Armenian Genocide News‏

Writers risk backlash with apology for Armenian genocide

Robert Tait in Istanbul
The Guardian, Monday December 8 2008

Academics and writers in Turkey have risked a fierce official backlash by

issuing a public apology for the alleged genocide suffered by Armenians

at the hands of Ottoman forces during the first world war.

Breaking one of Turkish society's biggest taboos, the apology comes in

an open letter that invites Turks to sign an online petition supporting its

sentiments.

It reads: "My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and

the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were

subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathise

with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers. I apologise to them."

The contents expose its authors - three scholars, Ahmet Insel, Baskin Oran

and Cengiz Aktar, and a journalist, Ali Bayramoglu - to the wrath of the

Turkish state, which has prosecuted writers, including the Nobel

prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, for supporting Armenian genocide

claims.

Turkey rejects the assertion of many historians and Armenia's government

that up to 1.5 million Armenians died in a wave of expulsions that amounted

to state-sanctioned genocide. Officials claim the death toll was much lower

and that most of the victims died from disease. They also say many Turks

were killed by Armenians, who have long been accused of allying themselves

with enemy Russian forces against the Ottoman empire.

The letter has triggered a furious response from ultranationalists, who have

labelled it a "betrayal" and an "insult to the Turkish nation".

However, Aktar, a professor of EU studies at Istanbul's University of Bahcesehir,

said Turks needed to apologise for being unable to discuss the issue because

of official policy, which has long repressed open debate on the Armenians' fate.
"Today many people in Turkey, with all good intentions, think that nothing happened

to the Armenians," he told the newspaper Vatan. "The official history says that this

incident happened through secondary, not very important, and even mutual

massacres. They push the idea that it was an ordinary incident explainable by the

conditions of the first world war. Unfortunately, the facts are very different."
He added: "This is a voice coming from the individual's conscience. Those who

want to apologise can apologise, and those who do not should not."
The letter coincides with a tentative rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia.
In September, the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, attended a football match

between the two countries, at the invitation of his Armenian counterpart, Serge

Sarkisian.

But further talks aimed at restoring ties have become bogged down partly because

of Armenian reluctance to accept a Turkish demand for a joint commission to

investigate the genocide claims.

Turkish Intellectuals Apologize For Armenian `Great Disaster'
By Emil Danielyan

In an unprecedented gesture, a group of Turkish intellectuals have
publicly apologized for what they called a `great disaster' that befell
the Ottoman Empire's Armenian minority and urged their compatriots to
follow suit.

`I cannot conscientiously accept the indifference to the great disaster
that Ottoman Armenians suffered in 1915, and its denial. I reject this
injustice and acting of my own will, I share the feelings and pains of
my Armenian brothers and sisters, and I apologize to them,' reads a
petition signed by them and published by the `Zaman' daily on Friday.

The newspaper said the signatories will ask other intellectuals and
ordinary Turks alike to sign the petition. `We are searching for human
beings,' one of them, scholar Baskin Oran, was quoted as saying. `We
thought about urging the state to apologize but we decided to let
individuals act according to their conscience. This call is for
everybody.'

According to `Zaman,' some Turkish civil society representatives were
quick to object to the campaign. `For me, all these events [of 1915]
were the fault of Turkish nationalism flourishing at that time, and
personally I don't identify with it,' historian Ayse Hur told the paper.
`So I do not feel the need to apologize personally.'

Another intellectual, Aytekin Yildiz, pointed to the signatories'
failure to describe as `genocide' the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million
Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. `What do they
mean by `great disaster'?' he said. `Let's face it, it was genocide.'

The Turkish state vehemently denies that the Armenian massacres, a taboo
subject until recently, constituted a genocide. It insists that Ottoman
Armenians died in much smaller numbers as a result of civil strife,
rather than a premeditated government policy.

The official version of events is increasingly questioned by independent
Turkish scholars and other intellectuals, even if few of them publicly
use the word genocide in reference to the mass killings and deporations.
Dozens of them gathered at a private Istanbul university in 2005 for a
landmark conference that sparked angry protests from Turkish nationalist
groups.

GENOCIDE FEATURE WORRISOME
Hurriyet
Dec 4 2008
Turkey

ANKARA - Turkey has expressed uneasiness over a two-hour documentary,
"Scream Bloody Murder," that will be screened Thursday on CNN,
depicting systematic terror and violence throughout the years as well
as the 1915 incidents.

As the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide approaches,
CNN's chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, will
report on genocide and the heroes who witnessed it and called for the
international community to stop it, press reports revealed yesterday.

The documentary will feature ethnic slaughters such as the Holocaust,
appalling violence in Cambodia, and the 1915 incidents. Turkey defended
its own position and its proposal to set up a joint commission of
historians to study the Armenian allegations regarding the 1915
incidents, learned the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

In response to the screening of the documentary, Ankara recalled
the current atmosphere of dialogue with Armenia that started with
the Turkish president's landmark visit to Yerevan in September and
asked that the documentary avoid bias and reflect the steps taken by
Turkey to normalize ties with Armenia.

Hürriyet, Turkey
Dec 4 2008
Turkey not to open Armenia border until Azerbaijan's integrity restored

The Turkish-Armenian border could be opened only after Armenia gives
up distorting history and restores Azerbaijan's territorial integrity,
Turkish Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen said. (UPDATED)

"We are open to developing relations with Armenia, to open borders,
and to develop trade," Tuzmen was quoted by Interfax as telling an
Azeri-Turkish business forum in Baku on Thursday.

Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic ties and their border has been
closed for more than a decade over Armenia's aggression over
Azerbaijan.

"We do not oppose developing trade relations, which will have a
positive influence on the development of the whole region; however,
prior to this historians should solve some issues and Azerbaijan's
territorial integrity should be restored," Tuzmen added.

The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia began in 1988 on Armenian
territorial claims over Azerbaijan. Since 1992 Armenian Armed Forces
have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh
region and its seven surrounding districts.

Some 10 percent of the Azeri population was displaced due to a series
of bloody clashes both between and within the two neighboring
countries.

In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group are currently holding peaceful negotiations.
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