{"id":144322,"date":"2011-11-25T14:24:53","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T10:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=144322"},"modified":"2011-11-25T15:26:50","modified_gmt":"2011-11-25T11:26:50","slug":"armenians-express-hope-over-erdogans-dersim-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2011\/11\/25\/armenians-express-hope-over-erdogans-dersim-apology.html","title":{"rendered":"Armenians Express Hope over Erdo\u011fan’s Dersim Apology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s apology on behalf of the Turkish state on Nov. 24 over the killings in Dersim in 1938 has created a stir among Armenians both in Turkey and abroad, the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong> reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks as if Erdo\u011fan is ready to discuss official history in Turkey. I hope he presents this attitude for the Armenian genocide as well. Recognizing the genocide would gain Turkey prestige and make it possible for her to face up to its history,\u201d Ara Sarafyan, director of the London-based Gomidas Institute, told the Daily News yesterday.<\/p>\n

Sarafyan said they were ready for a commission of historians to tackle the issue, but he called for the disclosure of Turkey\u2019s confidential archives as well.<\/p>\n

Hayk Demoyan, the director of the Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, also said the prime minister was indirectly referring to what Armenians claim is a genocide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Young Turks committed genocide against the Armenians in 1915. The Kemalists, who shared the same mindset with the Young Turks, then subjected the remaining Armenian survivors in Dersim to genocide. As such, Dersim was the follow up to the genocide,\u201d Demoyan told the Daily News via a phone interview yesterday.<\/p>\n

Dersim, which is in eastern Turkey, was renamed Tunceli in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

But Mihalis Vasiliadis, the chief editor of the Istanbul-based daily Greek newspaper Apoyevmatini, said the prime minister\u2019s speech was a political maneuver.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, will he also apologize for the events of Sept. 6-7, 1955, as in the many painful events that occurred throughout the history of the Republic? I highly doubt that,\u201d Vasiliadis told the Daily News in reference to pogroms against members of the country\u2019s minority communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cried during the prime minister\u2019s speech. I believe in him. His attitude will lead all the way to a facing off with the events of 1915; the state will apologize to us,\u201d Arev Cebeci, a Turkish-Armenian who ran as a deputy candidate nominee for the opposition CHP during the last elections, told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

But Cebeci, whose deputyship bid received much criticism from Istanbul\u2019s Armenian community, said CHP leader Kemal K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu\u2019s statements regarding the issue did not befit a left-wing party.<\/p>\n

Cebeci also told the Daily News that he had decided to resign from his active duties in the CHP Assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister\u2019s mental map is identical to that of the Armenian diaspora. Erdo\u011fan will soon recognize the Armenian genocide, too,\u201d K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu had said in connection with the ongoing public spat over the Dersim killings.<\/p>\n

The prime minister\u2019s response, in turn, was no less furious: \u201cYou dare to put me in the same place with the Armenian diaspora? Shame on you. I defy anyone who places Turkish Prime Minister Erdo\u011fan in the same spot as the Armenian diaspora. Know your place,\u201d Erdo\u011fan told K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu.<\/p>\n

In the late 1930s, the military launched an operation to suppress tribes in Dersim, whose population was largely made up of Alevi Kurds. Thousands were killed while many survivors were sent into internal exile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe prime minister\u2019s mental map is identical to that of the Armenian diaspora. Erdo\u011fan will soon recognize the Armenian Genocide…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[35069,35070,21315,10372,21346,15682,35071,10426,10222],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}