Turkish People Is At Peace With Its History, Gul
Published: 9/24/2005
Turkish Press
ISTANBUL - ''The Turkish people is at peace with itself and with its history,'' said Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.
Sending a message to the opening session of the Conference entitled ''The Armenians during the Collapse of the Ottoman Empire'', Gul said, ''the approaches of our government and our people towards our past, including Turkish-Armenian relations, constitute an indication of our confidence in ourselves and our future.''
In his message, Gul said, ''the last era of the Ottoman Empire is subject to discussion and research in academic circles, with increased interest. Nearly every day new documents from the era emerge and new books, articles and research papers are published. Yet, it is not possible to say that all data and documents related to those times have been properly analyzed. With an aim to help redress this shortcoming, our government is in the process of taking important steps to enable the Ottoman Archives to serve researchers, in modern conditions. Our Archives have begun to serve scientists through documents converted to a digital medium since 2003. Within this context, many researchers, coming from 75 different countries have completed their research on the Ottoman Archives. These activities are ongoing.''
[...]
''It is a fact that in some chapters of history, or even today, some societies cannot tolerate one other's language, religion, identity or even very existence. It is an unfortunate reality that such intolerance can turn into a deep-rooted and destructive ideology, which gets ingrained in the social subconscious. Some serious and very dangerous trends, from xenophobia to racism and from anti-Semitism to attitudes against Muslims are present and are on the rise today, even in societies which represent the highest level of contemporary civilization,'' underlined Gul.
Gul stressed, ''it is a source of pleasure that such a psychology does not exist between the Turks and Armenians. This also constitutes a major advantage for the future of relations between the two peoples.''
''Another issue I want to draw your attention to is that, many studies so far held on the theme of the Conference, particularly outside Turkey, have been conducted with political motivations, in a manner inconsistent with scientific ethics and objectivity. [...].''
[...] ''young generations from all nations must know and draw lessons from the facts that during the last era of the Ottoman Empire the imperialist-colonial powers ruthlessly exploited peoples' ethno-religious sensitivities for their own gains and that some elements, knowingly or unknowingly, became instruments to these provocations.[...].''
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Turkish Press
ISTANBUL - ''The Turkish people is at peace with itself and with its history,'' said Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.
Sending a message to the opening session of the Conference entitled ''The Armenians during the Collapse of the Ottoman Empire'', Gul said, ''the approaches of our government and our people towards our past, including Turkish-Armenian relations, constitute an indication of our confidence in ourselves and our future.''
In his message, Gul said, ''the last era of the Ottoman Empire is subject to discussion and research in academic circles, with increased interest. Nearly every day new documents from the era emerge and new books, articles and research papers are published. Yet, it is not possible to say that all data and documents related to those times have been properly analyzed. With an aim to help redress this shortcoming, our government is in the process of taking important steps to enable the Ottoman Archives to serve researchers, in modern conditions. Our Archives have begun to serve scientists through documents converted to a digital medium since 2003. Within this context, many researchers, coming from 75 different countries have completed their research on the Ottoman Archives. These activities are ongoing.''
[...]
''It is a fact that in some chapters of history, or even today, some societies cannot tolerate one other's language, religion, identity or even very existence. It is an unfortunate reality that such intolerance can turn into a deep-rooted and destructive ideology, which gets ingrained in the social subconscious. Some serious and very dangerous trends, from xenophobia to racism and from anti-Semitism to attitudes against Muslims are present and are on the rise today, even in societies which represent the highest level of contemporary civilization,'' underlined Gul.
Gul stressed, ''it is a source of pleasure that such a psychology does not exist between the Turks and Armenians. This also constitutes a major advantage for the future of relations between the two peoples.''
''Another issue I want to draw your attention to is that, many studies so far held on the theme of the Conference, particularly outside Turkey, have been conducted with political motivations, in a manner inconsistent with scientific ethics and objectivity. [...].''
[...] ''young generations from all nations must know and draw lessons from the facts that during the last era of the Ottoman Empire the imperialist-colonial powers ruthlessly exploited peoples' ethno-religious sensitivities for their own gains and that some elements, knowingly or unknowingly, became instruments to these provocations.[...].''
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 6:44 AM
1 Comments:
Mr. Gul,
With all respects sir, unless you were living on another planet the non-Turkish archives were open long time ago. Specially the German archives your Ottoman ally. They tell the story Mr. Gul. Do not make empty political statements. Truth and honesty Mr. Gul.
How do we know the Turkish archives are not doctored to remove the evidence since they were converted to digital in 2003? Why were your archives not open before?
Your statement putting down the publications and research done todate outside of Turkey and attempt to revise history now so late is despicable. But despite your attempt the truth will come out!
It is time for contrition not more research, Mr. Gul.
If both people have suffered how come there are no Armenians left in Turkey except a small number living in Istanbul? What happened to the thousands of churches when only a handful stand today? What happened to the Armenian schools? Where have those Armenian children gone? How many Armenians have been forecefully converted to Islam? The truth Mr. Gul only the truth!
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