Speaking to One Another - The International Raoul Wallenberg ...

Hrant Dink... Reading the Turkish press, one can feel that Turks too, they do not understand, they do not understand...because even the person who loved them so much, right? The one who wanted to do something,that... that person too is destroyed... I have read the best Turkish speeches, that simply was deep... deep...no, it wasn’t astonishment but, you know, a shock... Of course, I have also met many other Turks who veryeasily said “Well, you know, it was a tragedy, but so many journalists have been killed in Turkey; he was justone of them”, and they tell this so easily. At that moment you start to think. Or, you rather feel it; that, say,these journalists - for them, equally unworthy as Hrant Dink was for them? ... So I am thinking all the time;this means, they have lost... many things... Turks have lost their footing”.Avetis Keshishyan is able to see some logic in the problem of Genocide: “... because this could not havebeen avoided, because Ottoman Turkey understood perhaps that if Armenians stayed, that would mean,at least... at least establishing of their statehood there. If there was no Genocide, these series of massacres...Turkey would have had to reconcile with the Armenian statehood, or would have to exterminate...Turkey is facing this very problem with Kurds today. I think this example shows that, if by exterminatingArmenians they created a precedent for frightening others - to shut them up, then... this objectivehas not been accomplished”.Summarizing the answers that were present in our discussions concerning possible ways of resolvingthe problem, we can see that similar points are repeated to a certain extent: “... if the doors [borders]would open, gradually, in about twenty or thirty, or even fifty years, Turks will do the same things to us”(Garnik Manukyan); “I believe that if Turkey does not want to recognize the Genocide today, it cannotbe ruled out that they can do the same again today; that is, they are not sure about themselves, whetherthey are civilized or not” (Hamlet Hovsepyan). Let us quote Avetis Keshishyan’s generalization here:“Turkey is unable to be conscientious and loyal even to its own citizens... They do not have those moralprinciples which are required for this... As long as those who rule and have all the levers in their hands,as long as they have not become humane, the problem will not be resolved. Nations, I believe, you know- they can become friends very easily. All the nations have this sober potential in them, instinctively,but the elite, they are taking advantage of the low consciousness of the people and their inability, doingwhatever they like. For example, they were ‘loading’ Turkish people against us for seventy years, andthe Turkish nation received a certain ‘injection’, so the number of people who were full of hatred to ushas increased even further... This was done deliberately; this was a deliberate policy of the elite. If theywould not have done this, even if they still would not recognize the Genocide, it would have been mucheasier to establish friendship then. Look – to err is human. This is an axiom. Therefore, we need to beforgiving in our lives. This is very important, very difficult but very essential, very necessary - if we wantto live like humans. However, forgiveness starts from demeanor of the one who acted wrongly. The onewho acted wrongly should be prepared to avoid repeating the wrong action again; to avoid repeating thewrong action he should understand, should acknowledge that he did wrong. Then, forgiveness wouldmake sense. Forgiveness makes no sense without repentance. To forgive who? To forgive what? Do theyindeed need our forgiveness? Both repentance and forgiveness bear evidence of being highly civilized.Do Turks, indeed, possess this higher level of civilization? Do we possess this civilization? I don’t know.”134