YÜZYILLIK SOYKIRIM POLİTİKALARINA KARŞI YÜZYILLIK DAYANIŞMA RUHU GEREKİR

Yannis V Yaylalı 

Ermeni soykırımını 1915 senesinde gerçekleşti. Ermeni halkı  her 24 Nisan'da  yaşanan soykırım için anma gerçekleştiriyor .  Ermeni soykırımın üzerinden 105 yıl geçmesine rağmen soykırımı yapanlardan hesap sorulmadığı gibi, soykırımı yapan irade  ise bugün hala iktidardadır .Soykırımcıların bügun ki temsilcileri olan güçler  yüzyıllık projeleri olan coğrafyamızın tümüyle Türkleştirilmesi için geride derli toplu kalan son halka olan Kürt halkına ve Alevî kesimine karşı görülmemiş soykırım politikalarına devam ediyor. 

Ayrıca yüzyıl önce yaşadıkları soykırım ile coğrafyamızdaki varlıkları yok olma eşiğine gelen Süryani halkına yönelimleri de unutmamak gerekir. Sudan nedenlerle gözaltına alınan Süryani din adamlarını, toprakları zorla ellerinden alınmak istenen Süryani ailelerini ve son olarak da kaçırılan Diril ailesini, katledilen Şimoni Diril'i ve kaçırıldıktan sonra hala haber alınamayan Hurmüz Diril ile var olma ,yok olma mücadelesi veren Süryani halkına karşı yapılanlar da bu acımasız  politikaların sonucu olduğunu söylemek isterim . Ben de Pontoslu Rum halkının bir parçasıyım. Türkiye'den ayrılmadan önce son dönemde Süryani halkına olan yönelimlere benzer deneyimleri sahip olduğumu da aktarmak isterim.Elbette bu yönelim sadece bana değil, Pontos'da olsun  ya da Pontos dışında olsun, Pontos Rumlarının temel demokratik hakları için mücadele yürüten herkes için böyledir.İşte son dönemlerde  Romeika/Pontiaka  diline dönük çalışmalar yapan sanatçılar ve aktivistler de hedef tahtasına oturtulmuş durumdalar. Tekrar kendi öznel durumuma dönüp de devam edecek olursam , Şırnak'ta 22 Nisan 2017  tarihinde yakalanıp da hapishaneye gönderilmeme neden olan sürecin basamakları Nisan ayının son iki haftasına girdiğimiz günlerde Ermeni ve Pontos soykırımıyla ilgili yazdığım iki yazı ile tamamlanmıştır . 

Zaten Pontoslu bir Rum /Elen olarak Kürt halkı ile dayanışmam yüzünden daha önce çok sayıda hakkımda dava ve dosya açılmıştı. Gülenci darbe girişiminin ardından hükümet tüm ülkede ohal ilan ettikten sonra bu durumu fırsata çevirdi ve ülkede tüm muhaliflere karşı yöneldiler.Roboski katliamının 6. Yıldönümüne sayılı günler kala bizlerde yönelime maruz kalanlardandık. O gün gözaltı marifetiyle  esir alınmamız da, o süreçte hakkımızda açılan dosyaların davalara  dönüştürülmesi de  aslında bize verilen göz dağıydı. Hakkımda açılan soruşturmalar, 1) Kürt halkı ile dayanışma için yaptığımız şeyler 2) vicdanı retçi olduğum için yaptığım çalışmalar üzerinden açılan şeylerdi. O dönemde yeni olan ve ohal ile ortaya çıkan şey ise  3) Pontos Rum'u olarak yaptığım çalışmalar ve paylaşımlardı. Soykırım sürecinden sonra geride kalan biz Pontos Rumları sessiz kalırsak, kimliğimize dâhil demokratik, anayasal mücadele yöntemlerini kullanmayı tercih etmesek hiç bir sorun yoktu.Bunu yapmayıp da demokratik, anayasal yöntemler ile kendimize, halkımıza karşı olup bitenleri yüksek sesle dillendirmeye başladığımda , ohal'i fırsat olarak gören güç tarafıma karşı acımasızca bir yönelime  başladı.Süryani halkı şahsında olduğu gibi, tek tük bile kalsak yüzyıllık ırkçı Türkleştirme politikalarını günümüzde yürütenler için bu durum dahi engel olarak görülüyordu. Ne kendi halkına, ailene ne okduğunu soracaksın, ne de kültürümüze, dilimize, tarihimize ilişkin bir çalışma yapacaksın, eğer böyle çalışmalar yaparsınız şahsım örneğinde olduğu gibi  ülkeyi terk etmeye kadar varan cezalandırma yollarına mâruz kalırsınız. Yukarıda değindiğim  gibi bu cezalandırma şahsi değil, benzer yönelimlere maruz kakan aktivist ve sanatçılarımız da var. Aslında tüm bu yönelimler 1914 ile 1923 arası süreçte Pontos'da soykırıma maruz kalmış halkımızın verdiği demokratik hak arama yollarını kapatmak amacını da taşıyor, halkımıza karşı yürütülen soykırım politikalarının da devam ettiğinin bir göstergesi durumundadır. 

Geçmiş soykırımcı güçlerin günümüzdeki temsilcileri sürece göre  politikalar üretmeye devam ediyor. Geçtiğimiz yıl Pontos soykırımının yıl dönemi seçim çalışmaları dönemine denk gelmiş ve o dönem ki politika buz Pontoslu Rumları, Yunanlıları bir kere daha denize dökmek hükümetin seçim vaatleri arasında yer alıyordu. Ayrıca Mustafa Kemal'in muhafiz alayi komutanı ve Ermeni, Pontos Rumlarının, Kürt halkının kanlı katili çeteci milis albay Topal Osman paylaşılamıyordu . Çeteci milis albay'ı aklamaya çalışanlar mı dersiniz, yoksa balmumu heykeli yarışına girenler mi dersiniz , konsept inkar ve savaş konseptiydi, her şey, her kampanya ona uygun ilerledi . Aralik 2019 süreciyle birlikte ilk Çin'de ortaya çıkan #Colvid19 virüsü bugün nerdeyse tüm dünyayı etkisi altına almaya başladı. Türkiye de virüsün en yoğun yaşandığı ülkelerden biri ve maalesef İtalya benzeri gevşek bir politika izliyor. Bu yazının konusu ellbette virüs değil ama tam bu sürecin ortasında hükümetin başı olan kişi yine bir zor durumu 'fırsat' olarak gördüğünü açıkladı. 24 Nisan yaklaşırken Covid-19 ile ilgili ilginç bir yaşandı. Hükümete yakın medya da Ermenistan'ın Covid-19 yüzünden Türkiye'den tıbbı yardım istediği yazılıp çiziliyordu. Herkes bir anda şok oldu. Tabi bu haberin doğrulanması için gözler Ermenistan'a çevrildi.Neyse ki bir süre sonra  Ermenistan yetkilileri açıklama yaparak böyle bir şeyin söz konusu olmadığını açıkladı. Peki resmî olarak böyle bir sey söz konusu değilse bu durumun açıklaması ne olabilirdi. Daha önce de  bir çok kez benzeri durumda yaşandığı gibi ,Türkiye devletinin en hayati tehlikeleri yaşadığı dönemlerde, AKP hükümetleri bu dönemleri kendinden yana kazanca dönüştürmek için süreci istismar eder. Hükûmetin başı olan  taraflı cumhurbaşkanı RTE  bizi şaşırtmayarak Covid-19 virüsüyle ilgili  bu durumu 'fırsata' çevirebiliriz demişti. Hazır 24 Nisan yaklaşırken de fırsatlardan yararlanma  için  bir algı operasyonu  için start verildi. Bu algı oyununu seçimlerinde oldukça etkili olduğu Ermeni kilisesi ve din adamları üzerinden yaptı. Bu sefer geçtiğimiz seneden farklı bir yol izlendi, bu süreçte sözde Iyi polisi oynuyorlardı. Fırsatta ele geçmişken bu adımla ulusal ve uluslararası kamuoyu manipüle edilerek , 24 Nisan anmaların etkisi kırılmak isteniyordu . 

Bu soykırımcı güçlerin neler yapabileceğini, yukarıda izledikleri bazı politikaları irdeleyerek göstermek Istedim.Bu hastalıklı yapının ne kadar tehlikeli olduğu gün gibi ortada, şimdi bu modern Abdulhamitlerin , Enverlerin , Talat'larin, Mustafa Kemallerin politikalarına karşı çıkmayanların Ermeni soykırımına karşı dayanışması da sahtedir, yalandır ve iki yüzlüdür.Yüzyıllık soykırım ve politikalarına karşı, yüzyıllık soykırım politikalarını boşa çıkaracak bir dayanışma ruhu gerekmektedir. Ancak o zaman ilk etapta Ermeni halkına, Pontos Rumlarına, Süryani halkına yapılan soykırımlar ile hayata geçirilen  ve ikinci etapda Kürt halkı ve Alevî kesimiyle bugün devam eden yüzyıllık proje olan bu coğrafyanın ırkçı mana da Türkleştirme politikaları boşa çıkarılmış olur. Ermeni soykırımın 105. yıldönümü vesilesiyle soykırım mağduru olan mazlum Ermeni halkının acılarını paylaştığımı bir kere daha belirtirken, dayanışma duygularımı da paylaşmak isterim. 

#24NisanErmeniSoykırımı

Bu yazı ilk defa Demokrat Haber'de yayımlandı 

The Evolution of Yannis: From Turkish Nationalist to Jailed Greek Activist

Special for the Armenian Weekly 

Yannis Vasilis Yaylalı, an ethnic Greek peace activist born in Samsun, was recently arrested by Turkish police in the Kurdish city of Şırnak, where he had been living since 2012.

Yannis Vasilis Yaylalı

Meral Geylani, his partner and fellow activist, told the Armenian Weekly that four lawsuits have been filed against Yaylalı. Three of them are for “discouraging the public from military service” and one is for “publicly disrespecting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk” through his articles and social media posts about the 1914-1923 massacre of Pontian (Pontic) Greeks by Turkey.

According to the indictment, he was also jailed for allegedly “insulting the President,” “inciting people to disobey the laws,” and “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization.” He will be brought to court on Oct. 26 for these accusations.

“On April 22, the day he posted his article about the commemoration of the Pontian Greek Genocide, he was arrested by police. He was first jailed in Şırnak and then was placed in a prison in the city of Elazığ. His first trial will be held on July 18,” Geylani said.

Yannis, who was born Ibrahim Yaylalı, is a former Turkish nationalist who was proud of his enmity to Kurds, not to mention to other indigenous peoples of Asia Minor.

In 1994, he voluntarily joined the Turkish military as a commando to fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Şırnak and fell captive to the PKK during a clash. If he had died, he would have been declared a “martyr” by the Turkish government. But after he was injured and taken a captive by the PKK, his family sought help from Turkish authorities. Instead, they were told that they were Greek and were threatened. His whole life changed with this new discovery.

In a 2016 interview with the news website Siyasi Haber last year, Yannis introduced himself as follows: “I am Yannis Vasilis. Of course, I have not always been Yannis Vasilis Yaylalı. I was İbrahim Yaylalı before enrolling in the Turkish military. I did not know anything about my Greek [heritage] back then and I engaged in Turkish racism. But of course, this stemmed from where I lived and the education I had received.”

Yannis then learned that his great-grandfather was murdered during the Pontian Greek Genocide and that Yannis’s grandfather was given to a Turkish family and raised as a Muslim Turk. In a 2014 interview with the news website Demokrat Haber, he said, “If they had told me 30 years ago that I was a Greek, I would have sworn at them. In the Bafra town of Samsun where I am from, Kurds are made to do the heaviest and the worst work and there is so much racism in us. We beat up Kurdish youths many times.”

Military Service and Captivity Under the PKK

But his political transformation began during his military service in 1994 when he witnessed how Turkish soldiers persecuted Kurdish villagers in Şırnak. “When we went there, the villages had already been forcibly emptied by the Turkish military. It was the period that the Kurdish villages were raided and burned down by Turkish soldiers the most. The state was applying pressure on the villages to make them accept its power. We saw these things when we went there,” he explained.

He also witnessed outright barbarism of the Turkish soldiers. “I saw them [Turkish soldiers] destroying a dead guerrilla to pieces. When I saw that, I vomited. Then the specialist sergeant said to me: ‘Are you a man? Are you Turkish? Why did you throw up?’ Guerrillas would never end up alive unless they confessed,” he said.

Yannis also described an incident of village burning in the mountain of Gabar, which he saw firsthand. “First military teams raided homes and started beating up people and destroying their properties. Then they set homes ablaze.”

In September 1994, during a clash with the PKK, he was injured and passed out due to heavy bleeding. A group of PKK members then found him and took him to their camp in Iraqi Kurdistan. “They told me I was a prisoner of war and they would treat me in accordance with international agreements. They dressed my wound and gave me an injection. I was expecting them to torture me to get information from me. I was not expecting anything good from them. Because we had not obeyed any law when we dealt with them so I expected them to do the same. I thought they would cut me into pieces,” he explained in the 2016 interview.

Yannis said that his experience as a commando for two-and-a-half months in the Turkish military and as a prisoner of war at the hands of the PKK for two years and three months completely transformed him and his worldview. “I thought about our mistreating people in a way that constituted a war crime and the burning down of villages. Then I became a captive of the guerillas… You say you are good but you burn down villages, torture them and destroy their dead. You call them bad but they take you and treat you well.”

‘We Know You—You Are Greek’

On the third month of his captivity, he contacted his father and asked him to request information from authorities about his situation.

“My father went to Ankara to talk with a military officer who my uncle knew. But instead, another man turned up and told my father: ‘We know you. You are Greek, after all. We can call you ‘Greek members of the PKK’ and if we say that, you will be in a bad situation. So, don’t tamper with this too much.’ My father could not say anything. They [my family members] know they are converts [to Islam] but they feel Turkish. As they see themselves as Turkish, they think the state also sees them as such but the state does not forget,” Yannis explained.

In the eighth or ninth month of his captivity, he received word that his family was told they were Greek. “The journalists learned it while conducting interviews with my family. My mind then changed completely. Whatever the [Turkish] military said turned out to be a lie. Whatever the other side said, life confirmed it true.”

Upon his return to Turkey, he was brought to court and arrested. And when he was jailed, the torture began. “The moment I was put in prison, they jumped on me and started beating me. Because I was beaten up in prison for three-and-a-half months, my chest cage was injured. And they accused me of being a member of a terror organization. Then I was released pending trial. The trial lasted until 2013 and I was acquitted. In the meanwhile, my worldview became even clearer. I learned how the [political] system was enforced through attacks of the state,” he explained.

In 2012, he settled in the Kurdish village of Roboski in Şırnak with his partner Geylani to show solidarity as peace activists with the victims of the massacre that took place on Dec. 28, 2011.

How Konstantin’s Son Became ‘Mehmet’

In late 2013, Ibrahim went to court to change his Turkish name and became Yannis Vasilis Yaylalı.  He told Siyasi Haber that changing his name is about “regaining his right and his identity.”

I went to court to change my name. And this is done with money. In countries such as ours, they create special difficulties for you when you want to embrace a non-Turkish name. They want two witnesses. My friends who know I am Greek became my witnesses. But when you want to investigate your state register of persons, they introduce new obstacles. You can only investigate up to two generations before: You, your father and your grandfather. I applied with my father. We learned that my grandfather’s father’s name was Konstantin. Their village is in Bafra. The state archives also say that the state attacked and killed the Greek people there. Konstantin was also murdered and my grandfather, who was three back then, was given to a Turkish family instead of a Greek orphanage. Similar things were also done during the Dersim and Armenian massacres. Orphans were given to Turkish families.

And the child who was going to be my grandfather was called “Mehmet” by his new family.

This discovery was completely life changing for Yannis, who said that his entire motivation of joining the Turkish military was “the Turkish flag, Turkish homeland and the Turkish nation,” and that grey wolves, or the supporters of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), were his heroes.

“We thought that that our great-grandfather went to fight in the Turkish Salvation War (Turkey’s name for the war it fought in Asia Minor, Thrace, historic Armenia and Kurdistan between 1919 and 1923 following the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I) and his dead body was never brought back,” said Yannis. “But we then learned that he was murdered alongside his Greek friends in a cave in an area in Bafra, which was heavily populated by Greeks.

“My mother used to joke about my father being a dönme (convert), but when I asked what it meant, she did not respond,” said Yannis. “When [my grandfather] was given to that family, he converted [to Islam] and it was over. No information was shared with us about it. We then learned that our great-aunt told my mother about my father’s situation. Then they covered it up. The underlying reason could be fear or an unwillingness to accept reality. For being a non-Muslim is used as a swearword in our region.”

1914-1923 Pontian Greek Genocide

According to a report by the Pontian Greek Society of Chicago, Pontus (Greek Pontos), an ancient Greek word for “sea,” refers to the Black Sea and the surrounding coastal areas. The presence of Greeks in the area dates back to ancient times some 2,000 years before the migration of Turkic people to this area in the 10th century A.D.

From 1914 to 1923, “out of an approximate 700,000 Pontian Greeks who lived in Turkey at the beginning of World War I, as many as 350,000 were killed, and almost all the rest had been uprooted during the subsequent forced population exchange between Greece and Turkey. This was the end of one of the ancient Greek civilizations in Asia Minor.

During the same period, Armenian and Assyrian Christians were also targeted. Yannis has for years been trying to raise awareness about the Greek Genocide as well as the Armenian Genocide and massacres committed against Kurds in Turkey. According to Yannis, there were two reasons of the genocide of Christian peoples:

Turkish racism against non-Muslims, and the desire to Turkify non-Muslim properties.

Before the genocide, “70 or 80 percent of the country’s capital belonged to non-Muslims,” said Yannis, who added that the genocide aimed to Turkify and Islamize the wealth and property of non-Muslims.

He also referred to a conversation between Rıza Nur, a Turkish Member of Parliament from Sinop, and Topal Osman, an ultra-Turkish nationalist and Islamist who murdered Greek Christians and Armenians in the Pontian region. “Osman tells Nur: ‘I am fighting for Turkishness and I am protecting the buildings (churches, schools) that the state could benefit from.’ Nur responds: ‘No, do not leave anything behind. Destroy everything.’”

According to Yannis, Nur did not want a single stone to be left behind that would remind one of history. “And they really did that. They destroyed everything and left nothing behind so that no one would be able to bring them to account and ask them what happened.”

From a “Turkish” Nationalist Commando to a Greek Activist

“I spent the first 20 years of my life as a Turk; and the next 20 years showing solidarity with the Kurdish people. And I will spend the next 20 years of my life struggling as a Pontian,” said Yannis, who writes and speaks out extensively about the Pontian Greek Genocide in his blog websites. He described the destruction of the Greek and Armenian heritage in his hometown of Bafra:

There were more than 80 churches and more than 100 [Christian] schools in Bafra. Not even one has been left behind. All were destroyed! There is only one [non-Turkish] signboard and it is in Armenian! If there were no testimonies, requiems, and screams about it, one would not even be able to say such a thing was experienced there. They took our money and properties, not to mention our lives. There are records of these things. One could see these things in the confidential minutes of the proceedings at the parliament. For example, three groups were deported from Bafra, they were taken to a town in Samsun and all were massacred. So, they did not prevent psychical attacks either. Plus, there were geographical circumstances of the time. Beside outright murders, they also left them to [die in] nature.

So during what is called “the war of salvation,” they got rid of us, the Greeks. And they seized our properties. Today, based on the same mentality, they are targeting peoples. They finished off non-Muslims first, now it is the turn of Kurds who are trying to survive. As the saying goes: Kurds are trying to prove they exist and we [Greeks and Armenians] are trying to prove that we have been exterminated.

As to why who chose the name “Yannis Vasilis,” he said, “I love how Yannis is pronounced. And Vasilis was an influential person among Greeks of the Black Sea region who carried out the first self-defense, partisan organization in the face of the attacks against Greeks.”

Yannis also explained that there are a lot of people like him who would like to return to their roots, but live in fear. “People can call me Ibrahim, or they can call me Yannis. But the thing is there are so many people like me. But they cannot come out because they are scared. I want to give them courage. I am not calling on people to be nationalistic but they should embrace their values and identities,” he explained.

According to Yannis, Turkey has never been a democracy because it has a very strict monist ideology. For example, “One state, one language, one religion, one flag,” which opposes pluralism and diversity, is a slogan in Turkey commonly used by state authorities. “The Turkish state structure has a monist mentality. And this mentality can survive only through fascistic, imperious and aggressive rule,” he explained. “If they govern this land through democracy, what they are doing and what the authorities before them have done will be exposed. For the mentality of the current authorities is not different from that of past administrations.”

Source: https://armenianweekly.com/2017/06/23/the-evolution-of-yannis/