BEDROSYAN: HRANT’S MESSAGE AND THE WAY FORWARD
by Raffi Bedrosyan
January 24, 2013
On the sixth anniversary of his assassination and more significantly,
on the sixth anniversary of the Turkish state’s inability or
unwillingness to find his real killers, Hrant Dink was remembered by
tens of thousands of people in many countries as well as in Turkey,
including Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Diyarbakir, Malatya, and Bodrum.
Throughout the world, Turkish and Armenian speakers repeated his
vision and message of direct dialogue between Turks and Armenians.
Year by year, instead of gradually diminishing in numbers toward
oblivion, as is the case for other assassinated journalists in Turkey,
there is a snowballing increase in the number and intensity of people
attending the Hrant Dink commemorations, protesting and demanding
justice, as well as adopting Hrant’s message with more determination.
It is not the tiny Armenian community in Turkey, but Turks (and Kurds)
from all walks of life who have embraced Hrant as a tragic hero. The
momentum is building to declare Hrant a martyr-the first shared martyr
by the historically opposing nations of Armenians and Turks.
After being systematically brainwashed by the state with ever-changing
official versions of history, people in Turkey have now finally started
to learn the true historic facts, reasons, and consequences of 1915,
not just the Turkish version versus Armenian version.
But what exactly was Hrant’s message? He would define Armenians
and Turks as two sick people, clinical cases-Armenians suffering
from trauma (obsessed with 1915) and Turks suffering from paranoia
(fear of consequences of acknowledging 1915). He would advocate
Armenians and Turks to be each other’s doctors, with dialogue as
the only prescription. And he would clap his large hands vigorously,
exclaiming, “There is no other medicine, no other doctor, no, no, no.”
He knew dialogue would be useless if one couldn’t discuss the painful
year of 1915, but only pleasant subjects such as Turks’ and Armenians’
shared values, shared culture, shared foods like dolma and kebab. He
knew that dialogue would also be useless if one was unable to really
“listen and hear,” in addition to talk. And most importantly, he knew
that dialogue would be useless if one didn’t know the real historical
facts of 1915. After being systematically brainwashed by the state
with ever-changing official versions of history, people in Turkey
have now finally started to learn the true historic facts, reasons,
and consequences of 1915, not just the Turkish version versus Armenian
version. So, if and when there is willingness to talk and listen,
both sides can and should engage in direct dialogue, without the need
to convince third parties to pressure the other side.
Hrant had studied zoology, and he would explain that if you remove
any living organism from its natural environment, you would cause
its extinction. He would then say, “If you remove an entire people
from its land where it has lived continuously for 3,000 years, even
if you transport them with great care in ‘golden airplanes,’ this
would still be similar to taking an axe to the roots of an ancient
tree.” He didn’t need to explain 1915 with long words; in a corner
of the Agos newspaper, every week, he would place some facts about
a village or town in Anatolia-could be in west, east, north, south,
or central Anatolia-giving the Armenian and total population numbers,
the names and numbers of churches and schools there, before 1915. He
would have photos of these active Armenian churches and schools in
that village or town before 1915, and photos of these non-existent
churches or schools today, totaling more than 4,000 buildings. That
would be enough for anyone to understand the reality of 1915.
But he wouldn’t only talk about the Armenians gone or dead in 1915. He
was much more interested in talking about the Armenians who remained,
who stayed in Anatolia, who stayed and survived, but no longer as
Armenians. These were the Armenians who survived by converting to
Islam, by assuming Turkish, Kurdish, or Alawi identities. These were
the Armenian girls and boys captured or sold, kept hidden, protected
or married to Turks and Kurds. And entire Armenian villages that
converted to Islam, or stayed protected by friendly Kurdish and Alawi
leaders. Hrant was obsessed with this subject. What happened to these
people? Did they secretly keep their Armenian identity? Did they pass
it on to the next generations? Where are they now? How many are there?
If there are “hidden Armenians,” what would be the trigger for them to
“come out of hiding”?
Genocide is not a single event but a continuous process. It is not
only denial of a genocide that continues it, but also assimilation
and conversion that continue it. Scholars have recently started
defining genocide not only as the destruction of an oppressed nation,
but also the construction of the oppressor nation-using assimilation
and conversion processes. For Armenians, these processes continued
on all fronts.
Hrant didn’t or couldn’t write much about this sensitive subject,
but he was preoccupied by it, gathering stories, anecdotal evidence,
always encouraging others to find out more. Clearly, this was not
a subject that could be researched openly and scientifically, but
whenever a new revelation came out about hidden Armenians in Anatolia,
he would be greatly excited. His lawyer Fethiye Cetin’s book My
Grandmother was only an example of the fate of the hidden Armenians.
In an interview with London filmmaker Nouritsa Matossian for the
documentary “Hrant Dink: A Heart Of Two Nations,” Matossian asked him,
“Do you see Armenian faces in Anatolia?” Hrant: “Yes, often.”
Nouritsa: “Apparitions [meaning, ghosts]?” Hrant: “Apparitions and
real ones.” One could tell that Hrant, the emotional Hrant with the
biggest heart, was like a child who had a secret he could hardly keep.
The answer to the question that kept him wondering-What would be
the trigger for the hidden Armenians to come out?-came four years
too late for Hrant to witness, unfortunately. The trigger was the
reconstruction of the Diyarbakir Surp Giragos Church in 2011.
Thousands of Anatolians, young and old, Turkish and Kurdish, in
appearance and identity, returned to their Armenian roots with the
reopening of this church. Some got baptized in the church, some
changed their Turkish names to the Armenian original, some changed
their identity to Armenian but remained Muslim (a new phenomenon of
Muslim-Armenians), some started learning the Armenian language. Hrant
would have danced with joy to see an 11-year-old Kurdish girl not
only learning Armenian but also singing Armenian songs at the first
Armenian concert in the Diyarbakir Surp Giragos Church in 2012. Hrant
would have danced on the table after seeing a thousand people from
Adiyaman, Amasya, Arapkir, Dersim, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Harput, Hemshin,
Istanbul, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Malatya, Musadagh, Sason, Sinop, Sivas,
Tokat, Van, and Yozgat organize activities together and celebrate the
Surp Hagop Day in December 2012, singing Armenian songs, even though
no one knew how to speak Armenian.
Hrant was an Anatolian Armenian and wished to have the same democratic
rights as all other citizens of the state, without being excluded,
without being discriminated against, without being pressured to lose
his identity. Armenians wished to have exactly the same things 100
years ago-no more, no less. The state felt threatened, and when fear
got combined with opportunity it wiped out the Armenian identity
in Anatolia to build a Turkish identity that excluded all others,
including Greeks, Assyrians, and Kurds. The enormous transfer of
wealth and assets from Armenians to Turks has added to the fear and
paranoia of the state in facing its past. A new Turkish identity,
which does not fear diversity or minority identities, needs to be
created in Turkey in order to face both the past and the future. The
state has finally started this process with the Kurds, but not the
Armenians. The Kurds have started this process with the Armenians,
openly acknowledging their role in 1915, and starting to make amends.
It is hoped that Turks will see the light and follow them.