Turkey-Armenia protocols put Armenian identity in question
by
EMRE USLU

Thus the sealed Armenian genocide debate has been reopened to discussion; this at least could provide enough time for Turkey to reposition itself and reformulate its policies toward Armenia.

For this very reason, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) issued a statement about the Turkey-Armenia protocols, saying: “The success of Turkey in pressuring Armenia into accepting these humiliating, one-sided protocols proves, sadly, that genocide pays. President Obama, rather than honoring his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide, went in exactly the opposite direction, applying the full force of our nation’s diplomacy to twist the arm of a landlocked and blockaded Armenia -- a nation still struggling with the brutal legacy of its near-destruction -- into accepting a dangerous set of protocols that call into question this very crime against humanity. The ANCA and all Armenian Americans will continue our efforts to restore morality to our nation’s response to the Armenian Genocide, and, more broadly, to the cause of genocide prevention. We will also work to prevent Turkey from using this agreement to further its genocide denial campaign, to undermine the rights of the Armenian nation, or to threaten the freedom of Nagorno Karabagh.”

Although the protocols have no immediate impact until both parliaments ratify them, the political implication on the Turkish and Armenian public would be much greater than the actual outcomes of the signed documents. One of the reasons for that is the power of the Armenian diaspora, which has already declared the protocols a lost battle. In the collective Armenian memory, the “lost battle argument” has deeper meaning. The Armenian identity, especially in diaspora communities, is constructed based on the victimization argument that kept the Armenian communities intact. The Armenian church has played a large role in keeping Armenian communities unified based on the victimization argument. It seems the mystic elements of Christian faith and victimization of Armenians have made a “perfect match” for the Armenian church to reconstruct the Armenian identity around the great tragedy of the 1915 events. The Turkish-Armenian agreement has turned everything upside down and poses a major threat to this Armenian identity.

The following long letter appeared in an Armenian newspaper and indicates how the protocols hit the Armenian identity:

“I wonder, will my grandfather and his sister, who lost their parents and were orphaned at the age of 10 and 5 respectively, forgive me. Will my grandfather and his sister, who were the only ones in their family to survive the Armenian Genocide, forgive you. Will my grandfather and his sister, who were separated during the Genocide and were reunited by fate only 20 years after the genocide, forgive us… Nowadays, I am losing a lot of sleep over an issue, which I do not know if I have any influence on or not. … I know one thing and I know it very well, we and the Turks are not brother and sister and even if I were a hippie and believed in peace and making love not war, I could not accept Genocide- denying Turks as my good- willed neighbors or friends and Genocide-denying Turkey as our savior; a country that will help my beloved country to develop and grow!

“Let me go over this one more time; I am Heghinar, I am a citizen of Armenia, I live in Armenia and if the President and Foreign Affairs Minister of my country sign a paper, which opens the doors of my home to enemy number one (Turkey) and announces that Karabakh does not belong to me but to enemy number two (Azerbaijan), a paper which maybe not verbally do so, but in its essence states that we Armenians are liars, all this has been a lie and my ancestors were liars and that enemy number one and two suffered because of the Armenians and not the other way round and all the blood shed is wasted and gets flushed down the toilet; who or what does all this make me?

“I represent my country, I am my country and I bear the face of my country. I tell you what the signing of this paper will make me. All this will make me a liar, my grandfather a liar, my mother who passed on the story to me a liar, my nation who believes in this story a liar. Next time I tell someone I am Armenian, I don’t have to explain the location of this little country, because everybody has already pointed out its index finger to the liar. … I am a person who is for Armenia, I am a person who loves her motherland, I am a person who believes in her fatherland and finally I am a person who lives in her homeland because she wants and loves to and not has to. Every time my country makes a wrong move, I try to justify and understand my child, but today I am in a total state of shock. My child has stabbed me in the back; I feel ashamed, I feel sad, I feel lost.”