‘You Will Burn in Hell’

In this version, the “vulnerable” Ottoman Empire was “forced” to proactively relocate all Armenians, in order to protect them from Turks’ revenge and to protect Turks from Armenians as well. During the “required” relocation, many Armenians died due to inclement weather, or were killed by Kurdish rebels (not Turks). Therefore, as this narrative puts it, what happened was indeed unfortunate, but really just a part of the collective suffering of those nations involved at that time, and in this light, must not be considered a genocide.

As much as this “sacrosanct” myth attempts to address why at least hundreds of thousands of Armenians died (up to a million and a half), and so many were brutally deported, it ignores, disregards, and denies the massacres of Armenian intellectuals, men, women, and children in the heartland of the Ottoman Empire committed by Ottomans using state power and means. The official Turkish version, which silences history, lacks credibility as it has a lot of holes that can only be filled with cement, through categorically denying and destroying evidence of those crimes. Thus, I regard this version as an apologetic excuse for the crimes the Ottomans committed; a rewriting of history in which Turkish glory conveniently remain untainted.

Thus, my first heretical sin was to committed treason by collaborating with an Armenian newspaper, a newspaper that had been established by “traitors” who were responsible for the fall of the “holy” Ottoman Empire. But this is not all. No, my sins did not end there…

In Turkey, those that supported a greater role for religion in the public realm suffered under the Kemalist secularists for decades, until the rise of Erdogan in 2002. Many saw this as a sign from God, and here we come to the second “sacred” narrative, in which God came to redeem the pious in Turkey. He did this through empowering Erdogan, bestowing him with a divine mission to restore the Ottoman Empire from its ashes, like a phoenix. In this mythology, the figure of Erdogan portends the renaissance and Golden Age of Islam. His “holy” leadership deserves unconditional loyalty, as it is championed by God himself. Thus, arguing against him or criticizing him is equal to rebelling against God. Indeed, in this paradigm, a person who defies God deserves nothing more than to be cast into hellfire. I became a sinner the moment I criticized him and called him a dictator—according to this creed, I have committed a grave form of blasphemy and must burn. Sadly, even one of my own relatives is ready to throw me into the flames.

Well, this is not the end of this article. The wonderful news is that in fact, I also received overwhelmingly positive, encouraging, supporting, and heartening messages.

I received notes from a variety of readers including legislators, academics, journalists, authors, Turkish and Armenian intellectuals, religious leaders, human rights activists, and from friends and family who genuinely thanked me for the courage to articulate what thousands feel these days but don’t dare to say out loud.