Sackcloth and ashes while the hungry wolves are howling around

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Mar 16, 2012 at 18:38

Alexandros writes

> Ianus, first of all, all nations have a lot of black pages in their history, stories that they should be ashamed of, but not forget in my opinion, just use them as a guide so not to repeat. <

It goes without saying that all nations have black pages in their history. We are all imperfect. But ,alas, it also goes without saying that not all nations are ready and honest enough to even admit them. Denial is a an optional way of dealing with history's black pages in many countries and cultures. What are you going to do about that? Pretend not to see it ?

To be more specific, you will never get a Turk to admit the genocides the Turks have perpetrated. So how can you ever hope to make him not repeat them?

In all my life I have met just one Turk who was an exception in this respect. He never repeated nauseating Turkish lies, claims and tricks or kept silent about an argument he could no longer refute as is the standard Turkish practice. He admitted the genocides had taken place and what is more he knew horrible cases of Turkish crimes from his own family's history. But he was a Turkish communist. ... In Turkey they teach different "logic", different "history" and different "morality". They persecute communists and reproduce almost on a conveyor line .... What can you do about it ?

Anyway, the other thing is that while you'll keep wearing a penitential sackcloth and throwing ashes over your head, you maybe will have a chance not to repeat what was wrong in your earlier biography. But in this posture you will definitely have not the slightest chance to prevent another genocide that is being prepared by those evil-doers to whom you are showing your misguided repentance and submit apologies.

Turks are rabid dogs (they themselves prefer to call themselves "wolves" - canis lupus=dog wolf ;) and if you think that they won't bite you again after they have tasted your blood in the past, then I am afraid you're dangerously naive. Against these dogs you don't use a sackcloth and apologies but a long stick. As the Turkish saying goes "You can't tame a rabid dog by offering him flowers".

>You write that the victim should not apologise, i disagree with you, a massacre is a massacre, even though it is a unique incident and it can not be compared with 400 years of massacre and robbery.<

May I ask why bearing in mind the giant proportions and amazing consistency of Turkish crimes you won't rather wait for Turks to admit their barbarian history first , to apologize and repent first ? Why are you so eager to be the first to denude your chest in front of them and cry "mea culpa"? What do you expect? Reciprocity?

If you have a serial killer and a man who murdered somebody who had made for years his life a hell and/or profited from this hell and was part of its workings, then I am afraid that you equal despair and casual revenge with a premeditated Satanic system of evil, humiliation and exploitation which the Ottoman rule was all about. Do you believe that millions of your ancestors that fell victim to this diabolical Turkish tyranny are not worth something more than repenting and apologizing to these sadist Turkish oppressors for showing them in a brutal way that that the oppressors' spree and impunity came to an end? Do you believe that any Jew should apologize for the Jews that killed their fascist oppressors and their helpers and profiteers in the Warsaw Ghetto or Sobibor ?

> In addition, this is us this is my civilisation, the way i grew up, i grew up reading the stories of Great Alexander and not the stories of Genghis Khan, i grew up learning about Aristotle and Periklis and Leonidas and the Byzantine Emperors, the revolutions against the Ottomans and the opposition against the axis , all this history is glorious and is based on ideals and principles. Wrong was done by them as well, but they offered much more than they took.<

Do you think that my education and the way I grew up differ in anything from yours? It is the same "παιδεία" we both have received and share. We have no differences in principles, just in details , even though I admit that the details involved here are crucial.

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