Shame, embarrassment, regret, remorse and repentance are feelings that pertain to human beings and as the individual develops, those feelings transform to decency and consciousness.
When a liar is exposed, it is expected that he turns red in the face, if he hasn't lost all sense of shame. If a lie is really beneficial for the liar, it becomes harder to confess. The liar begins to bear enmity to the ones who exposed the lie. Turkish intelligence service's (MİT) trucks are one of the recent examples to this.
As part of the political program of Unionists, Turks and Muslim peoples of Turkey carried out genocide against Armenians and Christian peoples of the country. This is a crystal-clear fact. Indeed, the denialist discourse developed by the republic governments doesn't deny the genocide, it tries to rationalize and justify it. It tries to blame the victims with “buts”.
It is also well known that the crime that was committed in 1915 happened within the knowledge of the entire world. Powerful European countries had been informed on a daily basis by the reports of their own diplomats, journalists and missionaries. However, after the war of sharing, they kept silent about this major crime because of their political and economic interests. After all, Turkey, with its 80 million population, is an important market for the West and was an important ally of western politics until recently. It is also the NATO country that has the most soldiers in Europe.
The US and European countries could have continued to turn a deaf ear to the demand of justice of Armenian people. However, when the jihadist groups, which President Erdoğan has been supporting in the dirty war in Syria, began to pose a threat to the West, the balances became upset. Chancellor Merkel thought that the refugee deal is the remedy, but this negotiation made European people angry and they reacted against the Turkish government.
In such a context, Bundestag passed the Armenian Genocide resolution almost unanimously, which defines 1915 massacres as genocide. This decision is different from other resolutions that had been passed by other foreign parliaments. This time, the perpetrator of the crime acknowledges its responsibility and expresses its regret about the disaster that was caused by German Reich.
In response to this development, Turkey hides behind the same old arguments that only fascists would buy and threatens the Armenians who came to Turkey for working to send them back to Armenia.
The meaning of General Vicar of the Patriarch Archbishop Aram Ateşyan's letter to President Erdoğan is nothing but adding insult to the injury.
Nobody should dare to rationalize this demeaning behavior with “possible oppression”. We know the oppression of the Turkish state only too well. Just a few days ago, two tools of the state disguised as journalists surrounded a couple of old Armenians, who are working in their fields in Kastamonu countryside, and tested their loyalty. Those poor people know very well what happened and under which conditions their people were deported from those villages. However, they are aware of the fact that if they express the truth, their fields might be taken away from them.
And we know for sure that what those unprotected poor villagers said hasn't hurt anybody, but what the General Vicar of the Patriarch said on behalf of his people has put all Armenians to shame.