Genocide Denial Robs us of our Humanity

Mayıs 15, 2008
Haber: Politika

The recent debate on Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) decision to develop a Grade 11 ‘Genocide: Historical and Contemporary Implications’ curriculum, which has been approved by the Minister of Education in Ontario, unleashed a sophisticated and deceptive campaign to discredit the curriculum and the TDSB. Any rational, responsible person would applaud the teaching of our students the catastrophic effects of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. That Turkish Government agents and lobbyists are campaigning to deter TDSB from introducing this extremely valuable course is dismaying, but not surprising. The well-funded and aggressive efforts by Turkey to deny the Armenian Genocide have been so prevalent in Turkey and around the world that they have become infamously known as “an industry of denial.” The motives and methods of these history-distorting efforts are well documented and studied by Holocaust and Genocide scholars, historians, educators and psychologists.

The Turkish denial machine employes falsehoods, innuendo, unsubstantiated accusations and revisionist historical discourse to promote its version of history.

What happened during the TDSB Program and Services Committee’s meeting in Toronto on January 16 is another demonstration of the extent the Turkish nationalists will go to silence anyone who does nor share their revisionist narrative of history. The Turkish representatives tried to intimidate and to silence such prominent Canadians as Prof. Frank Chalk, director of the Montréal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies; David Warner, former Speaker of the Ontario Legislative Assembly; Leo Adler, prominent criminal lawyer and human rights advocate; and Hon. Jim Karygiannis, MP, who attended the meeting to show their strong support for the curriculum and the inclusion of the Armenian Genocide in the Grade 11 history course.

To try to curtail freedom of expression of any Canadian and to taunt them with abuses and profanities is shameful and a threat to democracy. The scene was reminiscent of the trials of many righteous Turkish individuals who in recent years have challenged the Turkish Government for its denial of the Armenian Genocide and who have been silenced under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code.

It looks like The Turkish nationalists are trying to import that anti-democratic modus operandi to Canada.

Since it would take volumes to categorically reply to Turkish lobbyists’ falsehoods, I would like to address some of their revisionist historical discourse. We will note their false suggestions and then offer the factual corrections.

Introduction of the curriculum would incite hatred against Turkish children.

It is claimed that if such a curriculum is introduced it would “create hatred against Turkish children.”

Despite Turkish lobbyists’ allegations, there’s absolutely no shred of evidence from any authority–government or educational–that Turkish school children have been bullied by their Armenian classmates in Canada. Raising fears that mentioning the Genocide of Armenians would result in the persecution of Turks is a red herring intended to plant fear among educational institutions in Canada.

Most Armenians and Turks overwhelmingly distinguish between the perpetrators of the genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and people of Turkish descent today, wherever the latter may live. The January 19 commemoration of the first anniversary of the assassination Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in Ottawa by a group of Armenians and Turks, who are members of the Turkish-Armenian Dialogue Group of Ottawa, is the best illustration of this attitude. Mr. Dink was assassinated in front of his Istanbul office by a member of a nationalist Turkish political group.

It is also possible to teach that genocide is wrong without teaching hatred of the perpetrators. One can explain their motivations and why they were wrong. One can explain the destruction and the suffering they caused. This is being done successfully in our current educational system where the Holocaust is taught without blaming contemporary Germany or Germans.

After a decade of teaching about the Armenian Genocide in schools in 12 American states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, and California), there has not been a single registered or documented incident of “bullying, hate, and racism” against Turkish children.

Many righteous Turks during the Armenian Genocide risked their lives to save their Armenian neighbours, friends, and business associates. Furthermore, we value the many Turkish intellectuals, historians, journalists and over 12,000 German-Turks who, despite death threats, persecution, and prosecution challenged the official narrative of the Turkish government on the Armenian Genocide and asked the Turkish government to come to terms with this sad chapter of its history.

Here is what the German Turks wrote:

“What we have learned at school (Turkish) is a forgery of history.” They asked the Turkish Government to repent for the crime of Genocide which “we feel morally obliged to end their (Armenians) disillusions and agony”. Furthermore, the association asked for “international condemnation of the crimes committed against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontian-Greeks.”

While official Turkey denies its responsibility for the Armenian Genocide, Turkish intellectual Taner Akçam wrote in the Turkish newspaper Yeni Binyil (October 1, 2000):

“The manner in which the Armenian question is being discussed is in itself indicative as to what is the main problem of our country. We do not possess the culture affording open debate about mass murders. We are devoid of the moral foundations which enable us to damn such crimes. One needs to have a sense of sorrow in order to be able to speak of the great human tragedies; but we do not possess such a sense of morality. Look at the things that have been written about this topic. In them you don’t find a single sentence, a single word that recognizes the tragedy.”

When Turkish children learn about these righteous Turks, they can be proud of the way these people acted. They will be absolved of any responsibility. As renowned writer Ahmet Altan stated in May 2005: “I have nothing in common with the terrible sin of the past Ittihadists [the government of the day]… instead of justifying and arguing on behalf of the murderers, why don’t we praise and defend the rescuers’ compassion, honesty, and courage?”

Historians are disputing the Armenian Genocide.

After 92 years and numerous history books, government documents (British, French, United States, and even then-Turkish allies Germany and Austria), photographs by war correspondents, massive coverage by Western journalists, missionaries and NGOs, and documentary films, we maintain that it’s redundant to try to prove what has been proven countless times. After all, would anyone demand that a historians’ committee be formed to question whether the Holocaust took place?

The Turkish Government agents cite the same half-dozen historians and writers to back their allegations. Practically everyone listed has taught history at institutions where their chair has been funded by the Turkish government. These historians have close relationships with the government of Turkey; have privileged access to Turkish historic archives and are provided with frequent all-expense paid trips to Turkey. The publication of their books are often funded by the government of Turkey.

Many genocide scholars have questioned the credibility of these half-dozen historians.

Colin Imber, in the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, called Justin McCarthy’s work: “Junk food, junk bonds and now junk history … This is a cruel description, but one which is perfectly appropriate for a book which is carelessly written, is often misinformed, and shamelessly follows a Turkish nationalist agenda.”

Ton Zwaan, in de Volkskrant (Dutch newspaper) wrote: “Among bona fide historians McCarthy is known as one of the professional deniers, subsidized by the Turkish government.” Zwaan continued: “In a groundless, hazy and disorderly argumentation replete with half-truths and complete untruths, McCarthy attempts to persuade his readers that an Armenian genocide never transpired in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and 1916.”

Many Turkish historians, among them Taner Akcam and Muge Gocek, also questioned McCarthy’s research and trustworthiness.

Guenter Lewy is a well know revisionist. His work–from the killing of Roma Gypsies in the Second World War to the Vietnam War–is well documented. This is what the Journal of Genocide Research wrote: “Lewy’s . . . book which seeks not only to exclude the Nazis’ Romani victims from the Holocaust-which is not anything new-but goes a step further to say that they were not even the targets of attempted genocide. . . ‘The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies’ is a dangerous book.”

After reading Lewy’s biased article on the Armenian Genocide, Prof. Gregory H. Stanton, said: “I am appalled. It is such a blatant denial article . . . As you know, the evidence for the Armenian genocide does not just rest upon the three sources Guenter Lewy attempts to discredit. (He doesn’t even do a good job of discrediting those sources.) It also rests on literally thousands of eye-witness testimonies, eyewitness reports by diplomats and missionaries, and a mountain of other data. Lewy’s article is directly contrary to the official opinion of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, passed by unanimous resolution, declaring that the Armenian massacres were genocide, and that attempts to deny that fact have no basis in sound scholarship.”

Norman M. Naimark from Stanford University recently reviewed Guenter Lewy’s latest book for the jounral Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Naimark concluded that “… if Lewy wishes to maintain his claims to historical objectivity by using accepted judicial definitions of genocide, then the difficulty of finding direct evidence for the Young Turks’ premeditated planning of mass murder should not prevent him from concluding that genocide took place. At its core, then Lewy’s argument is illogical.”

The International Association of Genocide Scholars, in a letter to the Turkish Prime Minister labelled such historians as “scholars who advise your government and who are affiliated in other ways with your state-controlled institutions are not impartial. Such so-called “scholars” work to serve the agenda of historical and moral obfuscation when they advise you and the Turkish Parliament on how to deny the Armenian Genocide.”

One of the historians Turks often cite to buttress their denialist arguments is Bernard Lewis. Mr. Lewis has been convicted in French court for denying the Armenian Genocide. His flip-flopping on the Armenian Genocide is well documented. In an earlier version of his book, “The Emergence of Modern Turkey,” Lewis wrote: “A struggle between two nations for the possession of single homeland, that ended with the terrible holocaust of 1915, where a million and half Armenians perished.”

I have no intention to enter into a “my historian is more credible than your historian” contest here, although the number of international historians who acknowledge the truth of the Genocide of Armenians exceeds the names cited by Turkish lobbyists by a hundred fold. To mention just one group of 126 Holocaust scholars, among them Elie Wiesel, Yehuda Bauer, Israel Charny, Steven Katz, Steven Jacobs, and Irving L. Horowitz, who on March 9, 2000, issued a statement declaring that “The World War I Armenian Genocide is an incontestable historical fact and accordingly urge the governments of the Western democracies to likewise recognize it as such.”

The Turkish archives are open. Armenians refuse dialogue

One of the most disingenuous Turkish arguments is that Turkish archives are open and that Armenian archives are closed on the genocide issue. They use this argument to mislead and to divert attention from the real issue, the crime of Genocide. Furthermore, they try to imply that Armenians have something to hide and do not want to open their archives for inspection or to enter into a dialogue with Turks.

What is the truth?

In regard to the Armenian Genocide, there are four main Turkish sources of archives:

1–The Prime Ministerial Archives

2–The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) [the governing party in 1915] Archives

3–The Special Organization [the organization which carried out the Genocide] Archives

4–The Interior Ministry Archives.

According to the Istanbul Military Tribunal (1919 - 1921), which was established to try Turkish Government leaders who had ordered the implementation of the Armenian Genocide, most of the documents related to the latter three organizations have been either “stolen or destroyed.” During the trial, the Turkish persecutor in his indictment, stated: “Investigation of what had occurred reveals that important documents pertaining to this office [Special Organizations] …have been purloined.”

In the same indictment, he also stated that “all of the documents and ledgers of the Central Committee [CUP] have been purloined.” Furthermore, many witnesses during the trials testified that the documents of CUP had been removed by Central Committee member Dr. Nazim.

In regard to the Interior Ministry Archives, Aziz Bey (former director of General Security), revealed that Talât Pasha, the interior minister, prior to fleeing the country, took suitcases of documents, information and reports, and burned them.

The only archives which are open are the Prime Ministerial Archives. These archives are limited to a small group of selected historians who a priori have demonstrated their support of Turkish government’s genocide denialist narrative. Furthermore, researchers are allowed only 25 documents per day, which severely limits the ability to work there.

Recently, Mehmet Sait Uluisik, a German citizen of Turkish origin, was banned from entering Turkey to carry research in the Prime Minister’s Ottoman archives on the role of Circassians in the Armenian Genocide. The Circassians were armed and funded by the government of Turkey.

Thus to claim Turkish archives are open to scholars is inaccurate. The critical archives pertaining to the Armenian Genocide are not in the archives, while the available ones are of limited access.

The accusation that Armenians refuse to dialogue with Turks is another myth.

Numerous attempts have been made by the Armenian Government and the Armenian Diaspora to dialogue with Turks. These attempts have failed because of the Turkish Government’s intransigent and unreasonable conditions. The Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC) is a prime example. Turkish and Armenian members of TARC agreed to submit the arbitration of the Armenian Genocide issue to a third party–the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). When ICTJ’s report concluded that what happened to the Armenians in Ottoman Turkey was a classic case of genocide and fulfilled four out of five conditions set by the UN Genocide Convention, the Turkish government pulled the plug on TARC by asking its Turkish members to withdraw from the commission.

In response to the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s letter to the President of Armenia, to establish a “joint group of historians… to study … the events of 1915,” Robert Kocharian, the President of Armenia, on April 25, 2005, replied by saying: “Your [Erdogan[ suggestion to address the past cannot be effective if it deflects from addressing the present and future, in order to engage in a useful dialogue, we need to create the appropriate and conducive political environment..in that context, an intergovernmental commission can meet to discuss any and all outstanding issues between our two nations.”

The Turkish Government did not respond to the Armenian Government’s positive approach to solve this issue. On April 11, 2006, the Foreign Minister of Armenia Vartan Oskanian, reminded the Turkish Government and the international community that “we remain amazed that a letter sent by president Kocharian to Prime Minister Erdogan… remains simply ignored because the Turkish authorities did not like the response contained therein, and do not wish to broaden the scope of dialogue beyond histology.”

More recently, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Armenian Parliament organized a conference in the Armenian Parliament on Turkish Armenian relations. Among the invitees were Turkish professor Yusuf Halacoglu (president of Turkish Historical Society), Sedat Laciner (director of International Strategic Research Institute), former Turkish Ambassador Omer Engin Lutem (head of the Armenian Studies Institute of the Eurasian Strategic Research Center), Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, and Dr. Can Paker (Turkey’s special representative for relations with the European Union). None of the Turkish invitees attended this important and unique conference. The Turkish side missed a golden opportunity to meet Armenian politicians, historians and scholars to discuss relations between the two neighboring nations.

The Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Tigran Torosian, voiced his concern that Turkey’s decision not to participate in the discussions would not contribute to dialogue between the two nations.

The above examples clearly show that Turkish government’s manipulative offer of dialogue with Armenians is akin to the neo-Nazis’ suggestion of an independent, objective historical commission to determine whether the Holocaust took place or the Flat Earth Society’s offer to hold an academic dialogue with National Geographic about the true shape of the earth.

If the Turkish Government does not allow its citizens, historians and intellectuals to freely discuss the issue of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, and prosecutes them under article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, how can one take its offer of dialogue with Armenians and the creation of “historians commission” seriously?

The Canadian Armenian community does not bear any animosity towards the Canadian Turkish community. On the contrary, we sympathize with the members of the Turkish-Canadian community and Turks in general, particularly when they have been mislead for too long and denied their own history, by the Turkish Government.

We are hopeful the Turkish Government halts its campaign of falsification of history and focuses on the Genocide issue without hysteria, racism, nationalistic fanaticism and that the Turkish people will acknowledge the misdeeds of their predecessors and extend a hand of friendship to the Armenian people.

Ardash Amroyan

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 taboos' and freedom of expression

Saturday, March 8, 2008
Turkish Daily News
Robert ELLIS

A fortnight ago the Danish section of PEN, the worldwide association of writers, held a panel discussion in Copenhagen on Turkish taboos, freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey. There was general agreement among the four Turkish panelists, a journalist, a novelist, a poet and the president of Turkish PEN, that the four main taboos were the Armenian genocide claims, the Kurdish question, the military and Atatürk.Two of the panelists pointed out that these taboos are characteristic of Kemalist orthodoxy, but that the advent of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government was accompanied by a freer discussion of these issues. Prime Minister Erdoğan's landmark speech in Diyarbakır in 2005, when he became the first Turkish leader openly to admit there was a Kurdish problem, was also mentioned.

The Armenian issue:

Nevertheless, the first taboo, that surrounding the Armenian "genocide," still remains on both sides of the political divide. For example, three years ago in a party address Tayyip Erdoğan said, “Turkey has never committed genocide throughout its history,” and two weeks ago he added, “the character of this nation does not let it commit such crimes.”Therefore, Orhan Pamuk must have behaved like a bull in a china shop when he claimed in an interview with the Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger three years ago, “30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it.” The official Turkish reaction was not long in coming, as Pamuk was prosecuted according to Article 301 of the Penal Code for “the public denigration of Turkishness,” but the charge was dropped on a technicality.The recent arrest of the ultra-nationalist Ergenekon gang revealed their plan to assassinate Pamuk and linked them to the murder of the Turkish-Armenian publisher Hrant Dink and the three Christians in Malatya. Indeed, these murders, as well as that of Father Andrea Santoro in Trabzon, can be linked to the virulent strain of ethnic nationalism that arose 100 years earlier during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid from 1876 until 1909.

That period was characterized by extensive massacres of Armenians from 1894-96 and again in 1909. As historian Donald Bloxham said in “The Great Game of Genocide,” the perpetrators believed they were acting in accordance with the true interests of the state.This period was also characterized by a rise of Armenian nationalism and the founding of the two leading revolutionary groups, the Hunchaks and the Dashnaks, in 1887 and 1890. In 1913 the Committee of Union and Progress (“the Young Turks”) came to power through a coup d'état, but it was the outbreak of World War I the following year, and Turkey's alliance with Germany, that sealed the fate of the Armenian people.Turkey's defeat at the hands of the Russian army, aided by Armenian volunteer battalions, on the eastern front in January 1915 was widely blamed on the Armenians, but the turning point came with the Armenian uprising in Van in eastern Turkey on April 20 and the Allied landings at Gallipoli on April 25. On April 24 more than 200 prominent Armenians were arrested in Istanbul and sent to the interior, where most were later executed.On May 27, 1915 the Deportation Law (the tehcir law) was passed to provide for the deportation of the Armenian population for reasons of national security.

This is where the facts are hotly disputed, ranging from Ambassador Morgenthau's telegram to Secretary of State Lansing in July 1915, which spoke of “a campaign of race extermination…under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion,” to Professor Özay Mehmet from Carleton University in Canada, who recently claimed, “the Ottoman Armenians committed treason and were relocated out of the war zone.”So far 22 countries have officially recognized the tragic events of 1915-16 as "genocide" and Barack Obama has pledged recognition as a plank of his campaign.

However, the crux of the issue is not international recognition but that the topic is not open to free debate in Turkey.

'Stab in the back' :

On an academic level, scholars who organized a conference at Boğaziçi University in May 2005 on the Armenian question during the Ottoman Empire were accused by government spokesman, Minister of Justice Cemil Çiçek, of “stabbing the Turkish nation in the back.” The conference was postponed, but after an international outcry it reconvened at Bilgi University four months later.The main Turkish fear is that a discussion of the Armenian and Kurdish issues could once again lead to a partition of Turkey. This view was confirmed by a prominent member of the Armenian community in the United States, Harut Sasunian, who stated in December that the ultimate goal of the Armenians was recognition of their claims and getting amends and land from Turkey.As noted, the main obstacle to freedom of expression in Turkey is Article 301 of the Penal Code, which has resulted in the prosecution of a large number of authors, publishers and journalists. In yet another cosmetic change, the government plans to change the wording from “denigration of Turkishness” to “denigration of the Turkish nation,” which brings us back to square one. But as long as Turkish people are denied a full understanding of their past they will be unable to build a firm foundation for the future.

………….

The views expressed by commentator Robert Ellis are the author's own and reflect neither endorsement nor editorial policy of the Turkish Daily News. Mr. Ellis is a regular commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish press (meltem@get2net.dk).


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.

Writer Demirer on Trial for "Armenian Genocide"

05-03-2008
Bıa news centre
Erol ÖNDEROĞLU

I salute all Turks who have shown heroism both during the Armenian genocide and up to now and into the future. For these are the ones who deserve to be honoured. It surpasses human comprehension why the present government sticks to honouring the likes of Talat, Enver and Jemal as their ancestors and NOT those Turks who risked and even gave their lives to save Armenians. Because of this the offer of the government for a historical panel on the Genocide sounds hollow, so does the restoration of the Holy Cross church at Aghtamar island to a museum with no cross on top. The world has eyes to see and ears to hear.

In protest at Hrant Dink's murder, writer Demirer had called on others to commit the same "crime" as Dink had done, i.e. to recognise the factuality of an "Armenian genocide." He is now facing a trial under Articles 301 and 216.

A day after journalist Hrant Dink’s murder on 19 January 2007, writer Temel Demirer read a press statement in central Ankara, saying that the journalist had not only been killed for being Armenian, but also because he had spoken of an “Armenian genocide.”

Trial under Articles 301 and 216
Around a year later, Demirer has been taken to court under Article 301 and 216 for “denigrating the Turkish Republic” and “inciting to hatred and hostility.” The case will be heard at the Ankara 2nd Penal Court tomorrow (6 March).

Temel Demirer and the Solidarity Initiative had said, “We owe something to those being tried for their thoughts and actions, those being obstructed, tortured, imprisoned and killed.”

In a previous statement Demirer said that he believed that there was a genocide carried out against the Armenians in the Ottoman period, that the state was then the “customs of the the Committee of Union of Process”, and that these customs had been continued up to cases like the Susurluk scandal (which revealed connections between the state and contract killings).

Calling on others to commit "crimes" in protest
The indictment prepared by Chief Public Prosecutor Levent Savas on 24 December 2007 is based on police reports and police recordings. According to the indictment, Demirer said the following at the protest meeting:

“We live in a country where murders and silencing the truth are partners. Hrant was murdered not only because he was Armenian but because he said expressed the reality that a genocide took place in this country. If the Turkish intellectuals do not commit 301 crimes under Article 301, then they will be guilty of Hrant’s murder, too."

"There is a genocide in our history, it is called the Armenian genocide. At the cost of his life, Hrant told us all about this reality. Those who do not commit a crime against the murderous state are part of the murder. Those who killed the Armenians yesterday are today attacking our Kurdish brothers and sisters. Those who want the brotherhood of peoples need to face up to this history. We have to commit crimes to avoid that what happened to the Armenians happens to the Kurds. I call on all of you to commit crimes. Yes, there was an Armenian genocide in this country."

The statement was signed by the following:

Fikret Başkaya, İsmail Beşikçi, Yüksel Akkaya, Mehmet Özer, Necmettin Salaz, Ahmet Telli, Ruşen Sümbüloğlu, Tayfun İşçi, Mahmut Konuk, İbrahim Akyol, Abdullah Aydın, Oktay Etiman, Sait Çetinoğlu, Halil İbrahim Vargün, Özgen Seçkin, Zişan Kürüm, Mete Kaan Kaynar, Hakkı Atıl, Mustafa Kahya, Anıl Aslan, Hüseyin Ontaş, Erol Bıyıklı, Cennet Bilek, Serpil Köksal, Selçuk Kozağaçlı, H. İbrahim Vargün, Evrim Kılıç, Yılmaz Erdoğan, Pınar Dursun, Samet Erdemir, Özer Akkuş, Özgür Doğan, Mehmet Toğan, Ramazan Gezgin, Metin Uzunöz, Onur Işık, Hüseyin Gevher, Ülkü Çevik, Hüseyin Güngör, Muzaffer Çelikkol, Rıza Karaman, Metin Ayhan, İrfan Kaygısız, Çağdaş Küpeli, Devrim Kahraman, Tülay Koçak, Ali Ersin Gür, Muharrem Demirkıran, Haldun Açıksözlü, Adil Okay, Confederation of Europe Workers from Turkey (ATIK) (EÖ/GG)

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.

Erdogan: There Is No Genocide In Our Culture And Civilization

2/9/2008
Turkish Press, MI

An article of faith by Erdogan. This is a racist statement. Does this mean that genocide is embedded in the German culture? I hope the Germans' ears have been perked up by this statement. It also shows the main problem in Turkey pathologically not being able to dissociate themselves from the genocidal regime of the Young Turks.

MUNICH - Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday there was no such thing like genocide in Turkish culture and civilization.
Erdogan replied to questions on several matters after his speech at the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy in Germany.

In regard to Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915, Erdogan said, "there is no such thing like genocide in our culture. We cannot accept it. We are ready to discuss the matter by the means of documents."

Replying to a question, he said, "we are holding talks with (Iraqi President Jalal) Talabani, because he is president. Our cross-border operation continues in a tripartite mechanism (USA, Turkey and Iraq)."

Upon questions on the Article 301 of Turkish Penal Code, Erdogan said, "we earlier made a legal arrangement on it, but it was not liked by the EU. We are preparing another one now. It will be ready soon."

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.

'Deep state plot' grips Turkey

Monday, 4 February 2008, 11:41 GMT

By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Istanbul

It is a story that has set Turkey abuzz with rumour and speculation.

At its heart is an ultra-nationalist gang known as Ergenekon, exposed when 33 of its alleged members were seized in a police raid in late January.

The claims widely reported in the Turkish press ever since read like a thriller.

They allege the gang was plotting to bring down the government.

It is claimed their plan was to assassinate a string of Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, fomenting chaos and provoking a military intervention in 2009.

A "menu" of targets had already been drawn up and a hitman hired when the police swooped, according to the daily Hurriyet.

Sabah newspaper linked the gang to the recent murder of three Protestant Christians and Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Those details - apparently leaked by police - have never been officially confirmed.

The lawyers of several of the accused told the BBC only that their clients have been charged under Article 313 of the penal code for inciting armed revolt against the government.

Those still detained include retired Brig Gen Veli Kucuk, an alleged mafia boss and an ultra-nationalist lawyer who provoked numerous prosecutions against prominent Turkish writers and intellectuals - including Mr Pamuk - for "insulting Turkishness".

'Deep state'

A brief statement at the outset linked the arrests to a raid in Istanbul last June. A large cache of hand grenades and explosives was discovered; then and a number of former military personnel detained.

There have been no further formal statements about the gang, or their plot. But that has not stopped the Ergenekon affair making top "news" for almost two weeks.

From the start, this operation has been portrayed as a blow against the "deep state" - which explains the excitement.

It is a term widely used to describe renegade members of the security forces said to act outside the law in what they judge to be Turkey's best interests.

The phenomenon, much-discussed but never proven, is said to stretch back to Cold War times, when illicit paramilitary gangs were supposedly set up in collaboration with Western intelligence agencies to prevent the spread of communism.

"When the Cold War ended those structures went out of business, but they still existed," claims newspaper columnist Cengiz Candar, who has no doubt a "deep state" exists.

"Then the threat changed. The target became Kurdish insurgents or Asala," an Armenian militant organisation that targeted Turkish diplomats, he says.

For ultra-nationalists today the threats to Turkey include EU accession, Armenian genocide allegations and any talk of a peace deal to end the 24-year-old Kurdish insurgency.

'Under watch'

In 1996, many Turks' suspicions of a "deep state" were confirmed when a car crashed in the town of Susurluk. Inside were a senior police chief, a prominent politician and a wanted assassin.

"Susurluk revealed weird connections between state officials and those who operate outside the limits of the law. It happened at a time when we had a lot of extra-judicial killings in Turkey," Mr Candar explains.

"But the investigation stopped just as there was speculation it was reaching very sensitive spots, even the military establishment. That only confirmed the existence of these networks in the public consciousness."

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan clearly has his own suspicions.

He used the same "deep state" terminology to describe the police operation against Ergenekon.

"These gangs are not new in our country. Our aim is to get rid of them. We see gangs in the most important institutions. People who once worked in these institutions join these organisations," Sabah quoted Mr Erdogan saying, immediately after the initial arrests.

Praising the police raids, he added: "There is a deep Turkey working against the deep state. This prevents them [the gangs] being as active as they once were."

If the prime minister has proof linking Ergenekon members to active security officials, it has yet to be revealed.

"I think the government moved now to dirty these peoples' names and reputations. It's a warning that they're under watch," believes Irfan Bozan, who is following the story for the privately-owned NTV 24-hour news channel.

Army rebuttal

Mr Bozan also raises the possibility the operation is part of a continuing power struggle between a government led by devout Muslims and a staunchly secular military.

"At first it does look like an attempt to crack down on the deep state at last. But this is not a real challenge to those forces. This is an attack on those who are anti-government," Mr Bozan suggests.

Still, the chief-of-staff of Turkey's army was concerned enough by the suggestion the military might be tied to Ergenekon to issue a public rebuttal.

"The Turkish military is not a criminal organisation," Gen Buyukanit told journalists last week, apparently washing his hands of the accused.

"Military members who commit crimes are punished by the courts. It is wrong to try to link such incidents to the military as a whole," he said.

As the prosecutors gather their evidence the country is gripped, awaiting the next revelation, the next headline and the denouement.

After years of "deep state" rumours, many see the Ergenekon case as a real test of the government's will to dig deep and expose any ties between illicit gangs and the state. If they do really exist.

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.

Yerevan concerned about methods Turkey uses to resolve Kurdish issue

19.12.2007
PanARMENIAN.Net

“Yerevan is concerned about the situation at the Turkish-Iraqi border and about the methods Turkey uses to resolve the problem,” RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said during The Armenian-Turkish Relations: Problems and Prospects extended parliamentary hearings.

“Turkey crossed the border of a sovereign state without UN sanction. This move can’t but arouse concern. Armenia, as Turkey’s neighbor, can’t feel safe,” he said.

! Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to «PanARMENIAN.Net».

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Turkey’s Transformation Inevitable, but Anti-Christian and Ultranationalist Mood Gain Force.

13 Dec 2007
International Analyst Network, NY
Source: PanARMENIAN.Net, 29.11.2007
Prof.Dr. Ruben Safrastyan

Turkey’s transformation inevitable, but Anti-Christian and ultranationalist mood gain force.

“As result of European integration process, Kemalism stopped being perceived as the official ideology of the Turkish state,” Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the RA Academy of Sciences, Professor Ruben Safrastyan said during round-table discussions titled “Turkey after presidential elections: constitutional changes and internal transformations.” He reminded that Kemalism used to base on solidity of the Turkish state. But recently, according to him, a European survey showed that 37-38% of Turkish population believes not to be Turks. “Presently, old and new elites (Kemalists and AKP) put up struggle. The main factor of this opposition is the revised Constitution that will be for the first time publicly discussed after official promulgation December 15,” prof. Safrastyan said.

Since 1999, Turkey has been experiencing transformation of public, political and social life of the population, Professor Ruben Safrastyan said. These changes are inevitable, according to him. “Civil society is being formed in Turkey. Independent NGOs are established as result of close cooperation with European organizations. A non-governmental organization is an absolutely new phenomenon for Turkey. Private capital finds place in science and education. Women’s movement, which unites dozens of thousand of women who suffered from Islamic family laws, is gaining force. And the most important factor is the restriction of the military power. The national security council had to restrain activities and this is an advance for Turkey. Ranking the 17th with the GDP index, the state becomes more economically open,” he said.

Prof. Safrastyan noted that all this became possible due to activities of the new middle class, which formed the Justice and Development Party (AKP). “Appearance of AKP is a natural phenomenon of political history of Turkey, which combines the concept of ‘mild’ Islam and market economy. Certainly, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the symbol of this transformation,” he stressed.

In the same time, Anti-Christian and ultranationalist mood gain force in Turkey. This showed up in the killing of Hrant Dink and Catholic priests. It’s not accidental that nationalist NMP came third at the 2007 parliamentary elections,” prof. Ruben Safrastyan said.

“The Armenian issue has again caused Turkey’s headache, for the Armenian Genocide recognition affects the core of Turkish identity. Turkey eyes Armenia’s renunciation of the Genocide recognition as the only way to normalize relations. The rest is a political game. If Armenia makes concessions on the issue, Turkey can even arrive at a favorable decision on the Karabakh conflict,” Professor Ruben Safrastyan said during discussions, touching the problem of Turkish-Armenian relations.

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First Nationwide Turkish Survey Reveals Millions of Turks Support Genocide Bill

Sassounian's column of Nov. 15, 2007
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

The Assembly of Turkish American Associations recently featured on its website a reference to “the first nationwide public survey” conducted in Turkey on the Armenian Genocide and the congressional resolution on this issue. The poll was carried out earlier this year by “Terror Free Tomorrow” in collaboration with Istanbul-based “ARI Movement” and U.S.-based “ARI Foundation.”

The survey showed that 78% of Turks oppose the congressional resolution on the Armenian genocide, while 7.4% support it. Turkey’s leaders may be happy that the majority of Turkey’s citizens oppose the resolution, but they conveniently overlook the fact that the 7.4% who support it represent more than 5 million Turks who believe that the U.S. Congress should recognize the Armenian Genocide. Furthermore, another 8.5% or close to 6 million Turks have a neutral position on this issue.

When asked their reason for opposing the genocide resolution, only 36% said that it was because they did not believe that a genocide occurred. This means that almost two-thirds of Turkey’s population opposes the bill for completely different reasons: 42% said they mistrusted the impartiality of the U.S. Congress, while 18% preferred that historians make that judgment.

The most amazing finding of the survey was that fully 50% or 2.5 million of Turks supporting passage of the Armenian Genocide resolution justified it by saying that “Turkey should recognize the past wrong of its genocide against Armenians;” 13.7% said that “Turkish recognition of the Armenian genocide will help reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia,” and 26.1% said that “The U.S. Congressional resolution is not binding law and will not affect official American policy toward Turkey.”

When asked if the approval of the resolution would improve or worsen the respondents’ opinion of the United States, 73% of the Turks said such an act would worsen their opinion of the U.S. This is not surprising at all, since a recent Pew Research Center poll showed that 91% of the Turks already disliked the United States. What is shocking, however, is that 4.5% of those surveyed, which translates into more than 3 million Turks, said that the approval of the genocide resolution by the U.S. Congress would improve their opinion of the United States! Another 22% or 15 million Turks said that congressional approval would not affect their opinion of the U.S., did not know or did not answer.

When asked if Turkey should refuse to assist the U.S. war effort in Iraq if the Armenian resolution were to be adopted by the U.S. Congress, 83% of the respondents said they would oppose any cooperation with the U.S., while 8.5% or close to 6 million Turks said they would still support the U.S. in Iraq.

In response to another question, 78% said that they would favor taking action against the U.S. for adopting the genocide resolution (boycotting American products, demonstrating against the U.S., voting for candidates opposed to the war in Iraq). However, 11% or 7.5 million Turks said they would take no action against the U.S. for adopting the genocide resolution. Another 11% had no answer or opinion.

Another shocking answer was given by the Turkish respondents when asked why the U.S. Congress may approve the Armenian Genocide resolution: 42% said because of anti-Muslim feelings in the United States, 31% said due to domestic U.S. politics, and 12% or the equivalent of 8.5 million Turks said because “the Armenian Genocide is a proven historical fact!”

The results of the survey are not surprising. The overwhelming majority of the Turkish public, after being fed by their leaders a steady diet of lies on the Armenian Genocide for more than 90 years, naturally is bound to disbelieve that such barbaric acts were committed by their ancestors. However, the real news revealed by this survey is that, despite all the years of brainwashing, millions of Turks not only refuse to believe their government’s denialist propaganda, but have the courage, at a great risk to their own safety, in “face-to-face” interviews, to acknowledge publicly that the Armenian Genocide is a fact and that the U.S. Congress must approve the Armenian Genocide resolution.

The long years of Armenian efforts for the international acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide seem to be bearing fruit not only around the globe but also within Turkey itself, despite that country’s draconian laws which ban any reference to that crime. The news reports of these efforts, fueled by the Turkish government’s extensive denialist measures, have created a massive amount of information on the Armenian Genocide which is reaching large segments of the Turkish public for the first time. The above Turkish survey shows that outside pressure is gradually making Turks face the dark and ugly chapters of their past.

Wiesel is Right on Genocide Recognition; Wrong on Armenians’ Quest for Justice

Nov. 1, 2007
The California Courier
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

The Philadelphia Jewish Voice published on October 28 an important interview with Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. Reporter Charles Smolover asked him to comment on the fact that "some in the Jewish community are reluctant to touch this issue [congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide] for fear of damaging Turkey’s relationship with Israel."

Mr. Wiesel’s response: "I have been fighting for the right of the Armenian people to remember for years and years. How could I, who has fought all my life for Jewish remembrance, tell the Armenians they have no right to remember? But I understand the [Bush] administration's view. Fortunately, as a private citizen I don’t have to worry about Turkey’s response. But I do feel that had there been the word ‘genocide’ in those days, what happened to the Armenians would have been called genocide. Everyone agrees there was mass murder, but the word came later. I believe the Armenians are the victims and, as a Jew, I should be on their side."

This is a very important and straightforward answer from someone of Mr. Wiesel’s moral stature. As an internationally-acclaimed personality, his pronouncements carry great weight. Despite the fact that the reporter’s question linked the recognition of the Armenian Genocide to possible damage to Israel’s relations with Turkey, Mr. Wiesel remained steadfast on the side of the truth.

Mr. Wiesel, however, was not as forceful back in 1982 when the Israeli Foreign Ministry, under pressure from the Turkish government, asked him to exclude Armenian scholars from an international conference on the Holocaust and Genocide that was to be held in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Faced with the dilemma of not wanting to eliminate Armenian participation or acceding to Israeli government’s demands, Mr. Wiesel resigned as president of the conference. He explained that he chose to remove himself rather than challenge the Israeli government’s demands, because he had to be mindful of the threat to Jewish lives in Turkey.

In recent years, Mr. Wiesel has been much more resolute in defense of the Armenian Genocide. In his introduction to the 1986 French edition of Franz Werfel’s Forty Days of Musa Dagh, he described the brutalities committed by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian minority as "mass murders aimed at the extermination of a people in its entirety," and called the brutal killings "the first genocide of the 20th century."

On March 7, 2000, he joined 126 Holocaust scholars in signing a joint statement affirming that the Armenian Genocide was an incontestable historical fact and called on Western governments to likewise recognize it as such.

Earlier this year, he joined more than 50 other Nobel Laureates in signing a statement that recognized the Armenian Genocide.

On August 21, 2007 Abraham Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, said he consulted Elie Wiesel before issuing a statement acknowledging for the first time that "the consequences" of the Armenian atrocities were "indeed tantamount to genocide. If the word genocide had existed then, they would have called it genocide."

Mr. Wiesel, however, leaves a lot to be desired in answering Philadelphia Jewish Voice reporter’s second question on whether "the Turks have an obligation to take some responsibility" for the Armenian Genocide?

Mr. Wiesel responded by saying: "No one is asking for the Turks to take responsibility. All the Armenians want is the right to remember. Seven generations separate us from the events that happened in World War I and nobody in his right mind would say that today's Turks are responsible for what happened. The Armenians don’t want reparations; they don’t even want an apology. They want the right to remember. The Turks would gain a lot if they simply acknowledged the reality of what happened. I have spoken with Turkish leaders at the highest level and their attitude about this issue is totally irrational except for one thing, which I do understand. They don’t want to be compared to Hitler. But of course, nobody does."

Just about every single statement contained in the above paragraph is inaccurate. Contrary to Mr. Wiesel’s assertions, Armenians do not need anyone’s permission to remember or mourn their dead. Their right to remember has never been in question. It is also untrue that "seven generations separate us" from the era of the genocide. There are still surviving eyewitnesses of the Armenian Genocide. This writer is the grandson (third generation) of genocide survivors.

Regarding Turkish responsibility, while Armenians do not blame today’s Turks for the killings, they do hold the Turkish state responsible for falsifying and denying the facts of the Armenian Genocide. Furthermore, Mr. Wiesel is wrong in asserting that "Armenians don’t want reparations, they don’t even want an apology. They want the right to remember." The fact is that Armenians do not really care whether Turks apologize for the killings or not. Armenians do insist, however, on obtaining adequate restitution for the enormous damages they suffered. Why is it that the victims of the Holocaust are entitled to reparations and Armenians are not? In contrast to the Jews, Armenians were uprooted from their ancestral homeland losing their property, cultural heritage as well as their lives. One has to agree, however, with Mr. Wiesel’s assertion that "the Turks would gain a lot if they simply acknowledged the reality of what happened." Yet, contrary to Mr. Wiesel’s expectations, and probably that of the Turkish government, there can be no reconciliation between Armenians and Turks without justice, which requires the return of the occupied lands and looted properties, and restitution for the 1.5 million murders.

Since the Philadelphia Jewish Voice describes Mr. Wiesel as an "outspoken advocate for justice," it is hoped that he would live up to that reputation in both the Jewish and Armenian cases. While Mr. Wiesel may not choose to be an advocate for Armenian demands, he should not misrepresent Armenians’ quest for justice!

Turkish PM calls for reconciliation with Armenia

There is a lack of sincerity in this proposal. The borders with Armenia are blocked by Turkey, the Penal Code Article 301 is in place to punish anyone who openly discusses the genocide and Turkey officially says that there is no genocide. What is Turkey going to do? Give a revisionist history lesson and force Armenia to tear down its genocide memorial otherwise be prepared to be invaded by the 2nd largest Army in NATO? Humility has never been a part of Turkey's approach to genocide, as long as Turkey uses threats as a tool for blackmail against countries that dare to recognize the genocide. Why does not Turkey take seriously the massive scholarly work on the Armenian genocide? Unless that happens Turkey is in denial. It takes more courage for Armenians to stand their ground than Turkey to use threats.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's prime minister called for dialogue and reconciliation with Armenia on Friday as the U.S. Congress weighs whether to approve a resolution calling the 1915 massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.

"While we search for ways to address this painful issue and develop our relations with Armenia, we cannot live in the past. Our sincere offer for dialogue and reconciliation is on the table," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan wrote in an opinion piece published in Friday's Wall Street Journal, European edition.

"It is incumbent on Armenia to take the next step," he added.

The U.S. House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee backed the resolution last week proposed by a California Democrat with many Armenian-Americans in his district. It must now decide whether to hold a House vote on the resolution.

Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the United States for consultations in response to the vote and has warned that if the non-binding but symbolic resolution is approved by Congress it will inflict great damage on relations between the NATO allies.

The Bush administration has lobbied against the resolution.

Turkey rejects the Armenian view, backed by many Western historians and some foreign parliaments, that up to 1.5 million Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks.

Many Muslim Turks died as well as Christian Armenians in inter-ethnic conflict as the Ottoman Empire crumbled, it says.

"The truth is that the Armenian allegations of genocide pertaining to the events of 1915 have not been historically or legally substantiated," Erdogan wrote.

Erdogan asked in his opinion piece why Armenia was evading Turkey's offer to establish a joint history commission to examine together the events of 1915 through bilateral dialogue.

Armenia says it would consider taking part in such a history commission if its border with Turkey were opened and normal diplomatic ties established between the two countries.

Turkey shut its border with the tiny ex-Soviet republic in 1993 to protest against Armenia's occupation of territory inside Azerbaijan, Ankara's close Turkic ally.


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Backstage With Kutlug Ataman: A Video Artist In Search of Adentity

By EZGI BASARAN
September 14, 2007

This interview demonstrates that there is a great will by Turkish intellectuals to unearth Ottoman Turkey's past. I think this is healthy for the country and in effect it will enrich it. It is therefore a big disappointment when the politicians do not follow their example and become hostage to the nationalistic sentiments of extremists.

The style of Turkish video artist and film maker Kutlug Ataman is deceptively simple. He points the camera at his subjects; they talk.

But in the process, layers of identity are peeled away, making us witness to a bare human life. Mr. Ataman, born in Istanbul in 1961 and a graduate of UCLA's film school, caught the attention of the art scene in 2002 with his work "Küba," a video installation on 40 screens portraying the marginalized residents of a shantytown in Istanbul. The work, which was short-listed for the Tate museum's Turner Prize, revealed a self-constructed society in the middle of Istanbul.

"Semiha Berksoy Unplugged" (1997), one of his most powerful pieces, is about an isolated and strange 90-year-old Turkish opera singer, a diva who tells stories of her glory days in outrageous makeup. "Women Who Wear Wigs" (2000) focuses on four people: A political activist branded as a terrorist, a Turkish journalist with cancer, a female Muslim student and a transsexual prostitute -- all have their reasons for wearing a wig.

Mr. Ataman's latest piece is "Testimony," on display at the Istanbul Biennial, running until Nov. 4. In it, Mr. Ataman interviews his Armenian nanny, Kevser, who was brought into the family by his great-grandfather after her family was killed in 1915. The work raises one of the most controversial issues in Turkey's history. Armenia says the Ottoman government orchestrated a genocide of the Armenian population during World War I. Turkey denies that what took place was a genocide, arguing that thousands of Turks also died in a brutal conflict.

Mr. Ataman says the work is about him as much as it is about Kevser, allowing him to share his doubts and confusion about what happened to the Armenians.

The artist's works are found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in Miami and the Sammlung Goetz in Munich, among others. A commercial film, "The Novel of Two Young Girls," brought him the Golden Orange for best director in the 2005 Antalya Film Festival.

The artist spoke to Ezgi Basaran earlier this month at his studio in the Nisantasi neighborhood in Istanbul.

Q: Why do you work in video?
I come from a film background, and that is the only way I know how to express myself.

Q: What are you trying to achieve?
Art is there to ask questions. I never see my role as getting any answers. I am not interested in any messages or precooked answers. I am more interested in questioning in general. So after viewing my work, if people leave the room with a question mark, then I have achieved my goal. I am the kind of artist who grows with his viewers. What's really important to me is the dialogue between my work and the audience. I sometimes receive some readings of my work that I haven't initially intended, which is really surprising and inspiring.

Q: What about your process? Do you work on ideas in your head for a while or start shooting right away?
You can never start shooting whenever an idea comes into your mind. It has become more and more difficult to produce video art in Turkey. Partly because the art market is not readily accepting video as a commodity. In Turkey, there is only one institution that comprehends and produces video art. If you are a painter, you do your work, then put it on display and you sell it. The case is different if you are producing a video. You have to raise money before you even start shooting -- like when you are doing a movie. So the institutions should buy the piece before I produce it. I have no difficulty working out this pre-sale deal with European and American institutions. But in Turkey it has not evolved to that degree yet. They do not understand why they should pay for the art in advance. It has become almost impossible for me to continue doing my art here because I don't know how to manage all this.

Q: You focused on women in "Semiha Berksoy," "Women Who Wear Wigs" and now with Kevser in "Testimony." Do you like to tell your stories through women?
I don't always tell them through women. In the works "Küba" and "Paradise" [which questions the idea of Orange County, California, as paradise], there are more men than women. I guess in the beginning of my career, I was attracted to the idea of how women construct themselves in front of the camera. And I think women are generally more talkative than men.

Q: How did you decide to do a piece about Kevser?
I kind of revisit different phases of my life. For my work "Paradise," I revisited my 15 years of life in California. Doing a piece about Kevser was revisiting my childhood, something I was planning to do for a long time. She had this identity that was kept like a secret in the family. It was this one big issue that disturbed my conscience. She died a year ago, right after I did the shooting of the piece. It was sad.

Q: What's the story of her being brought into your family?
We don't really know. There's just this myth that my great-grandfather adopted her because her entire family was murdered by [what my family called] the "bandits." That's the only thing I know. She was never a maid, but more like the manager of the kitchen. She took care of my father, then my aunt, and then me.

Q: The name of the piece is "Testimony." Whose testimony is it?
In Germany, closure has come through historians and the Nuremberg trials. In Turkey, we have a lot of discussions about what might have happened in 1915. On one hand there's the Armenian diaspora saying it was genocide; on the other hand you have the extremist Turkish view that suggests nothing ever happened. It is a big mess for everybody. For the health of the Turkish society, we need closure on the Armenian case, no matter what. I have the right as a Turkish citizen to know the uncontested truth.

For a long time we couldn't even talk about the subject, because it was a taboo. What I am saying is this has to be discussed and talked about. Through my piece, I am contributing to the discussions. If you look at my past works, you'll see people giving testimonies of their lives. This one is different. This piece is my testimony as a Turkish citizen more than my Armenian nanny's.

Q: What does your nanny tell us in the piece?
Kevser can not tell anything to us; she is too old and demented to tell. And even if she was coherent, I doubt that she would tell the truth about what happened to her family, because she has been trained not to for all her life. This is the ironic part about the piece. Her being confused and not talking about the subject is an allegory to Turkish society handling the Armenian problem.

Q: Some Turkish artists and writers, such as Orhan Pamuk, who raise the Armenian issue internationally are said to be "seeking fame" and are criticized for "selling out." Do you think that happens in contemporary art?
I have never marketed myself that way. If you are pointing out a very genuine problem in your culture and still have people accusing you of "selling out the country," I don't know what to say. What do they suggest? To shut up?

If I were an American artist, criticizing the Bush government for the Iraq war, would I be accused of selling out the country? I don't think I would.

Q: As a gay contemporary artist, have you received threats?
I received threats when I was doing my first work about gay people. Now I don't, because I stopped doing gay films, not because I am abused, but only because I am done with the subject. But it would be unfair to say that if you are a gay person, you'll be threatened in Turkey. The country was not ready for my work back then; it was too early; that's all.

Q: How do you think the Turkish art scene will be affected by the latest elections, in which the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party won the presidency?
This government is the most liberal government that I have seen through my existence. I don't share the worries that secularists have. I don't think Sharia is coming because [this party] is in power. I went to the beach the other day. There were three women swimming with their hijabs. My British friend told me that it reminds him of the Victorian era. I think what Turkey is going through right now is that for the first time it is able to create itself from within.

Q: What do you think about the motto of this year's biennial -- "Not Only Possible But Also Necessary: Optimism in the Age of Global War"?
I think in today's world it's such a great political act to say there has to be optimism. I have always been an optimist myself.

Q: What are you working on now?
I am a little bit tired of being called controversial and bold. I am 46 years old, and I'd like to reflect the fun in me -- I am a really funny person, you know. I'd like to do an entertaining movie, a box-office, commercial movie, and probably pursue an academic career, giving lectures and helping out young artists.

The name of the movie that I am working on right now is "The Coat." It's a really nice and fun movie for a general audience. It doesn't involve politics at all.

For more information on the Istanbul Biennial, see www.iksv.org.

• Write to us at wsje.weekend@wsj.com

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Armenians of Turkey speak against adoption of Armenian Genocide Resolution by U.S. Congress

02.06.2007
PanARMENIAN.Net

The Archbishop Mesrop Moutafian said below: "The history will never forgive actions of İttihat ve Teraki party{The Ottoman administartion at the time of the genocide}, aimed at punishing not only armed Armenians who rebelled against the state, but also all Armenians residing on the Territory of Turkey. One and a half million Turkish citizens with Armenian descent were annihilated in Syrian deserts. Today 70 000 Armenians live in our country. We should not forget and those Armenians who adopted Islam in order to escape deportation. Since they continue to speak in Armenian, they remain faithful to the Armenian culture, and irrespective of religious difference we consider them as our compatriots. And just the opposite, we do not appreciate actions of the Armenian Diaspora, which pushes forward the historical events as subject of disputes."

This is a strange statement coming from the Archbishop. Reconciliation is not possible without Turkey recognizing the genocide. This is what the Diaspora is trying to achieve. Anything else is not going to bring closure.

Recently a U.S. Congress delegation had official meeting with Turkish leadership in Ankara. At the end of the meeting congressmen departed for Istanbul, where they visited the Armenian Patriarchy of Constantinople. “Lraber”, the bulletin of the Patriarchy reports in its May 31 issue that during their meeting with Archbishop Mesrop Moutafian U.S. Congress delegation members discussed issues concerning the Armenian Genocide Resolution, assassination of Hrant Dink, as well as murders of catholic priest Santoro in Trabzon and three evangelic missioners in Malatia. They also touched upon the bill on grounds of the community, which President Ahmed Necdet Sezer interposed his veto on, Turkish-Armenian relations, as well as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s initiative aimed at establishing a joint commission of Turkish and Armenian historians.

According to “Lraber” answering congressmen’s questions the Patriarch said, “Proceeding from intergovernmental relations between Armenia and Turkey, as well as relations between local Armenians and the Turkish nation, we do not treat positively the Armenian Genocide Resolution introduced in the U.S. Congress. We cannot deny the tragic events of the historical past.

The history will never forgive actions of İttihat ve Teraki party, aimed at punishing not only armed Armenians who rebelled against the state, but also all Armenians residing on the Territory of Turkey. One and a half million Turkish citizens with Armenian descent were annihilated in Syrian deserts. Today 70 000 Armenians live in our country. We should not forget and those Armenians who adopted Islam in order to escape deportation. Since they continue to speak in Armenian, they remain faithful to the Armenian culture, and irrespective of religious difference we consider them as our compatriots. And just the opposite, we do not appreciate actions of the Armenian Diaspora, which pushes forward the historical events as subject of disputes. We –Armenians of Turkey, together with our Muslim neighbors support social and trade relations. We do not want our relations to be spoiled with neighbor –Muslim Turks because of such resolutions. It is the time to develop a policy aimed at future. The Republic of Armenia borders upon Turkey. Since change of borders is out of the question, consequently Armenians of Turkey are interested in approaching the two neighbor-states. We are connected politically with the Turkish State and we have religions and cultural ties with Armenia. We –Armenians of Turkey, do not want anything except peace. While the unbridled approach of Diasporan representatives is a disturber of that peace,” “Azg” reports.

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New genocides result from lack of clear approach to punishment of Armenian Genocide

31.05.2007
PanARMENIAN.Net

The Tribunal of Journalism Village held a session entitled “World Recognition of Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire and Prevention of Genocide Facts in XI Century” in the framework of the 26th World Congress of International Federation of Journalists May 30, 2007 in Moscow. The statement, in particular reads as follows, “Mass murders and deportation of Armenian population from the Western Armenia (which was on the territory of modern Turkey) are considered to be Genocide of Armenians. The joint statement made by Russia, France and Great Britain in May 1915 defines these crimes as “new crimes against humanity and civilization” which must be accounted by the Ottoman Empire. Turkey has not been punished for the perpetrated crimes that leads to new crimes against other indigenous peoples of Anatolia – Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds and others. Today Turkey is executing blockade of Armenia imposing ungrounded preconditions for establishing intergovernmental relations that is inadmissible within contemporary international relations. Official Turkey denies the historical fact of Genocide against Armenian people and suppresses freedom of speech and persecutes Turkish citizens daring touch upon this subject. Armenian journalist, citizen of Turkey Hrant Dink fell a prey to anti-Armenian and anti-democratic hysteria unleashed at state level regarding “Armenian taboo”. New genocides of ethnic and religious groups, which take place nowadays, result from the lack of adherence to principle and clear approach to the punishment of already committed genocides (including the Armenian Genocide)”.

The statement underlines that it is necessary to internationally recognize and condemn crimes against the Armenian nation, in the result of which Armenians were deprived of their historical homeland. “We recognize as necessary: thorough research and working out of scientific problems concerning genocide of Armenians; carrying out of wide-ranging policy of elucidation of the problem of the Armenian Genocide among the Turkish population as a pledge of prevention of potential genocidal acts against other national and religious minorities of the Turkish republic; to contribute to the spirit of reconciliation and mutual respect between Armenian and Turkish peoples based on mutual respect for historical memory and feelings concerned with genocide; elaboration of efficient system of prevention and punishment of genocide crimes within international relations in order to prevent possible crimes against humanity in future,” says the declaration of the 26th World Congress of International Federation of Journalists.

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Armenian genocide denial: The case against Turkey

Saturday May 19, 2007
Cleveland Jewish News
By ALAN S. ROSENBAUM, Special to the CJN

The official policy of the government of Turkey continues to deny the Armenian genocide ever happened.

The genocide occurred in the twilight years of the Muslim Ottoman Empire at the outset of World War I.

Jews ought to be in the forefront of those who condemn this policy of denial because many scholars refer to the Armenian genocide as “a dress rehearsal for the Holocaust.” (In fact, a number of officials in the Nazi Reich got their early training by helping the Ottoman Turks deal with their so-called “Armenian problem.” In addition, the Jewish community grasps well the malicious, cynical effects of government-sponsored Holocaust denials.

The deliberate falsification of historical realities denies to an aggrieved people (the Armenians) the right to have their history publicly validated and to have claims for restorative justice fulfilled. Yet, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Abraham Foxman, recently advised against our involvement in this matter since it is between Turkey and Armenia. Unlike Foxman, I believe no political considerations are sufficiently worthy to falsify or ignore genocide.

The Turkish Penal Code (Art. 301) makes it officially punishable to “insult Turkishness.” This code has been used to prosecute prominent Turks like Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk (2006), who write or speak about the Armenian genocide; some, like journalist H. Dink, have even been killed. The Turkish government insists that Turks, Armenians and Kurds were all victims of killings and of the chaos that enveloped the region as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

Countries like Canada, Germany and Austria criminalize the teaching or preaching of Holocaust denial. In France, it is now illegal to deny an instance of genocide when history proves otherwise. The European Union has just ratified a law “banning incitement to or denial of genocide” (arguably including both the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide).

In a full-page statement in The New York Times (June 9, 2000), I and 125 other scholars, including Nobel Prize-winner Elie Wiesel, historian Yehuda Bauer, and sociologist Irving Horowitz, signed a document “affirming that the WW I Armenian genocide is an incontestable historical fact and accordingly urge the governments of Western democracies to likewise recognize it as such.” We called the genocide “a dark chapter of Ottoman-Turkish history.”

Subsequently, the U.S. Congress has repeatedly tried and failed to pass a non-binding resolution to ask the government of Turkey to acknowledge this reality.

In any case, a true friendship between Turkey and America, Israel (with whom it often shares military exercises and intelligence), and some other nations should not be based on sidestepping or supporting a deliberate falsification of history as important as genocide.

Like promoting hate speech, it degrades the humanity of the truly “victimized” by denying them the right to possess their own history.

Alan S. Rosenbaum, Ph.D., is professor of philosophy, Cleveland State University and editor of Is the Holocaust Unique? (2nd edition).

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.

The sleeping giant awakens

Tuesday, May 15, 2007
TDN
By Mehmet Ali Birand

The secular people are usually silent. They prefer to remain spectators.

There is even a part that, no offense intended, the members of which have assigned the duty of looking after their interests to the military for years, instead of seeking their rights by democratic means. They do not leave their homes, they only complain, and when things take on a sharp turn, they cry to be saved by the generals. We have seen examples of this throughout history. They embraced the Republican People's Party (CHP) at times, treating it roughly at others. They neither totally identified with it nor excluded it in entirety.

Now it appears that this attitude is changing. This time around, with the declaration of April 27, the secular people took it to the streets for the first time. For the first time, they became active to have their voices heard. Even those that called on the military for duty got out of their homes to protect their interests, even at the expense of being disturbed.

The elections will be very different this time around.

For the very first time, I witness the secular people become so conscious. For the first time, housewives urge each other to vote. For the first time, the people who spend their summers in Bodrum plan to return back to their home towns on July 20-21 just to be able to vote. They have reserved their tickets already.

There is a general tension among the public.

We used to see this tension among the religious section of the Turkish society. But this time, the secular people are preparing. The “let's not let our votes go to waste” logic is gaining strength.

The latest rallies are clear signs of this.

Why did Kenan cry?

We, as spectators, view the Eurovision Song Contest differently than those involved in the organization and those that participate by giving points.

For us, Eurovision is no different than a national soccer game. We turn it into an issue of honor. We see those that we have not received points from as enemies, and cheer for those that gave us points. We see one as a friend of Turks, the other as an enemy of Turks.

However, Eurovision is a commercial event. It is both an attractive show and a mechanism to produce raw material for the music industry.

It is for this reason that countries that do not receive points blame not the others, but their own songs. For example, I have checked the newspapers of the following day in both Ireland, which received the least number of votes, and in the United Kingdom, which was once the champion but now gets very low points. I saw that no one cared.

Another fact about Eurovision is that Balkan states and ex-Soviet republics support each other. Greek Cyprus and Greece exchange points and the Scandinavians look after each other. But then, there are still those that act non-politically. The most characteristic example for this was Turkey's 12 points to Armenia. Turkey keeps surprising everyone on these issues.

Kenan Doğulu managed the mise-en-scene very well since the day he was elected to participate in the contest. He organized a very clever PR campaign. If he had not become fourth, he would have easily won third place, and even second had he been lucky.

However, when he could not get what he wanted, he cried in the hotel room with his mother. I was surprised. I thought he had worked out what Eurovision was all about. He should have been happy. He became more famous than ever. He also became known abroad.

Is it not what we call Eurovision anyway?

[...]

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 Atomic Energy Agency: No leakage from Armenia’s Metsamor reactor

09.05.2007
Today’s Zaman Ankara

The Turkish Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK) has said that there has been no radioactive leakage from the Armenian Metsamor Nuclear Reactor, located on the border between Turkey and Armenia.

“None of the radioactivity analyses or RESAI station measurements done up until now have uncovered radioactivity or radiation levels above normal,” said TAEK officials. The body was responding to an earlier article by Today’s Zaman that indicated the plant was experiencing radioactive leakage. “Your newspaper’s April 11, 2007 edition had an article entitled ‘Data shows increased radioactive leakage from Metsamor’. This article contained news which indicated that data taken from 13 TAEK warning stations around Iğdir and Kars showed an increase in radioactive leakage from the Metsamor reactor,” TAEK stated, before going on to refute the claims.
The Armenian Metsamor Nuclear Reactor, which is composed of two WWER-440-230 units, each with power levels of 408 mega watts, is located not far from the capital Yerevan, 16 kilometers from the Turkish border. The Armenian government decided to open the second unit in the reactor in 1993, due to high energy needs, and thus the second unit was started up in 1995. The Metsamor reactor provides up to 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity needs, and is predicted to continue doing so until 2016. Since Yerevan decided upgrade the reactor TAEK has been involved in following related developments and taking the necessary precautions from the Turkish side.

An important part of taking necessary actions in the wake of a possible nuclear power plant accident is the timely access to correct information after the accident. Along these lines, Turkey is a supporter of all international accords on early warning in the case of nuclear reactor accidents. One of TAEK’s actions has been to set up a national early warning system, RESA, with regards to nuclear reactors in neighboring countries. This system works 24-hours-a-day, and with the help of 78 stations set up throughout Turkey, takes constant measurements of radiation levels. When airborne gamma radiation rises above threshold levels, this system automatically warns the TAEK Crisis Center in Ankara. Of these 78 stations, 14 are grouped in the region that lies near the Metsamor reactor.

In order to keep close watch over the Turkish regions that could theoretically be affected by radiation or radioactivity from the Metsamor reactor, TAEK along with various ministries, institutes and foundations, has formed a tight infrastructure of control in the area. Kafkas University, located in the Kars province, has a laboratory established in 1995 that takes environmental measurements and carries out analyses of the situation in the region. This laboratory also carries out sample analyses of local soil, plant, and food. Both the Environment and Forestry Ministry and TAEK take soil and underground water samples from four Turkish cities near the Metsamor reactor and test them every six months for warning signs of increased radiation and radioactivity. In 2006, these tests were enlarged to cover 81 different towns and cities, as well as to include plant and food samples.

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.

Turkey's Prime Minister calls for national unity

2007-05-01
HULIQ
Source: Public Radio of Armenia

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has appealed for national unity in the row that has erupted over the disputed election of a new president.
He said an "atmosphere of stability and tranquillity" was essential.

Mr. Erdogan's ruling Islamist-rooted AK party has put forward Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul for president. But the army has hinted it may block him.

Last week Mr. Gul was backed in a vote in parliament, but the constitutional court has been asked to annul the vote.

It says it hopes to rule on the petition before the next round of the vote is due to take place on Wednesday.

In Turkey the president is elected by parliament, in which the AK party has a big majority.

As many as one million people marched through Istanbul on Sunday, opposing Mr. Gul. They were supporters of Turkey's secular values.

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.

Investigator Accuses Turkey of Tampering With Assyrian Mass Grave

4-27-2007
AINA
Source: Turkish Daily News
By Onur Burçak Belli

The author says "The date is a symbolic day for Armenians who commemorate "genocide" on that day, a characterization disputed by most Turkish and many international scholars."

Please read the "many international scholars" as a minority or a handful of scholars funded by Turkey. As for the "most" Turkish historians Turkey has the PCA 301 (the penal code that punishes insulting "Turkishness") to keep all the rest out.

Istanbul -- An investigation to clarify conflicting claims about the origins of a mass grave found near the city of Mardin last year in Turkey's southeast ended in disappointment this week as historians traded accusations and a Swedish expert denounced the excavation as an "expensive picnic."

The grave first came to light last October when villagers in the district of Nusaybin reported that they had found a mass grave near the village of Kuru. Turkish historians insisted that the grave dated back to Roman times while some Westerners claimed it could be a mass burial site of Armenians, killed around 1915 in a series of massacres that remain the subject of red hot controversy today.

After the weekly news magazine Nokta published photos of the site and international news agencies picked up the story, Sweden's Soderton University demanded an investigation.

Refusing collaboration:

Professor David Gaunt of Soderton, accompanied by Yusuf Halaçoglu, the President of the Turkish Association of Historians (TTK), arrived at the burial site together last Tuesday, April 24. The date is a symbolic day for Armenians who commemorate "genocide" on that day, a characterization disputed by most Turkish and many international scholars.

On examining the grave, Gaunt refused to collaborate with the Turkish historians. It had been tampered with since it was first uncovered, making it impossible to conclusively establish its origins or the circumstances of the human remains.

"I have some photos of the grave, dating back to October, when it was first found," Gaunt told the Turkish Daily News yesterday. "But the place I saw was totally different from the photos."If proving that the grave is not evidence of Armenian claims, it should have had serious protection, he said. However, it is "full of mud.""My impression is that this grave is one in which no scientific research can be carried out. The grave has undergone numerous changes so it is unrecognizable," he said.

Soil sample conflict:

The Turkish Association's Halaçoglu, however, said in response that no bones were removed from the place and that the change was due to natural factors such as rain. Gaunt in turn rejected that explanation, saying if indeed scientific standards of protection were used "then it could not have been affected by rain or anything else."The aim of this visit was to make a preliminary survey to establish whether the site is suitable for interdisciplinary investigations in the future by forensic medical experts, archaeologists, physical anthropologists and historians. If such a decision was taken, forensic experts would be engaged to assist the Turkish Historical Society and the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in their work.Noting that Roman pantheons have their own entrance, which was closed in the grave, Halaçoglu emphasized that the grave represents a typical Roman burial site.

It could not be a site, in his view, of alleged Armenian victims at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. He also chastised Gaunt for flippancy, saying if he is sincere about investigating genocide claims, he should have taken soil samples that could prove the history of the bones. He also recalled that Turkey has made an official proposal to Armenia to set up a joint commission of historians to study such disputed events and all sides should conduct their work impartially.Such impartiality is now impossible, an angry Gaunt argued: "They gave me a shovel to dig and get some soil and some little bones, which were impossible to work on and reach any scientific conclusion. It is an archeological site. The process should continue slowly and gently," he said "That was when I realized it was impossible to reach any scientific conclusion. Why should I get soil samples? What happened to those bones that are the real source for forensic research?"It could well be a Roman grave, he said, but the point was to examine the remains of 38 bodies there and that is now difficult if not impossible."Our intention was to understand how they got there, but I have heard that they were removed. I cannot accept the claim that mud filled the grave naturally," Gaunt explained.

Understanding the exact date:

David Gaunt also said it is scientifically impossible to understand the exact date from the bones. "It is not possible to say the exact date with scientific and chemical examinations. One can only merge the scientific outcomes with the stories of the local people. Then maybe one may have an answer close to reality."

Sait Yildiz, a Syriac local of Mardin, said Halaçoglu accused him of manipulating reality and misinforming the media. Yildiz was at the site with Gaunt and Halaçoglu the first time they went into the grave. "I was carrying the photographs taken at that time," Yildiz said. "A villager came to me, looked at the photos and confirmed that the grave looked like this the first time he discovered it," he added, explaining that villager was the one who first found the grave and reported it to the authorities.

The Swedish professor expressed his disillusionment, describing what happened as "childish."

"This is the most expensive picnic I have ever attended," concluded the professor.

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.

Stop denying the Armenian genocide

National Post (Canada)
April 27, 2007 Friday
National Edition

Imagine a country that denies the Holocaust.

Imagine that the same country insists that Jews were killed because they were disloyal to Germany and were also guilty of killing German soldiers during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Bizarre? Fiendish? Ridiculous statements that do not deserve a response? Yet something very similar has been asserted for the past 92 years by Turkey. A recent example appeared in these pages recently ("Bridging the divide between Turkey and Armenia," Aydemir Erman, April 24). Despite countless books by genocide scholars, tons of documents in American, Austrian, British, French, German (Turkey's wartime ally) and Russian archives, eyewitness accounts and Western (including Canadian) newspaper reports, the Turkish government denies that in 1915 it committed a deliberate, government-organized genocide against Armenians. That genocide has also been acknowledged by the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.

The International Genocide Scholars Association (IAGS), in its 1997 convention, adopted a resolution unanimously reaffirming that: "The mass murder of over a million Armenians in Turkey in 1915 is a case of genocide which conforms to the statutes of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide."

The IAGS in its June 16, 2005, open letter to the Prime Minister of Turkey, put to rest the issue of an "historians" commission to study the Armenian Genocide when they declared: "We are concerned that you may not be fully aware of the extent of the scholarly and intellectual record on the Armenian Genocide and how this event conforms to the definition of the United Nations Genocide Convention. We want to underscore that it is not just Armenians who are affirming the Armenian Genocide but it is the overwhelming opinion of scholars who study genocide ... to deny [the Armenian Genocide] its factual and moral reality as genocide is not to engage in scholarship but in propaganda and efforts to absolve the perpetrator, blame the victims and erase the ethical meaning of this history."

On June 9, 2000, 126 Holocaust scholars, including author Elie Wiesel, published a statement in The New York Times affirming "that the World War I Armenian Genocide is an incontestable historical fact." Raphael Lemkin, who drafted the UN Convention on Genocide and coined the word Genocide in 1948, on many occasions cited the attempt to annihilate the Armenians as a clear case of genocide as defined by the UN Convention on Genocide.

In recent years, righteous Turks -- particularly scholars and journalists -- have spoken against their government's denial of the Armenian Genocide.

It's clear that what happened to the Armenians was not the result of "civil strife," "rebellion" or "military necessity," as Turkish governments have claimed. The Armenian Genocide was a state-sponsored and state-sanctioned plan. At a 1910 conference in Salonika, the Young Turks leader Talaat Pasha stated: "There can be no question of equality [for minorities] until we have concluded our task of Ottomanizing the empire." Three months later the Young Turks leadership approved Talaat's plan in a secret meeting.

The Turkish Government's attempt to divert the attention of the international community from recognition through disingenuous proposals, such as the creation of "historians commission," is a bankrupt strategy.

The reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide serves to address the injustice that took place 92 years ago and to play a positive role in the healing process for Armenians. The reaffirmation is about condemning attempts to rewrite history.

Because of Turkey's refusal to face its dark past, the process of healing, which is essential to peace, has not begun for Armenians. As genocide scholars have said, the last act of genocide is the denial of that act.

- Aris Babikian writes for the Horizon Weekly and is a member of the Media Council of Canada.

Turkish organizations of Germany to honor victims of Armenian Genocide

20.04.2007
PanARMENIAN.Net

The statement of “Union against Genocide” reads as follows, “Immigrants from Turkey feel great sorrow concerning the fact, that today genocides, which took place 92 years ago and were committed between 1915-23 towards Christian nations of the Ottoman Empire with the aim to exterminate them, are being denied. The cutting of Christian population down to 0.1 percent, which before 1915 approximately was 1/3 of the Ottoman society, as well as bragging of Turkish nationalist-leaders as if 99.9 percent of Turkey’s population was turned to Mohammedanism, is nothing else than a peculiar recognition of committing genocide towards our Christian neighbors."

I welcome this honest statement by the Turkish "Union against Genocide" and let this be an example to the other Turkish immigrants elsewhere.

On the initiative of “Union against Genocide” an event will be organized in Frankfurt April 24, dedicated to the Armenian Genocide. Organizers demand to proclaim April 24 as a universal mourning day for all nations of Turkey.

According to Turkish journalist Ali Ertem, head of the organization established by Turks residing in Germany, other organizations participate in the event too. Particularly they are - Federation of Turkish workers of Germany, Federation of Democratic Nations of Germany, Federation of Worker Immigrants of Germany, “Union of Workers – Brotherhood of Nations” organization and “Union for Struggle” newspaper.

The statement of “Union against Genocide” reads as follows, “Immigrants from Turkey feel great sorrow concerning the fact, that today genocides, which took place 92 years ago and were committed between 1915-23 towards Christian nations of the Ottoman Empire with the aim to exterminate them, are being denied. The cutting of Christian population down to 0.1 percent, which before 1915 approximately was 1/3 of the Ottoman society, as well as bragging of Turkish nationalist-leaders as if 99.9 percent of Turkey’s population was turned to Mohammedanism, is nothing else than a peculiar recognition of committing genocide towards our Christian neighbors.

Alongside with all this the Turkish government cannot overcome the threat of dissociation. The main cause of it is in the fact that the state has not been made answerable for the genocide committed towards ancient nations who settled Anatolia – Armenians, Assirians and Greeks. And the policy of using genocide as a tool for creating a mono-ethnic society in the country has finally exhausted. Author of the statement, Ali Ertem thinks, the assassination of Hrant Dink showed that after 1915 nothing has changed in Turkish leaders’ way of thinking. “Slogans “We all are Armenian” that for the first time were pronounced in Turkey’s history, with the help of which the country stood to protect the nation that became victim for genocide, was a serious blow to chauvinism and denial of Genocide,” Ertem underlines, “Azg” reports.

Last year Ali Ertem gathered 11 000 signatures from Turks residing in Germany who demand from Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

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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.