The Good, the Bad, and the So-So Armenians

BY HENRY D. ASTARJIAN M.D.

Like Hitler’s classification of peoples, Turkey looks upon Armenians in a manner, which only a reactionary ruler or regime can; in an outburst of anger over various Armenian issues that gave them agonizing colic, they thought they can squeeze us into three straight jackets expecting us to behave according to the constrains of each. In a failed effort to divide and conquer, they have oriented Armenians into three categories to be dealt with independently; Good Armenians, like the ones who are Turkish citizens and live in Istanbul to be treated with tolerance, the So-So-Armenians “Who are our neighbors” with pseudo-diplomacy , and the Bad Armenians of Diaspora to be fought with impunity.

The immediacy of their behavior was prompted by the accumulation of frustrations born by their failure to impose their will on the events that had taken place in Washington and Stockholm. Both capitals had recognized the Genocide; Washington, sort of.

Aside from withdrawing his ambassadors to the USA and Sweden, the next thing which Erdogan could do in revenge, was to threaten to deport some 100,000 illegal Armenian residents who are in his jurisdiction working as cheap domestic help, taking care of their babies, and household. I prayed that he would!

Rescinding his decision under embarrassment, did not change the fact that a leopard never changes spots; they did deport several hundred thousand women, children and the elderly after killing their male siblings in 1915, and there is no reason why they would not do it now. Deportation and exiling is their modus operandi! That is how they have ruled Asia Minor, and that’s how they rule the land in the 21st century.

It is a historic fact that Armenian and the Christian minorities, and now the Kurdish major minority have lived with the Seljuk sword hanging over their heads for centuries. The present era is not different; Erdogan continues to think like his predecessors and continues to implement the same policies of “Ya ver kurtul, ya vur kurtul” (Either pay and get rid of, or hit and get rid of a problem) ; so far he is still pursuing the latter half of this classic policy; Contemplating to deport 100,000 women who are there to wipe the ass of the future Mehmedjiks.

Kemalist’s have, and Erdogan continues to oppress the 70,000 Armenian community living in Istanbul; in the eyes of Erdogan these Armenians are the “Good Armenians,” because they are submissive, obedient citizens, loyal to the authorities in power regardless of their political or militaristic agenda. They are second, or third class citizens. The government, as much as it desires to, can not oppress them more for fear of violating the provisions of the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, which mandates certain protection for the minorities ( The Kurds I know are sorry for not being considered a minority by the same treaty).

Erdogan’s treatment of the “Good Armenians” is typical of all the Turkish regimes.

I never forget Erdoghan’s impolite condescending visit to patriarch Mutafian, during his tenure as Mayor of Istanbul.

I never forget his objections to repairing the Armenian schools and churches.

I never forget Turkey’s accusations of the “Good Armenians” with shipping arms to Armenia, falsifying the fact that the shipments were a humanitarian aid for the victims of the earthquake in Guimri.

I never forget their false accusations of the “Good Armenians” for arming the Armenian freedom fighters in Karabagh.

I never forget his regime’s acts of multiple arrests, and eventual trial and conviction of a man like Hrant Dink for “Insulting Turkishness” with his writings. Of course we don’t forget

Hrant’s assassination in the hands of a thug, an Islamist contract killer, who was acting in a criminally conducive environment, created by Erdogan’s Islamist government. The murder was an expression of hate harbored against Armenians, the Good Armenians.

Hrant Dink wrote conciliatory, accommodative articles dealing with Armeno-Turkish relations, but I believe that he would have written differently, in style and substance, if he had the freedom to express his true feelings.

This is only a fraction of the story of the Good Armenians as defined by Erdogan.

The “Bad Armenians” are the Armenians of Diaspora upon which the sun never sets. We inhabit the Globe, and we are the victims of the 1915-1923 Genocide perpetrated by the Turkish government of Ittihad ve Terraki in collaboration with the ordinary Turk and the Kurdish tribes inhabiting Anatolia. We have survived and have become a formidable force in pursuing justice, human rights, and our rights to Western Armenia.

We have stood fast in support of the present Armenia, and we have supported the liberation of Karabagh, and we shall continue with more fervor.

We have been instrumental in exposing the dark character and the behavior of successive Turkish governments, which form their ID, and we have exposed the fanatic Islamic nature of Turkey politicizing their religion with their “85,000 active mosques, one for every 350 citizens-compared to one hospital for every 60,000 citizens…and 90,000 imams….it has thousands of madrasah-like Imam-Hatip schools, and about four thousand more official state-run Qur’an courses (Rachel Sharon-Krespin., MMRI Washington D.C.)”

We have been instrumental in contributing to block Turkish entry to the European Union.

We have fought them in Europe, we have fought them on their turf, and we have fought them in the United States Congress. We have passed the torch to a new generation of Armenians, like the AYF, the ANC, and other honorable, legitimate organizations and the fight goes on with each violation of our legitimate rights.

For Turkey the Armenian cause is like a “Pimple in their derrière, it hurts if they sit down, and it hurts when they stand-up (Baghdadi proverb).”

The “So-So-Good” Armenians are the neighbors of Turkey, and some diasporan feeble minded organizations who advocate brotherly rapprochement with Erdogan’s Turkey, neglecting the rightful solution of the very essential disputes which separate us. More on that some other time!.

Finally, shame on the oligarch infested, corrupt Government of Armenia, for not taking care of its 100,000 citizens who had to beg their livelihood from the Turk.

If there are good Armenians, So-So-Good Armenians, and a majority of Bad Armenians, the same applies to the Turks, with a difference; the majority is neither “Good,” nor “So-So.”