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Gocek Threatens to Sue
Turks Who Sent Her Hate Mail
By Harut Sassounian
Turkish-American professor Fatma
Muge Gocek received abusive and possibly libelous e-mails
from Turks last week after criticizing the denialist
policies of the Turkish government on the Armenian genocide
during an interview conducted by Aris Babikian that was
published in Horizon Weekly, a Canadian-Armenian newspaper,
and posted on several Internet sites.
A Turk, calling himself “Ilyas Botas” (who also uses various
aliases on different occasions) sent an e-mail full of
insults to Gocek with copies to scores of others, including
the Turkish Embassy. Referring to Gocek as “a useful idiot,”
the so-called “Botas” wrote: “This bimbo not only has an
immense ego problem, but she is odiously (sic) arrogant. The
chutzpah of this airhead of a woman is as big as her
considerable heft.”
In a blatant attempt to libel Gocek, “Botas” wrote: “How
obviously and how crudely her words are geared to please her
Dashnak benefactors. If this woman is not a pathetic,
sycophantic, toady of the Dashnak hate lobby, then my name
is not Keenan Pars,” thus shamelessly disclosing another one
of his aliases.
“Botas” then went on to attack Elif Shafak, a prominent
Turkish scholar who had no role in the interview, but who
had previously made sympathetic comments about Armenians.
“Botas” described Shafak as “the other bimbo.”
Another Turk by the name of Ferruh Demirmen, who supposedly
is a petroleum consultant in Houston, Texas, also sent a
libelous hate e-mail to these two Turkish scholars, stating
that “they are self delusional, they thrive in vanity,
surpass in inanity, and their mark is stupidity. Arrogance
is in their blood, deceit is their trade, and the Pavlovian
instinct is in their psyche. As long as there are those like
Gocek and her ilk, that are ready to serve their Dashnak
masters, Turks don’t need enemies.”
In a separate e-mail posted on the Turkish Forum, “Botas”
referred to Gocek and Shafak as “opportunistic parasites who
sell their souls for personal gain.” “Botas” is listed as a
Board Member of the Turkish Forum.
Gocek sent an e-mail to both Demirmen and “Botas,” advising
them that attorneys for the University of Michigan, where
she is a tenured professor, are “looking into the legal
implications of internet hate mail on the senders, their
e-mail service providers, as well as the Web sites and the
service providers of the Web sites at which these hate mails
then get posted.”
In an e-mail Gocek posted on the Armenian Workshop site, she
said: “I am not the only one to receive such hate mail. I
know Taner Akcam, Halil Berktay and Elif Shafak had received
such mail in large volumes and it became clear at the
Istanbul Conference in September 2005 that many of the
participants there and specially the journalists who
happened to write on the Armenian issue have received it in
droves as well.”
Gocek described her predicament as follows: “You have
scholars on the one side and some vicious individuals—who of
course are not scholars—backed by certain institutions sent
out to attack them with all their might, on the other. That
is not fair. For the peaceful resolution of the Armenian
issue, such tacit institutional or organizational support
behind such maliciously behaving individuals needs to stop.
And even though such tacit support may work in Turkey, where
the legal system, unfortunately, does not work as well as it
ought to, it should not work in the United States.”
In response to Gocek’s e-mail to the senders of the these
hate mails, “Ilyas Botas” responded with even more insulting
and obnoxious words, by writing: “The fat lady threatens
legal action. And I am shaking in my boots, or more
correctly, in my wing-tip shoes. Are the chickens coming
home to roost, Ms. Gocek? How do you like them apples?
Weren’t you and a bunch of other Dashnak lackeys the ones
who were decrying the lack of freedom of expression in
Turkey before you held your ‘Armenian Conference’ in
Istanbul? How now, Gocek Efendi? The moccasin is on the
other foot and you don’t seem to like it. That’s too bad.
How am I doing so far, fat lady? Am I providing you with
even more grounds for ‘legal action’? Good. Send in your
lawyers. Take your best shot. I’ll provide you with even
more grounds. Or by ‘legal action’ do you mean to send the
hoodlum punks from the Armenian Youth Federation or some
such thing? Fat lady Gocek, I am ready for all
eventualities, including having the perimeter of my house
decorated with surveillance cameras. You say you are a
professor ‘with tenure.’ Where did you get your degree? Like
Dennis Papazian, at the Guguk Gagikyan Lahmajun Bakery? I
will distribute the same piece to every institution, public
or non (sic), as well as to individuals, that I can. I think
every Tom, Dick and Harry in the world should know what
you’re up to. Hey, what the hell more can you ask for? I’m
making you famous. I expect you will send me my 10 percent
commission via Fedex. Oh, if you want a good attorney, I
recommend the Armenian lawyer, Mark Geragos the Gorgeous.
Oh, I know he lost his last two big cases for the shoplifter
actress Winona Rider [Ryder] and for the murderer Scott
Peterson, but I think he still has the knack. I bet he’ll
even do pro bono work for people who are inclined to be
toadies for the slick Dashnak lobby. Wishing for your
eventual cessation of prostituting for the Dashnak hate
peddlers, Ilyas.”
These vicious words remind one of the Armenian saying:
Hayhoyanke pasdi sov e. Cursing demonstrates a drought of
proof. If Gocek does carry out her intent to sue these
unsavory characters, she would not only safeguard her own
reputation, but she would blow the cover of such impostors
who carry out a vicious campaign of insults and threats,
hiding behind fake names and phony e-mail addresses.
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