Genocide Reparations
I meant to write about this during April, but never got around to it. Since Turkey hasn't recognized the genocide these past two weeks, though, and reparations haven't been settled on, it's still not too late! (ok, that was sarcasm)
I'm sure every Armenian in the world has thought about this matter at least once. The day of recognition is coming, and now the enormous fault lines and cracks in the Turkish government's denial campaign, as well as the slow opening up of the topic in Turkey, the issue of reparations becomes ever more relevant.
The first question is whether, when they apologize for the genocide, AND the century of denial which followed, whether they themselves will have the decency to offer up reparations. The easy ones of course are cash, Mt. Ararat and Ani. But I'm sorry, for me, that's not quite enough. Massive lands, property and culture were stolen from us, and of course the lives which can never be returned. Some non-Armenians have said that it was "a long time ago" and we should forget about reparations. I'm sorry, but if someone keeps spitting on a victim for a century, I consider that a continuation of the crime, keeps it present, and should NEVER be rewarded by absolving them of responsibility. Governments today should not learn that they only need to deny the truth long enough, and they'll get away with an insincere "I'm sorry", just like we're in kindergarten. If you are sorry, you show it with reparations, not empty words.
So what do I want exactly? Well, to go back to the argument that "it was a long time ago", that much is true - and everybody knows it. At this point the reparations need to be both realistic and fair (fair to us, and meaningful to Turkey). Having had this conversation with a lot of people, it seems to me, land has to change hands. We got royally screwed out of a massive homeland, which I've traveled across, and the loss is unimaginable. But, since there are now no Armenians left there, what lands are returned can be totally up for negotiations, and how much land is obviously up for negotiations. So yes, back to what most people seem to agree on. Armenians need to be given a land corridor to the sea. A port. Let it no longer be landlocked. So basically, we need the land leading to Hopa, and some coastline on either side of it.
Whatever land does change hands however, as part of the reparations, the current residents need to be given new homes in Turkey proper - a minority issue should not be created. Some people have acted like this is the worst thing that has ever happened. I want to point out that China has relocated over a MILLION people because they built a big dam. Turkey has relocated hundreds of thousands, if not a million Kurds simply to make areas easier to patrol. This is not such a big deal.
Aside from the lands I mentioned, they should also return the island of Akhtamar, and perhaps an enclave in Cilicia like Musa Dagh. And finally, in addition to all this, I think EVERY single Armenian monastery should be rebuilt by the Turkish government, exactly to what it was before the genocide, and a standardized monument placed where churches used to stand, as monuments to the people whose presence has otherwise been erased off the face of the earth.
So there you have it, I've listed all the minimum reparations I think are only fair.
Mt. Ararat
Ani
Hopa
Akhtamar
Musa Dagh
relocate current residents of the lands
rebuilt monasteries/standardized church monuments
and of course, cash. lots of cash to preserve much of the culture, pay the costs of Western Armenians to want to move back to the returned lands, and other similar needs.
Now it's funny, most Turks won't admit the real reason many of them won't admit to the genocide. Fear of having to give back lands. I can't tell you how many Turks I've encountered who after arguing with me that there was no genocide, and clearly losing, end up saying to me flat out... "And if there was one? So what? You're not going to get any lands back". Unbelievable. If you believe there was a genocide, wouldn't you want to make things right as much as is reasonable? In any case, if you pull out a good map of Turkey, and look at what I'm talking about land-wise, you'd also notice that while this land would finally end Armenia's dependency on the Turkic nation for contact with the world (a position they have demonstrated they are not capable of being in without abusing it), it would not even make a scratch in the massive size of Turkey. On an ordinary globe, the amount of land we're talking about is virtually only as wide as the lines indicating countries borders.
Another huge issue is going to be who will negotiate with the Turks on behalf of Armenians. The Armenian government? Diaspora leaders? The church? All of the above? I'm sure that with the current state of the Armenian government, many if not most Diasporans - the descendants of the genocide, will be hesitant to trust the Armenian state with this matter. Can you imagine an Armenian taking a bribe in order to agree to lesser reparations? Until the corruption issue here is tackled with some success, I don't know if I would want the Armenian government to represent the genocide victims, or even to govern any new lands...
I'm sure every Armenian in the world has thought about this matter at least once. The day of recognition is coming, and now the enormous fault lines and cracks in the Turkish government's denial campaign, as well as the slow opening up of the topic in Turkey, the issue of reparations becomes ever more relevant.
The first question is whether, when they apologize for the genocide, AND the century of denial which followed, whether they themselves will have the decency to offer up reparations. The easy ones of course are cash, Mt. Ararat and Ani. But I'm sorry, for me, that's not quite enough. Massive lands, property and culture were stolen from us, and of course the lives which can never be returned. Some non-Armenians have said that it was "a long time ago" and we should forget about reparations. I'm sorry, but if someone keeps spitting on a victim for a century, I consider that a continuation of the crime, keeps it present, and should NEVER be rewarded by absolving them of responsibility. Governments today should not learn that they only need to deny the truth long enough, and they'll get away with an insincere "I'm sorry", just like we're in kindergarten. If you are sorry, you show it with reparations, not empty words.
So what do I want exactly? Well, to go back to the argument that "it was a long time ago", that much is true - and everybody knows it. At this point the reparations need to be both realistic and fair (fair to us, and meaningful to Turkey). Having had this conversation with a lot of people, it seems to me, land has to change hands. We got royally screwed out of a massive homeland, which I've traveled across, and the loss is unimaginable. But, since there are now no Armenians left there, what lands are returned can be totally up for negotiations, and how much land is obviously up for negotiations. So yes, back to what most people seem to agree on. Armenians need to be given a land corridor to the sea. A port. Let it no longer be landlocked. So basically, we need the land leading to Hopa, and some coastline on either side of it.
Whatever land does change hands however, as part of the reparations, the current residents need to be given new homes in Turkey proper - a minority issue should not be created. Some people have acted like this is the worst thing that has ever happened. I want to point out that China has relocated over a MILLION people because they built a big dam. Turkey has relocated hundreds of thousands, if not a million Kurds simply to make areas easier to patrol. This is not such a big deal.
Aside from the lands I mentioned, they should also return the island of Akhtamar, and perhaps an enclave in Cilicia like Musa Dagh. And finally, in addition to all this, I think EVERY single Armenian monastery should be rebuilt by the Turkish government, exactly to what it was before the genocide, and a standardized monument placed where churches used to stand, as monuments to the people whose presence has otherwise been erased off the face of the earth.
So there you have it, I've listed all the minimum reparations I think are only fair.
Now it's funny, most Turks won't admit the real reason many of them won't admit to the genocide. Fear of having to give back lands. I can't tell you how many Turks I've encountered who after arguing with me that there was no genocide, and clearly losing, end up saying to me flat out... "And if there was one? So what? You're not going to get any lands back". Unbelievable. If you believe there was a genocide, wouldn't you want to make things right as much as is reasonable? In any case, if you pull out a good map of Turkey, and look at what I'm talking about land-wise, you'd also notice that while this land would finally end Armenia's dependency on the Turkic nation for contact with the world (a position they have demonstrated they are not capable of being in without abusing it), it would not even make a scratch in the massive size of Turkey. On an ordinary globe, the amount of land we're talking about is virtually only as wide as the lines indicating countries borders.
Another huge issue is going to be who will negotiate with the Turks on behalf of Armenians. The Armenian government? Diaspora leaders? The church? All of the above? I'm sure that with the current state of the Armenian government, many if not most Diasporans - the descendants of the genocide, will be hesitant to trust the Armenian state with this matter. Can you imagine an Armenian taking a bribe in order to agree to lesser reparations? Until the corruption issue here is tackled with some success, I don't know if I would want the Armenian government to represent the genocide victims, or even to govern any new lands...
posted by Raffi K. at 10:29 AM
5 Comments:
And how many of us Diasporans are willing to settle in a new Western Armenia?
I agree with one thing. There needs to be improvements in the government of Armenia regarding corruption and the environment. Yes I don't live in RA, but these are fundemantal issues all countries must strive for and many from former communist nations have achieved. Given the small size of the country, deforestation and pollution in Sevan have a very large impact.
I agree with the program minnimum that you draw, moreover, I would also demand a brand new cargo fleet at the black sea ports, and a separate article in the "reparations budget" for professional troops that will protect the western borders of the returned territories (the border with Turkey). But all of this is unrealistic without a complete dissolution of the nowadays Republic of Turkey. Once the reparations and the land return is agreed upon, nothing will keep Pontic Greeks, Assyrians and Ezidi Kurds from demanding their share of the pie for their portion of sufferings. And these may very well leave Turks with the only option of relocating themselves back to Altay, to their Eastern fraternal tribes.
A more meaningful way for Turkey to settle (and I am not saying that we, Armenians, should tone down our demands) is:
1. a clear and transparent program of immigration (repatriation) with a progressively increasing cap.
2. Provision with land, and tax breaks (may be for life) to those deciding to return to their ancestral lands. If a connection to a particular piece of land is established, the state should transfer the land from the current owner by an eminent domain type law.
3. Free (as in no custom fees+guarantee of a percentage of ports' total capacities) pass for goods between Black sea ports and current Armenia.
4. Rehabilitation of Kars-Gyumri railroad.
5. Constitutional guarantee for the Armenians to self rule over some priorly agreed territories (most of the western territories of Wilsonian Armenia) after the end of the immigration program (say 30 years).
6. A legally enforced guarantee of a percentage of the provincial budgets for rehabilitation of Armenian cultural monuments in those provinces.
7. Freedom of religion, language, travel... and business within entire Turkey (tax breaks for doing business only for those businesses, that have most of their operations in the preagreed eastern provinces of Turkey).
This will create a mechanism of progressive money and land reparations, without completely bankrupting the country (not only financially, but ideologically as well). The relocation of the current population will also get covered, since the tax breaks for Armenians will drive the other businesses out, and the eminent domain will force some of the others away. Plus the strains on provincial budgets will kill some of the social things that Turkish and Kurdish population may get in other provinces, so they'll start relocating themselves. So without tearing the country down, and bringing to massive protests to the forced relocations (the examples of China and Kurds don't quite cut it in this context), the lands and money can be returned during the same time as they get populated by Armenians and develop into economically striving territories. Such a scheme will also eliminate the question of whether present Armenian leaders should govern these lands or some artificially created body should. Those who chose to resettle will eventually get a carte blanche to self governance.
it's hard for me to imagine the feasibility of reparations... having a port is indeed crucial for Armenia and i agree with everything else, but i liked the last paragraph most.. if only people in Armenia, particularly the ones in the government, had the love and feelings for the country that Raffi and many other Diasporeans have... Armenia would have been very different.. in a good way, of course...
Ara Papian, former RA Embassador in Canada, had a lecture at Yerevan State University about Wilsonian Armenia and how feasible it really is... So why doesn't Armenia go to International Court of Justice?
anyway, big issues, great things, but we as a nation need to become competent enough to have a democratic and economically developed country before we can successfully address Western Armenia's problems...
p.s. why is the text in comments window in russian?
Only Few words
RECOGNITION for Armenians, Pontians & Asirians
GENOSIDE
and the most important
NEVER FORGET.
thank you for your blog it is now linked.
I don't know if Armenians outside Turkey just ever considered how their hostile actions may result here for us. I believe past is past and want to live in a stable country which I was born to and grew up!!!What is the land to do with genocide, that's why Turkey will never accept it, because they know that you want the genocide accepted only for the land.Who's gone is gone, so who will live in the lands after Turks move again millions out of their home.Also, how can you ask for a land, which was never officially ours. There are still many of us living in different countries, so why not break up from U.S and make a free Armenian State there??
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