United Press International
Dec 13 2008
Turkish politician: Keep quiet about 1915
ANKARA, Turkey, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A top Turkish official warns that
other countries could harm relations between Turkey and Armenia by
focusing on the 1915 killing of Armenians in Turkey.
Koksal Toptan, the speaker of the Turkish parliament, told Hurriyet in
an interview, that parliamentary resolutions calling the 1915 killings
"genocide" are problematic for the two nations.
"Politicians and parliaments cannot judge history," Toptan said.
Armenia and Turkey have not had diplomatic relations since Armenia
became independent of the Soviet Union in 1991. But President Abdullah
Gul visited Yerevan in September.
Toptan said he was concerned about President-elect Barack Obama's
victory and his nomination of Hillary Clinton as U.S. secretary of
state, since both have supported Armenian groups in the United States.
The Turkish government denies that large numbers of Armenians were
deliberately killed in 1915. The word genocide was coined by Raphael
Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer, who cited the killings as one of his
inspirations.
TURKEY URGES 3RD PARTY COUNTRIES NOT TO INTERFERE
ON ARMENIAN RELATIONS
Hurriyet
Dec 12 2008
Turkey
ANKARA - The Turkish Parliament urged the parliaments of third
party countries not to disrupt the process of rapprochement between
Turkey and Armenia with efforts to recognize the 1915-dated events
as "genocide". "Politicians and parliaments cannot judge history,
" said Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan.
"We have always warned the parliaments [of other countries] that
such moves will not help the Turkey-Armenia talks. All responsible
parliaments should now avoid hindering the ongoing process," Köksal
Toptan Parliament Speaker told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic
Review in an interview.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul was in Yerevan in a historic visit
in September, paving the way to normalize relations between the two
neighbors, who have had no diplomatic ties since the early '90s. Barack
Obama's victory in the presidential race and his decision to appoint
Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State worried Turkey, who fears a
possible recognition of the 1915 incidents involving Armenian as
genocide by the House of Representatives, because of the strong
support both have voiced towards the Urmenian lobby.
Toptan recalled that France decided to halt discussing historical
events in their parliament and praised the move as positive. "It's
satisfactory to see that other parliaments have started to share
our views on the matter," Toptan stated. Having already recognized
the Armenian claims, France had been discussing whether or not to
prosecute those who denied the claims for the last two years.
Turkey not prejudiced Asked what the Turkish Parliament could do to
help the reconciliation process with Armenia, Toptan said Parliament
had no prejudices against Armenians and was ready to talk to them. "We
will do whatever we can do in terms of contributing to the ongoing
process," Toptan said.
Though he said they were not prejudiced against Armenians, Toptan
emphasized the fact that Armenia still occupied territories of
Azerbaijan. "I think Armenia's withdrawal from the Nagorno-Karabagh
will surely have a positive impact on the process," he said.
There are 70,000 Armenian people working in Turkey and many Turkish
products are sold in Armenia, Toptan said, adding, "If we continue
in this direction, there will be no issues left for the Armenian
diaspora to abuse."
Toptan also had messages for his European counterpart who relentlessly
criticized Turkey for slowing down the reform process. Arguing that
the 2007 general elections reduced the country's motivation but had
no negative impact on technical talks, Toptan said: "We are speeding
up ... But the EU is not implementing its own obligations. It would
be unfair to put the blame on Turkey. This country has made enormous
reforms in recent years."
The EU harmonization packet, including 130 new laws, was brought to
the agenda of the Council of Ministers and Parliament discussed the
Turkish Trade Law, Toptan said.
MIXED FEELINGS FOR "GENOCIDE" PETITION
Hurriyet
Dec 12 2008
Turkey
ISTANBUL - Over 300 Armenian professionals, including representatives
from the media, nongovernmental organizations, academia and the
artistic community, have sent a message to President Abdullah Gul
calling on him to recognize the events of 1915 as an act of genocide.
The message said the painful events of 1915 were keeping the people of
the two countries apart and that acceptance of the events as genocide
was not just a request of the Armenian people but of the whole global
community. The message also said relations between Armenia and Turkey
would only be normalized by such a recognition.
Turkish intellectuals A group of Turkish intellectuals have also
recently started a similar campaign. "We reject ignoring the disaster
the Ottoman Armenians faced in 1915 and share in the emotion and pain
of our Armenian brothers," the petition states. Already a target of
debate and attack, the petition will collect signatures online from
New Year's Day.
"More important than Gul's response is that this letter shows the
Armenian people's attitude towards the issue. This has become an entire
social movement," the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaksutyun
Bureau's International Secretariat Director Giro Manoian, told the
Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review. He said relations between Turks
and Armenians would only normalize with the acceptance of the events
as genocide.
Brave but insufficient Stating the Turkish intellectual's campaign was
"brave but insufficient," he said: "I say insufficient because any
imposition of genocide acceptance must be made directly by the state."
The oriental studies director from the Republic of Armenia National
Academy of Sciences Institute, Professor Ruben Safrastian, said Gul's
response was important. "I hope that President Gul, known for his
intellectual leanings, will offer a different answer from those of
Turkey's official statements."
Regarding the Turkish campaign, Safrastian said: "The Turkish people
want to know about their past and the genocide matter is a leading
issue. Turkish intellectuals, on their way to the European Union,
are able to approach these problems objectively."
Armenian Solidarity with the
Victims of All Genocides
Nor Serount Cultural Association
Seyfo Centre
C.H.A.K.(Centre of Halabja)
PRESS RELEASE
A Recognition of the Armenian Genocide made public in the House Of Commons
The 60th anniversary of the UN Genocide convention was marked in the
House of Commons this week, on tuesday, 9th December, by a public
recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Socialist Party of
Kurdistan (PSK). Participating in the event were Professor Khatchatur
Pilikian, author Desmond Fernandes, Akif Wan of the KNK and Adnan Kochar
of CHAK.
The PSK statement read :"Turkey has not confronted its history and
is adamant and stubborn in its behaviour. It is less than a century
since the Armenian Genocide happened in front of the eyes of the world.
This shameful act for humanity was condemned by the parliaments of many
countries. Each time the Turkish government and its parliament has
responded to these condemnations with anger. Excluding few conscientious
intellectuals, the so called intellectuals and artists of Turkey have
followed the footsteps of their politicians and tried to hide, deny,
even falsify history and are using every trick in the book to blame the
Armenians.
Of course, in Turkey, the example of a shameful act is not just the
Armenian Genocide, but what was done to the Assyrians, Greeks and Kurds
are crimes against humanity too. During the genocide of the Armenians,
the Assyrians got their share in this slaughter" (whole statement
below)
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Author Desmond Fernandes described the way that Lemkin conceptualised
the term "genocide". The Armenian 'genocide' - which he recognised, as
such - had occured, he noted, without the perpetrators being brought to
justice. Lemkin's conceptualisation of the term "genocide", and campaign
to make it an international crime (through an international initiative
that resulted in the United Nations' Genocide Convention being passed
exactly 60 years ago), was aimed at trying to address these types of
concerns in a practical manner. Fernandes then outlined the way in which
Armenians, Chaldeans-Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds and "Others", have been
subjected to genocide - not only during the 1915-1918 period, but also
during the so-called 'War of Independence' and Turkish republican
period.
He provided case studies to highlight the nature of the genocides, and
detailed the manner in which Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, a renowned genocide
scholar, has reiterated the fact that Turkey still remains, in terms of
the nature of ill-treatment of Kurds, in breach of two articles of the
Genocide Convention. Kurds, as Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and others have
further shown, are also being subjected to 'linguistic' and ongoing
'cultural genocide'. Concerning the nature of targeting of "minorities"
in Turkey, Fernandes outlined the manner in which Armenians, Kurds,
Assyrians, Greeks and "Others" continue to be subjected to cultural
genocide (just as "Greek Cypriots and 'Christian' Others" also continue
to be subjected to cultural genocide in the north of Cyprus).
'Deep political' and 'deep state' linked circles continue to adopt
ideological positions that are all too willing to engage and 'profit
from' genocidal actions. Recent statements by the Turkish Prime Minister
(4th November 2008) and Vecdi Gonul, the Defence Minister, have merely
encouraged those who advocate targeting of the 'non-Turkish Other'.
Their positions, he noted, have been deeply criticised by the Society
for Threatened Peoples, the Socialist Party of Kurdistan (see attached
statement, in full), Arat Dink (the son of assassinated Hrant Dink),
amongst other human rights campaigners, parties and organisations.
Concerning the perspectives of two leading Kurdish parties over the
'cultural genocide' debate, he noted that Abdullah Ocalan was recently
(in September 2008) quoted as saying: "I am warning the people against
the cultural genocide and the dangers: I express my opinions". Murat
Karayilan has also been quoted (in Alternatif in September 2008) as
referring to the "cultural genocide policies" of the state. For the
Socialist Party of Kurdistan (PSK): "The genocide against the Kurds has
been ongoing since the time of the Ottoman Empire ... We can say that,
all the things done to the Kurds, and at different times and places, ...
are physical and cultural genocide. The system that started this policy
towards the end of the Ottoman Empire and that spread all through [the
Turkish] Republican period wanted to exterminate tens of millions of
Kurds through genocide, deportation and assimilation. Even if this has
not been fully achieved, [to date], such policies had a huge destructive
impact on the lives of the Kurdish people. Has the situation changed
today? No. Today, Turkish statesmen are neither brave enough to confront
their history nor to make real changes in their policies that are
suitable for our times. They are disregarding world public opinion and
international law and carrying on with their policies without fear.
Today the system is using the terror that it had created, carrying on
with its militarist and racist activities. It is resisting" initiatives
aimed at "opening a peaceful path for a solution".
----------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Khatchatur Pilikian in his major speech said:
"The literary genius John Milton, whose 400th anniversary of birth is
exactly today, but it will be marked tomorrow at the Library, Conway
Hall, once uttered this eye-opening remark in his Apology of 1648: "they
who have put out the people's eyes, reproach them of their blindness."
Even in the first decade of our 21st century, the oppressors'
mantra has remained essentially the same: 'if you don't like to be
oppressed, then accept your fate. If not, you better leave your abode,
home and country. At best we will encourage such a move, and at worst we
will force you to leave'. In other words, you are not free to stay and
try to change the status quo of iniquity. If you choose the latter and
struggle for your human rights -- enshrined in International Laws,
Covenants and Conventions, not only as an individual, but also as a
people, especially when diverse from the ruling and the oppressing class
-- then individual terror or even murder might be your Damoclean sword.
Otherwise deportation and probably state terror leading to Genocide
might befall your ethnic community.
That is exactly why the eminent Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink was murdered in January last year. And that is what the recent
Prime Minister of the Turkish Republic, Recep Erdogan really meant, on
November 4, this year, when he warned the disenchanted citizens of the
Republic in general and the oppressed minorities in particular, saying:
"Turkey consists of one nation, one flag and one land and that anyone
who is not in agreement with this should leave the country". On November
10, 2008, less than a week after Erdogan's warning, his Defence Minister
Vecdi Gönül, was in Brussels, marking the 70th anniversary of death
of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. Gönül's
eulogy of Ataturk contained these revealing words: "Would it be possible
today to maintain the same national State if the existence of Greeks in
the Aegean region and of Armenians in several regions of Turkey had
continued as before?"
Curiously enough, the recent Defence Minister of Turkey chose to
forget what Ataturk himself had thought about such state terror
accomplishments. The Turkish historian and sociologist Taner Akcam
informs: "Mustafa Kemal has dozens of speeches in which he defines the
treatments reserved to Armenians as "cowardice", or "barbarity", and
names these treatments "massacre". (See T. Akcam's: The Geemnocide of
Armenians and the Silence of the Turks, From Empire to Republic, A
Shameful Act.)
"We all know of course that Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term
"genocide" in 1943, did not mince his words, stating that genocide
"happened so many times. First to the Armenians, then after the
Armenians, Hitler took action." (Dadrian. History of the Armenian
Genocide, p. 350)
According to the Turkish Justice Ministry, 1,700 people were tried
in 2006 alone, under the racist Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.
Prosecutors of the status quo have a field day in prohibiting so-called
"insulting Turkishness", utilizing Article 301 to silence those valiant
intellectuals who dare challenge the false premises of the official
state denials of historical truths related with the Empire's and the
Republic's tragic acts of ethnic and cultural annihilations. Hrant Dink
himself was victimised by Article 301, before his assassination. Not
surprisingly, therefore, that the eminent Turkish civil rights
campaigner and publisher Ragip Zarakolu was found guilty of "insulting
the institutions of the Turkish Republic". Just recently the BBC
announced that a Turkish court has sentenced a Kurdish politician, the
European Parliament's Sakharov human rights 1995 award winner,
47-year-old Ms Leyla Zana, to 10 years in prison. That is what the
racist Article 301 of Turkey's penal code is all about-annihilating
dissent and multiculturalism.
It is indeed refreshing to note that all the major Universal
Declarations, International Charters and Conventions are not in
agreement with the monolithic and rabid nationalism of the past and the
present Turkish ruling elite, the like of Erdogan and Gönül,
mentioned above".........
....." Here again Raphael Lemkin's thoughtful contribution is welcome:
"I understood that the function of memory is not only to register past
events, but to stimulate human conscience [.] It became clear to me that
the diversity of nations, religious groups and races is essential to
civilization because every one of those groups has a mission to fulfill
and a contribution to make in terms of culture."
All the above notwithstanding, UNESCO has been warning the world,
for decades now, that the greatest shame of the current civilisation is
the fact that thousands of children die of hunger every single day.
Today that number has reached the staggering 44,000 hungry children
dying each day of the year, as if a Hiroshima bomb is unleashed every
single day just to kill children. I would like to pose the following:
that the Goebbels' of this world, "releasing the safety-catch of their
pistols"-in modern parlance cluster bombs & co, ill-Ltd --should also be
seen responsible for the modern massacres of the innocents. Can there be
any doubt that this child cleansing is also the unmentioned genocide of
humanity, ongoing and an authentic one at that, which surely is the
outcome of our own socio-economic and industrial military system, now
coined with cynical panache as Globalisation, whereby tens of thousands
of nuclear warheads, each averaging at least 20 times the destructive
power of a Hiroshima bomb, are already in deployment all around the
world.
Meanwhile billions pour into the pockets of the warmongers of
modern metropolises. These warlords of Mammon would eventually thrive in
an 'Inorganic Paradise'-a 'paradise' void of universal human rights and
sustained by legalised torture; glorification of violence geared towards
maximising profit at any cost; xenophobic state terror protected with
religious fervour. And, topping as if the macabre orgy, genocide has
been already tested, for a century now, to become the collateral damage
of its inorganically modernised and sweat-shopped 'global village' of
hunger and debt."
----------------------------------------------------------------
Akif Wan of the Kurdish National Congress (KNK) spoke about present
human rights abuses in Turkey, particularly about the 10-year sentence
inflicted on Leyla Zana, the former MP.
Adnan Kochar , director of CHAK spoke about the ecoside inflicted on the
countryside of Kurdistan by the Turkish military.
During the questions,Lord Hylton said that the recent comments by the
Turkish ministers seemed to disqualify Turkey from progressing towards
EU membership. Andrew Pelling MP also participated and expressed his
great interest in the issues.
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PRESS STATEMENT BY THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF KURDISTAN (PSK).
English translation from the Turkish original.
THE ON-GOING PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL GENOCIDE
The rulers of Turkey are unaware of what century and what kind of world
they live in as once again the latest developments have showed. As if
they are behind times for a hundred years or even more. As if they are
unaware of international law and the development of goodwill between
different languages , cultures that became common value of humanity
within the past century. Germany apologised to the Jews and the world
public opinion about the genocide of the Jews. To make sure that it is
not forgotten, genocide monuments erected in Germany and the concrete
evidence of this tragedy, ensures that concentration camps are protected
and open to the public. Putting it another way, Germany has confronted
its history. Australia has apologised for what was done to its
indigenous population, Aborigines, they too confronted their history.
It may not be on the same scale but in our world, no civilised country's
intellectuals, rulers are trying to cover-up, deny or defend the
genocides against other people which are shameful events in their
history. But in Turkey everything is the opposite of this. Turkey has
not confronted its history and is adamant and stubborn in its behaviour.
It is less than a century since the Armenian Genocide happened in front
of the eyes of the world. This shameful act for humanity was condemned
by the parliaments of many countries. Each time the Turkish government
and its parliament has responded to these condemnations with anger.
Excluding few conscientious intellectuals, the so called intellectuals
and artists of Turkey have followed the footsteps of their politicians
and tried to hide, deny, even falsify history and are using every trick
in the book to blame the Armenians.
Of course, in Turkey, the example of a shameful act is not just the
Armenian Genocide, but what was done to the Assyrians, Greeks and Kurds
are crimes against humanity too. During the genocide of the Armenians,
the Assyrians got their share in this slaughter. In the following years,
that means before the Greek and Turkish governments exchanged
populations, the Greeks who were oppressed and threatened were deported
from Anatolia in their hundreds of thousands . One of the leading
figures carrying out such activities was CELAL BAYAR who was nicknamed
'GALIP HOCA' and was from the CUP (Committee for Union and Progress
Party).1 After the war and the exchange of the populations, some Greeks
were allowed to stay in Istanbul because some Turks stayed in Western
Thrace. [But] most of these Greeks left Istanbul as a result of
oppression and the events of 6/7 September which were organised by the
state.
The genocide against the Kurds has been ongoing since the time of the
Ottoman Empire. Marshal Moltke's memoirs are full of such stories.
During the First World War, alongside the genocide of the Armenians,
700,000 Kurds from Kurdistan were exiled, and deported to central and
western Anatolia. This was an ethnic cleansing and many of these people
died as a result of hunger and cold.
After the war, in order to Turkify Anatolia and to establish a unitary
state, the second biggest population group, the Kurds, were declared as
non-existent. The state was established according to only Turkish
elements. Kurdish history, language and culture was banned. The Kurdish
peoples just reaction to all this was brutally and bloodily suppressed.
After each uprising was put down, the civilian population of the region,
without any discrimination - [including] women, children, young and old
- were subjected to genocide. For example, after the Sheikh Said
rebellion, they killed 20,000 civilians. After the Agri uprising, in
Zilan Stream region, a population of more than 30 villages was
exterminated. After the 1938 Dersim uprising, 60,000 people,
disregarding [the fact that many were] women and children, were
bayonetted, shot, herded en masse into the mills and burnt or were
killed in caves.
The journalist AYSE HUR recently reported on an interview that had taken
place in 1986 with the ex-Foreign Minister of Turkey, IHSAN SABRI
CAGLAYANGIL. [He said]: "The Dersimis [i.e. Kurds in the region] had
taken refuge in the caves. The (Turkish) army used poison gas. Through
the caves entrance ... they were poisoned like rats. Aged from 7 to 70,
. the Kurds in Dersim were slaughtered . The [military] operation was
bloody. The Dersim case was finished. The government's authority was
established in the villages and in Dersim ... Today, anyone can go to
Dersim. Gendarma can go, so can you. But lately, especially in the
borders region, the Kurds influenced by the external powers started an
independence movement. Some Kurds live in Turkey, some in Iran...."
(AYSE HUR, 16/11/2008 TARAF GAZETESI).
After these uprisings and many smaller ones, the masses were exiled. By
doing
so they wanted to clear out the Kurds from the region. The appearance of
the PKK and its armed struggle was used as a pretext to evacuate and
demolish more than 4,000 villages and towns. 3-4 million [Kurdish]
people were exiled from their homeland as thousands of 'unsolved
murders' of Kurdish intellectuals and patriots occurred that took the
form of full massacre. These are the end result of policies that have
been implemented over the past 30 years.
The oppression and bans continued along with forced assimilation and
Turkification policies. They wanted to wipe out the language, culture -
in short, the very existence of the people who lived on their land for
thousands of years, who had deep roots and contributed to the
civilisation of Anatolia, Iran and Mesopotomia, who had their own
distinct and rich
history and language.
In conclusion, we can say that, all the things done to the Kurds, and at
different times and places, were beyond ethnic cleansing and they are
physical and cultural genocide. The system that started this policy
towards the end of Ottoman Empire and that spread all through [the
Turkish] Republican period wanted to exterminate tens of millions of
Kurds through genocide, deportation and assimilation. Even if this has
not been fully achieved [to date], such policies had a huge destructive
impact on the lives of the Kurdish people.
Has the situation changed today? No. Today, Turkish statesmen are
neither brave enough to confront their history nor to make real changes
in their policies that are suitable for our times. They are disregarding
world public opinion and international law and carrying on with their
policies without fear. Today the system is using the terror that it had
created, carrying on with its militarist and racist activities. It is
resisting [initiatives aimed at] opening a peaceful path for a
solution. They are not allowing [Kurdish] exiles to return to their
land. The ban on language and culture is on going. Even today, there is
no freedom of expression and organisation for the Kurds. The
intellectuals who support them are punished according to the laws such
as Turkish Penal Code article 301 and by similar articles.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recently visited the
Kurdish region and had this to say to the people who asked for cultural
and political rights:
"...The ones who don't accept the idea of one state, one nation, one
flag, should leave the country ...".
In fact, this is an infamous slogan of fascism: "love it or leave it
..".
On 10/11/2008 (The anniversary of Ataturk's death on10/11/1938), the
Defense Minister, Mr.VECDI GONUL, who was in Brussels for a meeting,
openly claimed that without the genocide of the Armenians and the
deportation of the Greeks, there would have been no national state.
These are Vecdi Gonul's exact words:
"...The most important step during the establishment of the nation was
exchange of the populations. Just think, would it have been possible for
us to become a nation state, if the Greeks had continued to live in
Aegean region and the Armenians in many parts of Anatolia?"
The Defence Minister, Mr. V.Gonul went on with an example from Ankara:
"... Just one district of Ankara were Muslims in those days ." and added
that another one [was] Greek and another one Armenian. He also stated
that, at the time, Izmir Trade Organisation was made up of non-Muslims.
Mr. Gonul is admitting that with genocide and deportations, Turkey was
ethnically cleansed, the finances were gained by Muslim Turks, and by
doing so, the nation state was set up and what is more, he defended
such action.
Honestly, there are no Greek or Armenian districts, Greeks or Armenians
left in Ankara. Such Greek or Armenian districts don't exist in Istanbul
either. Despite all that the ones who stayed behind and how they feel is
not a secret. The events that took place in Malatya and murder of HRANT
DINK with the knowledge and support of the police and gendarme
authorities are still fresh in our minds.
Today, the extermination of the Kurds, and the physical and cultural
genocidal policies that are implemented against the Kurds are a
continuation of that "NATION BUILDING" mentality. It is obvious that the
Turkish statesmen believe that they have not completed the task yet ....
1 Celal Bayar was Prime Minister of Turkey in 1937 & later President in
1950.
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