Spiegel Online, Germany
April 25 2005

Armenian Genocide Plagues Ankara 90 Years On

By Bernhard Zand

This weekend, Armenians commemorated the 90th anniversary of the
genocide of 1915. But Turkey has yet to recognize the crime — the
first genocide of the 20th century. By refusing to use the word
“genocide,” Turkey could complicate its efforts to join the European
Union.

AFP photo:
Genocide in Armenia: Many Turks view the perpetrators as their
fathers.

Typhoid, the Russians, imperialism and Kaiser Wilhelm II in far away
Berlin — all were responsible for the mass deaths of Anatolian
Armenians. At least that’s the case if you read the official Turkish
history books. According to the Turkish version, the only group that
didn’t bear any responsibility were the Ottomans, the
great-grandfathers of modern-day Turkey, which is now on the cusp of
joining the European Union.

On Sunday, Armenians all around the world remembered the 90th
anniversary of the start of the genocide. This year brought the last
decennial memorial in which survivors of the crime, one of the worst
of the past century, will still be alive to attend. Never before has
the international pressure on Turkey as stronger as it is now for
Turkey to address its own history. And Ankara’s political elites have
never been more steadfast in their efforts to defend the myths Turkey
has used to explain the crime or to stamp critics as traitors.

The assertion that what happened to the Armenians was genocide is
“categorically unacceptable,” said Yüksel Söylemez, the chairman of a
group of former Turkish ambassadors who are seeking to promote the
official Turkish version of events abroad. Turkish president Ahmet
Necdet Sezer said the accusations are baseless and “upset and hurt
the feelings of the Turkish nation.” It is wrong, he added, for our
European friends to press Turkey on this issue.”

At least one of the arguments of the modern apologists evokes the
same motives of those which led to the order to deport the Armenians:
the leaders of the declining Ottomon Empire saw themselves in 1915 as
surrounded by enemies on all sides and created a case for the
self-defense of the state. It’s an argument that is still used by
modern Turkish defenders today. Be it the Kurds, the Armenians,
Greece, Europe or even the US — inside, like outside, the country
has nothing but opponents, they claim. “From the first day of its
existence,” Ankara Chamber of Commerce chief Sinan Aygün said, time
and time again people have tried to “unsettle and destroy” Turkey.

The fact that Ankara as an EU candidate won’t be able to use this
line of argumentation for much longer is only gradually dawning on
representatives of the Turkish government.

AP/ Armenian National Archives
Victims of the 1915 massacre: Finding out the truth about the
Armenian genocide is an uphill battle.”
Confronted with more and more Armenia resolutions in European
parliaments, opinion is growing among some that Ankara’s position on
the Armenian issue could ultimately endanger its prospects for EU
membership. Although there is no formal requirement that Ankara
recognize the murder of the Armenians as “genocide,” politicians
including French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier have made clear
comments in that direction. “I believe that when the time comes,
Turkey should come to terms with its past, be reconciled with its own
history and recognize this tragedy,” he said. “This is an issue that
we will raise during the negotiation process. We will have about 10
years to do so and the Turks will have about 10 years to ponder their
answer.” Recently, Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union,
filed a resolution on the Turkey-Armenia issue in its own parliament,
the Bundestag, where it will be discussed this week and voted on in
June.

In an effort to counter the pressure coming from Europe on the 90th
anniversary, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
opposition leader Deniz Baykal agreed to a common position at the
beginning of March. Turkey is prepared, Erdogan said, to address its
past. He added that the state archives in Ankara and Istanbul are
open to everyone and that he could imagine an independent entity —
like UNESCO — participating in an historical fact-finding mission.

Two opposition members of the Republican People’s Party, former
ambassadors Onur Öymen and Sükrü Elekdagi, conceived the idea. The
fact that the action originated from the pair has created its own set
of problems, since they are both outspoken hardliners on the Armenian
issue. Their aim is to prove that the deportation and massacre during
World War I can in no way be compared to a genocide, that the number
of victims was considerably lower than the Armenians claim, and that
Anatolya’s Muslims were actually the ones who suffered the most from
the tragic events.

Why is it so hard for modern Turks to deal with this part of their
history? The crimes of 1915 were committed by the then-government of
the Ottoman Empire — a government from whose leading members Mustafa
Kemel clearly distanced himself from when he became the founding
father of the Turkish Republic.

Kemal, who later became known as Atatürk, broke with all of the
traditions of the Ottoman times when he took power in the 1920s. He
did away with the sultanate, the caliphate and sharia law. He added
the Latin alphabet, a European legal system and introduced the
Christian Sunday as one of the weekly public holidays. In addition,
he had a very tense relationship with the three young Turkish leaders
of the Ottoman Empire — Talaat, Cemel and Enver Pasha. He didn’t
want to include a single one of the three, who were considered the
primary culprits of the deportation of the Armenians, as part of the
Turkish national movement after the war. He considered Envers to be
especially dangerous because he saw in his pan-Turkish expansionist
agenda a suicide adventure.

AFP
Decapitated heads of Armenians: Why is it so difficult for modern
Turkey to deal with its past?
Many of the accomplices to the Ottoman war crimes nevertheless fared
well in the Turkish Republic, founded in 1923. Surprisingly, Atatürk
himself, spoke with such openness about the crimes that his comments
could be enough to land him behind bars today. In 1920, in
parliament, he condemned the genocide of the Armenians as an
“abomination of the past” and pledged to dole out severe punishments
to the culprits.

Repeatedly, representatives of Armenia have offered to accept the
version of events as told by Atatürk. In vain. When historian Halil
Berktay of Istanbul made similar statements earlier this month, he
was attacked. It was not unlike the way the nation’s best-known
author Orhan Pamuk was vilified after he told a Swiss newspaper in
February that, “one million Armenians were killed in Turkey.” Since
then, Berktay has refused to make any statements about the Armenian
issue.

Historians like Berktay are unfit to participate in the process of
historical fact-finding, said Onur Öymen, who was Turkey’s ambassador
to Germany and is now the deputy opposition chief and one of the two
initiators of the Turkish parliamentary offensive. They claim the
historians have been susceptible to prejudices spread by the
“Armenian propaganda machine.” However, the two do endorse the
version of events proffered by the American historian Justin
McCarthy, who spoke in March before the Turkish National Assembly and
later in a round with scientists and foreign diplomats.

Diplomats viewed McCarthy’s presentation skeptically, but Turks
welcomed it jubilantly. First, he said, the number of victims claimed
by the Armenians (1.5 million) is based on falsified census figures:
Only 1.1 million people could have lived in the Eastern provinces of
the Ottoman Empire affected by the deportations, he said. Of these,
close to 40 percent died and of those deaths, 80 percent were from
natural causes.

The Turks are fighting a tough battle, says McCarthy, who teaches in
Louisville, Kentucky, and has been largely unknown in his field until
now. “They’re fighting against prejudice, and their opponents are
politically strong, but the truth is on their side,” he told the
crowd.

“Would you admit to the crimes of your grandfathers, if these crimes
didn’t really happen?” asked ambassador Öymen. But the problem lies
precisely in this question, says Hirant Dink, publisher and
editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based Armenian weekly Agos. Turkey’s
bureaucratic elite have never really shed themselves of the Ottoman
tradition — in the perpetrators, they see their fathers, whose honor
they seek to defend.

AFP
Turkish soldiers stand next to Armenians who have been hanged: Today
Atatürk would wind up behind bars for his criticism of the crimes
against the Armenians.
This tradition instils a sense of identity in Turkish nationalists —
both from the left and the right, and it is passed on from generation
to generation through the school system. This tradition also requires
an antipole against which it could define itself. Since the times of
the Ottoman Empire, religious minorities have been pushed into this
role.

At the beginning of April, Dink was invited along with other
representatives of the approximately 60,000 members of the Armenian
minority in Turkey to appear before the parliament’s EU Committee. He
came with a passionate appeal for reconciliation. He also had some
sharp-tongued words for Germany’s main opposition, which recently
took up the issue of the Armenian genocide in parliament. “Ms.
(Angela) Merkel (of the Christian Democratic Union), isn’t bringing
this instance up in the German parliament because she likes black
eyebrowed Armenians,” he said. “She’s playing this card because she’s
against EU membership for Turkey.”

Turkish-Armenian journalist and sociologist Etyen Mahcupyan also
wants to see the rhetoric toned down in this war of words. Whatever
the historical truth, he said, “The term genocide is only of use to
extremists. I would have nothing against it if this word wasn’t
used.” Rarely in recent decades, says Hirant Dink, have the
opportunities for an improvement in Turkish-Armenian relations been
as good as they are today. Erdogan’s government, dominated by
Muslims, is far less a product of the nationalist spirit of the
Turkish bureaucracy than its predecessors. And that’s something
Europe should seek to exploit.

Germany, especially, which as a former ally of the Ottoman Empire
also carries its share of blame in the tragedy, would be well advised
against writing any resolutions. Instead, it should make concrete
proposals: “Why don’t the Germans challenge Eriwan to make the old
nuclear reactor in Metsarot safer or put pressure on Ankara to reopen
its borders to Armenia?” Berlin could help economically and
diplomatically and support the moderates who exist on both sides,
Dink said. “Truly, the possibilities are endless.”

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