Ergün KIRLIKOVALI’nın Benjamin Harvey’in Bloomberg’de yazdığı yazıya cevabı..
Dear Benjamin & Peter:
The title of your recent article on Mr. Bryant’s signing a business deal with the Turkish Airlines should have been qualified as follows:
“Bryant’s Turk Ties Ire L.A. Armenians, But delight L.A. Turks”
I must state that I am a bit disappointed that you ignored more than 500,000 Turkish Americans coast-to-coast, about 50,000 of them in Southern California.
We have grown used to such prejudiced coverage of matters relating to Turkey over the years but still been doing our best to correct it nevertheless.
About the issue, please allow me to make the following points briefly:
1- This is a business decision involving a sponsorship which is not uncommon in the sports world. It is not a political or historic debate.
2- Celebrities cannot and should not be held hostage by the Armenian lobby and forced to see the the world from the Armenians perspective only. In fact, celebrities should not be held hostage by any interest group. Who decides what interpretation of controversial issues are acceptable and which ones are not? Is the sports arena the place to settle the historic, politic, or social differences?
3- Armenian views of the Turkish-Armenian conflict are long discredited by world renown historians as political misrepresentations; genocide claims do not represent historical truths. Such claims exaggerate and falsify events in order to ascribe all the suffering on one side (Armenians) and all the guilt on the other (Turks), as if such simplistic, stereotypically black and white history is possible anywhere or anytime in the history of the world.
4- It is both ironical and sarcastic that Turkey remains today number one tourism destination for Armenia’s Armenians, while the Armenian lobby in the U.S. cannot stand even a legitimate third party business deal between a sports celebrity and the Turkish Airlines. So, while Armenia’s Armenians enjoy Turkish hospitality, culture, food, music, dances, sights and sounds without limits, the Armenian diaspora in the U.S. would limit freedom to conduct business, associate, and travel. This shows the stark difference between Armenia Armenians and aggressive and hate-filled Diaspora Armenians.
5- There are close to 100,000 illegal Armenian workers in Turkey today and they enjoy higher standards of living in Turkey than in Armenia than anywhere else they immigrate which is why they increasingly choose to stay in Turkey. This Turkish goodwill should embarrass those Diaspora Armenians in America whose approach to Turkish matters seems to be driven by hate and vengeance.
6- There is more, but I think my point is made.
In summary, sports and travel can only foster peace and prosperity around the world and there is nothing wrong with them…
… Is there?
Sincerely,
Ergün KIRLIKOVALI
President-Elect, ATAA*
presidentelect@ataa.org
Irvine, CA
(*) The Assembly of Turkish American Associations, www.ataa.org , a non-profit NGO, established in 1979 to fight bias, defamation, and disinformation on matters important to Turkish Americans. As an umbreall organization, ATAA serves more than 60 component associations coast to caost.
