The same day the president declared that his family is Turkish and has been Muslim for centuries. We don't yet know the content of the complaint of the president's lawyers. The presidential family has the right to sue a person who falsely claims that they have a certain ancestry, just as the Armenian president would have the right to sue a person if they claimed that his ancestors were actually Muslim Turks from Yozgat. But the political coin has more than two sides.
Just as the Turks wouldn't be delighted to hear about that hypothetical court case concerning the Turkish roots of the Armenian president, I assume many Armenians, and especially my fellow ethnic-Armenian citizens are not happy with the actual one, unless, of course, the president's lawyers had the democratic reflex of suing Arıtman for undermining the principles of democracy and inciting racial hatred.
Arıtman's remarks are not simply denigrating; they are racist. Leaving aside Turkified Armenians, a pure Armenian citizen of this country can become the president. Turkey overcame Arıtman's racism back in the Tanzimat period of Ottoman reformation in the 19th century.
A case of ethnic or perceived-ethnic background can easily be an issue of debate. If a person is intentionally hiding their ethnic background and while doing so, serving as a member of a secret organization to infiltrate the institutions of a country, and while doing that, if they are using democratic mechanisms in order to attain power for a secret ethnic cause, there Arıtman has all the right to speak. Just to clarify this hypothetical case, let me give an example. If, say, Barack Obama were a Muslim, indoctrinated by an Islamic religious-political organization, had hidden his identity and ran for election -- becoming the president of the United States -- so as to convert all Americans forcefully to Islam, each and every American would have the right to complain about and mobilize against this infiltration.
Are there any ethnic Turks feeling a little bit more Armenian after Abdullah Gül's presidency?
Let's be fair. Arıtman is not an exceptional case. Many -- and when I say many, I mean it -- people in Turkey would still feel insulted if it were said that they had Armenian, Greek or Georgian ancestry. Being proud of being purely Turkish and Muslim, or purely Davidian and Jewish, or purely Armenian and Orthodox is one thing, but feeling offended by claims of not being so is another thing again. Still, believing that a claim of that sort would harm one's opponent politically and turning this conviction into a dirty political smearing campaign is totally something else.
Speaking about one's ancestral ethnicity is a human weakness. I have never been at a social gathering where a single mention of ethnic roots stayed as an isolated case and nobody else spoke about his or her ethnic background. Try this magic sentence in your workplace: "Guys, I found out today that my great-great-grandfather was actually a Turkish soldier who happened to be a prisoner of war during the second siege of Vienna." Don't underestimate that possibility! -- You will find people willing to disclose their ancestral heritage, or that of their neighbors.
We love to gossip about our forefathers!
This is talk that you have to avoid if you are the one paying for the time lost. Even in my educated work environment, Arıtman's remarks caused us to waste precious time when we should have been working. Be assured that because of her remarks, hundreds of thousands of hours have been consumed with the unnecessary and unproductive discussion of "my grandfather came from this or that place and, you know, his grandfathers actually went there from Anatolia." We can only trust God that these discussions won't end in bloodshed because we live in a country where a person selling pirated albums was killed in the street because he was hawking Eminem albums loudly. He didn't pay attention to a passerby whose mother was named Emine and felt offended by the peddler's "Eminem!" -- in Turkish, "My Emine!" -- calls.
Is Arıtman aware of what kind of a social Pandora's box she has opened?
By the way, let me clarify that this article is not expressing silent support for the "Campaign of Apology." The only thing that my maternal background explains is why my eyes are so penetratingly blue and my head is so dazzlingly bald.
