Author: Chatinian Lara

Azeri officer’s hearing due late September
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
posted on Aug 1 2005
Baku, July 29, AssA-Irada
The next hearing on Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, charged with
murdering his Armenian counterpart Gurgen Markarian during NATO
courses in Hungary for insulting Azerbaijani martyrs, will be held in
Budapest on September 27. Azerbaijani and Armenian military officers,
who attended the NATO courses together with Safarov, will testify in
court. Armenian officer Ayk Makuchian, who claims the Azerbaijani
officer had made an attempt on his life, will also participate in
the process, Armenian news agencies reported.
Forensic expertise was carried out twice over the past year. One of
them suggests that Safarov was allegedly in psychologically healthy
condition when committing the crime, while the second one – that he
murdered the Armenian officer in a ‘state of affect’.
The Armenian side has suggested that another forensic expertise be
held. The Hungarian court is expected to pass a decision on whether or
not both expertise groups should meet to arrive at a final conclusion.*

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 29, 2005 Friday 10:36 AM Eastern Time
Basayev interview proves double-standards policy – Roshal
By Andrei Golubkov
MOSCOW
An interview of Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev with the U.S.-based
ABC television company “proves the policy of double standards on
Russia,” head of the Moscow Children’s Surgery and Traumatology
Institute Prof. Leonid Roshal said on Friday.
Roshal is an expert of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the
Chairman of the International Committee on Pediatric Disaster
Medicine of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine
(WADEM).
This January he received the European of the Year title for the
promotion of humanitarian values.
Roshal is known in Russia for holding negotiations with terrorists
who seized a Moscow theatre and a secondary school in Beslan, and
rescuing people in earthquakes and other catastrophes in Armenia, the
United States, Egypt, Japan and Afghanistan.
He said he got an impression of Basayev after the events in
Budennovsk, the Moscow theatre and Beslan. “Terrorism means murder of
innocent people,” Roshal said.
A self-respecting journalist should never have any contacts with a
person announced terrorist by the international public, he said.

Korea Times, South Korea
July 29 2005
Recent Books
Genocide
Choi Ho-gun;
Chaeksesang Publishing:
448pp.,
22,000 won
According to the civic group Genocide Watch, around 175 million lives
were taken in mass killings in the past 100 years. The term of
genocide was first used by the Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin
(1900-1959) in a book “Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1940),¡¯¡¯ to
describe the systemic massacre of an ethnic group or race.
Choi, a professor at Busan National University of Education, analyzes
the various types of genocide that have occurred and categorizes them
into frontier _ for example, the American Indians and Tasmanian
Aboriginals _ Nazi-related, racial _ the Armenians or Bosnians _
religious and genocide in the name of revolution, for example, the
killing of Russians or Cambodians, and colonial _ Algerians, Rwandans
and East Timorese.
Choi also writes that the South Korean government¡¯s suppression of
Cheju residents in the late 1940s is tantamount to genocide and
suggests measures for the prevention of such massacres.

Lithuanians speak out against Turkey in EU
The Baltic Times
28.07.2005
By TBT staff
Vilius Alisauskas, coordinator of Voice for Europe in Lithuania, told
the Baltic News Service that the current wave of protest against
Turkey’s membership, launched in Budapest in mid-July, will visit
several largest European cities in two weeks.
Participants in the action will seek to draw the attention of the
public, politicians and media representatives to problems that Turkey’s
full-fledged membership in the EU would cause.
Alisauskas said that participants in the Vilnius demonstration maintain
the position that Turkey is `alien’ for Europe because of the political
system, religion, the human rights situation and the geographical situation.
`Turkey is not a democratic country. It has serious problems with its
neighbors and ethnic minorities, does not promote human rights and
freedoms, does not preserve the European culture and values,
furthermore, from the geographical point of view, Turkey is not in
Europe,’ he said.
`Turkey has nothing in common with Europe. Algeria is not far as well,
so let’s maybe admit it as well,’ he added.
In his words, participants believe that the EU can cooperate with Turkey
without granting the latter full membership.
During the international initiative Voice for Europe, European people
will be urged to sign a petition against Turkey’s membership in the EU.
International initiative Voice for Europe actions are organized in July
in Slovakia, France, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Great Britain, the
Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech
Republic and Germany.
Turkey, which has a population of 70 million, mostly Muslims, has been
seeking EU membership since 1963. If Turkey joined the EU, it would be
the largest EU member in terms of its area and population.
EU accession negotiations with Turkey will start on Oct. 3.

Toxins Found in Georgia Suspect’s Cellar
.c The Associated Press
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) – Georgian police working with the FBI
discovered dangerous substances in the house of the suspect who
admitted throwing a live grenade toward President Bush at a rally in
Tbilisi in May, officials said Wednesday.
Sergo Dzagnidze, chief of the criminal police department at the
Interior Ministry, told The Associated Press that 5 gallons of
sulfuric acid, several boxes of mercury thermometers, a centrifuge, a
microscope and other devices and dangerous chemicals were found in the
cellar.
The suspect, Vladimir Arutyunian, was detained last week after a
police shootout.
He was charged Tuesday with terrorism over the grenade attack, in
addition to earlier charges of killing a police officer in the
shootout and illegal possession of weapons.
“The dangerous substances found in the cellar of Arutyunian show that
he posed a risk and had a big potential for carrying out terrorist
acts,” General-Prosecutor Zurab Adeishvili said.
Both Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili were behind a
bulletproof barrier addressing a rally of thousands in Tbilisi in May
when the grenade landed about 100 feet away. It did not explode;
investigators said it apparently malfunctioned. No one was harmed.
Arutyunian was shown on local television last week admitting throwing
the grenade. The suspect said he hoped to kill Bush because he
believed the U.S. leader was “interfering in Georgia’s internal
affairs,” his lawyer said Tuesday.
07/27/05 23:58 EDT

Agence France Presse — English
July 25, 2005 Monday 10:28 AM GMT
Turkish FM slams Swiss for detaining politician over Armenian remarks
ANKARA July 25
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Monday lashed out at
Switzerland for briefly detaining a Turkish politician who said that
massacres of Armenians during World War I did not amount to genocide.
“This treatment of the chairman of a Turkish political party is
unacceptable,” Gul said in an interview with the large circulation
daily Hurriyet, published Monday.
“Does this suit a country like Switzerland, which says it upholds
contemporary values? We were very saddened.”
Dogu Perincek, leader of the small left-wing Workers’ Party, was
questioned for more than three hours Saturday in the Swiss town of
Winterthur, where he was taking part in activities marking the 82nd
anniversary of the Lausanne Treaty, the founding accord of modern-day
Turkey.
Winterthur police spokesman Werner Benz said Saturday that Perincek
was questioned for saying “The Armenian genocide is an international
lie,” a remark deemed racist under Swiss law, the Anatolia news
agency reported.
“This assertion contravenes anti-racism norms and constitutes a crime
under Swiss law,” a Zurich police official said Sunday.
Perincek already faces a complaint lodged in mid-July by the
Swiss-Armenian Association following a speech he gave in May, when he
said no genocide of Armenians ever took place.
Two months ago, the Turkish press reported that judicial authorities
in Winterthur had also launched an investigation against the head of
the Turkish History Foundation, Yusuf Halacoglu, for rejecting at a
conference there last year claims that Armenians were the victims of
genocide by Turks.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor
of Turkey, was falling apart.
Turkey categorically denies genocide claims and says 300,000
Armenians and as many Turks were killed in civil strife during World
War I when the Armenians, backed by Russia, rose up against their
Ottoman rulers.
Much to Ankara’s anger, the killings have already been classified as
genocide by a number of countries including Canada, France and Switzerland.

Manteca Bulletin, CA
July 24 2005
No more pressing business
Bobson Cleaners closing after 79 years
Bobson Cleaners, one of Manteca’s oldest-running family-owned
business institutions, is closing its doors after serving the
community for nearly eight decades. Seventy-nine years to be exact.
“It was just time. I’ve been there for over 50 years; it’s a long
time,” said Vi Bobson who has been at the helm of Bobson Cleaners for
about as long as she and husband Ernie have been married.
The business will remain open until Aug. 24 to allow customers to
come and pick up their dry-cleaned items; however, they are not
accepting any more work orders.
Bobson Cleaners’ history goes back to 1926 when a young immigrant
from Armenia named Mihran Bobson moved to Manteca and opened a
tailoring shop on the block of West Yosemite Avenue where Yosemite
Cafe is located today. A master tailor, Mihran came to California via
Chicago where he had a brother. But he also had another brother in
San Francisco who moved there the year of the great 1906 earthquake,
and a sister living in Los Angeles, and eventually left the Windy
City and followed those two siblings to the Golden State.
Mihran settled in Fresno where he had three flourishing tailor shops
for a number of years before he decided to make the move to Manteca,
not for any particular reason except for the fact it was near the
coast.
As Vi Bobson explained it, “He liked the idea of only 60 miles away
from the coast.”
Manteca was just a small and newly incorporated city when Mihran
opened his tailoring shop on West Yosemite Avenue. In 1930, he
“developed” the dry-cleaning business, as his youngest son Ernie put
it.
Ernie came into the business in 1950 after he graduated from the
University of the Pacific, then College of the Pacific, in Stockton
where he majored in business on a sports scholarship. He played
football for four years. Before that, an older brother managed the
business.
In the last 50 years, Bobson Cleaners grew into one big operation.
“At one time, we had 21 locations up and down the valley. We went all
the way down to Merced. We had three or four in Modesto. We had six
plants in Stockton. We had shops all the way to Walnut Creek, Castro
Valley as well as in Escalon and Oakdale,” recalled Vi who took over
the management of the business while her husband worked in real
estate development, commuting to his office in Sacramento for 20
years.
Managing the family business was originally not in Vi’s plans. A
science major at the University of the Pacific, she had planned to
work at a laboratory, which she did briefly. She worked for Manteca
chemist, Dr. Claire Weast. She also worked in national advertising at
the Stockton Record.
But the family business simply fell on her lap. “We do what we have
to do, don’t we?” she simply stated.
Fifteen years ago, Bobson Cleaners took a quantum leap when the
Bobsons tore down the old plant on the corner of their property at
North Main and Edison Street. They built the new building farther
back from North Main Street complete with state-of-the-art,
computerized equipment. The Bobsons’ property used to be larger, but
they later sold part of the land to Bank of Stockton.
Vi Bobson recalled that when they built the new facility, she said
she’d give the business two more years and then retire, but somehow
those two years turned to 15 years, she recalled with a laugh.
While the business flourished for many years, the Bobsons said they
have had their ups and downs like any other in the industry.
“Dry cleaning won’t make you rich but it’s a good bread and butter.
It sent four children to college,” Vi Bobson pointed out.
The youngest of the Bobsons’ four children is Dr. Craig Bobson of
Manteca, a family practitioner. Son Rancy is an engineer in San
Mateo, and oldest son Mark is an appraiser in Linden. Only daughter
Nimi Thackerson, a Sacramento State University graduate and an
artist, gave up her career as a buyer for major store chains 20 years
ago to come and help her parents manage the business in Manteca. She
is now helping her parents go through the process of closing the
business.
Thackerson said the family was fortunate to have had employees who
were “a big part of why this business worked” and became a success.
“They took pride in their work. They really took care of our business
like it was their business. We were very fortunate with the team that
we had. We have lots of loyalty here,” said Thackerson of Bobsons’
employees, many of whom have been with the company for many years.
Her assistant manager, Frances Rivera, for example, had been with
them for 10 years.
“Fran has done a great job in customer service. Everybody just loved
her; she’s the best,” said Thackerson who calls her mother “the
matriarch of the business for 50 years.”
Through the years, they have also met wonderful people in the
community who patronized their business, the Bobsons said. One
particular customer that they singled out was Joan Kauffman.
“She’d bring all the girls baked treats every week. She’s been such a
great inspiration to them; she gave us lots of support as customer,”
Thackerson enthused.
But helping people look good in their business suits and former wear
was not the only thing that Bobson Cleaners has given to the
community.
“My parents are great people who have done so much for this
community. I really admire them. My mother is a real humanitarian and
a philanthropist,” Thackerson said of her parents who, together, have
been involved in many civic organizations and projects. Ernie was a
charter member of one of the Kiwanis clubs in Manteca and is still
active in SIRS in Stockton, a club of retired professionals. Vi, for
her part, has been a member of the Manteca Federated Club for nearly
as long as she has been involved in the business. She continues to
remain active in the club. Both husband and wife also are currently
active in the Symphony Comes to Manteca Committee.
While running the business has been hectic and time-consuming, the
Bobsons managed to squeeze in some down time to pursue their
individual hobbies. Both golfed at one time. Ernie still does, but
since Vi’s stroke six years ago, she has given up the hobby. She was
active with a golfing group at Spring Creek Golf Course in Ripon
where she still continues to meet with fellow Federated Women for a
game of bridge regularly.
Vi Bobson said retirement will definitely be just as busy for her.
“I have a lot of things I’m involved in,” she said, as well as many
hobbies. One of them is upholstery and gardening.
“I’m a plain dirt farmer. I love to garden. I spend most of my time
in the back yard,” she said.
As for her husband, she said, “his avocation has always been his
vocation.”
Before they can start pursuing their avocations though, at least for
Vi Bobson there’s still plenty of things to keep her busy for the
next two months.
“I still have to do the bookkeeping. I have to dissolve a
corporation. It’s a lot of work,” she said.

Ankara trying to obstruct opening of genocide museum in Oslo
22.07.2005 14:51
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Turkish government is trying to obstruct the opening
of a section in a genocide museum that is due to open in Olso, Norway,
Armenpress reported, citing Haraj, an Armenian-language newspaper
published in France.
At his meeting with Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Traavik,
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the space allocated for
the Armenian Genocide along with the Holocaust in the museum would
greatly offend the feelings of the Turkish people. “We expect it
would be banned,” the minister has said.
In reply, the Norwegian minister has said that the museum was a private
initiative, is not sponsored by the government, and that the government
could not interfere. Berken University History professor Furie, one
of the museum initiators, said the museum would open on August 30, the
day when Turks mark the “liberation” of their country from “enemies.”

JAPANESE TOUR OPERATORS ARRIVE IN ARMENIA
ArmenPress
July 20 2005
YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS: Within the framework of Familiarizion
trips to Armenia, five Japanese tour operators and one travel writer
arrived in Armenia on July 16, 2005 to discover Armenia’s eclectic
cultural treasures, ancient monasteries and natural wonders, and to
become acquainted with Armenia’s hospitable people.
For the last four years the Armenian Tourism Development Agency
(ATDA), in cooperation with the local tourism industry, has organized
over 12 “familiarization trips” for foreign tour operators, travel
agents and travel writers with the goal of increasing Armenia’s
tourism awareness globally, and positioning Armenia as a new and
attractive travel destination. Armenia was presented to the Japanese
audience for the first time ever in 2002 and again in 2004 at the
JATA (Japanese Association of Travel Agents) International Tourism
Exhibition in order to increase the small number of Asian tourists
visiting Armenia. As a positive outcome of the JATA exhibition, the
ATDA in cooperation with the Armenian tourism industry, hosted the
Japanese tourism professionals in Armenia.
Air travel was provided by “Aeroflot” Russian Airlines and ground
excursions to the southern and northern regions of Armenia were
provided by Saberatours Svan, Armentour travel agencies and the
Armenian Tourism Development Agency. The Familiarization trip is
sure to secure promising increase in the number of Asian tourists
for the coming tourist season and promote Armenia as an unrevealed
tourism destination.
The Armenian Tourism Development Agency (ATDA) has proactively
encouraged the development of Armenian tourism, both locally and
globally since 2001. Today, ATDA is chartered by the Government of
the Republic of Armenia, with funding from Hovnanian International.

“Aztag” Daily Newspaper
P.O. Box 80860, Bourj Hammoud,
Beirut, Lebanon
Fax: +961 1 258529
Phone: +961 1 260115, +961 1 241274
Email: [email protected]
“Bleus, beautes et maquillage”
Une interview d’Elif Shafak
Par Khatchig Mouradian
Traduction Louise Kiffer
Elif Shafak dit dans cette interview: ” les bleus et le maquillage”
est une metaphore que j’emploie pour decrire l’obsession moderniste
turque “Notre image aux yeux du monde occidental”. L’elite aime a
prouver aux Occidentaux combien les Turcs sont occidentalises et
modernises. Cependant quand elle en vient a une lecture critique du
passe, cette meme elite est indifferente, sinon ignorante.
C’est cette indifference et cette ignorance qu’Elif Shafak, que “The
Economist” considère etre “bien placee pour concurrencer Mr. (Orhan)
Pamuk en tant qu’importante romancière contemporaine de Turquie,
essaie d’affronter. Elle ne croit pas a “l’apparence exterieure”
decevante et suggère que la Turquie enlève son maquillage “pour voir
a la fois ses beautes et ses bleus du dessous”.
Elif Shafak est nee a Strasbourg, France, en 1971. Après avoir
passe son adolescence en Espagne, elle est retournee en Turquie,
elle a passe sa licence de Relations Internationales a l’Universite
Technique du Moyen Orient, et a obtenu son doctorat en 2004 du
Departement des Sciences Politiques de la meme universite. Elle
a enseigne a l’Universite de Bilgi a Istanbul et a l’Universite du
Michigan. Actuellement, elle est professeur assistante au Departement
des Etudes du Proche Orient a l’Universite de l’Arizona.
Elle a publie cinq romans: “Pinhan” (1997), “Sehrin Aynalari” (1999),
“Mahrem” (2000) , “Bit Palas” (2002), et “The Saint of Incipient
Insanities” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004), son premier roman en
anglais, traduit aussi en turc sous le titre “Araf”.
Ce n’est pas seulement comme romancière qu’Elif Shafak concurrence
Orhan Pamuk, mais aussi comme une personne qui se prepare a “faire
parler le silence”. Bien que certains en Turquie considèrent ceux qui
essaient de demaquiller la Republique turque comme des “donneurs de
coups de couteaux dans le dos ” ce sont les intellectuels comme Elif
Shafak qui vont entraîner le pays a affronter son passe et a faire
face a l’avenir.
Khatchig Mouradian – Heraclite dit: “Rien ne dure que le
changement”. En tant que personne avec des “itineraires incessants”
qui voit la vie “comme un voyage perpetuel où il n’y a ni destination
finale, ni desir d’en trouver une”, et en tant qu’ecrivain dont les
heros sont souvent sujets a des metamorphoses, comment expliquez-vous
votre implication dans le changement ?
Elif Shafak – A la naissance, nous naissons tous avec une certaine
idendite – que ce soit en termes de religion, de nationalite, de sexe,
etc.Notre nom nous est donne, ainsi que notre habitat et quelquefois
meme notre vision du monde. La question est celle-ci: en vivant la vie
que nous devons vivre, allons-nous mourir dans la meme travee, dans la
meme identite ? Ma reponse a cette question est: non. Je suis intriguee
par les metamorphoses. Je ne suis pas une sedentaire. Quoi que je sois,
je suppose que je suis une nomade. Cette sorte de nomadisme n’a pas
ete mon choix au debut, mais par la suite c’est devenu quelque chose
que j’ai deliberement, consciencieusement choisi.
Je suis nee en France, j’ai ete elevee par une mère celibataire, j’ai
eu deux grand’mères totalement differentes, avec deux comprehensions
totalement differentes de l’Islam, j’ai voyage de long en large a
travers differentes villes et differents pays, a chaque fois le cadre
changeait profondement, le sol sous mes pieds etait toujours sujet
a changement et la vie etait une serie de ruptures soudaines. J’ai
passe mon enfance en Espagne, j’ai fait les cent pas entre Amman
en Jordanie, Cologne en Allemagne, Ankara, et puis Istanbul.Ensuite
Boston, le Michigan, l’Arizona. Je vis maintenant dans deux endroits
en meme temps: l’Arizona d’une part, et Istanbul d’autre part. La seule
continuite qui a existe dans ma vie, le seul bagage qui m’a accompagne
partout où j’ai ete, ce fut mon ecriture, ce furent mes livres..
Transformation et transcendance sont au cour de mes livres. Je pense
que le livre et la pensee soufie comportent quelque chose de profond
en commun. Pour tous les deux la transformation et la transcendance
jouent un rôle de pivot. Pour moi, le livre n’est pas la capacite de
raconter son histoire aux autres, mais la capacite de faire siennes
les histoires des autres, et de votre histoire la leur.
J’ai des racines mais je ne suis pas enracinee. Selon le recit
islamique, un arbre vit dans les cieux la-haut. Il s’appelle
Tuba. C’est un arbre qui a la tete en bas et ainsi ses racines sont
en l’air. Parfois, je pense que mes livres sont une quete perpetuelle
du Tuba.
K.M.- Contrairement aux racines du Tuba dans le ciel, nos racines
terrestres peuvent etre frappees de honte et de souffrance, et c’est
pourquoi nous, etres humains, desirons sans doute les laisser sous
le sol. Il se peut que nous soyons fiers de nos racines, mais il est
rare que nous les revelions entièrement. Le livre peut-il porter les
fruits de la transformation, de la transcendance, et aussi du tuba
(la beatitude) ? Rend-il les lecteurs moins enracines, moins deracines,
et plus ouverts a leurs propres histoires et a celles des autres ?
E.S. – Le conflit entre la representation d’une identite particulière
et la question de l’essence meme des politiques d’identite est celle
qui m’intrigue profondement. Je me sens un peu tiraillee entre les
deux parce que suis une nomade, mais une nomade politique.
Ensuite, il y a un autre dilemme: ceux qui cherchent a effacer le
passe, a debarrasser leur memoire, en d’autres termes orientes vers
l’avenir, et puis ceux pour qui le passe determine les paramètres
de base, en d’autres termes orientes vers le passe. Je ne crois pas
que ce soit un dilemme qui puisse etre surmonte par le raisonnement
seul. Les opinions politiques internationales d’aujourd’hui n’aiment
pas l’ambiguïte. Les opinions politiques n’aiment pas l’ambivalence.
Pourtant l’univers de l’art, le monde de la fiction, necessite des
ambiguïtes, des flexibilites. Il faut qu’il soit fluide. Seulement
alors, le livre peut porter les fruits de la transformation et de
la transcendance. On a besoin d’etre deracine afin de ressentir
de l’empathie, a defaut de rapport, avec les histoires des autres,
au moins jusqu’a ce que le livre soit acheve, on a besoin de faire
un pas hors de sa zone d’existence.
Aux USA, par exemple, il y a une tendance a attribuer une fonction
a la fiction, comme si chaque livre devait avoir une fonction. De
meme, si par hasard vous etes “une femme ecrivain du Moyen Orient”
alors on attend de vous que vous ecriviez sur les “femmes du Moyen
Orient”. Votre identite passe avant la qualite de vos livres, ce que
je trouve très deroutant. En fait, je trouve cette attente pleine de
compassion extremement defavorable a la fiction. La fiction pour moi
n’est pas le recit de ma propre histoire mais la possibilite de ne
pas etre moi-meme.
En meme temps, je dirais que je ne suis pas en train de propager
une fiction consacree a des considerations politiques. Au contraire,
la relation entre les idees esthetiques et politiques est pour moi
d’un profond interet.
“Politique et esthetique” ne se marient pas facilement, mais en tant
que romancière turque, je ne pense pas avoir le luxe d’etre apolitique
dans ce monde; En consequence, la fluidite ou la flexibilite ne
signifie pas etre apolitique, au contraire, elle entraîne un choix
politique et une tendance a l’empathie.
K.M. – Dans l’un de vos articles d’opinion vous dites: “Alors qu’il
est probablement vrai que beaucoup d’Occidentaux doivent regarder
de plus près les accomplissements remarquables de la Turquie et
sa recherche inhabituelle historique d’une reponse a la question
vitale de la compatibilite de l’Islam avec la democratie occidentale,
de nombreux Turcs, a leur tour, doivent demaquiller leur figure et
commencer a admettre les bleus restes dans leur histoire”. Pouvez-vous
nous parler de ces bleus ?
E.S. – les bleus et le maquillage” est une metaphore que j’emploie
pour decrire l’obsession moderniste turque “Notre image aux yeux du
monde occidental”. L’elite aime a prouver aux Occidentaux combien les
Turcs sont occidentalises et modernises. Cependant quand elle en vient
a une lecture critique du passe, cette meme elite est indifferente,
sinon ignorante.
La modernisation de la Turquie s’est faite en parfait accord avec la
transformation d’un empire multiethnique, multilingue, multireligieux,
en un Etat-nation turc soi-disant homogène. Ce processus est rempli
de traumas, de pertes, et de souvenirs douloureux dont un grand nombre
ont ete quelque peu effaces de notre memoire collective.
Nos lignees familiales, si vous remontez plusieurs siècles en arrière,
seraient probablement multiethniques, mais l’ethnologie est une source
de suspicion si l’on choisit d’en parler sur la place publique. On
peut etre qui on veut dans sa vie privee, chez soi, mais dans le
domaine public on doit seulement etre un Turc. Cette distinction
entre la sphère privee et la sphère publique est pour moi d’un très
grand interet.
Autrefois, cette societe etait si heterogène au point de vue
ethnique qu’aussitôt après 1923 nous nous sommes habitues a agir
et a penser comme si nous etions maintenant un tout homogène. Ce
qui est interessant a propos du nationalisme turc, c’est qu’il se
fie beaucoup aux mots, plutôt qu’au sang, aux genes ou a la race,
comme le font les autres types de nationalisme dans d’autres pays.
Pour le nationalisme turc, on peut etre kurde, armenien, serbe.ca
revient au meme tant qu’on prononce les mots:” Qu’il est heureux
celui qui s’appelle un Turc !” C’est la une caracteristique très
interessante de l’identite nationale turque. Quoi qu’on dise, quoi
qu’on fasse, en d’autres termes, c’est toujours l’apparence exterieure
qui est essentielle.
C’est ce souci de “l’apparence exterieure” que je trouve très
penible. A la place, je suggère ce demaquillage pour voir a la fois
les beautes et les bleus au-dessous, a la fois les beautes et les
atrocites du passe. Il y a les taches et les cicatrices restant de
la transition d’un empire multiethnique a un etat-nation soit disant
monolithique. La perte de l’heritage cosmopolite et de la structure
multiethnique est une perte culturelle, sociale, economique, politique
et une enorme perte morale pour la Turquie, et pour les prochaines
generations qui vont etre elevees sans la connaissance de cette perte.
K.M. – Est-ce pour regagner une partie de la connaissance de
cette perte que vous etes en train de “preparer un projet sur les
“Histoires orales des Femmes concernant l’Amnesie collective: les
Recits des Grand’mères armeniennes, turques et grecques “?Pourquoi
les citoyens de la Republique turque au 21ème siècle “ont-ils besoin
d’ecouter les souvenirs supprimes des grand’mères turques” concernant
“les atrocites. que les Turcs ont commises envers les Armeniens”
il y a un siècle dans l’Empire ottoman, par exemple ?
E.S. – Tout le debat sur le passe turco-armenien est profondement
politise et polarise aujourd’hui. Il est aussi obsede par les documents
et les archives ecrites. Or, je pense que la culture orale est tout
autant valable. Comme conteuse, je m’interesse en premier lieu a ces
histoires-la. Les histoires dont les vieilles femmes de Turquie se
souviennent encore. Dans beaucoup de familles aujourd’hui, il y a des
vieilles femmes qui se rappellent les atrocites commises envers les
Armeniens dans le passe, je pense que c’est specialement valable de
ressortir cette accumulation de connaissance. C’est une autre source
de savoir.
Ce ne sont pas seulement les atrocites du passe, mais aussi les
beautes du passe que nous pouvons decouvrir dans ce filon, car
plusieurs de ces vieilles femmes avaient des voisines, des amies;
elles ont des souvenirs. La Question armenienne est le combat de
la memoire contre l’amnesie, et je crois que nous avons besoin des
souvenirs des grand’mères plus qu’autre chose, car elles ne sont pas
aussi politisees ou polarisees que les historiens ou les politiciens
le sont aujourd’hui.
K.M. – Vous referant a l’annulation de la conference d’Istanbul qui
devait debattre de la thèse de l’Etat sur la Question armenienne, vous
dites dans un article intitule “Alors, j’ai donne un coup de couteau
dans le dos a la Nation ?” “Si nos politiciens perspicaces n’etaient
pas intervenus a la dernière minute, j’aurais failli m’arreter de
prononcer des affirmations très prejudiciables”. Votre presentation
devait etre sur la poetesse Zabel Yessayan. Voulez-vous maintenant
donner un resume de ce texte “très prejudiciable” et “coup de couteau
dans le dos” que vous alliez presenter ?
E.S.- Ma presentation a la conference d’Istanbul allait etre sur Zabel
Yessayan. Je suis fascinee par sa vie et son ouvre et je pense que
c’est dommage que les intellectuels turcs d’aujourd’hui ne sachent
rien d’elle. De meme, nous ne savons presque rien des intellectuels
armeniens de la dernière epoque ottomane.
Plus significative peut-etre est la question suivante: pourquoi
l’elite du gouvernement turc etait-elle si perturbee par les ecrits
des intellectuels armeniens ? Pourquoi a-t-elle voulu faire taire
leurs voix ? Pourquoi les poètes, les romanciers, les journalistes
etaient-ils juges dangereux ? Comment et pourquoi pensait-on que
l’ecriture etait dangereuse ? Voila les questions que je projetais
de soulever a la conference.
Aujourd’hui en Turquie peu de gens savent qu’avant le debut de
la deportation, une liste de 240 intellectuels armeniens etait
concoctee par le gouvernement, une liste d’esprits dangereux ! de
plumes dangereuses ! Parmi eux se trouvaient de nombreux artistes et
ecrivains. C’etait ceux de cette liste que l’Etat voulait supprimer
et reduire au silence. Zabel Yessayan semble etre la seule femme de
cette liste.
C’est une vieille tactique de pouvoir et de domination. Si l’on
veut avoir le contrôle et imposer la contrainte a une population
minoritaire, il faut d’abord et avant tout contrôler et contraindre
son intelligence, ses intellectuels, ses penseurs. L’elite ottomane
semble avoir pris ces mesures.
Si nous pouvons comprendre la liste des intellectuels armeniens de
1915, je l’espère, nous intellectuels turcs de 2005 pourrons mieux
comprendre, reconnaître et deplorer l’injustice commise envers la
minorite armenienne, et la dynamique du pouvoir derrière ce processus
historique.
–Boundary_(ID_atHBSLE6AoCr4oLMsJOrmg)–