3353) To Be Armenian In Turkey

By Klara Yeteroglu,

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25 May 2012 Update

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From time I realized myself, one part of mine is Turkish and Moslem, and my other part is ARMENIAN and Christian. The conflicts and arguments which are intended to be placed in our country lately bring questions to my mind. Why do they want to make enemies of these two friendly communities, who lived in peace for centuries? What side should I take or do I have to be on one side?. . .

Today in Turkiye there are about 40-50.000 Armenian Turkish citizens. This number was much higher at the time of the Ottoman Empire, but regretfully during WW1, “the Loyal Millet” named Armenians were incited by French and Russians and some of them revolted. Armenians reputed for their national loyalty, became part in undesired incidents in the East. May be both sides had to do bad things to each other because of war. People who lived together in peace for centuries started to see each other as enemies, just because of the interests of other countries. As a result no Armenian State was founded and neither the dead came back. Both sides lived days full of pain.

In the recent twenty years, some bad intended thoughts started to provoke the Armenians living in Turkey. As a result tensions started to escalate between two people. Aged 14, I started to interpret these last incidents from my own world. I am born from a Turkish mother and Armenian father. In this country I can go to Armenian school and do my prayers in church. I can buy newspapers and magazines in Armenian language and follow the events. During national holidays I can freely celebrate the days and become part of our own community. More interesting is the fact that our state gives us moral and material support continuously and I am proud to say this. Well, then what is the problem? I think that the problem is that foreign powers do not like us to live in peace in Turkey. I am both Armenian and Turk or from Turkiye. I think that there many who think the way I do. When the Kurban Holiday or Christmas comes, we celebrate both. We respect every one and we are likewise respected by all. At this time I am studying in a Turkish school, I see no discrimination from my friends or teachers. I can preserve my own faith and discuss all subjects with my friends. My best friends are Turks and I think that I am also their best friend. I am fed up to think of what happened years ago and induced to make us suffer the pains of the past. I want to be left in our own natural course and not to invoke our friendly daily lives.

My name is Clara, my family name is Yeteroglu (means son of enough) . I think, that this rounds up everything!

(First Prize for School Composition)

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25 May 2012 Update
Echoes Of the "To Be Armenian In Turkey" we have originally published it in May 11, 2012 Here.

Aksam Newspaper has copied it and made a news item assuming that we are the USA Based Armenian website -which we are not, and ignoring to mention the source in a proper way, then NTVMSNBC has copied it from Aksam and published it. EksiSozluk is the only site published the original source as our site. Then, our website visitor numbers jumped to several thousand hits an hour, followed by 1000s of copies and many tweets worldwide, becoming the most read item on the net, then the TV programs followed it as the number One item.

Although NTVMSNBC, Vatan, Aksam and Milliyet Newspapers have been informed that they were suppose to include the source (ie:Armenians-1915.blogspot.com) if they could still claim to be journalists since they didn't even bother to investigate it in the first place, then, they have chosen to play the "Ignorance is Bliss" Tune.

What can we say other than: All the best to the "So-Called Main Media in Turkey" and their followers.

Here's some echoes of the "To Be Armenian In Turkey"




Direct Link

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Comment by Sukru Server Aya:

May 25 Update Echoes Of the "To Be Armenian In Turkey" we have originally published it in May 11, 2012

Dear All,

As a truly “independent truth defender” dedicated to humane compassion, understanding and fighting with shallow or biased knowledge we pick up from books, or articles or movies, conferences etc. and after reading the various “very superficial” comments, and as an old contributor to this extremely serious, unbiased blog site since the year 2005, I wish to bring a few facts into light! This blog has posted more than 3300 postings, which should add up to over 100.000 pages, has some 400 E-books which makes another 50.000 or pages and over 100 videos and slide shows. In short you need ten years for all this.

If all of the sudden some “responsive humans” express interest in a school composition contest, touching a few live facts, this should be applauded. I understand that there have been “thousands of entries” on this posting and over 40 pages of various comments “made in haste” without taking the slightest trouble to go through very few of the pages which anyone can reach immediately, “if they really wanted to hear what various sources said” about the topic. As the anecdote goes, when men were reincarnated and had a choice of picking from the various brains in jars, everyone picked up his old brain because “he thought it was the best” and was “scared of other brains”. I do not want to get into nonsense arguments on this blog, particularly with those who make decisions on what they “hear or read” from one side only. Some of the comments were “raw or vulgar” because the writers thought they were right and entitled to condemn other persons, nations, etc. with the amount of knowledge in “his/her brain”.

Sadder is the fact that some well known Turkish newspapers or sources (Aksam, Milliyet, Radikal etc) did not even show the professional ethics for the original source (this blog), which was the first to post this writing in Turkish as it appeared in the school magazine, plus the English translation for foreign readers!

Few “know-all-writers” even concluded that this blog was in USA… Of course in doing so, they were so negligent that they did not even go into the blog and learn about it, by clicking on the main menu.
See: Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2007/06/1762-faqs-readers-questions-answers.html
While “most” of the Turkish commentators treated the subject with understanding, some of them and in particular most of the Armenian commentators jumped into high conclusions, such as Turkish State Propaganda, Ministry of Education etc. by “just imagining the skill totally empty non attentive or responsive naïve persons or offices”. Few had to go lower with “hordes, barbarians, killers etc.” whilst some thought that it was good time to demand the properties of grandfather, etc. left behind.

The interview made by AGOS at Klara’s home with her parents in Turkish, could have put more light on the compassion and understanding which is normal, for those with “full brains”. If there will be lots of new request for that “follow-up editorial”, I will take the trouble to translate it in English for this blog.

Below, I am giving a few links which will contribute to enriching few brains, satisfying their egos with ardent nationalism that ends in fanaticisms or fascism and even worse, religious bigotry which is one of the main causes :
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=JvEb3b-w17g&vq

I tried to alert the general public and in particular parents, who raise their children with ingrained animosity and hatred for other humans, giving live examples which you can see-watch in:
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2012/04/3347-video-same-distorted-history-same.html

I will save the document about the genocide fanfare at the end of this paper. However, I strongly recommend the readers to view
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2006/08/932-at-kumkapi-every-wednesday-small.html
and read what one of the 70.000 illegal Armenian working women had said when asked: "The woman I worked for gave these to me. They give us gifts on their and our sacred holidays and ask if we are short of anything. Sometimes, the Turks here treat us better tan the local Armenians. I am greatly thankful; they don't make me feel a stranger. Anyhow, you do not have a bad nation, you have bad men."

Now, let us continue our stroll through life and see a happy couple, who tried hard to win. Look at this couple…Do their faces speak for any ethnicity or religion? Is that really a crucial necessity?

Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2011/01/3204-armenian-turkish-couple-ties-knot.html



Those who would like to hear “what type of support the Turkish Government gives” to researchers dedicated to TRUTH ONLY (where this blog stands), may please watch in Turkish or read:
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2012/05/3352-video-untruth-about-armenian.html

Those who may have preferred to die or kill because of different nationality and hatred, may read

http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2012/03/3344-armenian-speaking-muslims-of.html
and see how “intelligent human beings minimized the dramas brought by others and survived”.

I really did not intend to bring any clarification about what “millions of people think or know based on what they heard” and which are not based on irrefutable documents. But to answer “charges of brain washings” I add below page which summarizes millions of pages of various documents to the same effect:

Let us get records straight from the desk of the most authorized body, the “League of Nations”:
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2010/06/3099-if-armenians-fight-with-us-against.html



Doc. 1- Posting # 3099) If Armenians Fight With Us Against The Turks, We Promise To Give Them National Home, Liberty And Independence

Doesn’t this monumental document tell “how innocent Armenians were, and how and why 200.000 young Armenians sacrificed their lives”? Enough is enough gentlemen, read well before you start lecturing animosity!

-Now let us see the second document confirming that whatever happened was outside of the control of the central government and carried out by irregular bands-. What do you believe; your imagination and palavers, or the plain monumental documentation?

Doc. 2: “League of Nations” - Important Documents “University of Bradford” Armenia and the League of Nations
Documents from the United Nations Library, Geneva; League of Nations Archives Collections

Copy of “Note Verbal” by Secretary-General Sir Eric Drummond, dated March 1st, 1920.

Page 2: “Further, in Turkey, minorities were often oppressed and massacres carried out by irregular bands who were entirely outside the control of the central Turkish Government.”

CONCLUSION: I repeat my posting “Admit Facts and Shut up” for those who do not like reading:
Armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2008/10/2610-genocide-lies-need-no-archives.html

This blog is not a forum for any ones propaganda, or nation! It aims “facing the TRUTH whatever it may prove to be”. We try to stop this absolutely stupid animosity and friction, which has become a commercial commodity, serving the “well to do ones” instead of the “truly needy ones”. I express my thanks and highest appreciation to the “moderators of this blog” who say they are from Turkey but live abroad. History tells that “all calamities inflicted on the well to do Armenians” living in Turkey for over 600 years, always came from outside countries. They said they “wanted to save” but they “destroyed” their own people. Youngster Klara did best to avoid interventions, distracting their happiness. Bravo!

Respectfully, Sukru S. Aya, Istanbul May 25, 2012
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