Turkey can't hide from its past

May 11, 2006
Ottawa Citizen
By Harry Sterling, Citizen Special

'The Armenian claims are a direct attack on our identity, on Turkey's history."

With these words Turkish embassy counsellor Yonet Tezel explained his government's decision to recall its ambassador to Canada, Aydemir Erman, for "consultations." The move followed recent remarks by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper associating his government with Canadian parliamentary resolutions describing the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey during the First World War as an act of genocide.

Turkey has made a similar move against the French government for contemplating a proposed law making denial of the Armenian genocide a crime.

As a further indication of its displeasure, Turkey has announced it is cancelling participation of Turkish fighter aircraft in an international military air exercise May 17 to June 24 in Cold Lake, Alta.

Despite its actions directed at Ottawa and Paris, Turkish authorities stressed the recalls were only "... for a short time for consultations over the latest developments about the baseless allegations of Armenian genocide."

While the statement by the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was essentially pro-forma, for many it was indicative of Turkey's inability to confront an issue that is never going to go away until the Turks come to terms with it.

Turkish governments have always maintained that the large-scale deaths of Armenians during the First World War and after occurred when the then-Ottoman government was trying to put down Armenian nationalists aligned with invading Russian forces and was not an act of premeditated genocide. They also insist the figure of 1.5 million deaths is inflated and that during that turbulent period hundreds of thousands of Turks in eastern Turkey also died.

While these explanations are widely shared by the Turkish population, some Turks have called for a more open-minded approach to the issue, including Turkey's internationally recognized author Orhan Pamuk.

He was subjected to widespread criticism and physical threats for commenting during an interview about the Armenian genocide and repression of the country's Kurdish minority, both considered taboo subjects, especially by Turkish nationalists. He was charged with denigrating the nation and faced a stiff prison sentence. However, as a result of international pressure, particularly from the European Union -- which Turkey wants to join -- the government dropped the charges on technical grounds.

A number of Turkish academics have also voiced support for examining the genocide issue with more of an open mind. One way to do this would be to open up Ottoman-era archives and other documentary sources, including Russian military reports that might shed light on what took place during fighting in the region.

Investigations carried out by German and U.S. analysts concerning the deaths concluded that the catastrophic defeat of Turkish troops engaged against Russian forces during the early stages of the First World War, and the Turkish army's claim it had been stabbed in the back by Armenian nationalists, resulted in the Turkish military disarming and executing countless Armenian men as traitors, regardless of whether they were engaged in an anti-Turkish insurgency.

The Turkish army purportedly then rounded up Armenian women and children, ordering their deportation via the Syrian Desert, resulting in massive deaths.
Turkish authorities dispute such findings, maintaining there was no official policy to exterminate Armenians and that most deaths were caused during the deportation to Syria due to lack of adequate provisions at a chaotic time in eastern Anatolia.

Notwithstanding contradictory views on what transpired nine decades ago, what is incomprehensible to many outside Turkey is why current-day Turks are unable to look back on those horrific developments in a more balanced fashion, instead of insisting Armenian claims have absolutely no foundation in truth.

I find above is the real crux of the matter and the reason why the world must keep asking the question. Conscientious Turks are asking this question and they have been stifled by the government. Turkey will never get into full democracy until it faces its past squarely.

One reason that has been cited concerns the Turkish military, seen as the true power in Turkey. The modern-day Turkish military founded by Kemal Ataturk has always seen itself as the defender not just of the country's independence, but also of its national honour and dignity. The Turkish officer caste takes its role in society extremely seriously, even executing a prime minister for allegedly endangering the stability of the state. Anything that could raise doubts or undermine the military's ability to present itself as guardian of Turkey's national honour and territorial integrity, or which portrays Turks behaving in a barbaric fashion, is unacceptable.

This, some claim, is why it's near impossible to confront the realities behind the tragic fate of Turkey's Armenian population 90 years ago -- or Turkey's treatment of its Kurdish population -- since it could undermine Turkey's own idealized perception of itself as a modern, liberal society.

But like Germany, Turkey must confront the realities of the past if it expects to be accepted as a nation capable of dealing open-mindedly with its own history, however disagreeable that might be.

Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator. He served in Turkey.

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.