Turkish-Armenians' answer to Gülen

On Feb. 11, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had a long meeting with the administrators of more than 50 nongovernmental organizations at Ankara Palas Hotel, a historic place located in Turkey's capital. This meeting was significant since all the participants were non-Muslims living in Turkey. As an Armenian writer and journalist, I was also present at the meeting. The scheduled duration of the meeting was an hour and a half. However, the delegation of Davutoğlu and some ministers maintained it for over four hours. Each participant spoke during the event. Both the positive developments and the problems that need to be resolved were discussed.

The participants were the representatives of foundations, associations, nongovernmental organizations and journals belonging to minority communities in Turkey including Armenians, Jews, Roma, Syriacs, Bulgarians and Maronites. They have the competence to represent their own communities, address the state for years and are closely acquainted with the issues of their communities. All of them shared the excitement of the positive changes in favor of them that have taken place within the last 13 years. Everyone expressed their appreciation of this change and gave thanks for it. Davutoğlu's opening speech was like a manifesto. Previously, a Christmas lunch was organized for religious leaders of non-Muslim communities on Jan. 2. And this was the civilian phase of this agenda.

Davutoğlu said that they never accepted the segregationist and hostile attitude of the former state regime - which used to boast of being Kemalist, modern and secular - against non-Muslims, adding that they did not discriminate between citizens regardless of their religion, language or sect and always tried to reflect this concern in their policies. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government overcame and reformed many segregationist practices inherited from this former regime. Davutoğlu sincerely pointed out that they did not "grant" these reformations, but they saw them as a duty that was supposed to be done already, adding that they did not expect anything in return.

He also said it was not possible to approve or remain silent to the bitter experiences such as the vandalisms targeting non-Muslims on Sept. 6-7, 1955, underlining that they remembered those violent acts with pain in their hearts. Davutoğlu also indicated that one of the most significant steps leading to the path for this positive change was the official condolence message for the 1915 incidents issued by then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on April 23, 2014, which was the indicator of a new period for Turkey, according to Davutoğlu. Davutoğlu also issued a condolence message on Jan. 19, 2015, the eighth year commemoration of the assassination of Hrant Dink.

All the participants took the floor respectively during the meeting. Davutoğlu, ministers and advisors noted each demand. Many rights remaining from Ottoman times and guaranteed by the Lausanne Treaty were violated during the Kemalist regime. The most devastating of them was the practice of seizing property called the 1935 Declaration. With this, the most valuable properties of 167 minority foundations were seized, returned to their former owners without charge, or registered as a state commodity. The target was to eradicate the foundations that conserved the vital institutions of minorities.

The AK Party attempted to abolish this law in 2005, but it was blocked by the "modern and secular" Republican People's Party (CHP). In 2008, while the new law was being negotiated, Parliament witnessed some embarrassing remarks by the opposition CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). They were saying the AK Party was "bothering itself for the properties of Agop" in an insulting tone. When reforms passed into law thanks to the AK Party's votes, the CHP applied to the Constitutional Court to repeal the legislation. In the name of justice, a religious party was saying that "the state cannot steal from its own citizens regardless of their identity or religion. Rather, it is supposed to protect their interests."

For this very reason, a majority of Armenians have been voting for the AK Party for the last 13 years. For 99 years, we could not commemorate the victims of the 1915 incidents on April 24 in our country due to prohibitions. This ban was also lifted last year. Thanks to Erdoğan's message of condolence, we were able to commemorate our losses in our churches and cemeteries without fear or worry for the first time last year. Fethullah Gülen was defeated in the power struggle he had with the government. In order to cover the fact that they were actually struggling for sovereignty, he claimed that non-Muslims, Kurds and Alevis were suppressed in Turkey in an article he wrote for The New York Times. His claims were simply misleading.

People with different beliefs have been experiencing the freest, most dignified and glorious days of their lives during the period of AK Party rule for the last 13 years. We have to stand behind this truth in order to be fair. No matter what Gülen fights for, it is not our fight. Manipulating and subverting the pain of April 24 and the positive changes in recent years is the greatest form of disrespect to our losses and acquisitions. It would be good to reveal the truth.