Armenian Kurdish Alliance for the Recognition of the Ottoman Genocide in Turkey

Dr.Amir Sharifi — Ekurd.net

Nothing is as mortal to the morals of the Turkish politicians as the recognition of the Armenian genocide of 1915. When many in the world were mourning and commemorating the centennial of the Armenian genocide with sorrowful indignation, the Turkish government paraded its usual April 23 pompous celebration of National sovereignty Day, an occasion exploited by the Turkish politicians to fan the flames of patriotism amid crowds of flag waving children who had gathered in front of Kemal Ataturk’s Mausoleum. This ritual of glorification and veil of sanctity is the very the ideological material that Turkey has used as a basis for its denial of the Armenian Genocide in 1915.

Instead of accepting the bitter historical truth, the conduct and bombastic rhetoric of the politicians, prove that they still do consider themselves heirs to the Ottoman Empire as if it were beyond such heinous acts. In defiance of human dignity and justice, this ideology, vestiges of which are being recreated in Turkey, bends everyone to its own arbitrary oppressive power, a frightening prospect in which one can see the echoes of the ISIS’ brutal and genocidal campaigns against Christians and Ezidis in recent times.

The tyranny has gone so far that even President Obama declined to use the word “Genocide” in his statement on the occasion. Turkish prime minister in a remark called the Pope’s recent announcement “the genocide of the century” an “evil plot”. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president labeled the European Parliament’s decision to use the term genocide plainly as “enmity”. Turkish ambassador to Austria was recalled in protest. The Grand Mufti of Ankara furiously threated to turn the former Hagia Sophia Basillica (an ancient Orthodox church), which is now a museum into a mosque. In spite of irrefutable scholarly evidence, a Turkish “scholar” Cevdet Kırpık from Erciyes University has preposterously claimed “According to our studies in the Ottoman archives, Armenians wore the clothing of Kurdish, Laz, Circassian and Turkish peoples in Anatolia and raided their own villages, killing their own people for the sake of winning independence…”

Despite such pitiful objections and seemingly cunning and conniving attempts to entangle historical facts, the world is slowly acting, breaking the Turkish century old imposed silence. We Kurds as neighbors of Armenians since immemorial times perhaps more than anyone else understand their anguish and sorrow; we share a historical affinity and affection traceable to ancient civilized world. We have endured the same calamities and wounds. Kurdish leaders have been among the first to recognize the genocide and courageous enough to accept the fact that some Kurdish tribes were liable although many guarded Armenians from the vicious enemies. The struggle for global recognition of the Armenian genocide has to continue because only two dozen countries have officially recognized the great tragedy as a genocide. Such an ongoing struggle with the new waves of genocides in the Middle East is more critical than ever.

Turkish government can not indefinitely ward off and crush the global recognition of the Armenian Genocide without further falling into an utterly anti-democratic, arbitrary, exclusionary state with ideological convictions founded on the blood of Armenians, Kurds, and other minorities. Kurdish leaders, human rights advocates and activists should work together with Armenians so that Turkey is forced to take a critical look at its chronic denial. As long as Turkish government and its leaders vehemently continue to reject their oppressive past and remain immured in brazen denial, there is very little hope for genuine reforms and democracy to be conceived in the land.

Dr.Amir Sharifi
President of the Kurdish American Education Society Los Angeles