3080) Akkum: Let’s Give Armenians What We Took From Them By Gulisor Akkum

The Armenian Weekly, April 2010 . .

“The history of civilization” started in Anatolia, a geographic region that harbored the riches necessary for “sedentary life.” This richness made it an attractive place throughout history, and resulted in its being constantly invaded.

However, it never saw a massacre as horrible as the one during World War I, and never went through such homogenization.

In this war of apportionment between western imperialism and the Ottoman Empire, the latter committed a social and cultural genocide to peoples such as the Armenians, Syrians, Alevis, Kurds, Pontic Greeks, and Yazidis, destroying, in just a few years, all the tangible and intangible treasures of humanity formed in the past 14,000 years.

Approaching these policies of genocide and deportation from only a biological and social point of view makes it harder for us to see the costs for humanity. This event demolished all the scientific and cultural values in the region, where the foundations of the history of civilization were laid.

These genocides in Anatolia, the cultural heart of the Middle East, weren’t confined to it, but caused a historical decline for all “Oriental communities.”

Such a fragmentation in Anatolia almost turned the reconstruction of the Middle East into a puzzle.

And in this puzzle, Kurds have come very close to finding their real place within Anatolian unity. Nevertheless, they know that their place will remain incomplete until the other pieces of the puzzle find their own places as well.

This awareness has not evolved into a concrete theory within the Kurdish movement. In connection with this theory, which must be formed without delay, Kurds can play a crucial role in this puzzle of the century, provided that the right steps are taken.

The most sensitive point regarding the formation of this theory is that the puzzle is composed of “organic” pieces, and that therefore it can be made whole not by rational and crude political calculations, but by sincerity only.

Kurds must come to terms with their history, remember their brotherhood with Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Alevis, and Yazidis—with whom they wrote the history of civilization in Anatolia—and recapture this organic connection with them.

These peoples, who have suffered genocides, are dispersed throughout the globe. Their eyes and ears are turned toward Turkey, and what they expect most is sincerity.

A few weeks ago, I thought it might be a good symbol of the Kurds’ sincerity if a house that once belonged to an Armenian in Diyarbakir, Turkey, were bought and returned to an Armenian in need. I got an appointment from the Diyarbakir Metropolitan Municipality to talk about the legality of such a proposal.

Before the appointment, however, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened Armenia by stating that he would deport these Armenians.

That is why I cancelled my appointment with the municipality. And now I am making my proposal to those who really count:

“None of these peoples, with whom we share our songs, stories, dances, and sufferings, is an immigrant on these lands. Let’s give them back what we took away from them, so that they don’t have to live on their lands as ‘immigrants!’”

Of course, I don’t expect this proposal to be accepted by Turkey. But I want those who are sincere about this to gather around the proposal.