"WE MUST DEBATE 1915 OURSELVES"
Tolga Korkut

BÝA, Turkey
Oct 16 2006

"Genocide Denial Law" will neither serve to resolve incidents in 1915
nor benefit Armenians in Turkey says minorities law expert attorney
Cetin. "Turkey should come to the level where it can solve its problems
itself" believes EU specialist Dr. Aktar.

BÝA (Istanbul) – Minority Law expert, attorney Fethiye Cetin has
said the French Parliament’s passing of the bill on the denial of
an Armenian genocide will neither serve to resolve what happened in
1915 in Turkey under Ottoman rule not benefit the Armenian community
in today’s Turkey.

"Just the opposite", she said, "as we have seen in the past it will
inflict harm. Because the nationalist circles in Turkey use such
bills and decisions as an excuse and increase the repression and
expression of resentment of Armenians. Unfortunately we hear such
expression from official mouths".

Cetin, also the author of the Turkish book Anneannem (My Grandmother)
based on the true story of her maternal grandparent being converted to
Turkish Islam in the broader concept of Christians and Armenians later
becoming Turks and Muslims, believes it is wrong to "turn such grief
in history into material for political purposes" and that Armenian,
Turkish and French intellectuals need to work together to preempt
the goals of this latest legislation and similar other.

"Turkey should do the same thing" she said. "Intellectuals should
preempt all legislation that can block mutual discussion, dialogue,
refreshing of memory and empathy".

According to Cetin Turkey needs to come to the point where it can
solve the problem itself and that the only way forward for this is
to conduct work based on refreshing of memories and empathy.

"Unless we solve this problem ourselves, it is tying up Turkey’s
feet. It is being turned into material of political benefit to some
parliaments. This is very painful. Turkey should as a priority solve
the problem and should get rid of these things that tie her down."

Cetin says a solution to the problem related to what the Ottoman
Armenians encountered in 1915 is based on two things:

Memory revival: "We need to work on memory based on mutual dialogue
in Turkey".

Developing empathy: "We have an empathy problem in the society. We
need to be able to see and feel the grief of others for real outside
of the bounds of all political conflicts and nationalist prejudice.

We need to be able to listen to each other’s grief, see it and feel
it. Such initiatives have started and it has been seen they have very
positive effects. People have started to isten to the grief of each
other. The path should be opened for this."

Cetin believed that what happened in 1915 "is sensitive and painful,
requiring a priority solution" but that the sharing of memories on
mutual dialogue and developing empathy between the communities is an
essential part of that solution.

"If we look at the law adopted at the French Parliament" she adds, "it
can be seen this serves neither memory work nor developing empathy".

Aktar: We need to debate the massacre

Bahcesehir University European Union Center President Dr. Cengiz
Aktar also believes that France took a mistaken decision which he
describes as being "foolish".

In an interview with the Turkish NTV television on the issue, Aktar
said that rather than allow third parties to take over the issue "we
must talk ourselves that there was not a genocide but that there was
a serious massacre. If this happens, we will not leave the discussion
up to lawmakers at the French Parliament".

Aktar believes it would be a mistake to regard the issue only in the
context of Franco-Turkish relations or give impulsive reactions. He
says the Turkish government can overcome this period.

"In France there has been no debate that Turkey would be further
excluded or that it would be excluded from the EU process. But if
we give a response in the same way, it will mean a continuation of
a no-solution" he said.

Noting that there could be economic reaction to the decision, Aktar
recalled French capital had over 5 billion euro in investments in
Turkey and said "it would be mistaken for us to touch the industry".

–Boundary_(ID_Kl1Bo1xGHREK6O/pRc eS3A)–