BY ERGUN BABAHAN
SABAH- Yesterday we unfortunately neglected a statement by Canan Aritman in which the Republican People`s Party (CHP) Izmir deputy linked President Abdullah Gul`s statement about the `apology campaign` concerning Armenians to his mother`s ethnicity. This is a clear example of fascism. This mentality, which attributes a person`s criticism of unfair treatment to ethnicity alone, also claims that the group the critic feels attached is given a free pass on mistakes. But people espousing all sorts of ideologies live in countries. When one of these people comes to power and makes a mistake, the whole nation can`t be held responsible, because the person holding state power monopolizes all sorts of power.
The deportation of Armenians (during World War I) is something which happened in this land, just like the capital tax, the Thracian incidents, the massacre in Kahramanmaras, etc. To confront these incidents, one doesn`t need to be an Alawite, Greek Cypriot, Jewish or communist, but rather a democrat, someone who believes in the rule of law and defends human rights and dignity. A member of a Turkish party which calls itself `social democrat` and which claims to be promoting reconciliation through welcoming members wearing chadors thus questioned a historical incident through a racist stance. Aritman linked the stance about the Armenians` deportation to having Armenian blood in one`s veins.
Our nation has people of many different ethnicities. We shouldn`t judge a person by the ethnicity of their grandparents, but on their humanitarian stance and position on racism. Being a human requires questioning the mass deportation of a group of people. Whether it was right to do this is another question. But it`s disgraceful to fail to acknowledge the right to question it, along with a racist stance towards people who respect this right. We can say only one thing to Mrs. Aritman: Blood is silent, but the conscience speaks volumes.