By: SERKAN ENGIN  Turkish intellectual. 

Why am I talking about the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian genocides in Turkey? Why would I get myself into trouble? Am I stupid?

I’m talking about these genocides, because this is an obligation from my conscience. This is an ethical duty for me as an honest and honorable intellectual. This is my debt and obligation to humanity. I want to talk about all these genocides perpetrated my Turk ancestors, because in Turkey you must declare the truth loudly, against the lies of the so-called official history.

I’m the child who shouts “The Emperor is naked”. I’m devoting myself to the truth at the cost of my life and freedom, because I want to create and increase awareness about these atrocities, so that similar crimes against humanity won’t be perpetrated again.

I refuse to be “proud of” my ancestors who raped little girls, burned children alive, enslaved women and brutally slaughtered millions of innocent people.

I refuse to shout “How happy is he, who says I’m a Turk” every morning in school playgrounds. I reject the education system which tells our children a racist motto like “One Turk is equal to the whole world”. I don’t want to see any fascist youth in my country, or in any other country. We have to tell our kids “Every humans of the world are equal to each other, whatever their ethnicity, language, belief or gender. I want an education system in Turkey which reveals the importance of art, philosophy, and science.

I am against all kind of heroic tales, because politicians, generals and arms industry corporations use heroic tales for their own benefits, so that they can send poor young men to the war zones to kill each other. I’m an anti-militarist and proud of this. My heart and my pen are my only weapons.

I stand behind all the oppressed people in the world, as an internationalist socialist poet and author, and my mission is to be the voice of them.

I’m a little child in an adult’s body who wants to love the whole world with childish pureness.