TANER AKCHAM: “PURGE OF ARCHIVES IS QUITE IMPORTANT ADMINISTRATIVE
CULTURE” IN TURKEY”
ISTANBUL, December 29 (Noyan Tapan): The destruction of documents is
“an important part of our culture,” historian Taner Akcham, a
representative of the progressive Turkish intelligentsia, writes in
his large article concerning the purge of the Turkish archives. The
article was published by the “Radical” newspaper in its Sunday
appendix. In his article Akcham, at first, mentions the “Sabah”
newspaper’s publication from November 7 1918, where it is said that
the government looked for the documents testifying about the massacre
against the Armenians but couldn’t find them. The newspaper’s
indicated article writes “Taleat Pasha and his company, probably,
before leaving authority, ordered to destruct all the documents
witnessing about their giving directions on the massacre. Akcham
emphasizes that it was right, as the indictment against “the Young
Turks”, which was heard in the Istanbul Court Martial of the State of
Siege in May 1919, writes that the documents concerning the
administrative center of the “Ittihat” party and so-called Teshkilat
Mahsuse organization were “stolen”. In this connection the Prosecutor
said that Aziz Bei, the Chief of Security of the region, took away
with himself a lot of documents before Taleat Pasha’s resignation and
didn’t return them. Then Taner Akcham cites numerous examples
concerning the stealing and destruction of the documents and notices
that during the “Ittihat’s” power the following was written under all
the instructions and documents concerning massacres: “Read and
destruct after reading.” Akcham mentions the self-defense of different
officials in the courts, they reported that “they destructed the
documents as they received such an order.” In particular, Akcham sets
as an example the 1919 action against Osman Nuri Effendi, the Deputy
Director of the Chatalcha post office, who said: “I burned down all
the documents in accordance with the received order. My chiefs ordered
me to burn down the documents concerning the period of their power
from such-and-such to such-and-such date and I did it..” The author of
the article also sets other examples. According to the “Marmara” daily
newspaper of Istanbul, at the end of the article the Turk historian
notices: “As seen the destruction of documents is quite an important
“administrative culture”. For that reason some persons talk profusely
with the quiet of those who know that the documents have already been
destructed, that “nothing had happened with the Armenians, and all the
documents are in their places.” Perhaps, people of my generation will
find some documents about their greats and promulgate them, arguing
that beside those considering the destruction of documents as success,
there are also such people that want to discover truth”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress