Turkey’s prime minister and, probably future president, Erdoğan, announced that he is offended of his opponents for calling him an “Armenian”. The cursed, I think.
The reaction in Armenia is sharp: racist, xenophobe, how much penny his condolences to the Genocide victims’ descendants was worth. Likewise negative was the reaction by a part of the Turkish press. Yes, it is sad that the leader of the state not only has such views, moreover, is trying to hide them. Generally, we have had many occasions to make sure that the Prime Minister of Turkey is emotional with audacious character, but, as I understand, it is to the liking by the majority of his citizens. He leaves the impression of a “guy of courage”.
But let’s be honest and answer whether any Armenian politician would not be offended if he is called a “Turk”, whether he would not interpret it as “cruel,” “bloody,” “deceitful,” and “traitor.” Whether the word “Turk”, in this very sense, has not penetrated from our everyday life into social and political environment.
Just recall the late Ribert Sahakyant’s cartoon about the train (in 2000), where the wagon driver, the first president, was dressed up with a Turkish fez. Can anyone argue that this cartoon, to put it mildly, was expressing the view of the then government?
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Since 1988, how many times have the opposition protestors uttered the word “Turk” to the Communists, the same first president, as well as to the second and third presidents? I do not think that it was said in a diminutive sense. Have you ever heard that the opposition had named any leader in these 26 years, “You cannot do it, it’s a racism.” On the contrary, Arshak Sadoyan, for instances, calls the government of 90s “worse than Turks.”
We also call Azerbaijanis “Turks”, of course, with the same negative accent. Recently, it seems that we have more reasons to name them accordingly. But still I would not speak of the neighboring people using this vocabulary. We just need to state that the lesson that we gave to the neighboring country’s political and public figures in 1992-94, these figures have not yet learned them well.
The Turk is an ethnic name for me, like Armenian, Azerbaijani, Russian or French. The name of the nation, likewise any other name (of fruit, vegetables, animal or, let’s say, a planet) is neutral, and does not contain any evaluation, moreover, a blasphemy. Bertrand Russell argued that the judgments, which refer to the objects (e.g., “this is an apple”) should be strictly distinguished from those, which refer to relationship (“the apple is red”). But hardly Erdoğan has read the works by this British philosopher.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
