Turkey tried to head off PM's verdict on 'genocide'

From the Globe an Mail: Thursday, May 11, 2006

Turkey tried to head off PM's verdict on 'genocide'

BRIAN LAGHI

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

The Prime Minister of Turkey sent Stephen Harper a letter last month asking him to not characterize the mass killing of Armenians in the early 1900s as a genocide and instead support an academic inquiry into the matter.

Does Turkey want a retrial? In 1919 the Turkish government's own tribunal condemned the act and punished the perpetrators with death sentences. What changed is the Turkish government with a strong nationalistic backing by the Turkish military. Why is Turkey holding the second largest army in the NATO? What for? The answer is the Article 301 which makes it illegal to publish material that "denigrates Turkishness" and the institutions of the state, be they the government, the judiciary, the military or the state security apparatus. Under the law, doing so from outside Turkey is sanctioned more severely - it increases one's jail sentence by one-third.

One day later, Mr. Harper went ahead with the statement, sparking a diplomatic contretemps that led to the recall of Turkey's ambassador to Canada and the country's decision to withdraw from a military exercise in Alberta.

The Turkish letter, an unofficial translation of which was obtained by The Globe and Mail, says that a push by the Armenian community to have the mass killing of Armenians recognized as a genocide has clouded Turkish-Canadian relations.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also asked that Mr. Harper instead support a Turkish initiative to have scholars from Turkey and Armenia study the matter and issue a report to the international community.

"As you know, the allegation of 'genocide' is a sensitive issue for both the Turkish people and Turkish Governments," the letter said. "In fact, the events that took place in 1915 constitute a period which historians consider as contentious."

This is Turkey's hope by funding scholars to revise history. But the reality is otherwise and educated people are not fooled.

The letter is being made public after Turkey's decisions this week to recall its ambassador for consultations and to pull out of an international military exercise that is to begin in Cold Lake, Alta., next week. Turkey is upset about Mr. Harper's affirmation of a free vote of Parliament two years ago in which a majority of MPs voted to condemn the brutal treatment of the Armenians. However, the cabinet of the day voted against the motion and it was considered non-binding.

About two dozen other countries have recognized the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians as a genocide. Turkey maintains the deaths were caused by civil strife, diseases and famine during the turmoil of the First World War while Armenia was under Turkish Ottoman control.

The Turkish Prime Minister's letter was dated April 18.

The letter said that although Armenia has yet to respond positively to Turkey's proposal for an academic study, Mr. Erdogan hoped that Mr. Harper would support the idea.

He said that while bonds between Canada and Turkey have deepened -- including co-operation on stabilizing Afghanistan -- "the Armenian lobby in your country has not given up its intentions to create problems in Turkish-Canadian relations."

Veiled threats or blackmail?

Turkish authorities confirmed yesterday there had been correspondence. They would not say how Canadian officials replied, if at all, although government sources said yesterday that officials informed the Turkish embassy in advance of their plans.

Conservative sources have said that the move is not an effort to win the votes of the Armenian diaspora in Canada, of whom there are about 70,000. Rather, the issue is seen by many in the Conservative caucus as a historic wrong.

Conservative MP Jason Kenney, parliamentary secretary to Mr. Harper, and a long-time supporter of the Armenian viewpoint, said yesterday that the Prime Minister was simply acknowledging the House of Commons vote.

"I think that personally the Parliament was right to take the decision and the Prime Minister had no option but to recognize that decision," Mr. Kenney said. "I'm hopeful that the government of Turkey will have as much respect for the decisions of the Parliament of Canada as our government does."

Mr. Kenney said the idea of having the two sides co-operate in a study should not involve Canada.

It is right because Turkey is coercing Armenia to accept it through external pressure and the blockade of its borders with Armenia on condition that Armenia should drop the pursuit of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

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