Why can't you be a 'Good Turk' and also believe that the Armenian genocide happened?

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Unfortunately, as Turkish people, we can not offend the motherland. Turkish people are good people. We have a rotten history of changing truth. If laws would allow freedom of speech we can read and write freely. We will go to jail because if we say something that insults are country we can go to jail.

Ataturk made many great changes in our land but he covered up many other things as well. One of them being the topic of your question.

Imagine you grow up all your life and know Turkish friends and family in this day and age and someone tells you that our people comitted mass murder (genocide)! What a shock to the system. You will run down the street and ask your father and grandfather, "what did you do". Why would he want to admit it to you. Like Ataturk, our grandfather and fathers washed their hands clean of the blood as Ataturk gave them to chance to start all over again. We did not have to worry about that, it was taken care of and done with. Now we will rewrite what we need. Ataturk said to take what you need from history. That is what he did. School books do not talk about genocide.

To this day the word Armenian is considered to be Back Stabber in Turkey. One paragraph in books said this for decades as to the Armenians of 1915. Nothing more or less. To call someone Armenian in Turkey is worse then calling someone a dog to this day.

Can you see that is what you are dealing with. We just got hit with a big stick in the stomach. How can we believe this is true.

Logically I have to look at many other things in the world.
I believe the reality is that to be patriotic and believe the genocide took place is easy but the society that Turkish people live in does not allow it. There are too many laws.
Imagine this...the journalist and intellectuals of Turkey always say "the supposed genocide" when dealing with this issue. Why? Because if they said it any other way they will go to jail or get hunt down by the Grey Wolves. When the media in Turkey is breathing this atmosphere created laws that allow them not to speak freely what will happen to the masses. Couple all this with what I said earlier about Ataturk changing how life in Turkey was changed by him then you got a boiling pot of not NON BELIEVERS but Masses that just do not know.

To answer your question, the laws of the land must change as far as freedom of speech AND freedom of thought. At that point we can become patriotic. For Turkish people to be true Turkish patriots, we must be able to speak freely AND think freely. We can not think if we have someone, big brother (government laws, extremist), breathing down your back saying "if you write this you will be killed". So, it is a problem in society that has been created.

Turkis people can not be patriotic and say these things you say. If the laws change in our country, it is the duty of Turkish people to do so and be patriotic. It is the duty to question our fathers and their fathers acts. It is the duty and right of all Turks to freely think for once and for all. It would then be UNpatriotic to do otherwise....Show more

They think that speaking of the genocide is the reason for enmity among us (Armenians and Turks). It's completely wrong, but the way Turkish government is following makes that enmity deeper.
The problem is not only on the "genocide" subject, but on the whole "Turkish history". You can not even tell them about facts of the Ottoman empire.
When you say that was a cruel or backward government, they will call you traitor, lier, enemy and so...
What do they learn in school? That has been always interested me. I am really interested what they learn about their history.
They are completely blind about their past, and that is the main problem.

The genocide has happened about a century ago, organized and done by the crazy party, "Ittihad ve taragi" (union and progress). Speaking of that doesn't mean insulting the current government or the people, this is really silly to think this way.
It was not realized and punished at the time, so Hitler said : "...after all, who speaks of the Armenians?"
We want justice and peace in the world, we want this old enmity be resolved and that is not possible without justice.

Turkey can not hide that fact for ever, its impossible, and it is better for Turkey to be logical, open eyes and look at the past.

Nearly all Turks think that Ottoman empire leaders and Ataturk they were all good people, from the heavens!
The smallest criticizing you do, you will be called enemy!
The problem is ultra-nationalism....Show more

I do not have any idea about good Turk.
There is not any armenian horror story here. It is something invented by armenians. Armenians put themselves in air. This is their culture. They never accept they were minorities in Seljukid and Ottoman Empires, then Russian Empire, and USSR. Armenian opinion leaders still in the same way to lead their people for great armenia, superior race. Look at the end result. I have over 1000 years of my family's registered history in Anatolia. They never met with armenians. Armenians lived in a small area in Eastern anataolia in Ottoman's great country covering eastern europe, anatolia, meddle east, north africa....Show more

Unfortunately some bad things happened during that time but it was war time.Turkish side never denies what happened and opens the war archives which says somewhere between 200-300 thousand Armenians were died during the relocation.Armenian side refuses to open the archives and says 1,5 million Armenians were killed systematicly but never mention about what happened to the Armenian population in Istanbul or the other major cities of the empire.They don't want to answer how 1,5 million can be killed while whole Armenian population in the empire was 1 million.They don't want the world to know that who started the conflict or what would be the punishment of betrayel during the time period.On the other hand Ottoman empire was not alone in the 1st WW,nothing could be found in the German archives,or British or French not even in the Russian.
All we can say now is it was a sad occasion,unfortunately happened but it can not called genocide it was only one of the sad,blody massacres of the 1st WW....Show more

I think this disagreement should be solved by a football match between the national teams of Turkey and Armenia. The winner will conclude whether Turkish or Armenian is the right.
And I really wonder why the talk about something if really happened was in 1890-1915. How many years had passed for this? and we are talking about it now. Why we don't talk about things to be happened in the year 2007 by the USA, UK and other supporting wars to kill thousands of helpless people for no reason?...Show more