Does Erdogan Have The Courage To Follow Footsteps Of Willy Brandt?
By Noubar Serabian
The photo which was taken on 07 December 1970 and became known as “Kniefall von Warschau” or “Warsaw Genuflection” – the act of bending the knees to the ground as a sign of deep respect. West German Chancellor Willy Brandt was on an official visit to Poland, when he made a decision to visit the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising monument. On that cold and rainy morning, Chancellor Brandt laid a wreath in front of the monument, took a few steps back, reflected in silence on the horrors associated with the history of the monument, and spontaneously knelt to honor the memory of thousands of jews who perished following an uprising against the Nazi Army.
Chancellor Brandt emphasized that “Faced with the abyss of German history and the burden of the millions who had been murdered, I did what we humans do when words fail us.”
For his courage, honesty, and serious attempts to build trust with Eastern Europe, Chancellor Brandt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971.
Why am I talking about an event that took place more than 50 years ago? An article forced me to step outside my comfort zone and revisit the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
The article appeared under the title of “Reconciliation Is No Longer a Dirty Word” authored by Varouj Pogharian, and published on 16 January 2026 by keghart.org.
Mr. Pogharian fails to emphasize the fact that “Normalization” and “Reconciliation” do not have to coexist within the same political agenda. You can normalize a relation between two historical enemies, for example Greece and Turkey, but it does not mean the bloody past between the two nations has been reconciled, and hatred is almost non-existent between the two neighbors.
Now, do we have any indications that Mr. Erdogan, at one point in time in the near or distant future, will visit Tzizernakapert, place a wreath to honor the memory of the
1.5 million Armenians who perished during the Armenian Genocide of 1915, and kneel stating that “Faced with the abyss of Turkish savagery, and the burden of the 1.5 million Armenians slaughtered in 1915, I did what we humans do when words fail us.”
Personally, I don’t think a devout Ottomanist such as Sultan Erdogan will ever follow the footsteps of Chancellor Brandt. On February 10, 2018, during a ceremony marking the centenary of the death of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II held at The Yildiz Palace in Istanbul, Sultan Erdogan proudly declared: “The Republic of Turkey, just like our previous states that are a continuation of one another, is also a continuation of the Ottomans.… Of course, the borders have changed. Forms of government have changed…, but the essence is the same, soul is the same, even many institutions are the same.”
Sultan Erdogan continued his diatribe against “bigoted” secular Western democracies that often referred to Abdulahamid II as “The Red Sultan”, by insisting that Abdulhamid II, who slaughtered more than 200.000 Armenians (Hamidian Massacres), was one of the “…most important, most visionary and most strategic minded” ruler that left indelible marks on the political landscape of Turkey for the last 150 years.
Sultan Erdogan concluded his speech by adding the following statement: “Some people insistently try to start this country’s history from 1923. Some unrelentingly try to break us from our roots and ancient values…We take pride in our history without making discrimination.”
PM Pashinyan, has been peddling to the Armenian nation the delusion that all the economic woes of Armenia will be solved once he solidifies the “Noramlization” process with Sultan Erdogan “The Reformist”, and forge a diplomatic relationship with Turkey.
Erdogan is not a reformist. He is a “Bona Fide” Islamist who strongly believes that Pashinyan is nothing but a “Gavour”. And to every “Gavour” he recites the following verse: “Leave to me those that deny this revelation. We will lead them step by step to their ruin, in ways beyond their knowledge”. Quran 68:44, N.J. Dawood
The Sultan will lead Pashinyan and Armenia, step by step, down the path of a ruinous destiny once the proper geopolitical conditions allow him to finish what his Ottoman ancestors started back in 1915.
