A Turkish journalist and intellectual who is the grandson of Cemal Pasha, one of the masterminds behind the Armenian Genocide, has commented on President Erdogan’s recent statements, urging him to remember the dark pages of the nation’s history. In a column published on the website T24, Hasan Cemal criticized Erdogan’s threats issued to Germany after the country’s chief lawmaking body adopted the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. His analysis, with slight abridgements, is presented below in translation:
The Chamber sultan has been very talkative recently, backing the ban on abortions. He calls for “blood tests” of the Turkish lawmakers who have said “yes” to the Genocide resolution in the German parliament. He allows himself to even say, “Our history is that of mercy and sympathy.” We are suffering punishment as though we were obliged to hear Erdogan’s absurd tyrannical comments every day. I no longer believe in those absurd comments. One doesn’t even know where to begin. Don’t we have [the tragic pages] of September 6-7 in our “merciful and compassionate” history (the columnist refers to the 1955 Istanbul pogrom that basically targeted the Istanbul massacres – editor’s note). What about the Corum pogroms? And those of Kahramanmaraş? Have the pogroms in Madimac never happened? Or will the pogroms in Suru, Cizre, Nusaybin, Sirnak, Yuksekova, Silvan ever be mentioned in the merciful and compassionate chapters of our history. Be a little honest, I beg! In private conversations, you would admit the rude and brutal treatment against those who lived there. Those days are now in a remote past. You are now on your path to tyranny. You are founding your own “tyranny”. Any word which comes out of your mouth today is in line with your totalitarian mindset. You decide how many children we should have. You are the one who says, “God wishes three children at least.” You allow yourself to declare that a woman not wishing to bear a child is lacking. Yes, that’s a tyrant’s head. Yes, that’s a head opposing secularism, a head which is never mindful of human rights. And yes, that’s a head denying the pluralism underlying democracy. But that head isn’t satisfied with that, as it keeps spreading racism and preaching hatred.
