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Armenian National Committee
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TARC Moderator David Phillips at NYU: Each Side has its Historians
Armenian Students Barred from Seminar

David Phillips spoke at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs on
February 4 at a seminar entitled, “Turkey and its Neighbors: Current
Political Overview and Forecast for 2005 and Beyond.” Phillips used the
opportunity to discuss his yet-to-be released book, Unsilencing the Truth,
about the Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC). Phillips was
the architect and moderator of TARC, which he claims was meant to foster
dialogue between Armenians and Turks. TARC was disbanded in September 2002,
when worldwide Armenian opposition arose when it became clear that hindering
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide was one of its main
purposes.

Another result of TARC, which some believe was not accidental, was to divide
the Armenian-American community about how to treat the issue of the
genocide. TARC excluded one of Armenia’s traditional political parties, the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation, and characterized the party as extremist
due to its criticism of TARC. TARC’s exclusionary practices continued at
New York University, when Armenian students at NYU were turned away from
attending the event by the Global Affairs Department. “Many Armenians on
campus would have really wanted to attend this seminar had it not been kept
secret from them. The organizers are using NYU’s name, but then excluded
very relevant segments of NYU’s community,” said Veronica Siranosian, a
graduate student at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Affairs. Siranosian and
other NYU students were told by the Center for Global Affairs that they
would not be allowed into the seminar.

Ms. Vera Jelinek, assistant dean at NYU’s School of Continuing and
Professional Studies and Director of the Center for Global Affairs,
introduced Phillips and described the event as partly a discussion of “the
Turkish-Armenian crisis of the past.” During his presentation, Phillips
discussed his work dealing with some of Turkey’s most significant problems
regarding democracy and human rights. Former US Ambassador to Turkey Marc
Grossman of the U.S. State Department had asked Phillips to approach the
Turko-Armenian conflict, using the “track two diplomacy” method he had
employed to bring together Kurds and Turks, as well as Greek and Turkish
Cypriots. Phillips explained that this method attempts to establish a space
that is “low-key, non-judgmental, and non-coercive” so that participants are
willing “to explore ideas for resolution, free of the constraints of
government positions.” After he agreed to Grossman’s request, he soon
learned how much he “had underestimated the bitterness which Turks and
Armenians hold for each other.”

Provided with three million dollars, Phillips said that the U.S. government
“wrote a blank check to do this work, which is highly unusual for U.S.
government officials to do.” This led to the formation of the Turkish
Armenian Reconciliation Commission. Once talks began, Phillips said the
issue of the Armenian Genocide continued to arise. Moving forward did not
seem possible without addressing it. Therefore Phillips approached the
International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) for it to study the
Armenian Genocide and issue a legal opinion on the applicability of the
Genocide Convention to it. Phillips said, “that the U.S. government knows
that Turkey will never return land nor pay reparations.” He said that, “I
have nothing against historians, but often they can’t agree on what the
facts are. The Turks and Armenians each have its group of historians with
volumes and volumes claiming their own side of the story.”

Phillips went on to explain that, “the reason I use the word genocide has to
do with the working through the International Center for Transitional
Justice, which determined that the Armenian Genocide did not apply to the
Genocide Convention.” According to Phillips, the ICTJ explained that no
treaty had ever been applied retroactively so no reparations could be
expected from Turkey. Phillips closed his comments by saying that the
September 11th terrorist attacks and the invasion of Iraq increased Turkey’s
strategic value to the United States and thus interfered in TARC’s work
because it was more difficult to pressure Turkey to make concessions. He
had hoped that Turkey’s border with Armenia would be opened, but the
relaxing of visa regimes was the only progress made.

Phillips also discussed what he saw as the great geopolitical advantages if
Turkey was allowed to join the European Union. He briefly reviewed Turkey’s
modern history, mentioning that the Republic of Turkey emerged from the
ashes of the Ottoman Empire when Kemal Ataturk set out “to build a truly
modern state on a par with its European neighbors.” Phillips went to say
that, “Turkey’s founding constitution enshrined the country’s commitment to
secularism and republicanism.”

Phillips explained that the role of the military and national security
apparatus in the years following the founding of the Turkish Republic has
been to preserve the secular principles of Kemalism and guard against
tendencies to return to Islamic rule. Phillips said, “Turkish officers see
their task extending beyond the protection of the country’s territory to
include warding off threats to the public order, such as separatism,
terrorism, and religious fundamentalism.” He noted that this had led to
previous military coups when the Turkish General Staff felt Kemalism was
under threat.

Addressing the rise to power of Recip Erdogan, Phillips related how his
Justice and Development Party came to dominate the Turkish parliament. He
stated that concerns remain about how committed Erdogan and his Islamist
party are to preserving Ataturk’s secular Turkish state. Phillips reviewed
the Turkish Parliament’s decision to ultimately not allow U.S. troops to use
southeastern Turkey as a point of entry to invade Iraq. Phillips also
devoted a portion of the lecture to Erdogan’s campaign to gain Turkish
accession to the European Union.