When history hurts

Aug 4th 2005 | ANKARA
>From The Economist print edition

Times are tough for outspoken scholars

IF TURKEY is ever to join the European Union, it will need to
acknowledge-and allow free discussion of-the mass slaughter of the
Ottoman empire’s Armenian subjects both during and after the first
world war. That, at least, is the opinion of some EU members-especially
France, where many Armenians live, and where objections to Turkish
entry run high.

In theory, Turkey’s rendezvous with the Union-entry talks are due
to start in October-should be good news for the Turkish scholars
who have risked prosecution by challenging the official line, which
holds that the mass deportation of Armenians in 1915 did not amount
to a conspiracy to kill them. And earlier this year, there were some
good signs.

After decades of denying that the killings-which Armenians round
the world regard as genocide-ever took place, Turkey in April called
on international scholars to determine once and for all what really
happened, saying they were free to examine the Ottoman archives. This
invitation from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, won strong
praise from EU governments. But the few intrepid souls who took him
at his word have had nothing but trouble ever since.

In May, a group of Turkish historians (many of whom challenge the
official view that the main cause of death among deported Armenians
was exposure and disease) suffered a sharp setback. They had to cancel
a conference which was due to debate the Armenian tragedy after the
justice minister, Cemil Cicek, accused them of “stabbing Turkey in
the back”.

Another bad sign: Hrant Dink, the publisher of Agos, an Armenian
weekly in Istanbul, is facing up to three years in jail for telling
an audience in 2002 that he was “not Turkish” but “an Armenian of
Turkey”. In a separate case, also filed this year, Mr Dink is facing
up to six years for urging Armenians and Turks to stop hating one
another. In both instances, Mr Dink was said to have “insulted the
Turkish state”.

How do these prosecutions square with Mr Erdogan’s stated wish to take
the sting out of Turkish-Armenian relations by allowing some honest
research? “Easily,” insists Mr Dink. “There are forces in this country
who are working night and day to stop Turkey from joining the EU and
part of that is silencing people like me.”

But these days, the problems of liberal Turkish scholars-and advocates
of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation-are not all caused by their own
country. Take the case of Yektan Turkyilmaz, an internationally
acclaimed Turkish scholar who was arrested in Armenia on June
17th on charges of seeking to smuggle antique books out of the
country. Fluent in Armenian, Mr Turkyilmaz is among the few Turks
who say the Ottoman policy in 1915 did amount to deliberate killing.
The first Turkish academic to be granted access to Armenia’s national
archives, Mr Turkyilmaz is being held in a maximum security prison in
Yerevan. He will face trial next month for violating Article 215 of
the Armenian Criminal Code, which equates the smuggling of antiquities
with trafficking in weapons of mass destruction. He could incur a
jail sentence of up to eight years.

Mr Turkyilmaz insists he had no idea about the law, and that the
dealers who sold him some 100 volumes never said he would need
permission to take them out. In an open letter to Armenia’s president,
Robert Kocharian, some 200 academics, campaigning for the historian’s
freedom, said the arrest would “raise serious doubts as to whether
Armenia encourages independent scholarly research on its history.”

Whatever view you take of the Armenian tragedy, it can get you into
trouble-in unexpected places. Dogu Perincek, an eccentric Turkish
leftist, was briefly detained in Switzerland on July 23rd. The Swiss
authorities say he breached article 261 of their penal code, which
makes the denial or justification of genocide a punishable offence.
Mr Perincek had told a conference that to speak of Armenian genocide
was an “imperialist lie”. Oddly enough, the Turkish authorities
seem far more indignant about his minor travails than they are about
Mr Turkyilmaz.