Turkey left behind yet another April 24 as US President Barack Obama avoided using the term “genocide” to refer to the killings of the Armenians during the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
April 24 is the day when Armenians commemorate the incidents of 1915. Instead of the “g” word, Obama used the phrase “Meds Yeghern,” which literally translates to the “great tragedy” in English but which is actually the proper rendering of genocide in the Armenian language. In last year’s message, Obama used the same expression, which satisfied neither Turks nor Armenians. The April 24 commemoration day led many to reflect on the background of the incidents in the wake of Obama’s speech and the reactions to it.
Milliyet’s Taha Akyol admits that the Armenian deportation was a “disaster” and led to the deaths of many innocent women, children and old people not only due to severe winter conditions, hunger and epidemics but also due to attacks. He says the clash of the two groups at a disastrous time like World War I led to great mutual pain. “We should feel the pain and look for ways to alleviate it. But this should not be through directing accusations at the Turkish side only and launching a political ‘genocide’ recognition campaign,” says Akyol. With reference to an event held in İstanbul over the weekend in memory of Ottoman Armenians who perished through violence, Akyol says he can understand the organization of such an event to commemorate the “pain of all of us”; however, he says there was also a need to commemorate the pain of the Azerbaijanis who were deported from their own land by the Armenians. “Couldn’t they have called for the end of Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territory, too?” asks Akyol.
“The US president did not mention the word genocide. Is this enough to breathe a sigh of relief? We will not be relieved unless our consciences can feel eased because there lies a great pain beneath this issue, and that pain is the common memory of all of us,” says Hürriyet’s Ferai Tınç, who discussed the humanitarian aspect of the issue.
Referring to Obama’s mention of Turks who helped Armenians in 1915 by saying: “I salute the Turks who saved Armenians in 1915 and am encouraged by the dialogue among Turks and Armenians, and within Turkey itself, regarding this painful history. Together, the Turkish and Armenian people will be stronger as they acknowledge their common history and recognize their common humanity” in his annual address, Sabah’s Engin Ardıç says for the first time a US president who believes the 1915 incidents were a “genocide” but avoids using the word “genocide” through a twist of words has remembered the existence of these Turks. Citing the names of some of these Turks, Ardıç says there were many other such Turks who hid their Armenian neighbors or adopted the Armenian children at the cost of their lives. He says since the new generations were made to forget the 1915 incidents, these Turks were also forgotten; however, the Turks who had the biggest responsibility in launching the Armenian deportation were presented as “national heroes.” “You decide about whose grandchildren you would like to be,” Ardıç says.
Fatma Disli Zibak/Today's Zaman
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