, as a historian,
not as a member of the Turkish nation. For me, all these events
were the fault of Turkish nationalism flourishing at that time, and
personally, I don’t identify with it, so I do not feel the need to
apologize personally." (Daily Zaman, Dec 9).
She also pointed out that the petitioners are concentrating only on
1915; however, she says there were events after and before. "There is
a state tradition which legitimizes all these events and prevents any
discussion about them. Firstly, the state has to ensure a suitable
atmosphere to discuss all these things; then it has to apologize on
behalf of the perpetrators and for itself, because it has legitimized
their actions through the years."
That is why, first and foremost, Turkey needs to form a joint
Turkish-Turkish commission formed by Turkish academicians who already
recognize the genocide and by those that deny it. It is after the
Turks come to a consensus on the genocide that an Armenian-Turkish
joint commission becomes warranted in order to formulate various
settlement options regarding the reparation for the immense real and
personal losses inflicted on the victims and the return of the lands
of Western Armenia by Turkey in compliance with the Treaty of Sevres.
http://www.nt.am?shownews=1010598