OPEN LETTER TO TURKEY
Thursday, June 03, 2010 12:06
Dear Former Friends,
Ever since you decided to trade in the Secularism of Ataturk for the
Islamism of Erdogan, you also seem to have dispensed with the ability
to coexist with non-Muslims on a peaceful basis. These days all we ever
seem to get from you, is video clips of your leader, Prime Minister
Erdogan, barking at us like a dog that its owner carelessly let off
the leash. And if you don’t know that Erdogan’s owner lives in Riyadh,
then you don’t know very much of what goes on in your own country.
But your affairs are your own affairs. And our affairs are our
affairs. If you want to let a fanatic in a cheap suit destroy Turkish
nationalism in the name of Islam, that’s your business. But when
he gets into business with terrorist organizations who attack and
murder our soldiers, then it’s our business. And when a country that
persecutes its Kurdish, Assyrian and Armenian citizens, and sends
their elected representatives to jail– presumes to self-righteously
lecture us on how to manage our affairs, it had better remember that
holding a stone throwing contest in a glass house will just lead to
piles of broken glass.
You say you want an international investigation into the flotilla
raid? Sure. Right after we have an international investigation into
that minor matter of Armenian genocide that you’ve been ducking for
quite a while. As the new “standard bearer” in fighting for human
rights, I’m sure you will agree that it’s only fair that Turkey should
undergo the same scrutiny it demands for other countries.
And then we can move on to the more than 10,000 political prisoners in
your jails. A number that at times has topped 100,000. An independent
investigation could also begin by looking into the torture and murder
of political activists such as Engin Ceber. They could meet with
representatives of TAYAD, the organization representing the families
of prisoners. And they would no doubt be fascinated by the more than
1500 children in your prisoners who are there on “terrorism” charges.
Like that 12 year old you arrested in 2008 for singing a Kurdish folk
song. So by all means wrap yourselves in the banner of “Human Rights”
and we’ll turn it into a noose and strangle you with it.
In Israel, Arabs are a legally recognized minority. Arabic is taught in
schools and used as a legally recognized language. Meanwhile Kurdish
identity is all but banned in Turkey. Kurdish names, folk songs and
even the Kurdish language itself has been repressed. Your regime has
actually prosecuted and removed officials for simply incorporating a
Kurdish phrase into a greeting. You screech self-righteously about the
“Palestinian children”– perhaps we should talk about the hundreds of
Kurdish children arrested for throwing stones at protests. Arrested
and charged with terrorism. Just more of the thousands of political
prisoners of oppressed minorities in your prisons.
And perhaps next time your dog Erdogan gets up to bark up at us about
human rights, we can stuff this in his mouth. Jenin, the Second
Lebanon War and every armed encounter between Israel and Islamic
terrorists over the last 20 years combined together killed fewer
people, than your country did in 1997 alone. After you get through
lecturing us on the use of force against Islamic terrorists, shall we
discuss how many times you used jets to bomb Kurdish rebels who were
lightly armed at best. Including in 2008 when you invaded sovereign
Iraqi soil in order to continue your genocide of the Kurdish people.
You talk about stolen land, when your entire country is stolen land,
from Cyprus to Istanbul. Your regime is a racist illegitimate entity
based on the oppression of the Kurds, the Armenians, the Assyrians,
the Circassians and numerous others. You went directly from being
Imperialists to Fascists to Islamists, a truly dubious achievement
for any nation. Your history is filled with slavery, ethnic cleansing,
genocide and invasion. And that’s just in the last century alone. If
you had any sanity or shame, you would dig a hole, crawl into it, and
hope that no one mentions words like “Minority Rights” or “Territorial
Legitimacy” in your presence, instead of trying to use them as a club
against a nation whose national history predates yours by thousands
of years. We had kingdoms and a civilization that changed the world,
back when your ancestors were still trying to decide whether to eat
the sheep or rape it.
But let us get back to your precious Islamist flotilla, decorated
with Turkish flags that used to be more than just red versions of the
Saudi flag. That ship you filled up with Muslim Brotherhood members
and Islamist radicals bound for our shores. Over in your wonderful
nation of boundless freedom, reporters have been put on trial for even
interviewing leaders of terrorist groups. You sentenced the head of
a Kurdish party to six months in prison for calling the head of the
PKK, Mr. Ocalan, instead of just Ocalan. He joins the more than 800
Kurdish politicians you imprisoned in the last year alone. And after
all that you actually have the nerve to pretend to be “outraged”
when Israel intercepts your flotilla full of political terrorists?
But of course we know how strongly you feel about blockades. Like
the time you blockaded Armenia for Sixteen Years. Very well then. If
you insist on sending vessels flying the Turkish flag to aid Hamas,
perhaps we’ll begin sending vessels flying the Israeli flag to aid
the PKK. We’re not big fans of the PKK, but since you’ve decided to
friend Hamas, then what’s good for the turkey, just might be good for
the gander. We can also fill a flotilla full of senile troublemakers,
phony survivors and leftist radicals– along with a few hundred well
armed “activists” who know how to use a knife. Or perhaps we won’t
bother with any of that. Instead for every boat flying the Turkish
flag that invades our territory, we’ll donate a million to the PKK. I
wonder how many rocket launchers that would buy. Perhaps the next
time, your air force sweeps in to bomb Kurds out of their homes,
they might get a surprise or two.
And then there’s the Republic of Cyprus, which has actually
been helping us stop weapons smuggling. They might benefit from
significantly upgraded air defenses. While the US insists on equalizing
weapons sales to Turkey and Greece, we just might have something
tastier to offer to one side. And the citizens of the Republic
of Cyprus might actually be able to sleep soundly in their beds,
instead of being intimidated by savages showing off their F-16’s
over their heads. The Cyprus National Guard likes our drones, just
like you do. But what if they had a much better equalizer at their
disposal? Being a small non-Muslim nation surrounded by much larger
Muslim countries, we do have a certain fondness for the infidel
underdog.
Oh I know, what you’re going to say. This means war. But you might
want to consider that we’ve fought and beaten enemies many times our
size. And what exactly was the last war you won single-handedly?
And no, bombing starving Kurdish rebels from the air, or occupying
Cyprus doesn’t count. And how long could you fight that war, before
a domestic Kurdish insurgency overthrows your little empire. If that
doesn’t happen, you might want to think about the big Russian bear at
your back. The bear has been eyeing you for a long time now. And with
your military engaged in a disastrous war for the Great Caliphate,
your borders would be temptingly open. And who exactly would bail
you out then?
Oh I know you’ve made many great news friends, such as Ahmadinejad
and that nice burnoosed king in the Arabian Desert, who tells your
Erdogan when to jump and how high, but if you think Iran is about to
pass up Russian nukes in order to bail you out, you’ve got another
thing coming. Meanwhile old Abdullah in the desert can’t even protect
himself without the US Marines. And if you think Obama would send
them in to save your asses, you’ve got another thing coming. I’m
sure if there were Russian tanks headed to Ankara, he’d make a vocal
statement about it. And Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would
pretend not to laugh while hanging up the phone.
There is of course the European Union. Last time Russia pulled that
trick, it was Britain that bailed you out in the Crimean War. But
these days Her Majesty’s Empire isn’t quite in the same shape it used
to be. Sure Cameron, Clegg and Harman will lick Erdogan’s feet. But
none of them want to be the next Tony Blair either. Germany doesn’t
like you very much anymore. Perhaps that time when it got enmeshed
in WW1 to protect your Ottoman Empire may have put them off. Or your
internal campaign of subversion exploiting Germany’s horde of Turkish
laborers. What are you left with then? France, Italy or perhaps Austria
will forget that whole pesky Gates of Vienna thing and this time ride
to your rescue.
No, when Russian commandos are ripping off your wife’s Burqa–
there will be no one left to save you. Not your newfound allies, or
Erdogan who will take the first plane to Riyadh, with as many Lira as
his sweaty hands can shove into the pockets of his cheap suit. And
just think of it, as the Hagia Sophia church that you turned into
a mosque, will become a church again. Istanbul will once again be
Constantinople, which means a certain catchy 20’s song will require
a rewrite. Of course it may not happen exactly that way. But it will
happen. Erdogan’s plan to suppress and integrate Kurds into a Muslim
Turkey will not succeed. And his antagonizing of former allies means
that Turkey is exchanging friends, for enemies. Meanwhile your new
friends happen to share borders with you and have territorial claims
on your land.
So when that day of reckoning comes, you will find that you have made
enemies of former allies such as Israel and the US– and that the
new allies Erdogan has found for you in Iran and Syria would prefer
a Russian controlled Turkey, that has no chance of ever reverting
to a Kemalist government. And Erdogan’s godfather in Saudi Arabia
commands oil money, not troops. And while he might be willing to sink
Turkey for the sake of Islam, perhaps there are Turks who value their
nation, more than Islamism. If not, you can look forward to Erdogan
“reforming” your country, until it has the military might of Pakistan,
the literacy level of Saudi Arabia and the poverty rate of Egypt. It
is of course your choice.
A people have the right to choose their destiny, for good or ill. And
if you find that this letter is filled with contempt, it is a contempt
fully merited by a regime that seeks to cloak its shameful betrayal
of a former ally in the guise of human rights, when it brutally
suppresses the rights of its own minorities. You may wish to go on
dancing to the tune being played by Erdogan, to sheet music composed
in Riyadh. It is a very good tune. Filled with hate, violence and
religious fanaticism. That also is your choice. But know that whatever
you have was bought and paid by your ancestors who understood that
Turkey would either modernize out of the gutter of Islam, or it would
be washed away by the colonial tide. Your power does not come from
Islam, it comes from the bread crusts of civilization that fall from
the table of Europe. Abandon them for the red hued madness of the
Jihad, and you will not rule over an empire, but over a wasteland. If
you doubt that, look to the south and to the east. Look to the desert.
You came from there once. And if you throw away civilization for the
fanatical madness of Islam– you will return there again.
Sincerely Yours
A Descendant of a Subject of the Ottoman Empire
From: A. Papazian