1065) Will the free world save us?

In the harsh winter of 1956, the Hungarian uprising was crushed by Soviet tanks. The Hungarian radio broadcast ended with the words "Free world, save us."

Unfortunately, "the free world" did nothing.

The poor Hungarian revolutionaries were punished, and some of them, including Prime Minister Imre Nagy, were executed. The attempt of Hungarians to withdraw from the Warsaw pact was halted.

Turkey has been screaming for almost half a century, "Free world, take us!" But the "free world" -- in other words, the European Union -- has been acting reluctantly and finding excuses every time. . .

We scream here, trying to tell them that if Turkey loses at this, the country may go back to the Middle Ages. In this kind of situation, the EU will have a "huge, trouble-creating country" on the edge of their flank.
This is not a bluff or blackmail; time will prove it.

The European Parliament's recent report says that "Turkey has to come to terms with its past."
All right… Let's do it.

But with whom and on what matter will we deal with?

The Armenian Republic considers us an enemy. If we can get together with them, we might find at least a middle way to gain time to think about the Armenian genocide claims.

The European Parliament is now talking about "Pontic" and "Assyrian" genocides.

I'm not an expert on these events. I have heard that some 10,000 Assyrians perished in 1915 during the relocation of Armenians. Let's say it's true; can we describe it as a "genocide"?
Don't ask me, ask the Assyrians living in Istanbul.

Assyrians lived under oppression in the Midyat, Mardin area (Tur Abdin). Many of them had to leave their homes and went to Istanbul or the U.S. during our republican era, especially after 1960. It was of course a very bad incident and we should talk about it. But a "genocide" claim is far-fetched. I don't want to talk about the Pontic genocide... My native town is Trabzon… All I heard about the old Greek inhabitants of that region is, "They are good guys and they live with us just like (late 19th century-early 20th century banker) Kostaki Teophylaktos (his houses are museums now). But some of them, after the Greek invasion of Izmir (Smyrna), wanted to establish their own state and organized bandit groups in the mountains and everywhere. These people were punished, and many of them were killed by the military."

Was it a genocide?

They are all excuses.

Next time I'm sure that our European friends will talk about the Diyarbakir plane crash in 2003 as a Kurdish genocide.

Don't laugh at me. There were some conspiracies saying that since many of passengers were Kurdish and died in the crash, it was planned by the "deep state." Not even funny, of course.

The EP report contains some serious points.

The recognition of the Greek Cypriot state and opening Turkish ports to their vessels are two of them, and they should be solved anyway.
This is a very significant matter and our government has to do something about it.

I have been writing about this matter for almost four months. This should be taken seriously.
It might cause suspension of our membership negotiations.

Recep Guvelioglu
rguvelioglu@thenewanatolian.com
02 October 2006
2006 The New Anatolian