Turkish Forum

Category: Turkey

  • Pope Francis should be declared persona non grata in Turkey

    Pope Francis should be declared persona non grata in Turkey

    By Ferruh Demirmen, Ph.D.
    June 30, 2016

    Pope Francis, visiting Armenia during June 24-26 (2016), once again succumbed to his anti-Turkish, anti-Muslim prejudice and called the 1915 events in Ottoman Anatolia “genocide.” To the delight of his hosts, hours after landing in Yerevan he departed from a prepared speech and used the damnable term despite previous reassurances by the Vatican that he would not do so.

    The Pontiff’s Christian emotions had taken over his common sense and decency.

    The Pontiff repeated his anti-Turkish invective before leaving Armenia by commemorating, jointly with Kerekin II of the Armenian Apostolic Church, “The extermination of a million and a half Armenian Christians … as the first genocide of the twentieth century.”

    Not surprisingly, the Pope’s language drew an angry rebuke from Ankara.

    To placate Turkey, the Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi absurdly said: “The pope has not used any words against the Turkish people.” How thoughtful!

    The allegation by the Pope is baseless and has the hallmarks of solidarity with Christian Armenia. After all, Armenians keep reminding the world that they are the “First Christian Nation.” As the spiritual leader of the Christian world, the Pope surely cannot remain indifferent to that banner!

    This is no place to delve into history to explain why the term ‘genocide” for the 1915 events is inappropriate. Suffice it to say that, the diplomatic jibe at Turkey aside, the Pope committed several wrongful acts, all serious, and all breaches of trust.

    Violating international norms

    First, the Pope summarily violated international covenants and judicial rulings bearing on the crime of genocide. That includes the 1948 UN Convention on genocide, which states that the crime of genocide can only be established by a tribunal of law, and France’s Constitutional Council’s ruling on January 8, 2016, which underlined this fact. Hence no entity other than a court of law can pass judgment on genocide.

    The European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR), in its 2013 and 2015 rulings on the Switzerland-Perinçek case, noted that Armenian genocide is disputed among the scholars, and hence not an established fact. To date, there has been no court verdict on Armenian “genocide.”

    Further, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) bars retroactive application of a law to an event that preceded it. The 1948 UN Convention went into force in 1953. The UN has also refused to call the 1915 events genocide.

    So, one must ask: Given these international covenants and precedents, what gave the Pope the right or authority to call the 1915 events genocide? Just because some biased scholars or politically motivated parliaments have done it, the Pope cannot justify his use of the term “genocide.”

    The Pope’s “Holy status” and his “Godly mission” do not exempt him from observing the rule of law. The Pope, just like the “earthly beings,” must respect the law.

    Further, the Pope cannot claim that he was simply expressing an “opinion.” Opinions cannot be used to attach a heinous crime to a person or group with impunity. The 1948 UN Convention does not recognize “genocide” based on opinion.

    The Pope’s recognition of Armenian “genocide” was not his “first.” He did the same thing on St. Peter’s Basilica in April 2015, lumping other Anatolian Christian minorities such as the Assyrians in the “mass killings.” This set the stage for the German parliament Bundestag to likewise include in its June 2, 2016 resolution other Christians under the “genocide” label.

    A sure sign of Christian solidarity or Islamophobia.

    Hypocrisy and double standard

    The Pope’s commemoration of Armenian “genocide,” intended supposedly as a reminder to prevent such crimes in the future, becomes all the more hypocritical considering that, while recognizing Armenian “genocide,” he chose not to acknowledge the massacre of more than a half million Muslim civilians at the hands of renegade Armenian gangs during the World War I Armenian revolt.

    Surely a sign of selective morality.

    But there is more. The pontiff, on his visit to Bosnia in June 2015, refused to use the term “genocide” when he denounced the Srebrenica killings. This is despite the fact that two UN courts, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), have established that the Srebrenica killings were genocide.

    Before the visit, the Bosnian academics had pleaded with the Pope to recognize the Srebrenica killings as genocide. The Pontiff ignored these pleadings. His Holiness could not bring himself to calling an event genocide if the perpetrators are Christian and the victims Muslim.

    Surely a case of double standard.

    The Srebrenica genocide is a recent (1995) history, and the location is a stone’s throw from the Holy See.

    Concluding remarks

    The Pope’s recognition of Armenian “genocide,” plus his hypocrisy and double standard toward Muslim killings, are a reflection of a deep-seated prejudice against Islam. Such prejudice hopefully does not presage the dawn of a new, post-modern crusade against the Muslim world.

    No doubt the Pope was also influenced by years of genocide propaganda run and funded by the Armenian diaspora. This has led to a well-entrenched Western proclivity to accept Armenian claims as truth without forethought and scrutiny. The ad nauseam, prejudice, half-truths, deception, cherry-picking, exaggeration, intimidation, Reductio ad Hitlerum, and labelling (“denialist”) have been the techniques successfully employed in Armenian propaganda.

    Whatever the underlying cause, if his Holiness is serious about humanity and inter-faith dialog, as he claims he is, he should demonstrate that his concerns and compassion transcend racial, religious and ethnic boundaries.

    Surely, the Pope’s call a year ago for the religious establishments in Europe to accept some of the Muslim refugees fleeing the fighting in Syria and Iraq is commendable. But it is also true that, when it comes to Armenian “genocide,” his Holiness’ prejudice clouds his judgment.

    For opinion on the Armenian question, the Pope should defer to historians, not just on the Armenian side, but also on the Turkish side.

    If the Pope continues with his baseless accusations on Armenian “genocide,” he should be declared persona non grata in Turkey. His acting as the spokesman for the Armenian causes does not help Turkish-Armenian relations. It is more like a poison.

  • AZERBAIJANIS SAVE ARMENIAN WOMAN IN RUSSIA

    AZERBAIJANIS SAVE ARMENIAN WOMAN IN RUSSIA

    azerb bayraqSome time ago an Armenian woman got sick at the festival of national cultures ‘Inflorescence’ in Surgut, Russia and representatives of Azerbaijan helped her, the chairman of the public organization the ‘Armenian National Cultural Center Ararat’, Armenak Simonyan, said at the meeting of the Coordinating Council on ethnic and religious communities, Vestnik Kavkaza news website reported.

     

    “On behalf of the people of Armenia I want to express my gratitude to representatives of Azerbaijan for helping our compatriot, who got sick at the festival. Isn’t it an example of good relations between nations? This proves that here in Surgut we are true friends, we are brothers and support each other. Let’s keep it going that way,” he called on.

     

  • What is Tseghakronism? – fascist doctrine of Garegin Nzhdeh

    What is Tseghakronism? – fascist doctrine of Garegin Nzhdeh

    njdeTseghakron – was formed by combination of two Armenian words – “ցեղ” (race) and “կրոն” (religion). The movement founded by Garegin Nzhdeh (Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan) is called Tseghakron and his ideological doctrine – Tseghakronutyun (Tseghakronism).

    The Republic of Armenia determines its state policy based on this doctrine. The Republican Party of Armenia, led by President Serzh Sargsyan, sees Nzhdeh as their ideological leader. This person, who was not inferior to Andranik for cruelty, shed rivers of blood. Having moved from Tabriz to Sofia in 1922, Nzhdeh began to publish his first anti-Turkic and anti-Muslim articles. For example, “Heroic Battle of Lernhayastan Nagorno-Karabakh)” (Bucharest 1923), “Some Pages from my Diary” (Cairo 1924), “The Struggle of Sons against Fathers” (Thessaloniki 1927), etc. were widely covered in magazines and newspapers such as “Hayastan” (Plovdiv), “Araks” (Sofia), “Azatamart” (Paris) published by Dashnaks. All articles hadone target – Turks and Turkey, and had one goal – to create hatred in Armenians abroad against Turks and Turkey. After leaving Bulgaria for the US, Nzhdeh began to spread the doctrine there. Through this “theory”, Armenians approached racist Tseghakron to fascism.

    Armenian-Nazi collaboration

    The ideological foundation of the collaboration between the Nazis and Dashnaks began to be laid in the 1930s. A leading Nazi party ideologist Alfred Rosenberg assigned Artashes Abegian (Head of the Institute for Oriental Studies 1926-136) the task of setting up a committee to study the anthropology and history of the Armenians. Of course, Armenians assessed this opportunity greatly. A report was issued that they come from the same race with Germans. Five months after the committee was set up in 1934, Rosenberg submitted a report to Hitler indicating that the Armenians were of the same race as Germans.

    Meanwhile, Armenians began to create fascist youth organizations and combat groups in Bulgaria and Romania comprised of members of the Armenian nationalist organization “Tseghakron”, who called on all Armenians worldwide to collaborate with the Nazis during World War II.

    General Drastamat Kanayan (Dro), who fought against Turkey during and after World War I and dealt harsh with the Muslim population, established the Armenian National Committee on 15 December 1942 in order to represent the Armenians of Europe under the German government. This committee, during World War II, became an anti-USSR and pro-German center of propaganda. In February 1944, the United Armenian Headquarters was established on the order of Rosenberg.  At the end of April 1943, the group assumed an independent status. The assistant to the head of the group (Dro) was Kuro (Nikolai Tarhanian) and the chief of staff was Tigran Bagdasarian. Misak Torlakian assumed the responsibility of intelligence and sabotage activities. The spy team of AG-114 was comprised of members of Dashnak Armenia’s (1918-20) military.

    One of the major services rendered by the Dashnaks to the Nazis in World War II was their propaganda activity behind Soviet lines and in occupied territories. One of these teams was lead by the SS Officer Nikolai Gevorkian (Dr. Sikorsky Gevorkov), son of the famous Dashnak leader Seto Djelalian. They placed their agents among the Armenian population in occupied areas for counterintelligence activities. The Dashnaks did not neglect to run those prisoners of war who agreed to join their special units through some tests, to weed out Jews pretending to be Armenian. They had the prisoners who surrendered read the Bible they had with them in Armenian, to verify their true nationality.

    Alongside general Dro, he also participated in forming Armenian armed units under Vermakht in 1942.

    On 15 December 1942, Garegin Nzhdeh became one of seven members of the Armenian National Council established by Germans and deputy editor of “Independent Armenia” newspaper. Armenian paramilitary groups led by Dro and Nzhdeh were actively involved in operations to capture Crimea and attacks on Caucasus.

    Germany’s leadership was going to use the Armenians in Caucasus and Turkey for raising a revolt in these countries, but the failures on the frontline forced them to abandon these plans.

    As the Soviet Army entered Bulgaria, Nzhdeh wrote to the commander of the Third Ukrainian Front, Fyodor Tolbukhin, making himself available to the USSR in case of a possible attack against Turkey. However, the General was arrested and died in his cell in 1955.

    The book “Garegin Nzhdeh’s doctrine”, published by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia in 2004 (“Garegin Njde i eqo uçeniya” İzdatel, Respublikanskaya Partiya Armenii, Yerevan-2004) has become a handbook for each Armenian.

    The film about “national hero” Garegin Nzhdeh was the highest-budget film (at a cost of USD 7 million) produced by Armenia since independence.

    According to Nzhdeh’s doctrine of Tseghakron, every Armenian lifelong must strive for the liberation of the so-called Western Armenia from the control of Turks.

    Professor Gafar Chakhmagli

  • How the Turkish Government Cancels The Passports of Critics

    How the Turkish Government Cancels The Passports of Critics

    Huff POST da Turkiye vatandaslarinin Pasaportlarini iptal ediyormus bu isi de Polis Isthibarat ile MIT yapiyormus diye kocaman bir makale yazmislar…3-4 kisi ye de misal olark kotmuslar Turk gazetelerinde hicbir haber yok
    Umit Bayulken
    Aydoğan Vatandaş
    Aydoğan Vatandaş Journalist, writer and politic

    Imagine that you have enough money and a passport to travel abroad. You may be a businessman to follow your meetings or just a tourist hoping to practice new things during your trip in another country.

    If you are a Turkish citizen, you should think twice.

    It is not a secret that after Erdogan consolidated his power, Turkey has already turned into a dictatorship.

    The sources now reveal that Turkish Government has started another unlawful activity against his citizens. The Turkish Government cancels the passports of some journalists, businessmen and NGO representatives through some fabricated applications.

    The first step of this conspiracy engineered by the Turkish Government is to fabricate ‘a loss notice’ in a newspaper on behalf of the targeted individual. Once the loss notice appears in a paper, the Government cancels the passport. The people find out this illegal cancelation only when they are about to go abroad at the airport venue. The police seize their passports and don’t let them go out. But it may also happen when you are out of Turkey. Many people who are already out of Turkey face similar difficulties during the security check at the Customs. They are told that their passports are seen ‘lost’ in their system and advised to visit their Embassies or Consulates to solve the problem. However, when the people go to their Embassies, their passports are being seized without any explanation.

    Some aggrieved has already started legal term by means of their counselors. Those who face this conspiracy while they are abroad apply to Interpol and inform that their passports are not lost.

    According to the claims, hundreds of Turkish businessmen, journalists, teachers, and bureaucrats were recorded by a team established by Police Intelligence Department and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). Information about the names on the list prepared by these organizations are sent to the Passport Department. And the Passport units cancel the passports of the persons, whose names appear on the list.

    The illegal practice was revealed when S. A., a person involved in business in Ankara applied to Ankara Directorate of Security, in order to extend the validity of his passport. The businessman went to the Passport department last month. He stated that he wants to extend the validity of his visa, because he wants to go abroad. But the personnel at the passport department told him that his passport was cancelled through a ‘loss’ notice, and that he might find the detailed information at Police Passport Department. Thereupon the businessman went to the Passport Department’s campus in Ankara, he repeated again that he didn’t issue such any loss notice for his passport. The officials rejected to provide any detailed information.

    A teacher working abroad also faced a similar problem. The teacher who went to the airport to go back to the country he worked after his vacation in Turkey found out at that his passport was cancelled at the passage. Even though the teacher never issued such a loss notice for his passport, the justification was the same.

    The last aggrieved of the passport conspiracy was Mrs. Nevin İpek, the wife of Mr. Akın İpek, the President of Koza İpek Holding which was taken over by President Erdogan last year. İpek applied to Embassy of Turkey in London last week, to extend the validity of her passport. The Embassy officials seized İpek’s passport, stating that there is a ‘loss notice’ for her passport. İpek told them that she never issued any loss notice on a newspaper in or abroad. Yet, she could not persuade the Embassy officials.

    Mr. Nazif Apak, a columnist for Turkish Yeni Hayat Daily, who first drew attention on the passport conspiracy of the Turkish Government in his article titled ‘Who plays with the passport?’ on April 23, wrote that a businessman, whose family has done trade for three generations faced a similar incident, too. He wrote that, when the businessman reacted ‘How come! I came to your land with this passport and want to go to that country from here,’ then the officials said that his passport is seen ‘lost’ in their system. When the businessman carries the case to Interpol, the respond was this: ‘Unfortunately Turkey is forging on the documents and declares passports of many people lost,’ Apak wrote.

    Issuing a loss notice is under the authority of only the bearers of passports and ID cards. Even should a loss notice be issued, when the passport is found later, it is legally valid and the police officials are not appointed or authorized to follow the loss notices.

    As long as there exists no ban to travel abroad forwarded to a person by the Court, one may travel to anywhere. This is a universal right and under the protection of freedom of travel. The passports of persons may not become invalid due to loss notices, and detention of people from going abroad by such means is a Government fraud and only happens in a dictatorship.

    al analyst

     

  • Enough is enough – the medal will be returned

    Enough is enough – the medal will be returned

    Over a decade ago the then foreign minister Abdullah Gül awarded me the “Medal of High Distinction” of the Republic of Turkey. I received the award, consisting of a diploma and a gigantic gold medal, during a festive ceremony at the Turkish embassy in The Hague. The reason I was deemed worthy of the medal was that in the preceding years I had actively tried to inform the Dutch politicians, and the public in general, about Turkey and to combat prejudices.

    By Erik-Jan Zürcher

    In the years 2002-2004 the attempts of Turkey to become a member of the European Union, which even then were forty years old, had picked up speed. The new Turkish government of the Party of Justice and Development of prime minister Tayyip Erdoğan, was democratising Turkey at breakneck speed. In the first two years of the new regime over three hundred laws were passed, the vast majority of which aimed to dismantle the authoritarian state that was a legacy of the 1980 military coup and that was still dominated by the army. In recognition of this, the EU in October 2003 agreed to start membership negotiations with Turkey as soon as some final requirements had been met. In December 2004, during a summit in The Hague, the decision to go ahead was taken.

    My small contribution in those years was to argue (in a report for the Scientific Council for Government Policy WRR among others) that Turkey could indeed be a part of the EU, because it shared a history with Europe (after all the centre of gravity of the Ottoman Empire had lain in southeastern Europe for centuries); and that the fact that 98 percent of the citizens of Turkey were Muslims should not stand in the way of Turkey’s entry, because Islam too was part of European history and because after eighty years secularism had struck deep roots in Turkey, at least as deep as in – for instance – a country like Poland. I advocated Turkey’s entry into the EU because I thought that Europe could effectively defend its interests in the Middle East and the Caucasus region only with Turkey on board.

    These arguments are still valid today. What I got completely wrong was my expectation – and prediction – that the accession process would strengthen the democratic forces in Turkey and that it would make the development of the rule of law irrevocable. I ignored warnings from secularist Turkish friends that Erdoğan was only using the EU and the accession process to destroy his internal enemies and gradually to increase the role of Islam in society, seeing them as short-sighted fear mongering. I was wrong, however, and they were right.

    Look where we are now after 14 years and more than ten election victories for Tayyip Erdoğan and his party:
    – Because he thought it would win him the election, Erdoğan consciously wrecked the peace process with Kurds and reignited the internal war against the PKK.
    – Because he wanted new elections when those of June 2015 did not yield the result he looked for, he sabotaged the formation of a coalition government, which could have counteracted polarisation.
    – Academics who distanced themselves from the renewed war against the PKK and demanded a resumption of the peace process, are being persecuted and sometimes have been fired by their universities.
    – The media have been emasculated . They either function as mouthpiece of the regime or adopt self-censorship.
    – Social media are tightly controlled and often shut down.
    – Journalists and editors who report on secret arms deliveries of the Turkish secret service to Syrian Jihadists are convicted to five years in prison for divulging state secrets (so the story was true!)
    – The constitutional court of the republic is threatened by the president, who openly states he does not respect it.
    – A prime minster who advocates a somewhat softer (though by no means liberal) line is brought down by the president.
    – Thousands of Turkish citizens are being prosecuted for “defamation of the president.”
    – European citizens who speak critically about Erdoğan, like Dutch publicist Ebru Umar, are prosecuted and held in Turkey.
    – In the mean time the party uses its power monopoly to make islamic norms and values ever more dominant in the public space – in most places finding a prayer room is now a lot easier than a seller of alcoholic beverages.

    All of this has convinced me that the Turkey of Tayyip Erdoğan cannot and should not become a member of the European Union – ever. A country where politics, the legal system, the media, universities and individuals (even if they live in Europe) have become playthings for a de-facto dictator and his clique of sycophants; where the fundamental freedoms and the rule of law have ceased to function, cannot be a European country. Many of these characteristics are valid for Hungary as well – an EU member – but Hungary is small and for the EU as a whole no more than a nuisance. Turkey’s population is eight times as large and – this is crucial – half of that population staunchly supports the policies of Erdoğan and even more: venerates him as the architect and symbol of the “new Turkey.” A Europe in which the successive crises surrounding the Euro, Greece and the Syrian refugees have shown that it is only partially built on shared values as it is, could never tame this Turkey once it is in, it would be destroyed by its accession.

    Of course the EU, and the Netherlands, have to deal with Turkey. We are not alone in this world and the part of the world that respects human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, is unfortunately limited and getting smaller. We do business – economically as well as politically – with other countries that are increasingly in the grip of nationalist dictators (China, Russia, Egypt) but the point is that, thanks to Erdoğan, Turkey now fits into that list and not the list of candidate members of the EU.

    That is why the medal will now be carefully packed and sent back to the embassy. I have hesitated for a long time, not because I had illusions left about Erdoğan and his ilk, but because such a demonstrative act might damage others besides myself, notably the dozens of MA and Ph.D. students that I have supervised over the years, many of whom have returned to Turkey. My signature is on their diplomas. I feel I have no choice, however. I have to do this precisely because, as professor of Turkish studies, I am seen as an authority on Turkey. I have to do it as a sign of protest against the dictatorial misrule of Erdoğan in Turkey but also in recognition of the fact that I was wrong twelve years ago: Turkey has not come closer to Europe (as it seemed in the now far-off years of 2002-2006, but since 2007 it has moved away. So far away that membership is no longer a realistic option. Our political leaders should say so loud and clear. Enough is enough.

    • middle eastern studies
    • turkish history
    • turkish studies
  • Turkey Historian returns Medal of High Distinction due to “dictatorial” rule

    Turkey Historian returns Medal of High Distinction due to “dictatorial” rule

    May 10, 2016, 11:47

     

    Famous Dutch Turkologist Erik-Jan Zürcher has returned his Medal of High Distinction to Turkey in a protest against the “dictatorial” rule of President Erdoğan.

    World renowned Turkey historian, Dutch Erik-Jan Zürcher, decided to return his Turkish “Medal of High Distinction” presented to him by then Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül because of the “dictatorial” rule in Turkey.

    On Tuesday (May 10), the professor from Leiden University published an article on nrc.nl explaining why he wanted to send his medal back. Zürcher said he was awarded the medal in 2005 thanks to his contribution to Turkey’s European Union (EU) bid. He argued that Turkey has a shared history with Europe, and Turkey’s Muslim majority should not be an obstacle to accession as Islam is a part of Europe, and Turkey has been a secular country for almost a century. He also said it was beneficial for Europe as it could defend its interests in Middle East and Caucasia.

    In his article, Zürcher said “these arguments are still valid”, but then he admits he was wrong about Recep Tayipp Erdoğan and his intentions. Erdoğan’s party, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), came to power in 2002 with a majority government and EU reforms were accelerated in the first few years, which gave many Europeans the idea of admitting Turkey to the club.

    He said his disappointments with Erdogan’s administration came from the following issues: the ending of the peace process with Kurds, “sabotaging” the possibility of a coalition government after June 7, 2105 election, persecuting the academics for peace petition, suppression and censorship of the media and social media, “threatening” the constitutional court and not respecting it, the taking down of a “softer” Prime Minister (meaning Ahmet Davutoğlu), too many defamation of the president charges, persecuting Europeans who are critical of Erdogan, and using their influence to dominate Islamic norms and values in public spaces.

    He continued, “All of these convinced me that the Turkey of Tayyip Erdoğan cannot and should not become a member of the European Union – ever. A country where politics, the legal system, the media, universities and individuals (even if they live in Europe) have become playthings for a de facto dictator and his clique of sycophants; where the fundamental freedoms and the rule of law have ceased to function, cannot be a European country”.

    He said this is why he is giving his medal back, as a “sign of protest against the dictatorial misrule of Erdoğan,” admitting he had been wrong 12 years ago when he supported ERdoğan. Zürcher also warned European leaders not to consider Turkey’s EU membership, saying they need to say “enough is enough”.