Average Turkish citizens knew very little if anything at all аbout the Armenian Genocide until quite recently, a renowned Turkish writer has said in a recent interview to a Russian website.
“Ordinary Turks knew almost nothing about the Genocide of Armenians. Those records were being kept secret to become known only recently,” Zulflu Livaneli told Lenta.ru.
Meantime he admitted that the Turkish society is very diverse, with people in the western regions essentially differing south-eastern residents among the multi-million population.
“The Turkish society is very diverse as we see very different people living side by side. Turkey is a kind of multi-layer [country], each of us being right from his or her own standpoint. On the one hand, there are the wealthy jobless, the bourgeoisie, who do practically nothing, spending their time on celebrating festivities, and on the other hand, there are millions of common people who live almost like the hero in my novel,” he said, noting that Turkey always hesitated between the East and West.
“It is important to understand that Turkey’s efforts towards Europeanization did not begin just yesterday or, say, in the 1970’s. That process has a history of as many as 250 years. If you look at old Turkish photos, you will never see women wearing headscarves; they all are dressed in European-style clothing. [Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk introduced that [culture] when founding the Turkish republic, but the current authorities, which pursue pro-Islamist views, are trying to change the ideological component,” he added.
