…We are not Hrant Dink, but we are Armenians

30/01/2007 Lilit AVAGYAN

“While Armenians are smart sheep, Turks are jackals. Turks stay being Turk. Turks can’t change”, such poor estimations have been spoken by some Intelligentsia and political party representatives since Hrant Dink was slain. The most active one was the ARF. However, the further developments that happened in Turkey after that incident were unexpectedly different. Just following the incident the Turkish Intelligentsia argued the Turkish government to investigate the case in a duly manner and find the criminals as soon as possible. The next day following the incident several people were convicted suspected in organizing that crime; however the Turkish Intelligentsia continued arguing the Turkish government in creating adequate conditions supporting non-tolerance and ultra nationalism. Our Intelligentsia was active and blamed the Turkish government too. However, let’s remember what our Intelligentsia did when journalist Tigran Naghdalyan was killed in Yerevan. Just following the incident president Kocharyan said that the criminals were people that “were concerned of stability and development in our country” (it is an interesting coincidence that the Turkish prime minister said the same thing concerning Hrant Dink’s murder). Following Tigran Naghdalyan’s murder Robert Sahakyants, Razmik Davoyan, Vahan Hovhannisyan and others did not blame the authorities in creating an adequate environment for killing a journalist that was an important witness of the “October 27” terror and indeed they just suggested to look for the criminals among the opposition. As for the opposition, it didn’t have even a small opportunity to appear on the first national TV. People that think they are representing the Intelligentsia and are “Hrant Dink” did not organize anything with posters arguing the government to institute legal proceedings and punish the criminal guilty in Naghdalyan’s murder. Notwithstanding, they did it very well this time and argued the Turkish government to find the criminals and punish them. Even ARF member Hrayr Karapetyan said that the murder was to show that the lives of Armenians living in Turkey or going there for some purposes were in danger (by the way, before the prime minister’s order not allowing Armenian officials go to Turkey for vacation no one had suffered in Turkey). The actions and announcements in our country following Dink’s murder were based on the idea that the rights of minority groups in Turkey are not respected and are violated. We can’t say that it is not true, but after such speeches it is worthy paying a due attention to our own country and find out whether the rights of minorities are respected in Armenia or not. People don’t know anything about newspapers of minorities in Armenia, but they have heard about the recent murder of Kurdish Kiaram Avdalyan (a father of five children) by an Armenia. The police have found out all the details necessary for preceding the case; they even know who the murderer is, however the case is not finished yet. We understand that this crime that concerns a Kurd’s life does not interest our Intelligentsia too much since most of them are occupied by work in political parties and get honorarium for that. Neither of them managed to protect the rights of the national minorities and didn’t argue the government to punish the murderers. People paid attention to that case only when the old mother that has lost his son had nothing more to do but to burn her own grandchildren with gas not far from the president’s office. Now let’s return back to Hrant Dink. I should confess that it was unpleasant to hear the Intelligentsia representatives telling stories about Hrant Dink and how brave he was. The problem is the fact that when I was trying to write an article about Turkey and contradictions in Turkey I asked some of the participants of that action since they had been in Turkey and had seen everything themselves, but they refused and said the best method to help the problem was not speaking about it generally. However, these developments show that the Armenian community of Turkey is more united than the Armenian community of Russia. Following the crime the Armenian community of Turkey organized a rally to argue the Turkish government to find the criminals that had killed the journalist and they were not afraid of doing it. As for Russia, many Armenians have been killed by ultranationalists in Russia, indeed the Armenian community is not united enough to organize such actions and it is a pity to see the smiling face of the Armenian Ambassador to Russia; it is shame to see Armen Smbatyan smiling and other officials escaping from cameras just after the crimes.

Anyway, the same thing exists in Armenia too, a country, where you may be killed for just saying “Hi Rob”.