TURKEY FACES INEVITABILITY “TO PUT AN END TO THE GENOCIDE ISSUE”
It has to Go into the Offensive
Azg/arm
29 Dec 04
The fact, that the EU summit of December 17 overlooked Turkey’s
obligations needed for the accession talks to launch, enabled Turkey
to avoid the recognition of the Cypriot Republic. While the Cyprus
issue is to be settled before the 3d of October, 2005, the Armenian
Genocide is likely to appear on the agenda only once the talks start.
The French foreign minister on December 14 and the prime minister on
December 20 stated that the issue of the Armenian Genocide has to top
the agenda of the talks, and the Dutch parliament took a decision of
demanding Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide before the talks.
Perhaps the response of the Turkish press, particularly Yeni Shafaq
newspaper, did not come as a surprise. An article signed by Resul
Tosun reads: “Though they (the Europeans) did not include the issue of
the Armenian genocide in the agenda on December 17 EU summit, this
issue is going to be a thorn in Turkey’ s side. That’s why we have to
find a solution to the Armenian causetogether with the Cyprus
issue. To put it shortly, if Turkey wants to put an end to the issue
of the so-called Armenian genocide, it should take a step and
officially declare of handing the issue over to the historians”.
President of the Turkish History Foundation, professor Yusuf
Halacoglu, joined the author of the previous article in his claims to
hand the issue over to historians and gave a scientific reasoning to
such a demand.
Zaman newspaper responded to the professor’s words on December 23
writing that Turkey has stayed on the defensive against genocide
allegations until now and then, following Halacoglu’s advice, put that
it’s high time “to take action instead of remaining silent”.
Prof. Halacoglu told Zaman that “Turkey should not avoid an open
discussion on Armenian claims of genocide” as many studies had been
conducted in the archives of several countries, and mostly in that of
the Ottoman Empire, “but they have not turned up a single document or
record mentioning genocide”. Meanwhile, Prof. Halacoglu asked Turkish
prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to found a commission, which
includes social scientists in order to conduct research regarding the
“so-called genocide claims”, adding that as soon as Turkey takes this
step “the opposition will retreat”.
Yusuf Halacoglu accepts that the Genocide issue will be repeatedly
raised in the EU membership negotiations that’s why Turkey should deal
with it now. “Our state should tell the EU that we should handle this
issue on a level on which our historians and social scientists can
discuss it. We should also establish a commission to report on what we
find”, Halacoglu said.
The professor signified that the claims that 1.2 million were killed
are inconsistent as according to official documents and records the
Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire was only 1.5
million. Halacoglu notes thatthe Western sources also show the same
number and says: “The US archives give the numbers for Armenian
migrants who fled to other countries after the Lausanne Treaty in 1923
as 1,299,000 for those who migrated to countries other than Turkey,
Greece and Armenia. According to Turkish population censuses, there
were 281,000 Armenians living in Turkey. If we add these we already
have 1,681,000 Armenians. If we include 60,000 in Greek camps and
25,000 who emigrated to the US, we have a total of 1,760,000. Taking
into account population increase this corresponds to the Ottoman
Empire’s figures. So how, then, can it be claimed that 1,200,000
Armenians were killed”.
This “argument” of Halacoglu gives clear understanding of the
direction that the Turkish scientists are going to lead the alleged
discussions over the Armenian Genocide. Besides outlining the
direction of future discussions, the Turks are going to take measures
of disclosing the “genocide” committed by the Armenians. “We will open
7 mass graves in 2005”, Halacoglu said. Not surprisingly all these
come on the threshold of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
in 2005.
Turning to the works of the Turkish History Foundation Halacoglu said
that they have identified about 100 mass graves in 20 different
places. “We have, for example, identified that Armenians committed
genocides in 21 villages in the Igdir region alone. There are also
regions of Adana, Erzurum, Ardahan, Kars, Bitlis, and Mush. We will
conduct excavation studies in 6 or 7 regions because Armenians will
make some important claims because of their so-called 90th
anniversary. That’s why we are trying to unearth what really
happened”, Halacoglu said.
It must be pointed out, as we round off, that Turkey’s strivings
toleave the Genocide issue up to the historians are not something
new. This simply means that Turkey has no other means of pushing
Genocide recognition initiatives back but the old panacea. Therefore,
Prof. Halacoglu’s suggestions to the Turkish government are also
doomed to failure. They will be as efficient as the previous ones
were.
By Hakob Chakrian