The Anatolian Times
Published: 9/24/2005
Conference On Armenians During Collapse Of Ottoman Empire
ISTANBUL – Associate professor Halil Berktay of Sabanci University said on
Saturday that the word ”genocide” should be left aside, and noted that
everybody should try to understand what had happened in 1915 and 1916.
The Conference entitled ”The Armenians during the Collapse of the Ottoman
Empire” is being held at Istanbul’s Bogazici University.
During the conference, professor Fikret Adanir of Faculty of History in
German Ruhr University said, ”a Turkish government may have to accept
genocide accusation one day due to impositions. This may please some
circles. But, I don’t think a concession made as a result of such
impositions will be beneficial for the future of Turkish-Armenian
relations.”
Adanir said that ”he was using the expression ‘Armenian genocide’ in his
academic works”, and added, ”the dimension of the 1915-16 relocation is
far beyond than mass killings. A whole nation, regardless of whether they
were women, men, elderly or children, were relocated and died on the roads.
Their properties were seized, while those who survived this incident were
not allowed to return. There was an Armenian nationalism and a project to
establish an Armenian state. Majority of the Ottoman Armenians might have a
sympathy towards the enemies of the state (Ottoman Empire) those days. But,
all these cannot compensate the tragedy which was intentionally caused by
the Ottoman government and which it (the empire) ignored.”
On the other hand, associate professor Oktay Ozel of Bilkent University said
that days between the War of 93 and 1923 was a period of tension and
clashes. ”At the end of this period, the Black Sea region was purified from
non-Muslim population,” added Ozel.