Will Ankara’s Armenian initiative work?

26.04.2007
Today's Zaman
By LALE SARIIBRAHIMOGLU
loglu@todayszaman.com

Present day Turkey's rulers in between their four walls of ego, anchored in their imperial past and the second largest army in NATO for no other reason than to keep internal security, are deluding themselves by thinking the world and Armenians are naive to the point of idiocy. They discard voluminous research done by a large body of scholars over time as propaganda and shamelessly think that they can manipulate world opinion through advertising at no other date than on the commemoration of the Armenian genocide.

Yet another April 24 was commemorated by many countries as the day to mourn for the Armenians believed to have been subjected to a so-called genocide during World War I at the hands of Ottoman Turks.

Ankara, denying the event was genocide, does accept that there were killings of Armenians that took place under Ottoman Turkish rule between 1915 and 1918. Ankara however refutes the characterization of the events as genocide and says that the deaths were not the result of a deliberate campaign, but rather took place during the relocation of Armenians within the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

However since around 18 countries worldwide, as well as the majority of US states, recognize the World War I incidents as genocide, Ankara has long faced a difficult task in proving the opposite. This is mainly because it had not launched any tangible initiative, until 2005 when the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) offered the establishment of a joint committee of Turkish and Armenian historians, who would investigate whether the World War I events were indeed genocide.

Under strong pressure, mainly from the hard-line Armenian diaspora, Yerevan has so far refrained from accepting the Turkish offer, which also contained a pledge to open all the Turkish archives without any limitations.

Ankara has long been complaining about the failure of the powerful nations of the world, such as the US, Britain and Russia, to convince and encourage Yerevan to agree to the Turkish offer for the establishment of the joint historians committee. Many Turkish diplomats believe that Yerevan cannot single-handedly take a step to agree on meeting with Turkish historians and that powerful nations should therefore play a role in bringing Yerevan to the table to discuss the matter.

In an attempt to renew its joint committee idea, Ankara launched a campaign on the same day of the commemoration of the so-called Armenian genocide, April 24. Selecting five influential US dailies, including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, Ankara called on Armenia, in a full page advert, to join the committee in an attempt to shed light on what happened in 1915.

The advert states that third parties can participate in the committee's work, while guaranteeing that Turkey will open all its archives without any restrictions. Turkey is ready to face its past, said the same ad, calling on Armenia to do same.

Such an initiative, as far as I know, comes 88 years after the British High Commissioner based in İstanbul, acting on an Ottoman Turkish request, invited some countries to participate in a commission to investigate the alleged Armenian genocide. This request, turned down by Britain the same year, was proof of reluctance on the part of some European countries to investigate the matter, writes Turkey's veteran diplomat Gürsel Demirok in his latest book "Turks in Europe from the Viewpoint of a Consul General."

But between 1919 and 2005 we have to admit that Turkey did not do much at all to have its case heard through the examination of its archives.

Still Ankara's latest initiatives should not be underestimated, though coming quite late, and should be heard and responded to positively by Armenia as well as by other nations with influence on Yerevan.

One of those countries is of course the US, where there has been an influential Armenian lobby in the US Congress in particular, which could influence Armenia in agreeing to the Turkish offer.

This offer also proves Turkey's sincerity in shedding light on the events of 1915. Perhaps for the first time in its history, Turkey has been displaying its readiness to face the claims and unearth the realities, if possible.

Thus publishing the advert directly taking on Armenia as an interlocutor, Ankara has been doing the right thing. But this initiative can only bear fruit if the powerful nations of the world, in particular the US, take genuine steps to convince Armenia to agree to the Turkish offer of the joint historians committee.

The convening of the committee can also be expected to mark the beginning of establishing confidence between the two neighbors, helping interaction between the peoples of both countries, while contributing to the reduction of historic enmity.


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.