AN INTERVIEW WITH GEGHAM MANUKYAN

Gegham Manukyan is a member of the Central Committee of the Dashnaktsutiune Armenian Revolutionary Federation in the Republic of Armenia. He was interviewed during festivities celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK] organised by the Yezidi community in Armenia, and staged at the Russian Theatre in Yerevan. This interview was conducted by Onnik James Krikorian in Yerevan, Armenia, on 2 December 1998.

ONNIK JAMES KRIKORIAN: Are you here today as an official representative of Dashnaktsutiune?

GEGHAM MANUKYAN: Yes.

OK: Does this mean that Dashnaktsutiune considers the Kurdish Question in Turkey is an important issue, and that Armenians should be concerned with what is occuring to the Kurds in Turkey?

GM: Armenians must respect the wishes of any nation that wants to be free, anywhere in the world.

OK: At the moment, many people are calling Ocalan a terrorist, and the PKK a terrorist organisation. Are you worried that you might be supporting an organisation that many are calling terrorist?

GM: No leader who wishes his nation to be free can be considered a terrorist, and those that consider Ocalan a terrorist, are actually the terrorists themselves – the Turkish leaders are involved with the mafia – and I think that in time people will consider Ocalan similar to Arafat. He was once considered a terrorist, and now he has been awarded prizes for peace.

OK: And interesting too, because Dashnaktsutiune itself was considered a terrorist organisation [Dro]. in Armenia. Perhaps “terrorist” is just a political label?

GM: Yes. I was in prison for three years. Do I look like a terrorist? [laughs].

It will be better when the Kurdish problem is solved not through force, but through political dialogue, and I am sure that this will happen now.

OK: I have been following closely the events in Italy [Ocalan’s arrival]. It seems inevitable that people will have to realise the importance of negotiating some form of autonomy for the Kurds in Turkey. However, if the Kurds do get some form of autonomy in southeast Turkey how do you feel as an Armenian when you consider that some of this land is Armenian?

GM: It is a problem between the Kurds and Armenians, but we can solve this problem. We are discussing it already. According to Ocalan an agreement is possible.

OK: I came here in June to look at the Yezidi minority in Armenia. The community is split – some Yezidi consider themselves Kurdish and support the PKK, whilst the others are trying to define themselves most definitely as not being Kurds. Are you aware of this split, and that the Kurds in the hall today are mainly Yezidi Kurds – perhaps there are only one or two Muslim Kurds from Turkey?

GM: This is a very complicated question – a matter of ethnology – about the origins of the Yezidi and the Kurds. Only on a scientific level can this be solved, but everybody should be free to decide to call themselves either Kurd or Yezidi.

OK: It is Interesting because it appears that many Yezidi outside of Armenia consider themselves Kurdish, and the division only seems to exist in Armenia. The allegation is that the division was promoted during the Ter-Petrossian years for whatever reasons. It is still open to debate as to what exactly those reasons were – in response to Turkish accusations of Armenian support of the PKK, fear of Kurdish nationalism, or just ignorance – I don’t know. Whatever the reasons, there is no mistaking the fact that the Yezidi speak Kurmanji [Kurdish], and I noticed that at the end of your address to the audience so did you.

GM: [laughs] I learnt Kurdish in prison. I was in prison in Armenia with three Kurds. They were refugees from Iraq, they travelled to Iran, and from Iran, through Nakhichevan. They were arrested and imprisoned in Armenia. They taught me Kurdish.

OK: Kocharian has already stated that Ocalan would not be allowed political asylum in Armenia, and some people are concerned about PKK activities here. What response do you have to these concerns?

GM: The PKK has representatives in many countries. Most of these conserns are as a result of Turkish propaganda, and it is absurd to suggest that there are PKK military bases in Armenia.