COMMONALITY IN STRUGGLE
by Vache Thomassian
Haytoug.org
February 1, 2010
Below is the text of a speech given by Vache Thomassian, a member of
the Hollywood "Musa Dagh" AYF Chapter and of the United Human Rights
Council (UHRC). It was given at the UHRC’s second annual "Opposite
of Silence" event in Glendale, Calif on January 15. The event aimed
to bring together Armenians and Kurds, and to pay tribute to those
activists in Turkey who have been targeted, harassed, or murdered for
their efforts to advance human rights, Armenian Genocide recognition,
freedom of speech, equality, and democracy. The keynote speaker of
the event was Kani Xulam, the executive director of the American
Kurdish Information Network.
Commonality In Struggle
BY VACHE THOMASSIAN
A lot of things are taken for granted. In our daily lives we wake up,
go to class, go to work, check our emails, check our Facebook, go out,
live our lives, often times taking the smallest things, usually the
most important things for granted. Things like our ability to freely
express ourselves, the ability to have opinions, to make them, argue
about them. The ability to stand up and speak. The ability to hear
and be heard.
Here in the United States, the free speech movement in the 1960’s
was a pivotal time in developing and shaping our country’s activist
spirit. It was a time when students stood up to authority to demand
their right to express themselves. This spirit was captured by the
immortal words of Mario Savio on the steps of Sproul Hall in Berkeley
when he said:
"There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious,
makes you so sick at heart that you can’t take part! You can’t even
passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears
and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus – and
you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people
who run it, to the people who own it – that unless you’re free the
machine will be prevented from working at all!
This was the movement that secured free speech and academic freedom
here in America.
In a place like Turkey where the call to speak is an invitation to
prosecution, to harassment, in a place where historical truths do not
exist, where contemporary human rights are trampled, minority rights
are unfathomable, women’s rights unimaginable it takes courage and it
takes conscience to speak. That is the common quality spotlighted by
individuals like Layla Zana, Akin Birdal and Erin Keskin-the courage to
see a wrong and speak out about it, ignoring the personal consequences.
There is no better example of the consequences of allowing Turkey to
get away with Genocide then what is happening to the Kurds today. The
news headlines about the Kurdish question hits especially close
to home for Armenians: "Community leaders arrested", "Violence in
the streets", "Demonstrators beaten or killed", "Political parties
banned"…all in the name of preserving the Turkish nation…protecting
Turkishness…sounds all too familiar.
When we talk about the Armenian Cause we have to talk of it as an
issue of justice for humanity and we shouldn’t limit our vision to
securing the rights of just Armenians, but instead affirm the idea
that Turkey as a nation must free its people, end its occupations
and be saved from itself. Until those who live in exile, those that
live in fear, those that live in silence, Kurds and Armenians can
lose the shackles that they still wear.
Recently, Turkey has tried diplomatically strong-arming the weak
and inept government of Armenia with protocols that would undermine
Armenian Genocide recognition efforts. Recently also, deceitful claims
by Turkey of making peace with the Kurdish Worker’s Party have again
resulted in violence, arrests and killings. The "TheArmenian Issue"and
"TheKurdish issue" remain top priorities among the list of taboos in
Turkish society. Taboos that are punished by Article 301.
Only by confronting these taboos of their society through open, honest
and meaningful dialogue, without prosecution or arrest, can there be a
revolution of values in Turkey, when the historic rights of Armenians
who were slaughtered in Genocide and removed through deportation are
respected, where the natural rights of the world’s largest landless
minority, the Kurdish people’s right to exist is respected.
Only then, not through any other hollow means can there be a shift
from Turkish ultanationalist arrogance towards real peace.
In this world the ideas of power and powerlessness chase each other
around in a perpetual circle of conflict. One struggles to attain and
maintain its vise-grip while the other struggles to find a voice and
fight for its liberty.
Those of us who have only ever lived in a democracy, however flawed,
would find it hard to imagine living a state of powerlessness. The
fear of reprisal for expressing your thoughts, the hesitation felt
before opening your mouth. Living your life constantly looking over
your shoulder. Like Hrant Dink said in his last article before being
murdered, "I am just like a pigeon, equally obsessed by what goes on
my left, and right, front and back…"
But Dink wanted to turn the boiling hell that he lived in, into a
heaven and he saw that the only way to do that was through democracy,
through free speech and through respect for all humans.
Our job as activists is to look at the world in its proper
perspective. In today’s interconnected world, we can longer isolate
ourselves, separate our struggle from the struggles of groups in
similar circumstances, we can’t just preach to ourselves and hope for
the best. The struggles of oppressed peoples are like the fingers on
your hand. Although each one is independent, each one moves fluidly
in its own way they are all connected by the hand that holds them
together. Their commonalities far outweigh their differences. And
only when the fingers come together, only when they cooperate and
work in concert, can they form a fist that can protect their rights
and ensure their vitality.
Our job as activists is to open our eyes to the world, to the
voiceless, to stand when they cannot stand and to speak when they
are silenced.
In the memory of Hrant Dink, in solidarity with the likes of Ayse
Gunaysu, Elif Shafak, Layla Zana, and individuals like Kani Xulam. In
solidarity with their struggle and making that struggle our own.