Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu gave a searing speech Feb. 27 on the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the eastern province of Bingol. In his speech he accused the Kurds of taking advantage of the situation in the southeastern border towns of Sur and Silopi. "They are collaborating with Russia like the Armenian gangs used to do. They are opening a diplomatic mission in Moscow," he said.
Nurhan Becidyan, an Armenian-American who served in the Turkish army as a reserve officer in the 1970s, told Al-Monitor about the meaning of the term "Armenian gangs." He said, “When an Armenian hears the term, he immediately recalls the official Turkish government history lessons of the past century that talk about how the Armenians in 1915 collaborated with the ‘enemy’ [Russians] and revolted against the Ottomans. Thus they had to be deported and some unavoidable deaths occurred during the deportations. This is a trauma they have been facing for the past 100 years and they now say, ‘Here we go again.’”
