Turkish press hail Armenia congress amid protests
By Gareth Jones
ANKARA, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Turkey’s press hailed as a victory for
democracy a controversial conference on the massacres of Armenians 90
years ago but nationalists protesting outside Sunday’s gathering
called it a betrayal of the nation.
The conference, twice cancelled due to the acute sensitivity of the
Armenian question, has been billed as a litmus test for freedom of
expression in Turkey just days before it begins long-delayed European
Union membership talks.
Nationalist demonstrators hurled eggs and tomatoes at participants as
they arrived at Istanbul’s private Bilgi University to discuss claims
that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians during and
after World War One.
Protesters waved Turkish flags and chanted slogans accusing the
conference participants of betraying the nation.
But the mere fact that the conference had gone ahead prompted strong
praise from local media.
“Another taboo is destroyed. The conference began but the day of
judgement did not come,” said the Milliyet daily.
The liberal Radikal newspaper took a similar line.
“Even the word ‘genocide’ was uttered at the conference, but the world
is still turning and Turkey is still in its place,” its front-page
headline said.
“Free discussion, free protest,” said Turkey’s top-selling Hurriyet
newspaper, noting that both conference participants and demonstrators
were freely expressing their opinions.
Armenia and its supporters around the world say some 1.5 million
Armenians perished in a systematic genocide committed by Ottoman
Turkish forces between 1915 and 1923.
Ankara accepts many Armenians were killed on Turkish soil, but says
they were victims of a partisan conflict that claimed even more
Turkish Muslim lives as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing. It denies
any genocide.
PEACE WITH HISTORY
In a message to the conference, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul
expressed Turkey’s official view that many citizens of the Ottoman
Empire suffered terribly during the war but that claims of an Armenian
genocide were false and politically motivated.
“The Turkish people are at peace with themselves and with their
history,” Gul said.
Deniz Baykal, leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s
Party, said on Sunday he thought the conference was too one-sided in
its approach to the Armenian issue, but he defended the right of
academics to debate freely.
The conference had originally been scheduled for May but was cancelled
after a government minister accused those backing Armenian genocide
claims of “stabbing Turkey in the back.”
After a storm of criticism from the EU and elsewhere, the government
agreed to let the conference go ahead, but a last-minute court order
prevented it from opening on Friday, to Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan’s acute embarrassment.
The organisers then circumvented the court ban by moving the two-day
conference to a third venue, Bilgi University. It opened on Saturday
to noisy nationalist protests.
Despite a flurry of EU-inspired liberal reforms in recent years,
promoting certain interpretations of Turkish history can still be
deemed a criminal offence under the revised penal code.
Turkey is due to begin EU entry talks on Oct. 3, though it is not seen
joining the bloc before 2015 at the earliest.
09/25/05 06:46 ET