Zaman, Turkey
Sept 24 2005

Sabotage to EU Process

By ABDULHAMIT BILICI
Published: Friday, September 23, 2005
zaman.com

After the court decision relayed to the evening services of the news
agencies Thursday about the conference titled `Armenians at the Last
Period of the Ottoman Empire,’ getting upset with the Greeks, who
want to dynamite Turkey’s EU bid, would be unfair.

This is because, we are doing more harm to ourselves than what they
do to us. There are even less than two weeks to October 3, on which
the negotiations will start, and the foreign affairs continue
struggle with its all fronts in Europe and the entire world is
watching the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk case carefully.

This situation will certainly be an excellent trump in the hands of
opponents of Turkey’s EU membership. For instance, Representative of
Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen Association (TUSIAD) of
Brussels Bahadir Kaleagasi noted Armenians who were in the meeting
about the so-called genocide did not hide their pleasure when they
heard about the cancellation.

Even if there was not such a critical EU process, how could
diplomats, students, businessmen, and all Turkish citizens
representing Turkey abroad explain how the Judiciary, which is
supposed to be guarantor of freedom of speech, can cancel a meeting
which is only declaration of thoughts which is legal according to our
laws?

No one could ever have thought of a better public relations study for
European Union public opinion, which is under the negative propaganda
of Turkey opponents, against Turkey.

Is it so difficult for the ones, who defend this attitude in the name
of nationalism and national benefits, to see the fact that this
decision has empowered the arguments of supporters of Armenian
Genocide even more?

The reactions caused the conference to be cancelled on May 25, and
the current decision unfortunately reflects a picture of Turkey to
the world which does not touch the realities. This kind of a
conference, in which the ideas that in conflict with the ideas of the
majority of the society, about the Armenian Issue may be organized
for the first time; however, the arguments to be voiced there have
been represented in the newspapers and TV channels almost every other
day. And there were not any problems with them.

For citizens to be respectful to the courts decisions is a condition
of state of law. However, is this a one-sided relationship? Should
not the judiciary also be respectful to priorities, wills and demands
of citizens? Why should the judicial system become the nightmare of
citizens in so many topics from democratization to privatization?

A couple of days ago, I asked our News Editor whether the Turkish
Institute of History (TTK) President Professor Yusuf Halacoglu is
among the participants or not and whether Professor Hikmet Ozdemir
was invited to the conference and I got angry with the organization
committee when I heard that they weren’t and that demands of some
retired army officers to participate in the conference had been
rejected. If it wasn’t for the last court decision the newspaper
headlines would probably be that, ‘They talked to themselves, they
listened to themselves’. However, the decision not only changed these
headlines, it also raised those involved from the level of defenders
of the genocide to the level of victims of a lack of democracy.