Chidem Inch: Oh, It’s About Occupied Lands…

An open letter to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey.

 

Dear President Erdogan:

 

Can I call you Recep?  Actually, I am not sure why, but I prefer Reg or Reggie.

I do understand ego and your wanting usurp that Ataturk fellow in the minds and hearts of “your” people.  I understand the use of Islam to control your people.  It helps cover up your corruption and it gets them behind your thinly veiled ambition to be the second coming of an Ottoman Sultan and to establish a new Caliphate.  That is quite ambitious Reg.  I get it, you are megalomaniac.

You were masterful in ridding the military of all those secular, republican, generals.  That fake coup you staged in July 2016 was brilliant.  You basically established your lifelong rule in Turkey with that one act.  You purged the government and universities of Never-Erdoganers.  You even fooled the Western Press into believing it was a real coup. I mean, Reggie, what a gift you have.

I was curious, Reg, did you dream this shit up while sitting on the gold throne you built for yourself in your new palace? 

Lately, you’re taking a new tack.  Frankly, Reggie, I am none too pleased about it.  Perhaps is it the next phase of a master plan you have had all along.  You are actually trying to expand Turkey’s influence in the region by your incursions into Northern Syria.  It was in the news that you even drew up plans to invade and conquer Greece and Armenia.  It truly is an Ottoman obsession.

Now, you are backing your wayward cousins in Azerbaijan into an attempt to conquer those upstart Armenians in Kharabagh.  You even went so far as to say, “finish the work our grandfather’s started.”  I imagine if no other countries seriously complained and offered military assistance to Armenia, you would do just that as a first step to… what end?  A Pan-Turanic empire?

This week you had a meeting with your buddy Putin about this war with the Armenians.  You told him, and I paraphrase, that the Armenians must leave the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Occupied territories?  Really?  You brought up the idea of occupied territories.  Reggie, Reggie, Reggie.  Sure, absolutely, let’s talk about occupied territories.  You can start by vacating all territories and properties inside your own borders that belong to the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians.  Give us the churches, homes, businesses, and schools the grandfather’s you invoked took from my grandfathers.  Really Reg… you brought up occupied territories?!?

Stalin gave the majority Armenian Kharabagh to a newly formed country Azerbaijan in 1921.  He did it to spite the Armenians.  The newly founded thing called Azerbaijan occupied Armenian lands then.  Six short years earlier, well, Reggie, you and the rest of the world know what happened.  Your grandfathers committed Genocide and occupied everything we had.

Occupied territories?!?  Give them back.  While you’re at it pay your tab.  Eleven years ago, in his book Children of Armenia, Michael Bobelian estimated you owed us $44 Billion in confiscated lands, buildings, and businesses.  That figure is probably $50 Billion now.  Your gold throne can be the down payment.  Occupied territories indeed.

I know Reggie.  Might makes right.  Your grandfathers evoked that in 1915 and you are trying to do the same right now. 

Occupied territories?!?  Ağrı Dağı bizimdir.  

 

P.S.  My friend Steve wants you to watch this video.  But, let's be honest here Reg... you already know these facts.