Then and Now

Then: Menderes, Gursel, Inonu, Urguplu, Demirel, Erim, Melen, Talu, Ecevit, Irmak, Ulusu, Ozal, Bozer, Akbulut, Yilmaz, Ciller, Erbakan, Gul (you get to choose your favorite liar/denier, er, former Turkish prime minister).
Now: Erdogan.

Then: “Armenians were deported out of war zones and died as they traveled.”
Now: “We feel your pain, but hey, Turks/Muslims died in large numbers, too.”

Then: Gross, over-the-top denial.
Now: Polite, sophisticated denial.

Then: Turkey is a NATO ally. Armenia? What’s that?
Now: Turkey’s “good neighbor” policy is a shambles. Armenia has been driven away from the West’s orbit.

Then: “Oh please, please, Mr. Government Official, won’t you throw us a bone and say something nice about Armenians? And gosh, if you were to say ‘Armenian Genocide’ that’d be super-duper wonderful.”
Now: “We put the world on notice through the assassination of Turkish government officials. Then we won a ground war. We demand what’s rightfully ours.”

Then: There’s no real Armenian government.
Now: There’s no real Armenian government.

Then: “Things are just fine for Armenians in Turkey. Genocide? What Genocide?”
Now: “Prime Minister Erdoğan should get a Nobel prize!”

I can handle most of the above pairs. After all, they represent realities of Armenian life. But the last one? That’s a bit much! In fact, it’s so unspeakably absurd that I can’t even give it one of my coveted SpitRain awards, the utter brazenness of it transcends verbal description (You’ll remember Spit-Rain comes from the Armenian saying, “He’s so shameless, if you spit in his face, he’d think it’s rain”).

Recommending, for one of humanity’s greatest awards, someone who falls out—publicly and viciously—with a very key former ally (Gulen), destabilizes a neighboring country (Syria), triggers and engages in international incidents (Mavi Marmara boarding/deaths by Israel), wags an accusing finger at a fellow leader (Obama), enables the use of nerve gas (sarin in Syria), maintains the occupation of 40 percent of another country (Cyprus), badly abuses his own citizens who are engaging in legitimate protests (Gezi Park), invents conspiracy theories when he’s exposed for corruption, and on and on…just plain doesn’t make sense.

This is yet another piece of the Turkish government’s Genocide Centennial propaganda onslaught.

It is also more evidence of Erdoğan’s megalomania that he, or more likely his minions (so he retains plausible deniability), coerced Armenian community leaders living under Turkish rule to suggest he merits a Nobel. Wow!

Someone please enlighten me, or in the words of Supertramp’s 1979 “The Logical Song”:

“There are times when all the world’s asleep

The questions run too deep, for such a simple man

Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned?

I know it sounds absurd…”

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Garen Yegparian

Asbarez Columnist

Garen Yegparian is a fat, bald guy who has too much to say and do for his own good. So, you know he loves mouthing off weekly about anything he damn well pleases to write about that he can remotely tie in to things Armenian. He's got a checkered past: principal of an Armenian school, project manager on a housing development, ANC-WR Executive Director, AYF Field worker (again on the left coast), Operations Director for a telecom startup, and a City of LA employee most recently (in three different departments so far). Plus, he's got delusions of breaking into electoral politics, meanwhile participating in other aspects of it and making sure to stay in trouble. His is a weekly column that appears originally in Asbarez, but has been republished to the Armenian Weekly for many years.