Ara Sarafian: The Darling of Denialist Turkish Media
15-12-2008 20:00:00 | USA | Articles and Analyses
By Appo Jabarian, Executive Publisher & Managing Editor
Ara Sarafian, the head of the London-based Gomidas
Institute, has become the darling of the denialist Turkish
media. The November 24 issue of Hurriyet ("Liberty"), a Turkish
secular, conservative-nationalist broadsheet daily newspaper,
and notorious for its Armenian genocide denialism, has made a
headline of Mr. Sarafian's anti-Armenian comment: "We cannot
compare the Armenian genocide with the Holocaust. Those who were
banished from their land suffered a lot but survived."
Mr. Sarafian sounds more like a denialist than an Armenian
that is devoted to the pursuit of justice for his people. In
reality, the Armenian Genocide does differ from the Jewish
Holocaust. While Jews were killed en masse in foreign lands --
Germany and Vichy France -- Armenians were systematically
annihilated in their ancestral lands in Western Armenia and
Cilicia. But sadly, that's not what Mr. Sarafian is pointing
out. He is effectively saying that no Genocide occured in
Turkish-occupied Western Armenia and Cilicia.
If this is the result of his numerous Ankara-funded trips
to the Turkish archives, one can tell what's in store for
Armenians through the Turkish-promoted joint commission of
Armenian and Turkish historians that Sarafian, a self-proclaimed
reconciliator, so enthusiastically proposes in the Hurriyet
article.
Mr. Sarrafian and his likes need to be reminded that Ankara
has long been willing to recognize the Armenian Genocide
provided that the Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora do not
demand the return of the Turkish-occupied Armenian territories.
By "offering" to form a "joint commission" of historians,
Turkey is effectively plotting to undermine the political gains
achieved in the Diaspora and to reduce the international
recognition of the genocide to ''he said, she said'' type of
political dead-end which can reverse all the achievements by the
Diaspora to the benefit of denialist Ankara. And I am sorry to
remark that Sarafian seems to be all too willing to become a
tool in the hands of these denialists.
Sarafian also said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
offer to Armenia to establish a commission of historians to
resolve the Armenian issue was positive, but Armenia was the
wrong address. The solution should start from the diaspora.
Denialist Turkish Officialdom knew that, but what they
didn't know and were pleasantly surprised to know that there is
a member of that "huge and influential diaspora" who would be
willing to sell out his people's Cause.
For some time, Ankara has been working diligently to
recruit certain elements of the diaspora that are willing to
trade their own lands for a 'horse.'
A few days ago, just before I left for France, I visited
with an Armenian beef jerky ("abukhd" or "basturma")
manufacturer in Hollywood, California. The " abukhd"
("basturma") maker joyfully said how proud he was because the
Consul General of Turkey in Los Angeles had visited his store
and bought some beef jerkys and "kissed" his hand. I told him:
"If things continue the way they've been evolving in the
diaspora, and the Armenians continue to consolidate their
political and economic power, he would one day kiss other parts
of your body as well. "
It seems like Ara Sarafian has already become one of the
few Diaspora recipients of these "kisses."
In contrast to Sarafian's and his denialist handlers'
actions, just recently, notable Turkish conservative historians
and other professors have publicly apologized for the Armenian
genocide of 1915 but have fallen short of calling on the state
to do the same.
Even then, righteous historian Ayse Hur said apologizing is
the duty of those who were responsible for the act or for those
who share their arguments. "It seems that a very elite group
discussed that petition, because I learnt about this petition
from the media and I was surprised, ... I approach these types
of events as a scientist, as a historian, not as a member of the
Turkish nation. For me, all these events were the fault of
Turkish nationalism flourishing at that time, and personally, I
don't identify with it, so I do not feel the need to apologize
personally." (Daily Zaman, Dec 9).
She also pointed out that the petitioners are concentrating
only on 1915; however, she says there were events after and
before. "There is a state tradition which legitimizes all these
events and prevents any discussion about them. Firstly, the
state has to ensure a suitable atmosphere to discuss all these
things; then it has to apologize on behalf of the perpetrators
and for itself, because it has legitimized their actions through
the years."
That is why, first and foremost, Turkey needs to form a
joint Turkish-Turkish commission formed by Turkish academicians
who already recognize the genocide and by those that deny it. It
is after the Turks come to a consensus on the genocide that an
Armenian-Turkish joint commission becomes warranted in order to
formulate various settlement options regarding the reparation
for the immense real and personal losses inflicted on the
victims and the return of the lands of Western Armenia by Turkey
in compliance with the Treaty of Sevres.