Mustafa Oğuz
Discovering a culture to dissipate prejudices
ANKARA – In a survey carried out to determine the attitudes
of university students toward Armenians, it is found that for 44
percent of 3,095 students surveyed the word ‘Armenian’ has negative
connotations. However, the majority would prefer opportunities to
interact more with them
A comprehensive survey on Turkish university students’ perception of
Armenians has revealed that while a majority harbor mainly negative
feelings toward Armenians, they would welcome an opportunity for
greater interaction with them.
“Prejudices
against Armenians exist also at the university students’ level. We
wanted to pinpoint the reasons by surveying 3,095 students,” said Evrim
Tan, founder of Turkish University Students’ Perspective, or TÜÖY, the
student group that carried out the poll, speaking to the Hürriyet Daily
News & Economic Review.
The word “Armenian” had negative
connotations for 44 percent of respondents. Moreover, 35 percent
preferred to not have an Armenian employer, and almost half of students
did not want an Armenian spouse. The political appearance of Armenians
was even more problematic, as 54 percent of students said they would
not vote for a deputy candidate of Armenian origin and 50 percent said
they would not want Armenians to have their own publications.
No common ground
“We
think a major reason is the lack of contact with the Armenian culture,”
Tan said. Despite hundreds of years of co-existence in the Ottoman era,
now only 33 percent of students suggested that there were common
grounds and proximity between Turkish and Armenian cultures.
Contemporary relations are also in a poor stance. Almost 70 percent had
never heard the Armenian language being spoken, and only 24 percent
said they would welcome an institute for the Armenian language.
“Despite
the large number of negative answers regarding Armenians, many
interviewees expressed that more studies of a similar type should be
carried out,” said Mühtan Sağlam, a senior at TOBB and a writer of the
survey. The percent of students who would like to participate in joint
social activities with Armenian university students was 42, while 38
said they would not want to take part in such activities.
TÜÖY
found a chance to share the results of the survey with its Armenian
counterparts in Yerevan, during the Armenia-Turkey nongovernmental
organizations meeting in March prepared by the Civil Society
Development Centre in Turkey in collaboration with Civil Society
Institute in Armenia. “Armenian NGO representatives told us that
results would be similar in Armenia, if a Turkish perception survey
would be carried out,” said Ozan Ağabaş, TÜÖY representative for the
meeting.
“They know very little about Turkey. Indeed, the most
widely recognized Turkish figures are Enver, Celal and Talat pashas
according to information we had at the convention,” Ağabaş said. The
three pashas wielded the power in the Union and Progress Party that
ruled the Ottoman Empire during World War I. They are viewed as the
masterminds of the forced migration of Armenians in 1915, which
Armenians claim to be genocide.
Not only the results, which
will be published as a book, but also the story of the preparation for
the survey is revealing of some troubling tendencies still prevalent in
Turkey that cause problems for Armenians.
“The survey was
preceded by ‘Dialogue Camp,’ a large student convention to boost
Turkish-Armenian cultural dialogue in Ürgüp last March, but many
Armenian youth groups in Istanbul refrained from participating at the
last minute as their parents asked them ‘not to be seen around too
much,'” Tan said. “Nevertheless, we observed that young Armenians in
Turkey are way more eager to establish good contacts with Turks.”
TÜÖY
will step up efforts to remedy what it says are false perceptions, and
seek ways to improve the pace of cultural exchanges between Turks and
Armenians. “The next step will be to prepare a detailed plan on
initiating student exchange programs between university students in
Turkey and Armenia,” Tan said. “Turkish students may be lodged near
Armenian families and vice-versa. The plan will be jointly carried out
with our Armenian partners in Yerevan and is scheduled for launch in
August 2010,” he said.
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