TURKEY WON’T SAY GENOCIDE, BUT U DOCUMENTARY DOES
By Don M. Burrows

Minnesota Daily, MN
Sept 29 2005

University film covers controversial Armenian genocide and garners
Emmy nomination

Armenian Genocide: 90 Years Later,” takes on one of the biggest
geopolitical controversies of the 20th century, even in its title:
Was the massacre of Armenians in 1915 an act of genocide?

The Republic of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire
that carried out the killings, denies it was genocide, and has even
banned discussion in that vein.

The documentary, co-produced by the University’s Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies, uses interviews with historians and family
members of survivors to continue the discussion many avoid.

PHOTO COURTESY TESSA SAVVIDIS HOFMANN AND THE CENTRE FOR INF The
photograph “Deportation from Harput,” was used in the film “Armenian
Genocide: 90 Years Later.”

What is known is this: As many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed
from 1915 to 1917 in an apparent depopulation strategy by the Young
Turk government. Much like Jews were singled out in Nazi Germany,
Armenians – an ethnic and religious minority of artisans and skilled
laborers in Turkish society – were removed from their homes and
killed. The Turkish government, however, claims the killings were
part of ethnic clashes and denies that so many were slain.

The most compelling part of the film is the testimony of those whose
families survived the killings. Many remember their parents telling of
the horrors of leaving their homes and hiding from Turkish officials,
and recount how a remembrance of the events of 1915 is now embedded
in Armenian identity.

The documentary features two University history professors, Eric
Weitz and Taner Akcam. Akcam is a Turkish historian who was jailed
in the 1970s for broaching human rights. It first aired in April and
has since been nominated for an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy award in
the News Special category.

The timing couldn’t be better.

Just last weekend, a Turkish court canceled the academic conference
that was to occur at Bogazici University regarding this topic. The
action sparked a wave of protest from European leaders and Turkish
officials wary of bad press amid their bid for entrance into the
European Union. A previous conference was likewise banned in May
amid comments from the Turkish minister of justice, who called it
treasonous.

Stephen Feinstein, director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies, said more than 200 copies of the film have been distributed
to organizations and schools since its airing.

Feinstein said that although the current Turkish government is
different than the one that committed the slayings in 1915, it has
been defiant in recognizing it as genocide. This is despite a consensus
among genocide scholars and similar recognitions by state governments
worldwide, including the state of Minnesota. He attributes this to
fears of demanded reparations and damage to the Turkish Republic’s
grand narrative and national pride.

His main concern, and that of scholars worldwide, is that Turkey,
a supposedly free democracy, is suppressing academic discussion.

“In a democracy, you should be free to talk about the past,”
Feinstein said.

Weitz agreed, and said that while there are many Turks who accept
that genocide occurred, there are also those ideologues who fit their
denial of the genocide into their concurrent distaste for Turkey’s
entrance into the EU.

“When they challenge the ability of scholars to discuss these issues,
they are provoking the EU deliberately,” he said.

Feinstein said many documents from Turkey’s own archives prove
that a systematic killing took place, but are written in the Arabic
script that

was replaced by the Latin alphabet after World War I. Consequently,
many Turkish government officials can’t even read them.

As stated in the documentary, German records are perhaps the best
source of information on the massacres, given Germany’s alliance with
Turkey during World War I.

It was the Nazis’ knowledge of the Armenians that contributed in part
to their own policy of extermination, scholars argue.

And those involved in the now Emmy-nominated film hope it will educate
the public so as to contradict Hitler’s famous quote in defense of
his genocidal plans: “Who remembers the Armenians?”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress