Turkish Defense Minister Unwittingly Confesses Turkey’s Guilt in the Armenian Genocide

By Appo Jabarian, Publisher & Managing Editor of Armenian Life Magazine, 15 November 2008

Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul made a scandalous public statement on Armenians and Greeks in Brussels on November 10. He said: "If Greeks continued to live in the Aegean and Armenians continued to live in many places in Turkey, I wonder whether there would be today’s nation-state. … I don’t know how to tell you about the importance of this exchange. But if you look at the old balances, the importance of this would very clearly arise."

By Appo Jabarian, Publisher & Managing Editor of Armenian Life Magazine, 15 November 2008

Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul made a scandalous public statement on Armenians and Greeks in Brussels on November 10. He said: "If Greeks continued to live in the Aegean and Armenians continued to live in many places in Turkey, I wonder whether there would be today’s nation-state. … I don’t know how to tell you about the importance of this exchange. But if you look at the old balances, the importance of this would very clearly arise."

Armenians and Greeks worldwide should thank the Turkish Defense Minister for unwittingly confessing Turkey’s guilt in the Armenian Genocide and the Genocide of the Constantinople, Pontus, and Smyrna Greeks.

Turkey’s genocidal campaigns of 1915-23 against the Armenians in Turkish-occupied Western Armenia and Cilicia, has made Armenians in the Diaspora and Eastern Armenia more vigilant.

Recently the head of the Armenian National Security Service Lieutenant General Gorik Hakobian told Jane’s Intelligence Digest: "We are concerned with the possibility of a recurrence of the Armenian genocide because of the intensive militarization of Azerbaijan and the recurring official statements of our neighbours concerning their plans to regain Nagorno-Karabakh by military force, which legitimately gained self-determination. The very recent attempt at militarily opposing the self-determination of the people of South Ossetia proves that there are no alternatives but peaceful and political ways to resolve conflicts in the South Caucasus. And Azerbaijan’s threats to start a new war over Karabakh are not helpful in this regard."

In the light of this most disturbing statement by the Turkish Defense Minister, and the continuing Azeri intentions to militarily "regain control" over Artsakh, one may ask, what is the remedy of the Turkish-Azeri appetite for another genocide against the Armenians?

The implementation of the right to Self-Determination in Artsakh; and the expanding of the role of the Armenians everywhere for the dual purpose of 1) defending what is already in existence – Armenian and Artsakh, and 2) what should be accomplished in terms of the re-establishment of the Western Armenian homeland.

At the cost of repeating what many activists previously said, we should move beyond the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. We should actively endeavor for 1) The restoration of the Western Armenian homeland and 2) The compensation by Turkey for the loss of real and personal properties in Western Armenia and Cilicia.

Some members of the community may be skeptical. To those skeptics’ attention, I would like to bring the historic moment, when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Artsakh Liberation War broke out. And at the cost of heavy human and material losses, Armenians were able to liberate the Armenian Territories of Artsakh, which were forcibly carved out of the 1921 Soviet Armenia during Soviet dictator Stalin’s rule. The process of "Stalinization" of the Armenian territories was remedied by the reversal of that process by way of de-Stalinization.

At the height of the Soviet power from 1921 through 1991, how many of us actually visualized the arrival of the day when the Soviet system would collapse and Artsakh would be liberated?

Now, at the height of Turkish power how many of us can actually visualize Turkey’s demise and further dismemberment?

Those of us who are very much aware of the impending political implosion of Turkey have solid grounds for doing so.

Today’s Turkey is the last vestige of the Turkish Ottoman Empire which underwent an incomplete disintegration process after World War I. The process of the Ottoman Empire’s disintegration was artificially halted by the neo-cons of that period.

Now, decades later, the incomplete process of disintegration is heating up again. No matter what else Turkish officialdom says or does, the inevitable is knocking on the door of the contemporary "Sublime Port" in Ankara.