MY APOLOGY TO ALL THE PEOPLES OF ANATOLIA SUBJECTED TO GENOCIDE (ZEYNEP TOZDUMAN)

April 27, 2013 By administrator

FROM: ZEYNEP TOZDUMAN – IZMIR, TURKEY April 24, 2013

I apologize for every single day that we have remained silent since the days of genocide.
I apologize for our grandfathers who cooperated with the murderers carrying out the brutal massacre of 1.5 million people in Anatolia.
I apologize from your young girls for permanently burying their hopes into their dowry chests.
I apologize from all your people left dead without a proper burial, shroud or cemeteries.
I apologize for causing you to add the word ‘converted – Donme’ to your vocabulary.
I apologize from all your girls and women abused and raped, forcefully converted to Kurd, Turk, Alevi or Islam.
I apologize for forcing you to become the Diaspora and scatter like pomegranate seeds to all corners of the world.
I apologize for forcing you to long for your homeland with broken hearts from the faraway deportation points.
I apologize for preventing you from giving your children proper names and education in your mother tongue, a basic human right.
I apologize for confiscating your houses, properties, lands, farms, orchards, and shops to create our national economy, based on a disease of racism in this country.
I apologize for denying even the very existence of the original peoples of thes lands after subjecting them to economic, cultural and political genocide.
I apologize for confiscating your places of worship (monastery, church, sinagogue, Jem house, etc.), and converting them to mosques, museums, community centres or stables.
I apologize from the survivors of the genocide for even forbidding them from dreaming in their own language.
I apologize for forcing racism on you by making you repeat every morning ‘So happy to be a Turk’.
I apologize for presenting your properties as gifts to your own murderers.
I apologize for transforming the Anatolian garden of different peoples to a cemetery of different peoples.
I apologize for realizing too late that the sorrow expressed in the song ‘Sari Gelin’ was in reality the sorrow of the genocide.
I apologize for wiping out the various original peoples of Anatolia living on these lands long before the arrival of the Turks, and for trying to create a single nation state.
I apologize for creating a hell of murders in this country, instead of a heaven of humanity.
I apologize for burying all the people named Agop, Kiriakos, Samuel, Ani, Maria or Sarkis in my city Smyrna (Izmir) as well as the rest of the country, and also burying our humanity in the process.
I apologize for committing crimes against humanity for one thousand and four hundred years in these lands.
I apologize for not realizing that fascism would eventually arrive and start killing us as well in these lands.
I apologize for not being able to put a stop to the denial and assimilation policies for one hundred years.
I apologize especially for our inhumane behaviour during the genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians, Pontic Greeks, Yezidis and Alevis.
And I apologize once again on this April 24 genocide commemoration day, for our inability to protect you and preserve our humanity.

Turkish Version

SOYKIRIM YAŞAYAN ANADOLU HALKLARINDAN VE İNANÇLARINDAN ÖZRÜMDÜR -Zeynep Tozduman

• Sizlerden, soykırımdan günümüze değin, sessiz kaldığımız her gün için özür dilerim.

• Anayurtlarınızdan, Deir-zor çöllerine tehcir adı altında sürdürüldüğünüz için özür dilerim.

• 1,5 milyon insan Anadolu coğrafyasında hunharca katledilirken, dedelerimizin katillerle işbirliği yaptığı için özür dilerim.

• Kızlarınızın umutlarının, çeyiz sandığına gömüldüğü için özür dilerim.

• Mezarsız ve kefensiz ölüleriniz için özür dilerim.

• Kelime darağacınıza “dönme” sözcüğünü soktuğumuz için özür dilerim

• Kızlarınızın, kadınlarınızın namusları kirletildiği, zorla Kürtleştirilip, Türkleştirildiği, Alevileştirildiği ve Müslümanlaştırıldığı için özür dilerim.

• Yaşamak için sizleri nar taneleri gibi Diaspora’ya ve ABD’ye göç ettirmek zorunda bıraktığımız için özür dilerim.

• Sürgünde anavatan hasretiyle, yüreklerinizi dağladığımız için özür dilerim.

• Çocuklarınıza, en temel insan hakkı olan, kendi anadilinizde isim-soy isim ve eğitim verdiremediğimiz için özür dilerim.

• Evlerinize, bağ, bahçelerinize, arazilerinize, ticarethanelerinize el koyup sermayeyi millileştirip; bu ülkeye ırkçılık hastalığını inşa ettirdiğimiz için özür dilerim.

• Ekonomik, kültürel, siyasal soykırım yaşayan yerli halkları yok sayarak, görmemezlikten geldiğimiz için özür dilerim.

• İnanç ve kutsal mabetlerinizi (Manastır, Kilise, Sinagog, Cem evi v.b. Gibi) zorla kamulaştırıp, camiye, ahıra, müzeye, Kültür merkezine v.b. Gibi, çevirdiğimiz için özür dilerim.

• Soykırımdan sağ kalanlarınızın Ana dilinde rüya görmesini engellediğimiz için özür dilerim.

• Yüzyıldır bu ülkede her sabah sizlere “Ne Mutlu Türküm” diye ırkçılık yaptığımız için özür dilerim.

• Varlığınızı, cellâtlarımıza zorla armağan ettirdiğimiz için özür dilerim.

• Anadolu halklar bahçesini, halklar mezarlığına çevirdiğimiz için özür dilerim.

• Bir “Sarı Gelin” türküsündeki hüznün, soykırımın hüznü olduğunu çok geç anladığımız için Özür dilerim.

• Biz Türklerden çok evvel ‘’bu topraklarda yaşayan’’, ülkenin en yerli halklarını ve inançlarını yok ederek, ülkeyi tek tipçiliğe kurban ettiğimiz için özür dilerim.

• Bu ülkeyi insanlık cenneti değil, katliamlar cennetine çevirdiğimiz için özür dilerim.

• Başta ülke genelinde ve yaşadığım şehir Symrna (İzmir)’de olmak üzere Agop’ları, Kuryakos’ları, Samuel’leri, Ani’leri, Maria’ları, Sarkis’leri, isimleriyle birlikte, insanlığımızı DA tarihe gömdüğümüz için özür dilerim.

• Bin dört yüz yıldır nefret ve insanlık suçu işlediğimiz için özür dilerim.

• Faşizmin bir gün gelip de, bizi de bu ülkede vurmak isteyeceğini bilemediğimiz için özür dilerim.

• Ret – inkâr ve asimilasyon politikalarına yüzyıldır dur diyemediğimiz için özür dilerim.

• Özellikle, son yüzyıldır Ermenilere, Süryanilere, Pontus Rumlara, Yezidilere, Alevilere yapılan soykırımlarda insan olamadığımız için özür dilerim.

• Soykırım yapıldığında sizlere ve insanlığımıza sahip çıkamadığımız için, 24 Nisan soykırım kurbanlarını anma gününde, bir kez daha saygıyla eğilip özür dilerim.

Comments

Hagop says

June 30, 2013 at 2:58 pm

Great woman!
Zeynep, may God bless you and I assure our forgiveness! You are courageous woman, and may I call you sister Zeynep.
Hagop
John says

May 3, 2013 at 11:22 pm

when will Turkish PM can learn from you?
Thank you for your kind words..

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FROM: ZEYNEP TOZDUMAN – IZMIR, TURKEY April 24, 2013

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