04/19/2013

Open letter to the organizers, patrons, supporters, media partners and participants of the "Holiday of National Sovereignty and Children" on April 23 ("Nisan Ulusal Egemenlik ve Çocuk Bayram?", April 23)

Prevent Turkish nationalist celebrations in Berlin and other German cities!

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), we would like to send you an urgent request today, asking you not to support any Turkish associations regarding the celebration of the Turkish National Sovereignty Day on April 23. This year, a large ceremony is planned in Berlin.

In Turkey, there are official festivities – "children's parties" in all the schools and military parades – on April 23. This was the day on which General Mustafa Kemal Pasha, known as Kemal Ataturk, established the Grand National Assembly in 1920. Since the year 2000, there are also children's parties in Berlin and other German cities. More than 60 Turkish associations – mostly nationalistic, including supporters of the Grey Wolves and members of the association "In memory of Ataturk" – are involved in organizing and supporting the celebration which is supposed to be an international children's festival.

While members of the Kurdish, Greek, Armenian and other peoples that live in Turkey will not be invited to the festival in Germany, the situation in Turkey is quite different: On this holiday, every child must join in singing the national anthem which contains a vow to be ready to sacrifice one's life for the country. Members of the minority groups cannot avoid this, despite their non-Turkish identities. Therefore, the Turkish nationalist and racist background of the "Holiday of National Sovereignty and Children" is quite evident.

The meaning of the National Anthem appears to be especially controversial in view of the situation of the minorities in Turkey at the beginning of the previous century. At that time, the Ottoman Empire was an ally of the German Reich. During the First World War, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred on the territory of modern Turkey – and hundreds of thousands were displaced. The situation was similar for the Alevis, Jews, Christian Assyrian-Arameans, Chaldeans, Kurds and Greeks living in Turkey. The Turkish Republic saw itself as the legal successor of the Ottoman Empire. It was established on the graves of the minority peoples. These ethnic groups and religious communities are being suppressed in Turkey until this day.

The Armenian genocide and the massacres on other minorities are still being denied. There is no Turkish school-textbook that mentions the minority groups or their culture. Moreover, Turkey only signed the International Convention for the Protection of Children under reserve.

Turkish nationalists in Germany managed to establish the 23rd of April as the International Children's Day. Many politicians, the mayor of Berlin and several district mayors for instance, take part in the festivities and hold speeches – often due to ignorance. In addition, the celebration will take place at a prominent place (near the Brandenburger Tor and the Straße des 17. Juni). Surprisingly, the annual event is sponsored by many governmental and non-governmental institutions, companies and organizations. There is even media coverage by the public media, such as ARD, ZDF and KIKA.

What is so objectionable, is that hundreds of thousands children of Turkish origin who were born in Germany are being instrumentalized by the aforementioned Turkish nationalist organizations and the Turkish Consulate – in order to strengthen Turkish nationalism. The alleged International Children's Festival is a statement against integration. It promotes ethnic and religious separation and thus disturbs the peace between the Turkish population groups of different origin who live here together. The celebrations on April 23 are especially painful for the descendants of the Armenian and Assyrian Aramaic victims of the Ottoman-Turkish policy of extermination, because it is being held one day before the official commemorations of the beginning of the genocide of 1915/16 – on April 24.

We would like to send an appeal to every politician – on federal, stately and regional level – not to participate in the nationalistic celebration of the "Holiday of National Sovereignty and Children". We also appeal to institutions and private companies not to help promote the event in future.

The following organizations support this appeal:

 

  • Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker e.V.
  • Arbeitsgruppe Anerkennung – Gegen Genozid, für Völkerverständigung e.V.
  • Armenische Gemeinde zu Berlin e.V.
  • Bundesverband der Aramäer in Deutschland e.V.
  • Lampros Savvidis, Mitglied des Vorstandes: Hellenistische Gemeinde zu Berlin e.V.
  • Verband der Vereine der Griechen aus Pontos in Europa e.V. (OSEPE)
  • KOMKAR, Verband der Vereine aus Kurdistan in Deutschland e.V.