Turkish university calls off seminar on genocide
Irish Times
May 28, 2005
Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
Turkey: Freedom of expression, or freedom only to express views
accepted by the state? The question was moot this week after a top
Turkish university called off a conference on the fate of the Ottoman
Empire’s Armenians following government criticism.
The three-day meeting would have been the first in the country’s
history open to academics sceptical of the officially sponsored claim
that it was inter-ethnic war, not a deliberate state policy of ethnic
cleansing, that led to the deaths of up to one million Armenians in
1915.
It was just the latest sign that the wall of silence surrounding the
country’s greatest taboo was beginning to crumble.
But after days of sniping, the project collapsed on Tuesday, when
Turkey’s justice minister told parliament it amounted to “stabbing the
Turkish people in the back”.
“The time has come to stop those who carry this country’s passports
from making propaganda against the country,” Cemil Cicek said, to
thunderous applause.
The rector of Istanbul’s Bosporus University promptly announced she
was postponing the conference to avoid “possible consequences.”
On Wednesday, university sources say, state prosecutors had demanded
copies of all the scheduled papers.
Traditionally cautious, Turkey’s media expressed outrage at the
minister’s meddling.
“Zero tolerance on liberties” ran the Thursday headline in the liberal
daily Radikal.
“If the minister thinks he is serving the country with these phrases
worthy of a military putsch, he is profoundly mistaken,” columnist
Semih Idiz wrote in the centrist daily Milliyet on Thursday.
The controversy already shows signs of extending beyond Turkey’s
borders.
Ankara has until October to persuade Brussels it is ready to start
accession proceedings with the European Union. Heavily criticised in
Europe since March for dumping reformism in favour of nationalist
populism, Turkey’s government is watching with increasing concern the
rise of conservative parties in France and Germany opposed to its
membership.
“Until now, anti-Turkish politicians in Europe have been hard pressed
to find convincing arguments against its accession,” said one EU
diplomat in Ankara. “Cicek has just handed them one free of charge.”
But it is within Turkey that his outburst is likely to resonate
furthest. Nationalism has been on the rise since the beginning of the
year, spurred by the growing realisation that the changes Turkey must
make for its EU bid are essentially non-negotiable,
Things turned ugly in March following an attempt by three youths to
desecrate the Turkish flag at Kurdish new year celebrations. “It’s the
people’s turn to speak,” said the country’s top general.
On April 6th inhabitants of the northern city of Trabzon took him at
his word, rounding on five left-wingers local TV falsely alleged were
Kurdish separatists. Only prompt intervention by the police saved them
from certain death.
Analysts fear Mr Cicek’s words could spark a repeat performance.
Bosporus University’s decision to cave in to the minister’s attack,
says political scientist Hasan Bulent Kahraman, “is the strongest
proof possible that threats get results in this country . . . The
lynch mob has once again been called into action.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress