Category: Authors

In keeping with the holiday spirit, my last column of the year is devoted to a light-hearted topic!

In a story titled: “Imported Cattle no Bovine Boon for Azerbaijan,” Seadet Akifqizi of the Azerbaijani Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported that the government of Azerbaijan spent $23 million to import “4,500 pedigree cows from Germany and Austria in an effort to improve livestock quality and boost milk production.” Each European cow was expected to produce 40 liters (10.5 gallons) of milk a day compared to the domestic Azeri cow that yielded only 9 liters (2.4 gallons), Akifqizi wrote.

Unfortunately, the project was a failure and the invested funds were wasted. Many of the high-class European cows could not survive the miserable living conditions in Azerbaijan!

Baku officials blame farmers for “not caring properly for the imported cows, which apparently require a certain degree of pampering.” Azeri agricultural analyst Vahid Maharramov explains that the cattle brought from overseas “require high-quality feed and special hygiene.”

Farmers, on the other hand, complain that they cannot afford to extend such lavish care and attention to the foreign cows, because “it is not cost effective and would lead to a steep increase in the price of milk.”

Farmer Tarbiya Yusifova is unhappy that her major investment in imported cows did not pay off: “The price of the milk we produce is expensive for most customers because the hay we buy for the cattle is very expensive.”

This is how the government’s ‘lease a cow’ program works: Farmers pay half the price of the cows when leasing them from the state-controlled firm Agrolizinq. The balance is to be paid in three years. Farmers must “have their own sowing area and adhere to strict guidelines for their barns,” Akifqizi explained. “The humidity and lighting needs to be just right, and their diets and hygienic conditions should remind the European cattle of home.”

However, conditions in Azerbaijan are far from ideal for the imported cows. When the RFE/RL reporter visited Firudin Hasanov’s farm in the Qushchu village, she learned that the farmer had to send most of his 30 pedigree cows to relatives in the Baku area because he was unable to provide the proper living conditions for them.

Akifqizi describes Hasanov’s farm as “a squalid barn that looks like it hasn’t been cleaned for months. It is littered with manure, spiders climb the walls, and flies buzz around the feed containers.” Hasanov explained that he “couldn’t afford to upgrade his barns because in the countryside he can’t sell his milk” at a price that would cover his costs.

To make matters worse, farmers have to pay Agrolizinq the full amount of the lease, even if the cows die prematurely. RFE/RL reports that “at least 260 of the imported cows have died since 2009, equal to around $1.3 million in losses.” It is not known how many of these cows committed suicide because they could not stand living in such unbearable conditions!

The story takes a more serious turn when the RFE/RL reporter raises serious questions about the price of the European cows and the identity of the companies that imported them.

Agricultural analyst Maharramov notes that “the prices Azerbaijani farmers are being asked to pay for the pedigree cows is significantly higher than in other countries.” RFE/RL revealed that “pedigree cattle imported from Austria cost $5,000 per head, as opposed to around $3,000 in Turkey.”

According to Agrolizinq, three little-known companies had won the tenders to import European cows to Azerbaijan: Rista Alliance, Ninox Alliance, and Swisspoint Merchants Limited, which was registered in New Zealand from 2009 until 2011. “The website of the New Zealand commercial registry says the firm was directed by a Latvian citizen named Inta Bilder,” RFE/RL discovered. A search of the registry identified “Bilder as the director or shareholder of hundreds of companies. Earlier this year, the Ukrainian newspaper ‘Dzerkalo Tyzhnia’ reported that one of those companies, Falcona Systems, was linked to an alleged fraud worth more than $150 million involving state-owned companies.”

Maharramov is suspicious. He told RFE/RL: “Considering that the government directs budget resources [to buy cattle from abroad] hastily and without any preparation, you can suspect that there were some other intentions in this.”

Maharramov should be very cautious when talking about imported animals. In 2009, Azeri blogger Emin Milli was jailed for reporting that the government of Azerbaijan had paid exorbitant prices for imported donkeys!

On the eve of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 2005, Mehmet Ali Birand, a prominent Turkish commentator, wrote an article in Hurriyet urging the Turkish public to be prepared for the upcoming “Armenian tsunami.”

Earlier this month, the Turkish newspaper Gazete Kars published a similar editorial titled, “The Armenian preparations for 2015,” alerting Turks of the approaching 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 2015, and advising them to take effective counter-measures.

The editorial reflects how closely Turks are following Armenian preparations for the Genocide centennial and how anxiously they are weighing the impact of the forthcoming Armenian activities on Turkey.

The lengthy column reports that Armenia and the Diaspora are expanding their joint campaign against Turkey on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The article warns that “Armenians through their lies will raise the entire world to its feet” and suggests that “the Republic of Turkey immediately put into action all its resources and take preemptive measures to bring to naught this deception.”

Gazete Kars complains that Armenians are “tarnishing Turkey’s reputation by launching powerful attacks on forty fronts. To counter these attacks Turkey must take far greater defensive and offensive measures. There is not a single minute to waste. The world is swallowing their lies.”

The editorial proceeds to outline the activities of notable individuals and organizations in preparation for the Armenian Genocide centennial. The newspaper specifically mentions Prof. Taner Akcam, filmmaker Steven Spielberg, the French and Armenian governments, Berlin University, and Hayk Demoyan, Director of the Genocide Museum in Armenia, who is quoted stating: “the struggle for Genocide recognition must be combined with an understanding for restitution…. We must pursue legal avenues to assign responsibility for this crime.”

Gazete Kars also lists the Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian National Institute, Zoryan Institute, and Gomidas Institute as organizations that have succeeded in bringing the Armenian Genocide to the attention of scholarly and media circles worldwide. Prominent Turkish novelists Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak, who have bravely condemned Turkey’s distortions of the Armenian Genocide, are accused of enjoying the backing of “Diaspora Armenian lobbying organizations.”

The Turkish newspaper reports the formation of a central coordinating committee in Yerevan on April 23, 2011 to prepare the program of activities for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The committee, chaired by Armenia’s president, convened its inaugural meeting on May 30, 2011.

The Turkish editor then focuses on my articles, wrongly identifying me as “Ara” Sassounian, publisher of the California Courier. I am quoted stating that “demanding genocide recognition is no longer useful for Armenians. On the contrary it is harmful. Turks are happy that we are satisfied with this demand. What we should demand is justice. When he is asked what does justice entail, he explains that it means financial, moral and territorial restitution.”

The Turkish writer further elaborates on my views by stating: “Sassounian believes relations between Armenia and the Diaspora are not perfect, and that it is imperative to have a common understanding, especially on issues related to ‘Hay Tad’ (the Armenian Cause). Sassounian also believes that more serious results could be achieved by bringing together Armenians living in 100 countries under the umbrella of a Diaspora Parliament composed of 350 representatives.”

Gazete Kars concludes its editorial by outlining some of the Armenian activities planned for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide:

1) Prepare publications in seven languages: Armenian, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

2) Produce films and documentaries, organize concerts and exhibitions, and publish books and scholarly materials.

3) Enlarge threefold the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan.

4) Create a central coordinating committee for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

5) Organize media conferences, establish contacts with press agencies in 89 countries, and invite Diasporan TV and Radio journalists to Armenia in advance of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

6) Using modern technology, publish e-books in various languages, and establish contacts with academic and cultural figures, media and civil society, and international organizations conducting genocide research.

7) Produce an Armenian Genocide film with well-known Indian director Shekhar Kapur and Puerto Rican screenwriter Jose Rivera.

Since Turks are expecting a flurry of activities for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Armenians should do everything possible not to disappoint them!

The editors of Gazete Kars do not seem to realize that Armenians in fact welcome Turkish attempts to counter the upcoming genocide centennial activities. By doing so, the Turkish side would be helping to publicize the Armenian Cause beyond what Armenians are capable of doing on their own.

If it were possible to clone prominent Turkish commentator Orhan Kemal Cengiz and make multiple copies of his kind heart and righteous conscience, the Turkish government would then be able to come to grips with Armenian demands from Turkey in a humane and just manner.

Cengiz visited Germany recently with a group of Turkish journalists and human rights activists at the invitation of the European Academy of Berlin with the financial support of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Turkish visitors participated in a conference titled, “Difficult Heritage of the Past,” on how today’s Germans face crimes committed by Nazis.

After returning to Turkey, Cengiz wrote two poignant articles published in Today’s Zaman: “Can Germany be a model for Turkey in confrontation with past atrocities?” and “Turkey and Germany’s past atrocities.”

Cengiz confesses that before his visit, he thought that “Germans were forced to look at their troubled past by external powers who had them on their knees after World War II.” He wonders whether Germany could serve as a model for other countries in facing their past voluntarily. To his surprise, the Turkish columnist discovered that even though Germans had begun confronting their past after a devastating defeat, they were determined to create a new country “based on an endless process of remembering, commemorating and confronting the past.”

The righteous Turkish writer was “extremely impressed and touched” seeing a brick wall in a Berlin kindergarten. Every year teachers would ask students to identify themselves with Jews who once lived in the neighborhood before being killed by the Nazis. The students would then write the Jewish names on bricks and put them on top of each other forming a wall. It became clear to him that “remembering has become a part of daily life in Germany.”

Cengiz hopes that someday Turkish “children would do a similar thing. I imagined children in İstanbul building a wall by writing on bricks the names of Armenian intellectuals who were taken from their homes on April 24, 1915 and never came back again.” He is convinced that “confronting the past is a clear state policy here in Germany. Museums, exhibitions and the school curriculum all show how the state apparatus invested in this endeavor. So little by little I started to realize that Turkey can significantly benefit from the German experience on this difficult terrain of confrontation with the past.”

In his second article, Cengiz boldly describes the 19th and 20th centuries as “centuries of genocide,” which included the Armenian Genocide. He explains that contrary to the mass crimes committed by other nations, the ones perpetrated by Germans and Turks were against “neighbors with whom they had lived side-by-side for centuries. I think this alone is the most distinctive element of the German and Turkish example. … When you kill your neighbors, it creates a black hole, a gap in your national identity.”

In seeking to emulate the German experience, Cengiz hopes that he would see memorials erected in Turkey about “Armenian massacres, pogroms targeting Jews and Greeks, massacres targeting Alevis and others. When Turkey starts to remember and commemorate past atrocities, the Topography of Terror Museum, which is built on a former Nazi headquarters, the Jewish Museum of Berlin and others might be good examples to follow…. Turkey has a lot to learn from Germany in coming to terms with past atrocities.”

While Turkey’s acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide is long overdue, the actual process of reconciliation could begin by removing the names of the Turkish masterminds of the Armenian Genocide from schools, streets and public squares throughout Turkey. The Turkish government should also dismantle the shameful mausoleum of Talaat in Istanbul and replace it with a monument dedicated to the Armenian Genocide. It should also pay billions of dollars in compensation to descendants of Armenian victims, similar to German payments to Jews. Most importantly, Turkey should return to Armenians the occupied territories of Western Armenia!

Germany too, as Turkey’s close ally in World War I, has an obligation to Armenians — the acknowledgment of its role in the Armenian Genocide. It should apologize and make amends to the Armenian people. Only then would Germans fully deserve the praise heaped upon them by Orhan Cengiz for honestly facing their past.

While Turkey’s genocidal precedent served as model for Nazi Germany in committing the Holocaust, it is now Germany’s turn to become a role model to Turkey for reconciling with its genocidal past.