BY CHRISTINE FARAJIAN
It is distressful when I think of the idea of Armenians living in Turkey. It most certainly must be more devastating for our people to be there, than for many of us living at other parts of the world outside of our very own, Armenia.
Living in Turkey, working in Turkey, making a life and trying to survive in Turkey is undoubtfully and must be excruciatingly painful for our fellow Armenians. However, for all the reasons that they have chosen that route, they have done so for their survival. Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, has announced that the Turkish Government will “expel” the Armenian immigrants living in Turkey, the country they unfortunately have become accustomed to and have been living to survive for many years. They have done so for their own survival and have been an asset to the Republic of Turkey, which apparently Mr Erdogan doesn’t recognize. Not recognizing the obvious and the facts is a trend with the prime minister and the Turkish government.
My message to the Prime Minister is the following and it comes with many questions that may be forever unanswered, because Turkish officials have a difficult time facing the real history of their ancestors. Why not recognize the Armenian Genocide which wiped out most of the Armenian inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire and it is the core reason behind the many Armenians living in the Diaspora? Why not give back the lands that you are currently holding hostage? Let us have our Ararat, Van, Moush, Sassoun, and all of our lands that you so cowardly recognize as Turkey. Give them back and no Armenian will ever step foot in your Turkey again. When will we, the Armenians, stop demanding? When will we pack our bags and move to our own homeland where we dream of raising our children to become the next Baruyr Sevag, Siamanto, Raffi and Shiraz. The list goes on Mr. Prime Minister. They may be dead but their message, their bravery and their charisma lives in each and every one of us wherever we may be living at the moment, even in Turkey. Even there, where my fellow brothers and sisters can not speak of the barbaric government they live under.
Therefore, Mr. Prime Minister, before you dare to make such a statement, I challenge you to be brave enough and admit that yes your ancestors were involved in genocidal acts against their Armenian subject and yes, you are holding some of the Armenian’s ancestral lands as hostage. Make no mistake that Armenians will live on and as the infamous words written by William Saroyan read; “Try to destroy them, but if two of them should meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia.”
We’ve survived Mr. Erdogan. Therefore, in or out of Turkey, we will continue to survive, we will not stop demanding for what is rightfully ours, we will eventually get our historical lands back and finally we will build a more prosperous, unified Armenia. This much is a promise from my people.
Thank you Cristine for such a powerful essay. You are so right in demanding our lands and recognition of the Genocide. May God keep blessing Armenia, its people, and our occupied lands.
Mrs. Christine Farajian, please, do not talk on behalf of the Armenian people.
Nice article. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, mind you, but I applaud the spirit of the article, if not its internal consistency.
A more interesting question would be: Is it even legal to expel Armenians who are direct descendants of Ottoman citizens? Aren't they entitled to Turkish citizenship by virtue of their ancestry? Some food for thought (and maybe something for ANC lawyers to think about…).
Yes, we are Turkish citizens. We do speak Armenian and we do have our own schools and churches. We want to live in peace in Turkey. We do not want the interference of outsiders whether they be Armenians or not. People like Farajian who claimed to be a patriotic Armenian and defend the rights of Armenians living in Turkey would never dare to move back to Armenia living their comfortable lives back in their lovely USA and the EU. Mind your own business, woul you? We, those who live in Turkey, are very well capable of handling our affairs.
I live in Turkey and I am happy.
I live in Turkey and I am happy as well. Bomanti, here.
Mr. Erdogan is juat an uneducated man…having attended university does not make you educated…it gives you a degree..but that's about all it does…
Sooner or later Mr. Erdogan will single handedly bring Turkey down…
We have got more recognition and better treatment since he has been in power. Mind you own business.
DEAR CHRISTINE,
WHO GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO TALK ON OUR BEHALF? HOW DO YOU KNOW HOW WE FEEL? HAVE YOU ALREADY TALKED TO AN ARMENIAN FROM TURKEY?
Agreed wholewheartedly!
Just wondering what do you think about Turkey , the Armenian genocide and consequent huge losses ??
WHY NOT WHEN IT IS JUSTICE AND TRUE EVERY ARMENIAN CAN SPEAK
ON BEHALF.UNBELEIVABLE
dear Christine,
you actually clearly expressed what most Armenians feel
never give up !!
The only way to get land is by war, noone gives one inch of a soil without a fight. This is the exact reason -a hateful brainwashed mind – got your people killed in WW1 in which you turned all those events into a falsified genocide story. There never was a genocide, if you rebel against your government in the hope to uniform a christian state and start killing your neighbors, raping their kids there are only two outcome. You either win or lose. Guess what, you lost.
What worries me is that one day one of those messed up Armenian mind will do the same mistake as their ancestors did and dare to attack to Turkiye with the same falsified hopes. My descendants then will have to put up with another Armenian cry-baby genocide story .
Stay where you are Christine, do not give false hopes and stop this brainwashing. May be, just may be you may keep surviving. The only thing there is for people who has the same agenda as you do in East Anatolia is death.