{"id":16210,"date":"2009-11-28T19:25:39","date_gmt":"2009-11-28T17:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=16210"},"modified":"2014-01-05T17:51:31","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T15:51:31","slug":"2015-year-for-commemoration-of-common-tragedy-turkish-party-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2009\/11\/28\/2015-year-for-commemoration-of-common-tragedy-turkish-party-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 \u2013 Year for commemoration of common tragedy: Turkish party leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why wait until 2015? Why not now? But first, all those western countries and Russia who created the &#8220;Eastern Question and the Armenian Issue&#8221; should admit their roles in the common tragedy and tell the world that they will not continue with their never ending goals in putting road blocks for the development of Turkey and the re-establisment of\u00a0friendship between the Armenians and the Turks everywhere. Everyone should heed the words of Mustafa Kemal Pasa who made the\u00a0following statement on 7 March, 1920:<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong><em>&#8220;Civilisation and the humanity should once more enlightened regarding the alleged Armenian massacres and the purpose of the propaganda created to mislead the world. These are the results of resentment and anger from detestable and vicious accusations.&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yuksel Oktay<\/p>\n<p>28 November 2009<\/p>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/><strong>From:<\/strong> CEM TOKER &lt;ctoker@yahoo.com&gt;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/news.am\/en\/news\/9524.html\">http:\/\/news. am\/en\/news\/ 9524.html<\/span> <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.ldp.org.tr\/\">www.ldp.org. tr<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong> 12:53 \/ 11\/27\/2009<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Cem Toker, Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) leader who   recently visited Armenia   \u201casked for the recognition of 2015 as a year for the commemoration of the   common tragedy of 1915,\u201d Turkish Sunday\u2019s Zaman writes.<\/p>\n<p>The source quotes Toker as saying: \u201cBoth sides   suffered from great pain a century ago. We can initiate such a process to share   our common and mutual anguish without blaming each other and referencing the   notion of Genocide. I hope that the 2015 Year for the Commemoration of our   Common Tragedy will make a contribution to the peace process at a time when   protocols have been signed for the normalization of diplomatic relations and   the opening of border gates. People&#8217;s stories of family tragedies are often   followed by remarks of gratitude; they say, for instance: \u2018Our Turkish   neighbors gave us food; they protected us. They saved our lives; they told us   they could look after our babies for us, implying that we would come back   anyway.\u2019 These stories point to the humane part of the whole story. This is a   great potential to look forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Toker, Turkey   is the key topic of daily discussions in Armenia,   \u201cIf you want to survive politically there, you have to be against Turkey; this   is the dominant belief in the country. Turkey is the only issue that   people talk about when they get together. It does not matter whether they hold   positive views or not on Turkey.   Turkish people&#8217;s reaction to the Dink murder shocked the Armenian people.   Eager to prevent the emergence of positive feelings on Turkey,   nationalists strove to present this as an organization of the state; however,   this propaganda was not very influential. People have changed their views on   Turkey because of the slogans chanted at the funeral \u2018We all are Hrant; we   all are Armenians&#8217;,\u201d Toker says, adding that Armenian people were surprised   when hearing there are 50,000 Armenians in Istanbul working without feeling   that they live in a hostile country.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the reactions he got in Armenia, LDP   leader replied: &#8220;Ordinary people also started changing their views on   the Diaspora. They now criticize Diaspora actors, noting that it is easy to   make recommendations from remote parts of the world. There are two kinds of   people: The moderates say, \u201cWell, I am ready to erase the map in my mind; but   it will stay alive in my heart.\u201d The same also applies to 1915. They say, \u201cI   will take the Genocide out of my brain; but I will keep the anguish alive in   my heart.\u201d The others, however, say: \u201cI will never forget this map; it will   always remain alive in my brain and heart. I will never erase the Genocide   and the Armenian cities. These are what make me an Armenian.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Touching upon Azeris\u2019 reaction on the Armenia-Turkey   reconciliation, Toker told Zaman: \u201cI have difficulty understanding why the   Azeri people show such an excessive reaction to the normalization of   Turkish-Armenian relations. It is really interesting to observe that they are   so critical of the moves Turkey has taken to address thorny issues including   Nagorno-Karabakh, the recognition of borders and the Genocide allegations   while remaining silent towards Iran&#8217;s eagerness to keep its borders with   Armenia open. I do not say Iran   should close its gates; quite the contrary, why did we close while Iran did not?   They do not object to Iran,   but they criticize Turkey   because we seek a resolution. This is not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p align=\"right\">News from Armenia &#8211; <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/news.am\/\">NEWS.am<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why wait until 2015? Why not now? But first, all those western countries and Russia who created the &#8220;Eastern Question and the Armenian Issue&#8221; should admit their roles in the common tragedy and tell the world that they will not continue with their never ending goals in putting road blocks for the development of Turkey [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":774848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[742],"class_list":["post-16210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","tag-diplomacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}