Bağdat is a spokesperson for the Friends of Hrant Group, established in the memory of slain Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink.
“There is a concrete definition of ‘Armenian’ in our minds -- and there’s a negative emphasis that has been attached to it. It must be asked, just who are these Armenians?” he commented in an interview with Today’s Zaman, questioning whether this negative perception is a result of experience or a willful attempt to create such an attitude. Armenians are a group of people who have a civilization and who have lived in Anatolia for a long time, and who until recently had no other homeland, Bağdat said, adding that a century of mental manipulation has led many to forget this.
“Let’s not forget with the Armenian issue that first and foremost we’re talking about people. States can do this, but I don’t understand how everyday people can view the Armenian issue from the point of view of an official, dominant ideology. People aren’t states. We should set everything aside and just feel upset over the people who died. Right now, Turkey is the [regional] country in which the least Christians live. But it wasn’t like that a century ago,” he said.
Bağdat said that the state tried to designate the Armenian issue as one that involves foreigners, recalling that in fact there are Armenians native to places like Malatya and Trabzon who are citizens of this country. He also criticized the state for focusing all of its concentration on what US President Barack Obama might say regarding the issue on April 24 -- touted by defenders of the Armenian “genocide” position as a day of remembrance -- instead of the Armenians here. Calling the influential Armenian diaspora important for Armenians worldwide but not exciting to him personally, Bağdat commented: “You can’t do this by getting an invitation to a dinner held by George Bush’s Republican Party, and attending and then investing in his campaign and getting him to say ‘genocide.’ Bush recently killed 1.5 million people. Is calling what Bush did a genocide or not calling it a genocide going to be of any benefit to humanity whatsoever?”
Bağdat also spoke about the recently uncovered Cage plan -- an alleged military plan to destroy the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) through the assassination of prominent non-Muslim figures in Turkey -- saying that the current dominant ideology in Turkey wanted to perpetuate its own existence through killing Christians. Bağdat said that the assassination of Dink brought down this sort of official state ideology in part because the Turkish people for the first time grieved over a fellow citizen who was an Armenian. Bağdat called for an abolishment of political and academic language on such issues, saying that a “mentality initiative” was necessary to change minds. He also commented on the ongoing Ergenekon trial, saying it would be an important test of where the nation stands and in which direction it is heading.
