1982_04 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper April 1982

              April 1982
Hye Sharzhoom
Page 9
and the Armenians
ARMENIAN
TERRORISM
WHY?
By Zaven A. Vet/.madian
My father would have heartily applauded the recent slaying of Turkish Consul
Kemal Arikan in Los Angeles. He would
have been just as proud of the Justice
Commandos as he was of septuagenarian
, (iourgen M. Yanikian. when he assassinated two Turkish diplomats in Montecito
nearly ten years ago.
But my father    Shavarsh Vet/madia h
has been dead for nine years and has
i carried to the grave a load of hatred, and
bitter memories of unimaginable suffering. And yet. can it be said that such
memories and experiences are truly buried? The fact that there exist groups such
as The Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide, or the likes of Yanikian
who are prepared to "take arms against a
sea of troubles."seems to prove otherwise.
Why?
It is very hard for Americans to imagine
how it was. But there were Americans.
British and Scandinavian eyewitnesses
who saw old men. women and children
marched without food or water to deaths
in deserts. They reported of people crucified or burned in churches, women ravaged, people used for bayonet practice
and some even buried alive. These things
happened, albeit, a long time ago but they
have been documented by reliable sources. Yet, not one apology, acknowledge—
ment of responsibility or offer of restitution has ever been made.
My paternal grandfather, Kyriakos,
was allegedly an important businessman
whose income was partly derived from a
chain of bakeries that provided bread to
Turkish garrisons. One uncle was an officer in the Turkish Army, while the eldest
who had studied law in Germany handled the business and financial end from a
head office in Istanbul. My father told me
that both my grandfather and eldest uncle
were stuffed into jute sacks and dumped
into the Bosphorous at the onset of World
War I. The other uncle deserted after
being placed in a labor battalion. He went
back to their hometown Kharpert (Har-
put) and was killed in action while defending his town. There were 25 close
relatives who lived under my grandfather's roof and another 55 kinfolk who
were responsible in various endeavors
ranging from wheat farming, tending orchards and vineyards to making wines,
rakhi brandy and managing bakeries. No
one has survived except one niece, who
now lives in Canada.
My father's situation was quite different, since he had always been a rebel. He
went underground at 19, first helping the
Young   Turks  against   Sultan   Abdul
i Ha mid. Later as an activist in the Armenian Revolutionary movement, he instruct-
( ed remote villagers in the use of weapons,
self-defense and guerilla warfare. Sometimes he posed as a school-teacher and on
other occasions as a Kurdish shepherd.
He was arrested in Kharpert where he had
i returned to inquire about his famHy following a massacre. There, a Turkish physician, whom my grandfather had helped
financially with studies abroad, was in
strumental in aiding my father to escape
certain death. Obviously, this is a classic
example (one of thousands perhaps) that
not all Turks condoned the mass killings,
and no doubt many did what they could to
help. However my father also recalled the
fate of a fellow guerilla who had been
captured during the Moslem Bairam holidays. A Turkish garrison commander, not
wishing to taint his hands with the blood
of an "infidel" on a holiday, ordered the
village butcher to do the honors. Later
some troopers played soccer with the
Armenian's head.
My father joined the Tzarist Russian
Infantry, then served under British Gen.
Edmund Allenby during decisive campaigns against the Turks in the Middle
East and at the end of the war. transferred
into the I-tench Foreign Legion which was
still fighting Turks in Syria. At this time
he received his third combat injury which
crippled his knee and put him out of
soldiering.
During my college years, my father
could never understand how 1 could become friends with Turkish students. He
couldn't accept the rationale that today's
Turks were not responsible for the death
of his loved ones. That the Allies or Axis
powers could forget, forgive and live with
each other in peace, was never a valid
argument for my father, at least where
Turkey was concerned.
"Those people robbed us of our lands,
our cult ure. our artifacts, our heritage and
urinated upon our pride as their mules
and donkeys were allowed to urinate in
our churches," he would boom. "I hat in
itself is unforgiveable, let alone their
inhumanity."
Germany has more than acknowledged
her atrocities against the Jewish people
during the second genocide in history.
They have granted millions of marks in
war reparations and compensation to Jewish survivors. Turkish history in contrast
sidesteps the whole Armenian question. It
justifies the deaths of countless civilians as
the unfortunate consequences of war.
Never accepting responsibility for the organized killing of 1.5 million Armenians,
never admitting any attempt at wiping out
a whole race.
I do not condone terrorism against
innocent people, or any senseless violence
for self gratification. In America we seem
to have too much of it going around. But I
wonder how things would have been, if
the cause of justice had been served in
1918 and later. How different it would
have been if Turkey had seen lit to extend
a hand in friendship to the newly established Armenian Republic to her.east,
suggesting perhaps that bygones be bygones, and offering to work things out.
Would Kemal Arikan be dead today?
Would there be any need for terrorism?
I understand how the family of the slain
consul must feel, and how others saddled
with an injustice or deprivation of kin and
property must feel. That is how my father
felt, and this could also have been a
motivating factor for the action in Los
Angeles.
MYTHS AND FACTS OF
HANDGUN CONTROL
By Tom Key
Since the January 28th killing of Kemal
Arikan (Turkish Consul in Los Angeles)
Armenians have been crawling out of the
woodwork to write letters, voice opinions,
and even offer justifications why Arikan
was killed. The 40.000. usually quiet Armenians in the San Joaquin Valley, have
been declaring disassociation and condemnation of the killcr(s). Unfortunately,
nothing has been said about the weapon.
Arikan was killed with a handgun, as was
John I ennon. Robert Kennedy, and numerous others.
1 am personally surprised that at least
those Armenians are not speaking out
against handguns. Possibly they, like
many others, know only the myths of
handgun control, and not the facts. This is
why I am directing my energies to informing others about the myths and facts of
handgun control.
Myth: Guns don't kill people. People
kill people.
Fact: Over half of all murders and
suicides are committed with handguns,
which are five times more likely to cause
death than knives, the next most popular
murder weapon.
Most murders are spontaneous acts,
committed during the heat of violent
passions. Without a handgun available,
many murders would be turned into nonfatal assaults if the attacker were forced to
use some less potent weapon. The 3,000
who die in gun accidents every year would
live if no guns were around. .
The South's murder rate is double the
rate in the Northeast, where only half as
many households have guns. Handguns
make murder and suicide quick, convenient and sure.
Even granting for a moment that guns
don't kill people it is painfully clear that
people with guns kill people. It is also
important to realize that guns don't die,
people die.
Myth: Handguns are needed for self
protection.
Fact: A handgun in the home is much
more likely to result in death or injury to
family members than it is to burglars.
On the average, a mere 2% of burglars
are shot every year and for every burglar
who is stopped, six family members are
shot in accidents. One fourth of those
accidentally killed are less than 14years of
age.
Few intruders kill their victims. Nearly
three-fourths of all murders occur between family members, friends or lovers, a
situation which is encouraged by the easy
access to handguns in the home.
Instead of protecting family members
from intruders, a handgun in the home is
like a time-bomb.
Myth: The Constitution guarantees the
personal right to bear arms.
Fact: The Second Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution states that "A well
regulated militia being necessary to the*
security of a free State, the right of people
to keep and bear arms, shall not be
infringed."
The United States Supreme Court has
ruled four times that this does not guarantee the right to personal gun ownership.
Instead, it establishes the right of State
Militias now the National Guard—to
bear arms.. The Constitution protects the
collective right to bear arms for military
purposes in maintaining the security of
the state. The right of an individual to
possess handguns exists only in myth, not
in the Constitution.
Myth: Saturday Night Specials are
used in most handgun crimes.
fact: The Saturday Night Special is
generally described as a cheap, short-
barreled, low caliber handgun.
The myth that Specials are used in most
handgun crimes has encouraged the false
belief that only these cheap handguns
need be eliminated to reduce crime. Most
proposed anti-Special laws would only
stop their manufacture and have no provisions for taking care of the millions of
Specials already in circulation.
The New York City Police Department
has reported that only 39% of the handguns it confiscates are Saturday Night
Specials. Both attempts on President
Ford's life and the attempt on President
Reagan's life were with regular, standard-
sized pistols.
Most of the 40 million handguns in this
country are quality weapons, and elimination of the Saturday Night Special alone
would have little effect on reducing handgun crimes, suicides or accidents.
Myth: Handgun control won't work.
Fact: In (Jreat Britain, where handguns are strictly controlled, there are less
than 500 handguns per 100,000 people. In
the U.S., there are 12,000 handguns per
100,000 people. In 1974, Houston, Texas,
alone had over four times as many handgun murders as all of England and Wales,
with over 50 million people.
The gun murder rate in the U.S. is 200
times higher than in Japan, where private
handgun ownership is totally prohibited.
New York City, which has the toughest
gun control law in the country, has the
second lowest murder rate of the ten
largest cities.
Proper gun control laws do work and
could save thousands of lives every year.^
Myth: The National Rifle Association
can block any attempt at handgun
control.
Fact: Many people who favor handgun
control have given up because the N.R.A.
is all-powerful
While the N.R.A. does have the power
to mount massive letter-writing campaigns which have frightened some legislators, its ability to sway elections on the
issue of gun control is highly questionable. The N.R.A. has taken credit for
defeating a few pro-control Senators and
Congrcsspersons, but these people actually lost for reasons other than gun control.
In the January 1975 issue of the American Rifleman even the N.R.A. admits that
27 Congrcsspersons who opposed gun
control lost in the previous elections—
while not one Congressperson who favored control was defeated.
Obviously the N.R.A. is not all-powerful, and the more people who learn that,
the more who will decide to take a positive
stand for handgun control.
If united, the Armenians could represent a powerful lobby force capable of
eliminating the problem of handguns.