In the consciousness of Ottoman Turks being Armenian is shameful

PanARMENIAN.Net - People's Republican Party (CHP) deputy Canan Aritman, who was sued by a lawyer protecting the rights of the Head of State, will have to pay moral compensation for his statement regarding President Gul's mother's Armenian origin. The court of Ankara passed a judgment saying Aritman has to compensate the moral damage done to the President by paying 1 lira for an attempt to discredit a state officer through spreading untruthful information on the ethnic roots of Gul's mother, Anatolian News Agency reports.

But let us set aside Gul's ethic motives for appealing to court. Naturally, he was offended because of his alleged Armenian origin. Per se, in the consciousness of Ottoman Turks being Armenian is still shameful, though, whoever might speak of «racial purity», today's Turks ought not to. Not to mention the Armenian roots of blood-shedding sultan Abdul-Hamid II. Let us also not forget that majority of the Young Turks were denme (Jews that accepted Islam). But all this is already well known among the Turks and it does not any more arouse negative reaction in the Turkish society. But it was the first time that the current president was blamed for «impure» descent. At the end of the previous year a group of Turkish intellectuals, obviously of not purely Turkish origin, launched a campaign "Armenians, we apologize", which did not meet the sharp criticism of the President of Turkey. According to Canan Aritman, the President supports the campaign. ""Look at his ethnic origins from his mother side and you will see why he supports the Armenians."

In response to the spread rumours about his alleged Armenian origin, President Gul stated that his offspring both from mother's and father's side were pure-bred Turks and Muslims. The Turkish leader considered it an insult and decided to appeal to court. However, the EU instantly blamed Gul for the indiscreet reaction to the «insult». It should be mentioned, though, that the conduct of the President in this situation easily fits into the characteristic features, described by the US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau in the years of the World War I. "The offspring of the ottoman Turks will hardly resemble any of the people I have ever known. They don't hate, they don't love, they feel neither hostility nor affection for anyone. They only fear. And it is quite natural that they attribute the motives of their behavior to others."

It is nearly impossible to give a more precise description to the Turks. They fear the recognition of the Genocide, they fear the Greeks, the Assyrians, they fear their own history and the Kurds. And on this basis one the manifestation of the animal instinct to rob, override and murder all those they are unable to understand can be justified. The fact that Young Turks did not finish the started destruction of the Christian population in the Empire can have only one explanation - the mentality of a nomad, who is used to thinking only for the present moment and not a minute forward. They were not even able to establish the really new Turkish nation that Ataturk tried to create. In the long run, the instincts of a nomad prevail over all the other reasons, and … we have what we have: 70-million hostile people for whom the words «Armenian» and «enemy» will always remain identical in meaning. All the remaining steps of the Turkish diplomacy to be taken in April will proceed from this fact, and Armenia ought to remember this always.

Barack Obama's visit means much more to Turkey than just a usual visit to the country to which the USA is linked only through strategic partnership and NATO. With the help of Obama, Ankara wants to highlight her role in the hard job of withdrawing American troops from Iraq. The consent to give the military base "Incirlik" stands as a proof for it, if we take into account the fact that in 2003 the Turkish Parliament forbade American troops to pass to Iraq through Turkey. However, the Turks are always trying to bargain and even blackmail. The most interesting scene in all this story is going to be the reaction of the new US Administration to the old and tested methods of Turkish diplomacy.

Calls of various Turkish organizations remind of letters of the «collective farmers and workers», who «have not read the story but consider it their duty to state that…». Chairwoman of Turkey's leading business association, Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama urging him to consider the possible implications of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The letter particularly says: "The US and Turkey are determined to move forward for a more intensified cooperation on several key issues under the vision of the new American leadership. In an era when a strong US-Turkey alliance is needed more than ever to address the challenges of the world's most troubled regions such as the Middle East and the Caucasus, straining bilateral relations through such initiatives will have negative consequences beyond Turkey-US relations.", Hurriyet Daily News reports. And what we can do is to wait until Turkish Foreign Minister arrives at the BSEC summit in Yerevan.