The Armenian-Turkish border
Not very inviting, is it?
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The lack of memory is a national feature of this country… You know, if you don’t have a memory of the Armenian genocide, you won’t have a memory of the killings of Kurds and others.
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Ahmet Abakay, head of the Turkish Contemporary Journalists Association, talks about the addition of ten Armenian journalists on an ongoing list of slain journalists in Turkey:
“We, the Turkish people, unfortunately do not know anything but what the official history has told us. The truth was hidden from us.”
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(1) Fish-filled late afternoon lunch ($2.00)
(2) An alley cat who caught the fishy scent of my lunch
(3) Kumpir = baked potato + Turkish topping madness
Conversation
We got talking about 1915 and again this idea of a Turkey surrounded by foreign enemies came up. According to her, it was an "absolute truth" taught in school.
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Ayse:Now Greeks aren't very popular. It's not a popular subject -- I'm kidding when I say popular -- before it was always about Greeks, that they have some dreams they want to fulfill, that they want Istanbul back and blah blah. Now? It's not a very popular subject. Now it's Armenians.
Genoflo:Why do you think that is?
Ayse:It's because of the genocide thing. Because Turkish people are cowards and they are so afraid to face their history. It's killing them to think of the possibility that they might be to blame. It's killing Turkish people. They don't even think that they might be wrong. Because it's not -- it's not our way of thinking. We are always right. We were great during the Ottoman Empire. Everyone was equal. Everyone was living very peacefully. And, you know, all of our enemies are foreign countries, we are surrounded by enemies.
Genoflo:Actually, can we talk about that for a bit. This idea that foreign countries like America or England even today want to split Turkey, divide Turkey, make a Kurdish state, give land to Armenia, give some land to Greece, make the Turkish entity smaller and weaker. Do you think that's a common idea among Turks?
Ayse:When I was a child this was like the absolute truth. The absolute fact.
Genoflo:Did they talk about it in school?
Ayse:Sure! But now? But now everyone is aware that America rules the world. Even sometimes I hear some older men talking and saying "It's all games of the States. We are all victims of America." Now this isn't very popular. But still! For instance today I was with my boss. And he is a lawyer and he is supposed to be educated, and he was giving me the same old bullshit story. We were at a meeting and he was saying things like -- somehow there was this subject, because one of the clients was from Turkmenistan -- and even him, still he said things like Greeks have some plans on Turkey, the old story. He said something like "If we can just stick together we can beat the exterior enemies!" It's still like that in some people's minds.
Conversation
In the bit below, Ayse describes her mother's and father's backgrounds, and her father's viewpoints of Armenians.
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Ayse:My father grew up in a village. My mom, I think when she was very little they were at a small town, and then they moved to Ankara. So she grew up both in a small town and in Anakara.
Genoflo:When you were growing up did you have any friends who were Armenian?
Ayse:No. In Ankara we hardly know any people who were Armenian. The first Armenian people I met were in Istanbul.
Genoflo:Either when you were growing up or today, did you hear any stereotypes of Armenians, good or bad?
Ayse:Yes but mine is good because my father studied in Istanbul. He went to the medical school. He was always telling me -- maybe it is because of our Kurdish roots. My father criticizes Turks -- he was always saying that he really loved the Armenians and Greeks in Istanbul, that they were very decent people, very civilized people. He would be happy if he still lived in Istanbul and if he had Armenian or Greek friends. He was referring to the minorities but he never really talked about Jews. Probably because the people he knew were Greek or Armenian, so he was always saying that they were very nice people, and that Turks have done a very bad thing on them.
Genoflo:Did you --
Ayse:Sorry! Sorry he wasn't referring to this genocide thing. It was a new thing. He was referring to the taxes that were put onto -- how do you say it? -- the taxes that were applied during the 40s or 60s...
Genoflo:Do you have any opinions or were you exposed to opinions about Armenians from outside of Turkey?
Ayse:No. Never. I think Armenians ... talking about Armenians wasn't even a common thing. It started with the genocide thing, you know? It started with that. You can never hear a Turkish person talking about Armenians because they are like invisible. You know? They are not showing themselves in the society. They don't want to be noticed.
Conversation
A young Armenian scholar asks his professor, the country's premier Kurdologist, why he had such a deep interest in Kurds.
The professor's answer -- "Know the enemy."
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I had the chance to sit down and have coffee with a twenty-something Turkish lawyer whom I'll call Ayşe. Born and raised in Ankara, Ayşe came to Istanbul to work after finishing law school. While asking her some preliminary background questions, I found that, unbeknownst to me, she's Kurdish.
As a Diasporan Armenian used to hearing stories about Kurds aiding and abetting in the Horrors of 1915, hearing her views on Armenians and Kurds was both unexpected and refreshing.
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Genoflo:And, your ethnic origins?
Ayşe:Kurdish.
Genoflo:[raises eyebrows in surprise]
Ayşe:Didn't you know that?
Genoflo:No!
Ayşe:We are related to each other! Armenians and Kurds, they are always feeling closer because they are from the same area.
Genoflo:I had no idea. Do you speak any Kurdish?
Ayşe:Unfortunately not.
Genoflo:Gotcha.
Ayşe :Unfortunately...
Genoflo:Do your parents or grandparents?
Ayşe:My parents speak Kurdish when they don't want people to know what they are talking about but of course they don't want people to hear that they are speaking Kurdish.
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10:35 am:
I’m walking to the metro this morning listening to WNYC’s Radiolab. I arrive to Taksim Square (the large main square in Istanbul) and I am about to cross the street to the metro entrance
A literally earthshaking BOOM erupts behind me, followed by gunfire.
I turned around and saw smoke about 40 meters away, where police officers maintain a few police buses and twenty to thirty officers.
I’ve never actually been in a herd of people fleeing gunfire or diving for cover.
Pretty surreal.
According to The New York Times and Hürriyet, a suicide bomber attacked the police officers stationed in Taksim, injuring 32 officers.
(1) Istanbul Police circling the location of the explosion to cordon off the area (brandishing their weapons)
(2) Arrival of more police forces
(3) Officers circling the area awaiting reinforcements
(4) The location of the explosion the day after
