Ankara – APA. Turkish General Staff took a stance on the internet campaign launched for apologizing to Armenians.
APA reports quoting Turkish news agencies that the army regarded the campaign as an act that may harm the country. Official of the General Staff, General Metin Gurak said at the traditional weekly meeting with media representatives that it was wrong to apologize.
“We do not consider this campaign right,” he said.
Ankara – APA. “I do not judge, humiliate president in connection with his ethnic origin, on the contrary I express my respect. I criticize president for not seeing or ignoring the dangers of Turkey and not taking necessary measures,” member of Republican People’s Party (CHP), MP Janan Aritman told journalists in the parliament, APA reports. She said that new strategy of Armenia and Armenian Diaspora is to make Turkish people to admit the Armenian genocide. Aritman also touched on assessment of her statement as disgrace in media and political circles. She said those who say it do not know the meaning of the word disgrace.
The parliamentarian said she received many calls and e-mails from people.
“People say “we support you, you are the voice of the nation”. My assistants and I do not find time to answer the calls and e-mails,” she said.
Janan Aritman also said she was threatened.
“I have never been afraid of anyone. I do not pay attention to these threats. I am happy to be the lawyer of the nation. I will continue it,” she said.
Baku. Ulkar Gasimova – APA. “I do not accept the internet campaign launched in Turkey for apologizing to Armenians for the so-called Armenian genocide,” famous Turkish singer Chelik told APA exclusively. He underlined that it was obvious whose interests the campaign served.
“Those who ignored the actions against Turks in Bosnia, Turkmens in Iraq, occupation of Nagorno Karabakh by Armenia are now collecting signatures. When something happens in favor of Turkish people, a group of people who call themselves “intellectuals” begin to compete in order to harm the people. These people back the Armenian apology campaign,” he said.
Chelik said Turkish Armed Forces had openly expressed its position on this issue.
“I watched it on TV. If I am not mistaken the government also objected to the campaign. I also support the position of my Army and government. This competition will have a final. Patriots will be waiting in the finish,” he said.
harut-sassounian
The Turkish appeal was initiated by scholars Ahmet Insel, Baskin Oran, and Cengiz Aktar, and journalist Ali Bayramoglu. Risking death threats by Turkish extremists and possible legal action, they issued a personal apology for “the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915.” On December 15, they set up an Internet site titled “We Apologize” which within 48 hours attracted the signatures of more than 10,000 Turks.
The Turkish petition stated: “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 empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers. I apologize to them.”
This apology was not only criticized by Turkish denialists, but also by some Turks who felt the statement had not gone far enough. Aytekin Yildiz, Coordinator of the Confrontation Association, stated: “It is a good starting point, but not enough. Firstly, what do they mean by ‘Great Catastrophe’? Let’s name it. It is genocide. Secondly, the state has to apologize.” Historian Ayse Hur said that Turkey “has to apologize on behalf of the perpetrators and for itself, because it has legitimized their actions through the years.” Another prominent Turkish intellectual, who wished to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, told Zaman newspaper that the Turkish state, rather than individuals, must do the apologizing.
Turkish extremists, on the other hand, strongly condemned the signatories of the apology for “betraying” the Turkish nation. Historian Cemalettin Taskiran was quoted as stating: “This is the biggest betrayal that could be shown to our forefathers…. The campaign was set up to hurt the unity of the Turkish nation and to prepare the way for Turkey’s eventual recognition of Armenian claims of genocide.” Several Parliament Members representing MHP, a radical Turkish political party, accused the signatories of “insulting” Turkey. More seriously, 60 retired Turkish diplomats issued a joint statement describing the “apology” campaign as “unfair, wrong and unfavorable for the national interests.”
The Turkish intellectuals’ apology generated both positive and negative reactions among Armenian circles. Some welcomed the apology as a good first step, while others expressed concern that Turks would try to cover up their responsibility for the Genocide by issuing a simple apology. Armenian critics pointed out several shortcomings in the Turkish statement: First, the apology avoided the term Armenian Genocide by referring to it as the “Great Catastrophe.” Second, it alluded to the year 1915 only, rather than 1915-1923. Third, the apology was issued by individual Turks rather than the Turkish state. Even if the apology emanated from Turkish officials, it could not be viewed as a substitute for reparations and restitution.
This statement, however, serves the useful purpose of educating the Turkish public that has been kept in the dark so long about the Armenian Genocide. Rather than an Armenian-Turkish historical commission, what is needed is a purely Turkish commission that would provide a forum for Turks to discuss and discover the mass crimes of their forefathers.
By coincidence, around the time of the Turkish appeal, nearly 300 prominent individuals from Armenia issued an open letter to Pres. Abdullah Gul asking him to take the bold step of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian appeal, like its Turkish counterpart, does not go far enough. Rather than recognition, the Armenian signatories should have sought justice for the crimes committed against the Armenian nation.
Nonetheless, the Armenian letter accomplishes several useful objectives: First, it debunks the oft-repeated Turkish lie that the genocide issue is raised only by “radical Diaspora Armenians” rather than residents of Armenia. Second, it strengthens the hand of Pres. Serzh Sargsyan in his discussions with Turkish officials to show to them how strongly Armenians feel about the Genocide. Third, even though the letter is addressed to the Turkish President, it also sends an indirect message to Pres. Sargsyan not to accept normalization of relations with Ankara, without the latter’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Despite their shortcomings, these two appeals may play a significant role in future decision-making by the Obama administration. It is hoped that when Turkey’s lobbyists call on the White House to block U.S. acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide, Pres. Obama would reject their request and hear the voices of thousands of Armenian and Turkish signatories who support reconciliation based on truth and justice.
A group of 200 Turkish intellectuals is tackling one of the great taboos of Turkish society — the 1916 massacres of Armenians in the country.
A group of writers, journalists and academics, many of them prominent members in their fields, has posted an online apology for the killings and invited ordinary Turks to sign it.
“My conscience does not accept that [we] remain insensitive toward and deny the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected in 1915,” reads the apology, posted online on Monday.
‘Many djinns are out of their bottle, and many taboos are becoming public and people are freely discussing them.’—Cengiz Aktar, professor at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University
“I reject this injustice, share in the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers, and apologize to them.”
The apology stops short of using “genocide” to describe the massacres because use of the word would be “extremely counterproductive,” according to Cengiz Aktar, one of the authors of the petition.
More than 6,200 ordinary Turks had signed the petition as of Tuesday morning, when Aktar, a professor of European union studies at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University, spoke with CBC’s Q cultural affairs program.
“We have not had the opportunity to talk about these horrible things in the last 92 years and we told ourselves maybe we will offer a forum to the ordinary Turks to apologize, to make their conscience talk,” Aktar said.
The treatment of Armenians in Turkey has been such a taboo that Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk faced prosecution after he said in an interview that a million Armenians had died.
Aktar’s friend, the Armenian journalist and editor Hrant Dink, was shot and killed last year after being prosecuted over his comments about the massacre.
But Aktar insists there have been changes in Turkish society and attitudes that encouraged the intellectuals, who range across the political spectrum, to come forward.
“When I had the idea of starting an online petition, I had the feeling, this feeling that there is something in the heart and minds of the Turks regarding these events. And it doesn’t necessarily correspond what the Turkish state is telling them the past 90-plus years,” he said.
Turkey has been reforming itself in an effort to join the European Union, and reforms implemented in 2002 and 2004 “are conducive for a freer environment and a more worldly culture, and we are now collecting the fruits of that,” Aktar said.
He said he was partly motivated by the killing of his friend, Dink, but also by Turkey’s increasing openness.
“Many djinns are out of their bottle, and many taboos are becoming public and people are freely discussing them,” he said.
One potential benefit would be fewer attempts at censorship of journalists or writers who mention that period of history.
Using the word “genocide” might have polarized the issue and made it less likely that ordinary people would take notice, Aktar said.
The government has not responded to the petition, though the two ruling nationist parties have condemned it.
However, Turks themselves seem interested and each signature on the petition makes it more likely that the government will have to respond in some way, he said.
“I would dream of sizable figure by end of year to give the world a very strong message,” Aktar said.
Historians estimate that, in the last days of the Ottoman Empire, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks.
Armenians, including many in the diaspora spread across Europe and North America, have long pushed for the deaths to be recognized.
Turkey and Armenia recently have taken steps toward repairing ties, with President Abdullah Gul becoming the first Turkish leader to visit Armenia this September.
There are also steps being taken to reopen the border between the two countries, closed since 1993, when Turkey protested Armenia’s occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh.
With files from Q, Associated Press
I’m not saying that you are wrong about the atrocities.
Turkey invaded the island in 1974. Why? Because Nicos Sampson, a former EOKA Terrorist staged a coup. Shortly afterwards, the G Cypriots started to massacre the T Cypriots. The invasion was to protect the T Cypriot minority population
I lived there also. I lived in the Buffer Zone, between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish armies. I was an intelligence officer in the Army on a UN mission. I saw both sides. Studied the history and the current situation every day. I don’t pretend to know everything, but I’m pretty well informed and impartial. I saw pictures on both sides and a whole lot of real stuff also.
Neither side is innocent and both sides are guilty.
In my view, Turkey doesn’t need to apologize for the invasion and occupation of the island.
I have photographs to prove what I am saying… not what the propaganda says. I taught there for a year… it’s not twenty-five years…. but it’s an entire year. In fact, I sell a couple of photographs in my shop. I would post them but they won’t allow links here.
In the end, I am not confused.
The Greeks did some very nasty stuff there (as you pointed out). They are no angels. I have first-hand experience in Nicosia and was treated that way.
Let me put it to you this way: I had a conversation with a fellow music prof. It ended with me saying to her: “I’m Canadian.. and I don’t hate Germans anymore.”
There are also ethnic Turk Cypriots. Who were of course the victims of EOKA, but so were the occupying British Forces.
There has been plenty of atrocities to go around on Cyprus. Turks to Greek Cyriots and vice versa. Centuries of hatred and atrocity make for interesting politics until today.
Since the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974 and subsequent partition of the island, things have been largely stable. Thanks in large measure to the UN force there.
Turkey Confronts a Disputed Period in Its History
My conscience does not accept the insensitivity toward 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 empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them (www.ozurdiliyoruz.com).
Despite the organizers’ optimism, the campaign has already led to divisions in Turkish society. As soon as the news about the petition drive came out, nationalist forces, the staunchest supporters of the official theses, reacted vehemently against the organizers, as reflected in nationalist daily Yeni Cag’s headline: “Ermeni Agziyla Kampanya” (A Campaign Mimicking Armenians) (Yeni Cag, December 5). Nationalist critics questioned the sincerity of the organizers, charging them with being on the verge of hysteria. In a stark response to the organizers’ call for reevaluating the official Turkish stand on the deportation, nationalists maintained that the organizers lacked a basic knowledge of the actual course of history. For the nationalists, the real victims of the 1915 events were the Ottoman Turks. “Every house has memories of people butchered by Armenians. I regard apologizing to the Armenians as an insult to the Turkish nation. People who call themselves intellectuals have not even been enlightened about their own history,” said Zeki Ertugay, a Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy from Erzurum (Today’s Zaman, December 6).
The MHP leader Devlet Bahceli was outraged by the campaign and issued a written statement. For him, there was no one to whom the Turks should apologize. “The dirty campaign” was “humiliating,” he said, and reflected the extent of “degeneration and decay” being imposed on Turkish society by so-called intellectuals working as collaborators of outside powers. Bahceli blamed the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government for creating a fertile environment for this situation. He lambasted the AKP’s recent openings to Armenia, because they compromised national priorities and created inside Turkey a pro-Armenian front that worked to undermine Turkish historical heritage (www.mhphaber.com, December 7; www.internethaber.com, December 16).
Another response to the petition campaign came from a group of retired Turkish envoys who issued a counter-declaration on December 15. Around 50 diplomats, including former undersecretaries of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Sukru Elekdag, Korkmaz Haktanir, and Onur Oymen, maintained that the apology initiative was “unjust, wrong, and damaging to [Turkey’s] national interests.” Their declaration read:
Such a false and one-sided initiative is tantamount to disrespecting our history and betraying our citizens who lost their lives due to the violence perpetrated by terror organizations during the last days of the Ottoman Empire [and] into the Republican era. Although the Armenian relocation, which took place under wartime conditions, resulted in tragic outcomes, the loss and suffering of the Turkish people due to Armenian rebellions and terror attacks were no less than those of Armenians (ANKA, December 12).
Although the apology initiative seeks to break taboos, the reactions so far indicate that it might actually re-ignite the controversy and deepen the preexisting divisions. Instead of conversing across the aisle, the parties prefer so far to fortify their dug-in positions on the 1915 events and continue to furnish contrasting “factual” accounts about what took place during that period.
at 1:25 PM ETThis apology is a good step in the right direction and I applaud the brave men and women who have spearheaded this initiative. Turkey must honestly and openly address its past, in order to move forward and to help heal old wounds.
They can never fully make up for the horrors that Ottoman Turks perpetrated on their Armenian citizens, but there is no point in continuing to deny a truth that festers under the surface of Turkish society.
The truth will set you free.