Chicago Sun-Times, IL
Sept 25 2005

Scholars in Turkey cautiously discuss Armenian massacre

September 25, 2005

BY BENJAMIN HARVEY

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Scholars held the first public discussions in
Turkey on Saturday about the early 20th century massacre of
Armenians, choosing words carefully, avoiding emotional language and
picking apart history year by year at a gathering that nationalists
denounced as traitorous.

The European Union called the academic conference a test of freedom
of expression in Turkey, which hopes to start talks for membership in
the bloc next month.

The academic conference had been canceled twice, once in May after
the justice minister said organizers were “stabbing the people in the
back,” and again Thursday when an Istanbul court ordered the
conference closed and demanded to know the academic qualifications of
the speakers.

“This is a fight of ‘can we discuss this thing, or can we not discuss
this thing?'” Murat Belge, a member of the organizing committee, said
at the conference opening. “This is something that’s directly related
to the question of what kind of country Turkey is going to be.”

Genocide?

The Armenian issue stirs deep passions among Turks, who are being
pushed by many in the international community to say that their
fathers and grandfathers carried out the first genocide of the 20th
century.

Dozens of officers in riot gear kept hundreds of shouting protesters
at bay. Some protesters pelted arriving panelists with eggs and
rotten tomatoes.

Inside, the audience of more than 300 was restrained, as only those
invited by the organizing committee and preapproved members of the
media were allowed past security.

The issue has been a taboo for many years, with those who speak out
against the killings risking prosecution by a Turkish court. But an
increasing number of Turkish academics have called for a review of
the killings in a country where many see the Ottoman Empire as a
symbol of Turkish greatness.

Several governments around the world have said the killings of as
many as 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923, the late Ottoman
Empire, were genocide.