ANKARA, Turkey (A.W.)—On Nov. 9, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Ankara with the editor of the “Jamanak” Turkish-Armenian newspaper, Ara Kochunyan. During the meeting, Erdogan congratulated Jamanak (established in 1908) on its 100th anniversary, praised the role the Turkish Armenian community has played in the country, and blasted “a segment” of the Armenian Diaspora for impeding relations with Armenia. (Click here for an op-ed on Erdogan’s comments.)
Talking about minorities in Turkey, Erdogan said, “I am sure you realize that there are problems piled up over centuries that cannot be resolved overnight. The opposition approaches every step we take with a negative attitude and makes every effort to create hurdles and slow down the process of resolving the issues. But we will continue forward without making excuses.”
Answering Kochunyan’s question about a threat the prime minister made earlier this year to deport Armenians from Turkey, Erdogan said he was only referring to the Armenians illegally working in the country—and not Armenians as a whole. “My statement was extremely clear, and if there is an honest attempt to understand what exactly I meant, there should be no problems.”
Erdogan also said he considers the Turkish Armenian community as “an important and valuable asset” for the country. “I follow with great appreciation the struggle of Turkish Armenians to protect the internal peace and to advance Turkey’s prosperity,” he added.
Speaking about Turkey’s relations with Armenia, Erdogan said, “By leaving history to the historians, we can together look to the future. I still believe this is possible. A segment of the Armenian Diaspora does not share this vision, and therefore it is a significant hurdle. I am not convinced that this particular segment of the diaspora is doing Armenia any favors this way.”
Erdogan sidestepped the fact that Turkey itself is stalling the so-called “normalization process” with Armenia by not ratifying the protocols.
Armenian Weekly correspondents in Turkey contributed to this report.
We also didn’t share the vision of Talat Pasha, so what’s your point Erdogan?
A picture is worth a thousand words. Look at submissive look on Kochunyan’s face and the look of a Pasha Erdogan blessing the Dhimmi with a handshake. If anyone thinks things are changing should take another look.
For the first time(and probably only), i actually agree with Erdogan. He ‘s right. We don’t share his vision. Thank God for that. We don’t have a vision of denial of justice, retention of stolen property and continued oppression. Erdogan says the probelms of the past “cannot be solved overnight” What problem is he trying to solve? To suffocate Armenia with an illegal border closing? To support their cousins to the east with the continued theft of Armenian land and property? To destroy and denial the historical presence of Armenians in historic western Armenia?
The Turks did their best to eliminate the presence of Armenians on this earht and hoped that assimilation would take care of the survivors. The stength is the dispora created byt eh criminal act of the Turks is their worst nightmare. The problem he wants to address is to neutralize the sons and daughters of the genocide and create a wedge between Armenia and its diaspora. We will not and must not let this happen. Our unity of thought is our strength. Erdogan can maintain his diplomatic veneer; while the truth speaks with a clearer voice.
Vay! Leave history to the historians! Agreed. Which history? The truth or the distorted Turkish version. How about justice? Who should we leave that to? The corpses left to rot in Der Zor, perhaps. What about our ancient churches, three millenia-old villages, homes, farms, businesses, schools, bank accounts and life insurance indemnities, etc.,…
The sad part is that Erdogan represents progress. However, he is blind to his own callousness. His Turkish superiority won’t allow him to contemplate his nation’s guilt nor even experience the basic human emotion of compassion for what Armenians lost. How do you tell people who you have TAKEN so much from to forget about it, leave it in the past, “let’s just look to the future together …”
Unbelievable. We still have a long way to go to open eyes in Turkey. The progress is slow but it is progress nonetheless. We have to keep up the pressure.
And we have to be wise about deflecting the wedge that Turkey is trying to plunge between the RA and the diaspora. We can’t be divided by these tactics. The diaspora needs the RA and the RA needs the diaspora. We are one nation, one people, with one mission.
On first thought,as all Armenians I missed something/ you see we are famed for that, they say “Hayun Khelkuh oush gouka” say it dawns on us a bit late or slowly..if some won’t agree with me ,please do so,I don’t mind….
When on second thought I scrutinized it further, I thought to myself this man Erdogan or his compatriots DO KNOW THAT A VERY SIGNIFICANT NUMBER of the “Remnants” those who escaped his forefathers’ massacres,rapes,plunders,what not, ENDED UP IN what is now Republic of Armenia!!!!!!!! and Russia,latter have so far kept a relatively low profile…but they are there and form part of The Armenian Diaspora.
In short more than half of R.of Armenia population is now COMPRISED OF offspring/inheritors of the Western Armenians and near abroad RRRussia.
Mr. Erdogan does not know or does and conveniently thinks that we Don’t know that. We do.And believe me these Arevmdahay offspring /heirs are AS MUCH PARCEL AND PART OF THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA AS THOSE IN MARSEILLE, FRESNO,BUENOS AIRES!!!!
I would say best for him would be to review his history ,in case he does not know that and begin to think of “Ermenis” whether in far flung Hong kong or S.Africa, as those in Sydney, Boston or now all over the Globe, “ERMENIS of Diaspora,ESPECIALLY NEXT DOOR ONES, including near escaped me Turkified Islamized Armenians within present day R.of Turkey and some across border in Georgia and S.Caucasus .Millinos.WE ARE ALL ARMENIANS OF THE DIASPORA, includinng more than half in REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA/ARTSAKH.
He wishes to establish entente or Conciliation, then he should begin to”soften up” their diplomatic political attitude towards Armenians a bit faster.Not use the old sugar coated methods as inviting Istanbulla journalists and or clergy, that are under their Flag or Ataturk’s Photo.
Wow.. i see disgust on Erdogan’s demeanor in the picture.. it is like he is doing our man a favor by shaking his hand. Zzvum em nauym em iran.. it gives me the creeps just by looking at his face..
and he has the balls to tell us that Diaspora is breaking everything because we don’t share his thoughts.. well OF COURSE WE DO NOT … you think we are going to sit across the table and drink vodka and cheer to each other? HA…
Well said everyone… this clown think that the world is a circus and Armenians are his puppets… think again Erdogan…you will not win…
Unlucky you Diaspora is very strong and determined to bring your regime down sooner or later…
…by reviewing the true history, Erdogan will find that the Turkey was the first country in the world to recognise Armenian Genocide: In 1919 the turkish courts ruled against two senior officials for deporting armenians and acting against civilized humanity. The turkish courts found that armenians were brutally forced into deportation, and armenian men were intentionally murdered. The police commander of C.pole (istanbul) Tevfik Bey was sentenced to prison for 15 years +hard labor, and governer Kemal bey was hanged, and Talaat pasha was sentenced to death. Ataturk took the power, and helped the central figures to escape reponsibilities. Morgenthau left since he could no longer take it: “my failure to stop the destruction of armenians, had made turkey for me a place of horror- I had reached the end of my resources”. In the history of the world, they all betrayed us; Germans refused to extradite Talaat, British cowardley and infamously surrendered, US rejected Wilsonian Armenian, and Russians left without notice. Today, armenians are not the same, in our front lines are protected by our troops, and any trespass will severly be punished!
You should have told us which segment of Armenians share your vision of leaving history to historians pasha Erdogan.
Erdogan should also blame the Greeks and Assyrians who all know history too
He claims to be religious but has no problem slandering us all – and all of history.
“They [the Turks] were, upon the whole, from the black day when they first entered Europe, the one great anti-human specimen of humanity. Wherever they went, a broad line of blood marked the track behind them, and, as far as their dominion reached, civilization disappeared from view. They represented everywhere government by force, as opposed to government by law.”
– William Gladstone, 1876
Keep your 19th-century racism to yourself, ararat.
Why, anything has changed in the 20th and 21st century, Hagop? Besides, it’s not my racism, it’s a contemporary witness’…
Europeans should remember crusades first ararat before talking about bloody history of Turks. Maybe later they can look ww2. In total 72 MILLION PEOPLE DEAD in ww2. Dont forget to deaths which caused by colonization. Whatever…
long story short,
By ignorant sentences like yours are demotivating turks like me who recognices genocide.
I dont like racists Armenian or Turkish.
Hakan, I don’t like racism either but I think part of the complexity of the issue here is that the Turks from central Asia who first marched across Asia Minor or subjugated Europe several centuries ago are not the same Turks that comprise the population of Turkey today, due to forced conversions and intermarriages between Turks and the indigenous people of the countries they invaded. Who knows how many nations have formed the DNA of Hakan! So you may not recognize yourself or your family in descriptions like those you sometimes read here, but can you see your government’s actions?
When people like Ararat talk (or share quotes) about TURKISH aggression, they are not talking about individual Turks like you, they are talking about the policies of successive TURKISH governments. If your leaders don’t represent you and your friends, I hope you will work to make demands on them to act as a truly representative and democratic government that upholds standards of human rights that all civilized nations share and of which you can be proud.
Armenians were dealt a terrible injustice by your ancestors and they deserve an acknowledgment, an apology and restitution of what was stolen. This is the least that Turkey should do. Turkey’s present economy is largely built on the stolen assets of the deported, starved and murdered Armenians. You can’t expect Armenians to do as Erdogan coldly suggested, “Leave history to historians.” This is personal to every Armenian family. Your nation can’t erase the Armenians, claim our artifacts as ancient Seljuk remnants, or claim glory from putting our churches on display as tourist attractions, and expect us to say, “How nice!”
@Hakan
The whole Armenian race is “demotivated” by the mere fact that your people ARE GENOCIDE PERPETRATORS. And that if it was not for the Armenian side constantly asking and demanding justice your side would continue to lie and distort history.
As an Armenian I can care less whether you or any Turks are “demotivated” by an Armenian’s comments. Lets face it: you Turks are pretty predictable. Your kind are ultra opportunist and resorting to stealing, raping, murdering and lying is not even given a second thought if the opportunity arises to a Turk. In fact let’s ask ANY RACE under Turkish rule if they actually enjoyed it? All would say that it was probably the worst part of their history. Your history is a bloody horrible one and deserves what it gets.
Why waste further time and effort in trying to pin on Ottoman Turkish distortions,when today ,their own Foreign Ministre ,Mr. Davutoghlu has declared in China,on visit,that and I quote “Our ancestors came from Uigur land,a Province of China.
Thus their previous Claims that they were indigenous in what is now called ANATOLIA, read Western Armenia ,thus is dismissed,KAPUT. A famous Armenian saying goes…”The Fox falls in the trap with all fours” .In other words not to mistake Wisdom with cunningness…
One mistake like that washes down all PREVIOUS turkish claims that they were in present Turkey as indigenous people. Hogwash!!!!
Hakan,
Historical evidence or accounts of contemporary witnesses have nothing to do with racism. Turks are who they are, and the civilized world knows you too well. What you’re saying in your comment is a sheer distortion of historical evidence and juxtaposition of several unrelated, untypical to each other historical episodes.
Crusades pursued several goals, but the main one was to free the Holy Land of Jerusalem from the brutal conquest by your ancestors: nomadic Seljuk Turks, who started scorching Asia Minor and Middle East in the 11th century AD. Therefore, Crusades were the consequence of Seljuk invasions from the steppes of Mongolia and mountains of Altai. And, yes: sadly, people die during interstate wars and colonization campaigns. However, religious expeditions like Crusades, or World Wars, or colonization conquests are different from a premeditated, centrally-planned deliberate extermination of a country’s own citizens of a certain racial, ethnic, national, and religious descent. And this is exactly what your Ottoman Ittihadist grandfathers did: they wiped out the whole race of their own innocent people who just happened to be non-Turks and non-Muslims. Do you see the difference between this act of Genocide and inter-state wars, expeditions, and colonization, or I need to repeat this truism twice?
Demanding justice has nothing to do with racism, Hakan. Had your state had courage to acknowledge the historical truth and repent to Armenians, we wouldn’t exchange comments here and you wouldn’t be so insolent in juxtaposing Crusades, wars, and colonization campaigns with the annihilation of a country’s own citizens: the Genocide.
Hakan,
First of all hope you understand the depth of what Boyadjian and Ararat are talking about. This has nothing to do with racism or colonization or whatever else you like to call it. We are not talking about what happened in Anatolia between X to XVIII century. But we are specifically talking about events which took place at the last quarter of IXX century and first quarter of XX Th. So, lets not mix the issues to create confusion. However, there is indeed a similarity between the events of WW1 and WW2, during each world war, two nations opted to implement the FINAL SOLUTION on the minorities which live on their land. This has nothing to do with casualties suffered during regular war time, since these were premeditated, planned elimination of another race LIVING in the same country by their own government due to race. But the similarity between perpetrators of the Genocide and the Holocaust ends here, since although Germany after the war, as a nation, as a government came out bravely and accepted its wrong doing and apologized and paid for damages, Turkish governments since 1915 simply tried to deflect the truth. If anything there were times that they made heroes out of Ittahci murderers. Do you know what the Hurriyet Meydani in Istanbul stands for? Do you know whose remains are buried there? Do you know how many schools there are in Turkey, named after Talat Pasha? Therefore how do you expect Armenians of the world-regardless of where they live-to show any understanding and to make any comparison of what their ancestors suffered under Ittahacis vs the rest of these events you are talking about?
On the other hand, I salute people like you, since you represent a new way of thinking, those who want to be honest about Turkey’s past, those who feel bad and shameful about the events of 1915, those who want to talk about the Armenian sufferings. For those of us who were born and raised in Turkey as an Armenian , remember very well how it was only five years ago, simply put : your kind did not exist- am I exaggerating ? Although, for many on this audience, it will be difficult to grasp what I’ll be saying next ,but I admit that, Erdogan and Gul’s approach toward democracy and minority rights, and desire to make Turkey a part of civilized nations, has a lot to do, for people like you to come out and accept the Genocide. Unfortunately, since your numbers are so small, one unnecessary comment -deliberately or not- made by any Turkish official, makes people like you to disappear in the Armenian imagination. After all people like you are too new, and too few. Remember that, your way of thinking is, only as old as September 2005 the Armenian Conference at the Bilgi University!