TURKISH GOVERNMENT CALLS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CONFERENCE PLANNERS
“TRAITORS”

WASHINGTON, MAY 27, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian Assembly of America
expressed outrage over the Turkish government’s latest assault on free
speech, this time threatening its own citizens for organizing an
unprecedented conference on the Armenian Genocide and challenging the
state’s official policy of denial. Due to the intense government
pressure, event organizers indefinitely postponed the Conference which
was to begin in Istanbul on May 25. In a press statement, organizers
said that more than 720 people were to participate in the three-day
Conference at Bosphorus University entitled, “Ottoman Armenians during
the Decline of the Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and
Democracy.” The postponement came after Istanbul’s chief public
prosecutor threatened to start criminal proceedings against conference
organizers and demanded copies of all academic papers that were to be
presented. Additionally, Minister of Justice Cemil Cicek’s diatribe in
the Turkish Parliament, coupled with his accusations of treason
against Conference participants for allegedly questioning Ankara’s
denial of the Genocide, also led to the eventual
cancellation. According to Agence France-Presse, Cicek said, “We must
put an end to this cycle of treason and insult, of spreading
propaganda against the [Turkish] nation by people who belong to it.”
Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of Agos – an Armenian newspaper based in
Istanbul – told Assembly leaders that organizers were under direct
government pressure to call off the Conference. “The thoughts and
speeches of the Conference participants, historians, while important,
are not as important as what the Turkish government is doing,” said
Dink. “If the Turkish government will not even allow open dialogue and
discussion for members of its own society, how can it possibly expect
to enter into dialogue with others?” Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan last month called for further study of the Armenian
Genocide, while official policy still rejects that Turkey committed
genocide against its Armenian population 90 years ago. Moreover,
Article 305 of the Turkish penal code criminalizes public references
to the Armenian Genocide. “In the context of a law criminalizing
speech on the Armenian Genocide, the ongoing threats against any
nation that reaffirms the facts of history and now the outrageous
cancellation of an academic conference, Erdogan’s call for a
historical commission must be rejected as a disingenuous maneuver to
delay the inevitable. Its current assault on academic freedom must
likewise be condemned,” said AAA Board of Directors Chairman Anthony
Barsamian. “On subjects that the Turkish government considers
sensitive, there appear to be no constraints on what officials will do
to prevent free speech and debate,” said Congressional Caucus on
Armenian Issues Co-Chairs Congressmen Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and Frank
Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ). “Internally the subject is criminalized, academic
conferences are cancelled and individuals are condemned as
traitors. Actions like this seriously undermine the credibility of
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s proposal to establish a historical
commission to study ‘the developments and events of 1915.’ “