Wednesday, 20 May 2009It is a small class of 12 master's students in the department of Turkology at Yerevan State University...
it is a small class of 12 master's students in the department of Turkology at Yerevan State University. For almost all of the Armenian students, Turkey is as close as a stone's throw even though the border remains closed, but Turks are as far away as one can ever imagine.
"What does the word ‘Turk' tell you?‘ was the question asked on Monday by a group of Turkish journalists who are in Yerevan for the International Hrant Dink Foundation's Turkey-Armenia Journalist Dialogue Project, funded by the Heinrich Boell Stiftung Association. In response, only one student said "just human," in contrast with the others who said they remember 'genocide‘ when they hear the word 'Turk.‘ Ashkhen Babayan said she had been to the Turkish city of Antalya and had interacted with Turks and found them quite personable. Another student, Anahit Veziryan, said she would go to Turkey one day to find the house where her father lived in the eastern Turkish city of Van. 'My father described the house that he once lived in but was forced to leave by the Turks,‘ she said, adding that she couldn't do it right now. When asked why, she had difficulty describing her feelings of fear toward Turks, but her professor helped. 'Is it safe for an Armenian to go to Turkey?‘ asked Ruben Melkonyan, professor of Turkology at the university. 'Our hope is with the Turkish people who are democrats and who can face the truth. I agree with Hrant Dink, who said Turkey can consolidate its democracy from within. I can't say that all Turks are bad,‘ he added. And the truth, according to him, is that the Turkish belief that there was no 'genocide‘ against the Armenians in 1915 is not right. 'Your official thesis is based on lies, and ours is the truth,‘ he emphasized. 'The recognition of genocide also has a legal aspect, as well as political. An apology is not enough; Armenians should be compensated financially,‘ he said. The young students have been carrying the heavy baggage of another official thesis, the thesis of Armenia. Even though they study Turkology, they face a dilemma: They want to know everything about Turkey, but from a distance, because in their minds, the "Turk" is a horrible creature.
‘Telling stories, interaction will help'
Melkonyan said the "trauma of genocide‘ has been handed down to generations of people in Armenia, as assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink put it, and the only way to overcome it is by 'storytelling.‘ He said there were examples of it in Turkish literature, as seen in the books of Fethiye гetin, Yusuf Bağcı and İrfan Pala. Professor Melkonyan said he was from the eastern Turkish city of Muş and had visited his village in the province, but he was not welcomed. Aris Nalcı from the International Hrant Dink Foundation based in İstanbul invited the students to Turkey for an internship at the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos. He also said there were currently two interns from Yerevan State University at Agos. Addressing the students, Nalcı said: 'You know how to deal with this trauma. You cannot learn about Turkey just by reading the books given to you in Armenia. You should read books from Turkey, too." ‘Turkey should stay out of Karabakh dispute?
Melkonyan said Armenia and Azerbaijan were independent countries, so they could settle their disagreements over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh without Turkey's interference. "Turkey should not interfere in the Karabakh row,‘ he told a group of Turkish journalists this week as he answered questions regarding Turkish-Armenian relations. 'Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey are independent states.‘ Armenian leaders have criticized Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for making the normalization of ties with Armenia conditional on a settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh during a visit to Baku last week. He said he, his students and the department of Turkology follow the developments in Turkey closely. 'We read Turkish newspapers every day," he said.
Anahit Veziryan said her father described the house in Van of which he was forced out by the Turks. This was probably 95 (approx) years ago. Did her father tell her stories of "Terrible Turks" who masacred the innocent Armenians when she was still in her cradle? My parents sang songs and lullaby to put me to sleep... No wonder many of these Armenians are so traumatised!
No comments:
Post a Comment