Armenia diaspora wing flies in new direction

Friday, January 21, 2011

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

MARSEILLE, France - Hürriyet Daily News

Liberal members of one of the most conservative Armenian diaspora groups have called for the renewal of rapprochement efforts with Turkey, saying the border between the two countries should be opened to trade and travel.

“[Diplomatic] protocols were signed and a new process was beginning. For once we believed things were going to change, but it ended up quite contrary,” politician and businessman Didier Parakian, a member of the French Armenian diaspora in Marseille, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “We were planning to start trade [between Turkey and Armenia], and I was planning to lead this process, but everything got turned upside down.”

Parakian said he is unhappy with the way the Armenian diaspora is understood by the Turkish public. “We cannot take the diaspora as a homogenous whole. There of course is a very strict conservative segment, but there are also liberals like us,” he said, adding that the liberal wing would gain more power if the border between Turkey and Armenia were to be opened, while leaving it closed fuels negative radicalism.

The apology campaign started by Turkish intellectuals in late 2008 to atone for the events of 1915, when Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically killed in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, received positive reactions within the diaspora, according to Parakian, who is also the deputy mayor of Marseille.

The businessman said they never blamed the Turkish people for the events of 1915, which Armenia has characterized as genocide. “They [Turks] only know what the official history tells them, but there is a bitter truth,” he said. “As liberals we could have started trade activities as a first step if the borders were opened. But it is impossible for us to take a step back in terms of our efforts to get the genocide recognized in other countries.”

Colette Babouchian, another Armenian politician from Marseille, was among the first supporters in the diaspora of the Armenian apology petition campaign launched in Turkey. He said he is not against the formation of a historians committee to further investigate the events of 1915.

“I believe in communication. There must be a historians committee, but one composed of objective, impartial scholars,” Babouchian told the Daily News. “If the truth will really be uncovered with no vested interest involved, there is nothing to be afraid of on our part. The evidence is already in the open.”

Launched in December 2008, the “I apologize” campaign has drawn harsh criticism within Turkey, even as approximately 30,000 people, including many intellectuals and journalists, have signed the petition, which reads in part: “My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Armenians were subjected to in 1915.” Turkey denies claims of genocide, saying that any deaths were the result of civil strife that erupted when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.

Efforts to bridge the diplomatic gap between the two countries started in 2008, when Turkish President Abdullah Gül made a historic visit to Armenia to watch a World Cup qualifier football match between the Turkish and Armenian national football teams. Armenian President Serge Sarkisian visited Turkey to watch the return match in 2009.

Following this “football diplomacy,” Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols for the development of relations and the mutual opening of their sealed border in 2009, but the two countries have been unable to complete the process of ratifying the protocols.

Asked why much of the diaspora is against renewing relationships with Turkey, Babouchian said: “If I am to exemplify those from Marseille, almost all the Armenians here are the sons and daughters of those who luckily survived the events of 1915 and moved here. How do you expect them to feel?”

He immediately agreed with Parakian that the Armenian diaspora does not blame the Turkish people for the historical events and only seeks acknowledgment of the truth and an apology for it. “We will never come back to Turkey; my country is now France,” he said.

Remembering the slain Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, whose murder four years ago was commemorated in Istanbul this week, Parakian said: “When Hrant was shot we thought history was repeating itself. He was trying to open doors and establish a dialogue between these cultures. Besides, he genuinely loved Turkey and Turkish people.”