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GLOBE EDITORIAL
The Boston Globe
Turkey's historical amnesia
September 1, 2007

NINETY-TWO years ago, the legal term "genocide" had yet to be adopted, but foreign missionaries and diplomats knew that a campaign of unprecedented savagery was destroying the Armenians of eastern Anatolia, in what was then the Ottoman empire. "The ultimate objective of the actions against the Armenians is complete annihilation," said Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, a German vice consul. "They're mowing them all down," a police officer told Thora Wedel-Jarlsberg, a nurse from Norway. "This barbaric policy will be a source of shame for Turkey," said Huseyin Kazim Kadri, an Ottoman official who tried to help the Armenians.

These eyewitnesses were describing the forced removal and murder of Armenians from provinces where they might threaten the homogeneity of the Turkish state that was being born from the remnants of the empire. The 1915-1917 campaign against the Armenians was amply documented at the time, and more evidence became available from trials held briefly in allied-occupied Istanbul in 1919. No one knows exactly how many Armenians were killed, but the figure cited at the trials was 800,000.

Why and how the Ottoman government undertook this genocide has been comprehensively examined by the Turkish historian Taner Akcam, who teaches at the University of Minnesota. The three quotations are taken from his book "A Shameful Act; The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility." And yet the Turkish government keeps insisting that the historical record is in doubt. The Foreign Ministry said last month it objected to the use of the word genocide because it is "historically and legally baseless" and "there is no consensus among the historians on how to qualify the events."

The word didn't enter the lexicon of international law until 1948, but by the legal definition of the term - "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part" - this was a genocide. So why did the Ottoman government commit this atrocity, and why does the present government deny it?

Before 1915, The Ottoman Empire had been under intense pressure from nationalities within its borders to grant them independence. It allied itself with Germany in World War I to remake itself as a predominantly Turkish state, but large Armenian and Greek populations interfered with that transformation. The Armenians could expect help from the Russian empire, which had a large Armenian population in its lands just north of the border.

After the Russians defeated an Ottoman army on the frontier in January 1915, the government put the genocide in motion. While it would have been understandable if Armenians who supported the Russian cause were imprisoned, there can be no justification for the mass murders that resulted.

With the allied victory in 1918 came trials for war crimes. And the allies enraged the Turks with the Treaty of Sevres in 1920, which gave a substantial section of western Turkey to the Greeks and created an Armenian state from Ottoman and Russian lands. Under the leadership of General Mustafa Kemal, the Turks repudiated the treaty, defeated the Greek Army, and formed the Turkish state the world knows today.

Kemal took no part in the genocide, and in 1920 called it a series of "shameful acts." But he had been a member of the ruling Ottoman party, whose leaders masterminded the killings. When Kemal formed a government, he put many of the perpetrators in important positions. And there were no reparations or resettlement of any Armenians that might have survived the killing but were displaced to other countries.
"A new class of 'notables' had been created . . . as a result of the genocide and attendant looting," Akcam writes. "To return the looted property was unthinkable for them."

Kemal ruled until his death until 1938, and under the surname Ataturk is considered the father of his country. Turkey, operating under the political framework he established, has never apologized for the genocide, and the Armenian survivors and their descendants, including
many who have resettled in the United States, have felt aggrieved as a result.

The Jewish Anti-Defamation League got caught up in the controversy last month when its leadership at first seemed to adopt the Turkish position. The national ADL subsequently agreed to recognize the genocide as such. "Using the word 'genocide' is a moral issue," said Abe Foxman, director of the ADL last week. "I looked for a way to lower the rhetoric and unite us."

It's unfortunate that the Turkish government won't show the same flexibility. In a telephone interview last week, Nabi Sensoy, Turkey's ambassador to the United States, affirmed the government's denial. "It was wartime," he said. "It's a known fact that the Armenian population
living in the east sided with the Russians." The ambassador did endorse the notion of a committee of historians to sift through the facts, but given the overwhelming eyewitness evidence of mass killings, this is unnecessary.

Many Armenian-Americans want Congress to approve a resolution acknowledging the genocide. Sensoy warned that this might complicate relations between Turkey and the Republic of Armenia, which was created out of the old Russian territories. Congress has to be careful
before complicating relations in this volatile section of the world, but the resolution acknowledging a historical reality shouldn't cause controversy today.

Vice Consul Scheubner-Richter wrote in 1915 that "a broad section of the Turkish people, those blessed with common sense and reason . . . do not support the annihilation policy." In their spirit, and to honor the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Ottoman government, modern Turkey should acknowledge this crime and move on.

(c) Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

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PanARMENIAN.Net
Armenian Genocide: Turkey blackmails Israel
01.09.2007 14:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Within hours after The Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish government went on the offensive and demanded the Israeli government to `deliver'American Jewish organizations and to ensure that the
U.S. Congress does not pass a resolution characterizing as genocide the massacre of Armenians during World War I, the Armenian National Committee of Canada reports.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Turkey's ambassador to Israel Namik Tan said: `Israel should not let the [U.S.] Jewish community change its position. This is our expectation and this is highly important, highly important. On some issues there is no such thing as `Israel cannot deliver.'' Tan said that ADL's recognition of the Armenian Genocide was one of those issues.

Prof. Jack Nusan Porter, treasurer of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) and author of `The Genocidal Mind' and `Facing History and Holocaust' called Turkey's pressure on Israel `blackmail.'

Aris Babikian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) said: `We hope that the Israeli government, as a sovereign state, and Jewish organizations will not yield to the Turkish Government blackmail and the use of the Jewish community of Turkey as political hostage. Such immoral behavior by a government which is renowned for the oppression of its minorities (Armenians,
Greeks, Jews, Assyrians, Kurds) and their basic human and civil rights should not be tolerated by the civilized world.'

`A fascist and anti-Semitic state which allowed `Mein Kampf' and `The Protocols of Elders of Zion' to become best-sellers in Turkey and brought the wealth tax on Jews and other minorities, should not enjoy the support and alliance of Israel and the Jewish people,' added Babikian.

The ANCC director expressed the Canadian-Armenian community's and the ANCC's gratitude to Jewish organizations and individuals who have `shown moral and ethical courage by standing up for truth and justice.'

Babikian said that he was certain `Armenians and Jews, who have suffered so much, would not allow the Turkish government's or any individuals misguided and shortsighted decisions to derail us form our joint calling to fight Armenian Genocide or Holocaust denial.'

The current upheaval came to light after the town council of Watertown voted unanimously to cut its ties with the Anti-Defamation League and its program `No Place for Hate' for the ADL's lobbying efforts on behalf of the Turkish government to block the passage of the United States House of Representatives and Senate resolutions to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Foxman has justified his organization's position in a statement saying: "As long as ADL is an organization committed first to the safety and security of the Jewish people, we cannot in good conscience ignore the well-being of 20,000 Jews in Turkey."

The controversy turned into an international crisis and caused turmoil in human rights organizations and in Jewish communities. Twelve Boston-area Jewish organizations issued a joint statement appealing to Jews to `never forget the Armenian Genocide and maintain our guard against those who deny its occurrence.'

Seeing that his position is untenable on August 24 Foxman issued a carefully crafted statement modifying the ADL position. `On reflection, we have come to share the assessment of former Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr., that the consequences of the painful events of 1915-1918 were indeed tantamount to genocide,' the statement read.

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RABBIS VISIT GENOCIDE MUSEUM
Panorama.am
21:23 31/08/2007

[Ruth Barnett presented at a House of Commons conference organised by Armenia Solidarity, British Armenian All Party Parliamnetary Group, Armenian Geneicde Trust of GB and Nor Serount UK]

Today the "Liberal Jews of Great Britain" visited the Genocide museum and institute in Yerevan. As the museum's director, Hayk Demoyan, told panorama.am, rabbis Danny Rich and Ruth Barnett were part of the delegation. A seminar and dialogue titled "The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire" was held. The visit by the rabbis had a pre-planned program.

Demoyan presented the guests with the current state of Armenia-Turkey relations. He told of the Turkish offer for historians to come together and study the facts of the Genocide.

The explanations by Demoyan were convincing to the point where the guests thanked him, saying that before they had only known one-sided points of view. During the course of the visit, the guests planted a tree in the garden south of the Genocide victims' memorial.

Arrangements were made for the delegation to be present for next year's 93rd anniversary Genocide commemorations.

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TURKEY ON THE EDGE
Hellenic News of America, PA
Sept 1 2007

As a member of NATO and a rare Middle Eastern democracy, Turkey has had a special place in geopolitics. In a region hostile to the idea of separation of church and state, Turkey has been the exception.

While Turkey's experience with democracy and secularism has been tumultuous, recent events are jarring, including its attack on the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Efforts to elect Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as Turkey's next President troubled secular Turks, many of whom took to the streets.

Seen as someone who would turn back the clock on secular reforms, from sexual equality to consuming alcohol, they are right to be wary.

The origins of Gul's ruling AKP party are in fundamentalist Islam.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan's political mentor and former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan came to power promising to "rescue Turkey from the unbelievers of Europe" and to launch a jihad against Jerusalem. The AKP, some say, has overcome these sentiments, but
caution is in order.

The steady rise of a radical brand of Sunni Islam in Turkey is cause for concern. Islamic brotherhoods, such as the Nurcu and the Fettullahci, have used loopholes in secular law to set up extensive private educational systems. These organizations span from preparatory schools, to universities, to business schools,
molding much of the leading cultural power, both at the popular and intellectual level. Many secularists believe that these schools are the madrassas of Turkey, and fear that they may be a Trojan horse for radical Islam. Unqualified madrassa graduates are taking up positions in the Turkish civil service.

Religious intolerance seems to have reached new levels in Turkey, as evidenced by massive protests to the Pope's November visit. In the wake of his controversial comments on the nature of Islam, tens of thousands of Turks rallied against the Pope. So vehement were these
protests that the Turkish government deployed 4,000 policemen backed by riot trucks, helicopters, and armored vehicles.

The Ecumenical Patriarch has long been subjected to Turkish misdeeds.

Turkey is the only country not to recognize the 2,000-year-old spiritual beacon to millions of Orthodox Christians. Furthermore, Ankara's demand that the Ecumenical Patriarch be a Turkish citizen threatens the very institution, as less than 2,500 Greek Orthodox
citizens of Turkey remain, most of them elderly.

The Armenian Patriarchs of Istanbul endure similar hardships, having to abide by the same restrictions for their religious appointments to the Patriarchal see. The Armenian Orthodox community, the largest Christian community in Turkey comprising of 70,000 citizens, today has only 5 Armenian Apostolic priests and 2 Archbishops to oversee the spiritual guidance of its 38 working Armenian churches throughout Turkey. While Turkish authorities deny governmental interference in religious matters, the closure of theological seminaries in 1969
has continued to take its toll on the Armenian Patriarch's ability to find clergymen who meet the criteria set forth by the Turkish government. Unless Turkey changes its policies, the Patriarchs and their respected Christian communities will disappear in the foreseeable future.

In response to these affronts, I, along with several other members of Congress, signed a letter to Turkish President Erdoðan urging him to end his limits on religious freedom regarding the Ecumenical Patriarch. The practices of the Turkish government, as we expressed to the President, "clearly reflect (his) policy of viewing the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a strictly Turkish institution, whenin fact it provides spiritual and moral guidance for millions of
believers worldwide." Congress isn't alone in its scrutiny of Turkish repression. The State Department's 2007 Report on Human Rights cites Turkey's denial of the Ecumenical Patriarchs request to reopen the Halki seminary on the island of Heybeli, which was closed in 1971 when it nationalized all private institutes of higher education. If Turkey is to remain a secular state, it must make serious efforts to stop such behavior, and Congress must continue to press Turkey to follow a path to religious tolerance of peaceful minorities.

Congressman Edward R. Royce is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee
on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade