Weltschau

We seem to have forgotten that modern Turkey is a land of immigrants and refugees. The ancestors of most of us were expelled from Crimea, the Balkans, and the Caucasus, where they lived, as a result of Russian expansion, and settled in Turkey, where they started a new life. Then, before they could catch their breath, when the new homeland was about to suffer a similar fate, they joined forces and helped expel the enemies from the country. Most of them did not have the strength to look back. They buried their pain in their hearts and found solace in folk songs. They chose to continue on their way with a brand new identity. Today, their grandchildren with memories like a sieve are preparing to listen with callousness to the concerts of the Russian Red Army Choir, which bears the cursed name of an armed force whose baggage is full of bloody occupations and deportations, on the dates, respectively, of the 160th and 80th anniversaries of the Circassian genocide and the Crimean Tatar Exile. How can we claim that the timing of these ominously connoted dates is not intentional?

Fortunately, those whose wounds have not healed and who have not forgotten their lineage began to object and raise their voices, saying “it can’t be like this” and warning the public. Let’s see how the rest of society and state officials will react to this justified sensitivity. One cannot win without struggle. Will national pride be able to stand up against the insolence of the Red Army Choir, the flagship of Russia, a monument of arrogance knowing no limits tasked with colonizing minds through “art” that has recently inflated the record of its genocidal crimes in Ukraine? Put your hand on your heart and think about it. Only this way you can make the right decision.

Bülent Tanatar

Turkish citizen of Crimean Tatar origin. He studied economics. Retired from the private sector. One of the editors of Emel magazine.