“THERE IS A TENDENCY TO RAISE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN TURKISH SOCIETY.”
June 5 2013
According to Richard Kirakosyan, though slow, but undeniable progress
is undeniable, “Aravot.am” asked the director of the Center for
Regional Studies Richard Kirakosyan to express his thoughts on the
recent outbreaks of Istanbul and give parallels between the Armenian
and Turkish civil movements. “For Armenia, the events in Turkey,
including demonstrations and anti-government protest actions, are
important in three ways. First of all, Armenia as a neighboring
country should closely follow any kind of significant event in Turkey.
Second, under the trials of “normalization” of relations, the events
in Turkey are very important aspect of Armenia’s foreign policy. And
third, Turkey is an “exceptional” country for Armenia, which is
conditioned with the fact of the Armenian Genocide. Consequently,
whatever refers to the Turkish government to be unacceptable, also
relates to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. There are
two parallel and contrast between the Armenian and Turkish civil
movements. In two countries, Armenia and Turkey, there is a wave of
widespread dissatisfaction with the governments. The two governments
are considered to be not enough democratic and authoritative.
Therefore, analyzing the gaps of Turks, the outbreaks of demonstrations
in Istanbul, we see that the efforts of the Prime Minister Erdoghan
towards mitigation of the situation, resulted in a bigger wave of
disorders and expansion of the mentality that Turkish AKP government is
authoritative and arrogant. As for the differences, if there is a wave
of protests and demonstrations in Turkey, they are just missing in
Armenia.” Our activists have expressed their support to the Turkish
activists and even criticized by some parties and politicians,
meanwhile the Turks showed indifference to the actions related to
the park on Mashtots street and other movements. To the question
what can you say about this, R. Kirakosyan replied, – “Perhaps the
Turkish civil society is less interested in the issues of Armenia,
which is natural. Turkey is a big country, and, in that context,
domestic issues are more important for Turkey than the issue of
genocide. But I think that the civil society in Turkey is changing.
For example, this year I was in Istanbul on April 23, and was
impressed with those unusual days. This is the fourth year that
genocide commemoration events are held in different cities of Turkey,
which are organized by representatives of ethnic Turkish civil society
and local Turks. For years, such arrangements seemed impossible on
April 24, it is now possible. By the way, April 24 is not an “Armenian”
issue for Turkey. Everything has outgrown deeper into the struggle for
democracy, human rights, and tolerance in Turkey. At the same time,
it also assumes a struggle in other fields related to the past of
Turkey. April 24 in Turkey has a deeper meaning with regard to the
future. They symbolize the burden of load of rejection in years.
In fact, the struggle is to resist the past of Turkey and to review
the identity of Turkey. On one hand, although small, there are Turkish
civil society movements and intellectuals, who throw down a gauntlet to
the Turkish history and rejection of identities. It is still unclear
as to what direction Turkey will go, but it is essential that there
are such quivers in the bounders of Turkey. I hope that the Turkish
society is going to face the past and there is a tendency to raise
the Armenian genocide, slowly, but the progress is undeniable.
The delay will lead to the destruction of those who distort the past.
”
Eva Hakobyan Photos from Richard Kirakosyan’s Facebook page
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