bout de papier, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2014) — Summer 2014 // Été 2014, p. 3
Le 27 août dernier, le diplomate à la retraite Paul Heinbecker a pris la parole a Ottawa lors de la cérémonie commémorative pour les diplomates décédés en fonction, en mémoire de feu le colonel Atilla Altikat. Il a évoqué la tragédie et l’injustice de leur mort, en insistant sur les incidences plus générales d’une telle violence pour le Canada d’aujourd’hui et son immense diversité. Comme nous rappelons la vie d’Annemarie Desloges dans le présent numéro, les « notes » de M. Heinbecker revêtent une perspective éditoriale essentielle dans des termes extrêmement bien sentis. Ainsi, pour reprendre ses mots :
66 Today we commemorate diplomats fallen in the service of their
countries and to remind ourselves that while remembrance is necessary, even obligatory, it is not sufficient — we have responsibilities to acquit to the victims and to each other.
Many diplomats have faced great dangers in the service of their countries and suffered great harm. My friend and colleague Glyn Berry, my former deputy at the Canadian Mission to the United Nations in New York, was killed in January 2006, on duty in Afghanistan. Annemarie Desloges, a young Canadian diplomat, was killed last September in a terrorist attack in Nairobi.
Down through the decades and across the continents there have been many casualties. This monument, a gift from the people of Turkey, is dedicated to all diplomats and public servants around the world who lost their lives in service to their countries. It is dedicated to Colonel Atilla Altikat who was brutally murdered at this intersection by Armenian terrorists 32 years ago.
Atilla was a friend of mine, a young, bright, promising Turkish military pilot and diplomat. Ayla, Atilla’s wife, was a friend of Ayse, my wife. Goker, Atilla’s son, played together with Celine, my daughter, in our home and theirs. The last time I saw Atilla alive our two families and others had gathered for a picnic in Gatineau Park. A few days later he was dead at the hands of terrorists. The perpetrators have not yet been brought to justice.
Sadly, Attila was not the first Turkish diplomat attacked in Ottawa. Kani Gungor had been brutally assaulted earlier that year, and was left paralyzed. The Turkish Embassy itself was attacked by Armenian terrorists in 1985. Claude Brunelle, a young Canadian security guard at the Embassy, a student at the University of Ottawa, was killed in that attack. The Ambassador was seriously hurt and spent months in hospital. His family and embassy staff were traumatized, especially the children.
Turks were not the only diplomats attacked in Ottawa — other members of the diplomatic corps have been the objects of violence here — nor were diplomats the only targets of terrorists. Air India Flight 182 also was bombed in 1985 by a Sikh separatist group — 329 people, including 280 Canadians, were killed in the worst mass murder in Canadian history.
There is a common thread running through these tragedies: the unwritten contract of newcomers with Canada was broken in each case. That contract holds that people from every corner of the world, from every ethnic group, people from all faiths —and no faith — are welcome to join in the building of Canada provided they leave violence at the border. We cannot survive as a multicultural, diversity-valuing society if national, ethnic or religious groups import their conflicts into Canada.
That does not mean that anyone has a right to ask immigrants or their offspring to turn their backs on their pasts or to ignore what is happening now in their former homelands. But we do have a right to expect that they will, also, respect Canada and what it stands for.
Ata time of growing concern about home-grown terrorism, there is a further point to make on this occasion. Public peace is not guaranteed in Canada, any more than it is elsewhere. Peace, order and good government are not gifts bestowed on us by a benign Providence, nor are they the pre-ordained consequence of an inspired Constitution. They are the creation of an enlightened polity, in which people recognize society’s fragility and consciously work at living with one another constructively and peacefully. No one in this country, no citizen, no immigrant, no NGO leader or cleric, and no elected politician, is ever justified in playing diaspora politics or driving wedges:
° between Jews and Arabs e between Christians and Muslims ° between Sunni and Shia ° between Turks and Armenians ¢ or between any other diaspora communities
Diaspora politics is the tinder of a fire that could consume not just those who ignite it but us all.
We remember Atilla Altikat, Claude Brunelle, Glyn Berry, Annemarie Desloges and all the many diplomats who have died at the hand of terrorists. We remind ourselves that we have responsibilities as well as rights, and that we need to do more than remember. We need to resolve never to turn a blind eye to the extremists among us. “Peace, order and good government” must never be seen as just an aspiration, nor must it ever become just a slogan. It is the due of every citizen of this country, native born or newcomer, and it is the obligation of us all to defend it. Thank you, Merci and Teshekur ederim.
Stuart Hughes is Editor of bout de papier; Paul Heinbecker is a retired Foreign Service Officer and prominent commentator on foreign policy issues.
Originally published in / Publié à l’origine dans bout de papier, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2014) — Summer 2014 // Été 2014, p. 3. Read the rest of this issue / Lire le reste de ce numéro →
