According to Hranush Kharatyan, no need to be cautious
Information is circulated in Twitter that the movement fighting for Taksim Square in Istanbul, which later turned into a great organization involving a number of environmental and human rights non-governmental organizations, transferring into an organization with a name “DurDe”, is planning to visit Armenia on April 24, the day of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, visit the Genocide Memorial and pay tribute to the commemoration of victims of the Armenian Genocide. Whether we need to be cautious from the visit of this organization to Armenia or not, because let’s not forget how they were fighting for Taksim Square, what level of demonstrations they were organizing, and who the local police was using force against them trying to disperse.
In the interview with “Aravot”, the ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan, in response to our questions whether this is a provocation, maybe they are coming not to pay tribute but to “desecrate,” replied, “I do not think that it is a provocation, but I do not rule out two things. The first one is that there is a concern of forming a positive image of Turkey in people living in the western part of Turkey, in Istanbul, (by the non-Turkish internal perception), as well as a positive image by international perception to some extent. And not just a PR image, but really making positive amendments in Turkey. I think that in this whole movement, there is a significant amount of people, both in number and potential. Secondly, I am also convinced that this is a PR campaign to wash the face of the Turkish authorities, but I am sure that there will be people among them who agree their actions with the authorities, and it will be somehow used in the future in the media and in the directions of overall developments in Turkey, in other situations. In any case, I see no provocation here. I do not see willingness to introduce anything negative in the Centennial of our Genocide, and I think that we should treat it as normal.”
To the next question whether we should be cautious of DurDe members, Hranush Kharatyan replied that the fact that the Turks are going to visit on April 24 not only from Turkey, but also other places of the world, there can be no doubt. According to her, the afore-mentioned people will also come by political considerations, which can be far from the true problems of real recognition of the genocide. “Also, people will come whose concern is indeed Turkey, I do not rule out that there might be some who really accept this truth and for the sake of this truth, they would like to contribute to it at least with their presence. But, I repeat, there would be all options, and I am confident that there would be people from research centers in various European countries, journalistic areas and even political circles who will introduce themselves, and among them, definitely there would be refugees and their descendants persecuted because of their socialistic views still in the 60s in Turkey.
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All of these are the carriers and presenters of some worldview, which also includes a certain position against genocide, and this position may contain willingness to retrospective face the history of Turkey and somehow cleaning the Turkish community through this. There could also be a simple political interest and later using it for manipulation. This whole mosaic can happen, but we should not be afraid of provocation. If people have a desire to instigate, it will only speaks against Turkey and the Turks. But it may also be intended to collect special materials to analyze and discuss in the future, as well as discrediting the events of the Centennial in some way. And we should accept the possibility of it,” added Hranush Kharatyan.
Eva HAKOBYAN
Photos of the protest in Taksim square, pressmonitoring.wordpress.com
