TURKEY CAN NO LONGER SUPPRESS ITS CITIZENS’ DIVERSE ETHNIC IDENTITY
Posted on May. 6. 2021
BY APPO JABARIAN
Executive Publisher / Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine (English-language print edition)
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Recently I met a ‘Turkish’ young couple. They were both university graduates.
We became friends.
We talked about Turkey’s current economic crisis.
They were surprised that I could communicate in Turkish.
I told them: “I am a third-generation survivor of the 1915-1923 Turkish-executed Armenian Genocide.”
Both stated in Turkish: “Turkiye istar istamaz ermeni soykirimi taniyacak.” (“Whether Turkey likes it or not, it will have to recognize the Armenian Genocide.”)
Why? I asked. “Ankara’s propaganda is not an accurate reflection of the emerging public opinion of Turkey’s diverse population,” said the husband.
After I asked about the young couple’s ethnic backgrounds. The man turned out to be a Turkish-speaking hidden Arab and the woman a Turkish-speaking hidden Greek.
They also added that “the clock is ticking against Turkey” and that “even though up until now officialdom Turkey has been somehow able to suppress the ethnic identity of its diverse population, it can not perpetuate its policy of identity suppression.”
Out of a population of 85 million, only about 18 million acknowledge being of Seljuk Turkic background. A whopping 27 million identify themselves as Kurds.
According to various sources, there are anywhere 3-5 million hidden Armenians; 3-5 million hidden Greeks; 1-2 million hidden Assyrians.
The ethnic make-up of the current population of what is now called Turkey reflects the following figures:
- Ethnic Kurds: 33%
- Seljuk Turks: 22%
- Alevis: 21%
- Arabs: 5%
- Hidden Armenians: 7%
- Hidden Greeks: 7%
- Hidden Assyrians: 2%
- Yezidis:1%; Circassians/Chechens: 0.5%; Jews: 0.5%; Others: 1%
In an Oct 10 2019 ahvalnews.com article titled “DNA-based tests shake Turks’ beliefs in their ‘Turkishness,’” Sibel Ekin wrote: “Popular DNA tests are troubling Turks and shaking belief in their ‘Turkishness’ as they find that, instead of being direct descendants of the Seljuk and Ottoman hordes who surged into Anatolia from Central Asia a millennium ago, they are instead part of the kaleidoscope of peoples who have lived in what is now modern Turkey and migrated there since time began. Identity has been a major issue in Turkey since the republic was established in 1923 from the ashes of the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual Ottoman Empire as the new nationalist rulers attempted to stamp a single Turkish identity on the country. Until 2008, denigrating Turkishness was punishable by up to two years in prison. The law has now been changed to replace the word Turkishness with ‘the Turkish nation’”.
She added: “Issues such as what had happened to the survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide and the presence of thousands of Greeks and Jews, but also millions of Kurdish citizens of the new republic were swept aside in often heavy-handed attempts to assimilate minorities or pressure them to leave the country altogether.”
For many individuals, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Turkey can no longer suppress its citizens’ diverse ethnic identity.
Fascinating!
The descendants of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks who remained in Turkey after converting to Islam bear to this day special markers before their Turkefied names to indicate to authorities their Christian origins. Not too many people know this.