TURKEY: A PERMANENT THREAT TO ARMENIA
David Boyajian, Belmont, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
If Turkey were to open its border with Armenia, and the two established
diplomatic and trade relations, Turkey would still be a threat
to Armenia.
Turkey would be a threat even if it were to acknowledge the Armenian
genocide, pay reparations, and return stolen Armenian property. And
the threat to Armenia would remain even if it someday regains its
homeland which now lies in eastern Turkey.
Why? Because Turkey’s belligerent policies towards Armenians, its
pan-Turkic goals (PDF- Pan-Turkist Dreams and Post-Soviet Realities)
in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and its neo-Ottoman ambitions pose
essentially the same dangers today as at the time of the genocide. And
they show no sign of ever changing.
Aside from a general awareness of the genocide and present-day Turkish
hostility, however, many Armenians and others are unfamiliar with
key details of past and present Turkish policies. Consequently,
they underestimate the dangers that Armenia faces.
Even the commonly held view that “in 1915 the Young Turk regime
committed genocide against Armenians in Turkey” is dangerously
misleading.
The genocide actually lasted through 1923, five years after Turkey’s
defeat in WWI. Two regimes conducted the genocide: Ottoman Young
Turk and Kemalist. The latter, of course, founded today’s allegedly
“modern” Turkey. And the genocide took place not only in “Turkey”
but also, ominously, on what was and is today the territory of the
Republic of Armenia.
Endless Genocide
Turkifying and Islamizing the remnants of its empire was a key
reason that Turkey destroyed its indigenous Armenian, Assyrian, and
Greek Christians during WWI (1914-18). But Armenians and Armenian
soil also lay just across the border, in the Caucasus region of the
Russian empire, directly in the path of Turkey’s genocidal pan-Turkic
jihad. Turkey committed genocide against those Armenians too, and
ripped large chunks of territory from the new Armenian Republic,
which had just been reborn from Russian Armenia.
Azeris — Turkey’s blood brothers then and now — also conducted
large-scale massacres of Armenians in the Caucasus in WWI and
through 1920.
[recep_tayyip_erdogan_t.jpg]
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
After Turkey’s defeat in 1918, Turkish forces under Kemal (known
later as Ataturk) continued the genocide in the Armenian Republic
through 1920 and in Turkey through 1923.
Like Turkish leaders today who lie and deceive, Kemal publicly
professed peaceful intentions toward Armenia. Secretly, however,
he told his commanders that it is “of the utmost necessity that
Armenia be both politically and physically eliminated.” Kemal, too,
lopped off chunks of Armenia. Though it resisted heroically, only a
Soviet takeover in December of 1920 saved Armenia from annihilation.
These facts are relevant to the perils that Armenia faces today
because of Turkey’s pan-Turkic and neo-Ottoman foreign policies.
Pan-Turkism
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Turkey has
established ongoing relationships with Azerbaijan and Central Asia’s
new “Turkic-speaking” countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan,
and Uzbekistan. Turkey has invested billions of dollars and established
Turkish schools and universities in these countries. Turkey’s President
Gul declared that “Kyrgyzstan is our ancestral homeland” while visiting
that country’s International Ataturk-Alatoo University.
Turkey hosts major gas and oil pipelines originating in Baku,
coproduces weapons with Azerbaijan, and trains Azeri troops. In
Turkic solidarity with Azerbaijan, Turkey has injected itself into the
Artsakh/Karabagh conflict by closing its border with Armenia for two
decades. The Turkish-Azeri axis — termed “one nation, two states”–
harks back to its assault on Armenia during the genocide. One hundred
years has changed nothing. Turkey remains enamored of Turkic blood
bonds.
In the former Armenian province of Nakhichevan — now part of
Azerbaijan and emptied of its Armenians — Turkey, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan recently signed a treaty creating the
Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States.
Let’s be clear. Only Soviet control of the Caucasus and Central Asia
from the 1920’s to 1991, and Russian and Chinese dominance since then,
have thwarted Turkey’s pan-Turkic goals.
For several decades, of course, Russia and China have possessed nuclear
weapons. Turkey has not. Imagine what an arrogant, genocidal Turkey
would have perpetrated by now had it possessed nuclear weapons. Turkey
could still, unfortunately, acquire nuclear weapons or other WMDs.
Turkey’s dangerous imperial goals today also include “neo-Ottomanism.”
Neo-Ottomanism
Turkey regards itself as the leader of not only its former colonies
in the Middle East and Balkans but also the entire Muslim world.
Turkey is investing heavily in those regions.
Its Education Ministry recently released multi-media material that
shows Armenia, Cyprus, and parts of Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece,
Iraq, and Syria as being part of Turkey. Turkey claimed it was just
a mistake.
[abdullah_gul_t.jpg]
Abdullah Gul
“You are the grandchildren of the Ottomans. It will be the Ottomans
who will make the world tremble again. If the Ottomans do not come
back, the unbelievers will never be brought down to their knees.” A
Turkish clergyman thundered those words to a frenzied Turkish rally
in Belgium two decades ago.
In attendance were his admirers: Necmettin Erbakan, soon to be Turkey’s
Prime Minister and the latter’s protégés, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s current Prime Minister and President.
Far from renouncing its bloody Ottoman past, such examples illustrate
that Turkey embraces and wants to recreate it. Consequently, its
threats against Armenia must never be taken lightly.
Turkish Threats
During the Artsakh/Karabagh war, Turkish President Turgut Ozal
repeatedly threatened Armenia. Armenians, he warned, “had not learned
the lessons” of WWI — that is, the genocide.
According to Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, former Greek ambassador to
Armenia, U.S. and French intelligence sources confirm that Turkey
was poised to invade Armenia in 1993. Ruslan Khasbulatov, a Chechen
who was Speaker of the Russian Supreme Soviet and an opponent of
Russian President Yeltsin, had secretly given Turkey the go-ahead to
invade Armenia if he toppled Yelstin. Fortunately, Yelstin survived
the challenge.
If not for the Armenian-Russian alliance of these past two decades,
Turkey and Azerbaijan would have jointly attacked Armenia, with
catastrophic consequences.
Despite Turkey’s hostile record, some Armenians have fallen victim
to the constant drumbeat of propaganda that Turkey is “reforming.”
Turkish non-Reforms
Some even believe that acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide would
be tantamount to Turkey’s having “reformed.” That’s absurd and a
serious mistake.
An acknowledgment, which would almost certainly be incomplete,
insincere, or reversible, could psychologically disarm Armenians into
letting down their guard. By not owning up to the genocide, therefore,
Turkey may unwittingly be doing Armenians a favor.
[turgut_ozal_t.jpg]
Turgut Ozal
Turkey’s actual record is one of repression, followed by mass violence,
interspersed with so-called “reforms.”
In the 19th century, large-scale massacres of Armenians, particularly
those of the 1890s, followed Ottoman “reforms” such as the Tanzimat
(anti-discrimination decrees). The Young Turk “reform” revolution
of 1908 — cheered in the beginning by Armenians, Greeks, and other
national groups — was followed by the 1909 Adana massacres, the
1915-23 extermination, and genocidal attacks on Russian Armenia and
the Republic of Armenia.
Then along came the new “reformed, modern” Turkey of 1923. It
confiscated Armenian property, destroyed Armenian churches, and
Turkified Armenian city and village names. In 1943, Turkey unleashed
its malicious Capital Tax program against Armenians, Greeks, and Jews.
Later came the devastating Istanbul riots of 1955. Did we mention
Turkey’s massacre of Greek Cypriot civilians and ongoing occupation
of northern Cyprus? The death squads and torture chambers? The
repression, deportation, and massacre of Kurds and other minorities,
and the jailing of dissidents and journalists?
All the while, we are told that Turkey is “reforming.”
Turkish Syndrome
In addition to Turkey’s policies, its political leaders pose a danger
because of what one may term Turkish Political Personality Syndrome.
This syndrome is on full display today in “modern” Turkey’s constant
threats, chest-beating, belligerence, malignant narcissism, hypocrisy,
extortion, despotism, cruelty, crudeness, lies, broken pledges, and,
of course, the use of violence.
One cannot think of even one positive Turkish political quality.
The countless victims of Turkish violence down through the centuries
are proof of Turkish leaders’ disordered state of mind.
[ruslan_khasbulatov_t.jpg]
Ruslan Khasbulatov
There is little indication that either Turkey’s policies toward
Armenians or their leaders’ disorder will ever change. Indeed, they
may grow more threatening.
Yet, Armenians still hope that Turkey will change. How to make them
aware that the Turkish threat is here to stay?
Education
Young people will, of course, become the adults who conduct the
political, economic, cultural, and military affairs of Armenia. They
must be equipped intellectually and psychologically to deal with
Turkey.
>From a young age, Armenian students must study — but not in Turkish
schools — Turkish history, geo-politics, and language, and their
application to present-day Armenian-Turkish relations.
The Turkish political personality and its violent and deceitful
tendencies must be dissected and understood.
This is not easy, for two reasons. First, Armenians are bombarded by
pro-Turkish and “reconciliation” propaganda from around the world
and even by some Armenians. Second, we Armenians are unlike Turks
and often have difficulty understanding their political culture.
Ultimately, future generations of Armenians will have to choose whom
to believe. Will it be the allegedly “reformed, modern” Turkey? The
international media that kowtows to Turkey? Countries that historically
have betrayed Armenia?
Or will Armenians learn from the past and the hard-earned wisdom of
their forebears?
Their decision may determine whether Armenia lives or dies.
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