SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS IN A ‘DEMOCRATIC’ COUNTRY
EDITORIAL | AUGUST 6, 2013 4:05 PM
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By Edmond Y. Azadian
As the current Islamic administration tries to dismantle Ataturk’s
legacy, much dirt is being unearthed in Turkey.
The fallout from that ideological warfare has been benefitting the
minorities, albeit, inadvertently.
Recently a document has surfaced revealing the racist nature of
Turkey’s successive administrations following the establishment of the
Turkish Republic by Ataturk in 1923. The official document, prepared
by the Istanbul Provincial Education Directorate, states that Turkey’s
population administration system has been recording citizens who have
Armenian, Jewish or Anatolian Greek origins with secret “race codes.”
For example, citizens of Armenian origin are coded with the number 2,
while Greeks were given the code of 1, and Jews, 3.
An official from the Population Administration has told Radikal
newspaper that the practice was being conducted “to allow minority
groups use of their rights stemming from the Lausanne Treaty.” This
official Turkish explanation very much resembles the justification
efforts by Turkish authorities – until today – that during World War
I, the government was so concerned with the safety of the Armenian
minority that it deported members of that group to “safer zones,”
meaning the Der Zor desert, where, of course, they perished.
Armenians did not have to wait for this document to surface to find
out that they were treated as second-class citizens.
But as the taboos are being broken (though not removed), politicians
have begun to question these tactics and the treatment of minorities:
Altan Tan, a member of parliament from the Peace and Democratic
Party, has stated that “for a long time those allegations had been
circulating, but they were denied by the authorities.”
Tan urged Interior Minister Muammer Guler to make a statement on the
issue. “If there is such a thing going on, it is a major disaster. The
state illegally profiling its own citizens based on ethnicity and
religion, and doing this secretly, is a big catastrophe,” Tan said.
Even after the Genocide, the remaining Armenians in Turkey experienced
the brunt of this discriminatory racist policy. One expression of
that policy was the “wealth tax” (varlik vergisi), which was levied
on Armenians, Jews and Greeks in the 1940s; those who were unable to
pay the exorbitant taxes were sent to labor camps to perish.
Another policy which exists to this day is the appointment of Turkish
assistant principals at Armenian schools. The community is free to
hire an Armenian principal, but the power resides in the hands of the
assistant principal, who must be an ethnic Turk. In reality, Turks
serving in that capacity are the official government spies, placed
there to enforce restrictive government policies and to report to
higher-ups if any Armenian history is being taught secretly in those
schools. That is why young people graduating from Armenian schools
and emigrating to the West are dumbfounded to discover there is such
a thing called Armenian history.
The Kurds do not have any race codes because they had been designated
for assimilation. Beginning with Ataturk, who perpetrated the Dersim
pogroms against the Kurds, successive administrations have been trying
to convince the Kurds that there is no distinct ethnic group known
as Kurd; that the Kurds better consider themselves as “mountain Turks.”
Despite all atrocities and persecutions, no Kurd was ever convinced
to be anything but a Kurd.
The Kurdish minority – which accounts for one third of Turkey’s
population – is on the verge of emancipation. The establishment of
Iraqi Kurdistan has fueled aspirations of the Kurds throughout the
region and especially in Turkey. It looks like in the bloodbath of the
civil war in Syria, another autonomous region for Kurds is shaping up.
Painfully aware of the writing on the wall, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan is engaged in a guessing game with the Kurds. He has already
cut a deal with the jailed leader of the Kurds, Abdullah Ocalan,
to move the Kurdish guerillas out of Turkish territory. The Kurds
have accomplished their side of the deal and are waiting impatiently
for the government’s move: knowing Mr. Erdogan’s duplicity he will
either offer some cosmetic changes in the status of the Kurds or,
holding the unarmed population hostage, he will resort back to his
old habit of trying to impose a military solution to the Kurdish issue.
Without a question the Armenian community in Turkey is breathing
easier. Sixteen percent of confiscated community assets are promised to
be returned to the community. Newspapers like Agos are writing freely
about democracy which will benefit all the citizens of the country.
But Armenians are very cautious based on their historic experiences.
Once burnt, twice shy. The years 1909-1914 brought a period of hope
and expression of cultural freedom to all minorities in the Ottoman
Empire, only to be followed by the Genocide.
Later, during the 1950s and 60s, when Adnan Menderes was democratically
elected as prime minister (1950-1960), the dictatorial instincts of
the authorities were tamed. The Armenians, along with other minorities,
engaged in some freedoms. A representative of the Armenian community –
Mugurditch Shellefian – was even elected to the parliament.
But then the 1960 military coup sent Menderes to the gallows,
along with all the liberties that he had brought. Minorities again
experienced the brunt of the repression.
The last coup was staged by Kenan Evren in 1980 and the constitution
promulgated by his military regime in 1982 is still enforced in Turkey.
During Evren’s iron-fisted rule (1980-1989), Turkey’s minorities
experienced the worst period of repression.
At age 96 that tyrant is still alive in Turkey and very recently
boasted that after the military coup his hands did not shake when he
signed the death warrants of 35 politicians and said he would repeat
his act again at any time.
Recent documents also surfaced in which this bloodthirsty despot
justified the murder of 1.5 million Armenians as a “necessary” and
“legal” act.
Even the minister of defense in Erdogan’s previous cabinet had asked
the rhetorical question if Turkey would have enjoyed its present
vast territory if it had not deported its minorities. And yet the
West embraces Turkey as a “model democracy” for the Islamic world.
The Paris-based Reporters without Borders has referred to Turkey as
“the world’s biggest prison for reporters” and ranked it 154th out
of 179 countries, behind Iraq and Russia, in its 2013 ranking of the
world press index.
Turkey continues to be a minefield for the Armenians. They cannot
breath freely, despite current illusive trends. They know they have to
be cautious, as long as those bloodhounds are around and live freely
in the country.
They realize their race code 2 is still in force and they know they
are second-class citizens.
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