New Church allows itself to be dictated — this time by Turkey
By our reporter Robert van Gijssel
de Volkskrant (Dutch national newspaper)
February 17, 2007
Amsterdam — The New Church of Amsterdam adapted catalogue texts and
scrapped article on the Armenian genocide.
The New Church of Amsterdam adapted scientific articles and in one case
scrapped an article from its catalogue for the exhibit Istanbul, because
they did not please the Turkish government. This is the second time that the
New Church adapts a catalogue on the request of a government: in 2004, a
sticker with a new border was placed over a map of Morocco at an exhibition
on Morocco.
For the exhibit Istanbul, which was opened last year on December 16, the New
Church asked Dutch turcologists to write an article on Ottoman history and
the creation of Istanbul. The articles were offered for inspection to the
Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism prior to their publication.
The Dutch magazine on the Middle-East ZemZem informed today that Turkey
wanted to modify among others an article by turcologist Jan Schmidt, who is
affiliated with the University of Leiden. Schmidt had written of the
creation of Istanbul by Greek colonizers. According to Schmidt, he was also
requested to remove passages on the presence of Kurds in Istanbul and on
homosexuality among Ottomans. An article on the Armenian genocide has been
fully withdrawn, because the author did not wish to agree with the proposed
modifications.
According to spokesperson Frans van der Avert of the New Church, the article
was scrapped because the authors and the Turkish government were unable to
reach an agreement. "Sometimes you have to conclude after mutual
deliberation that you cannot agree. And we did not want to compromise out of
respect for the authors and the Turkish government." According to him, the
catalogue was published "with respect for each other’s opinions."
Van der Anvert will not say whether Turkey threatened to annul cooperation
with the exhibit if the articles would not be modified. "That is all
guesswork." The Turkish government has lent many artifacts for the exhibit
in Amsterdam. According to Van der Avert it is normal that Turkey was
offered the articles for inspection prior to their official publication.
"That is part of our procedure."
In 2004, the Moroccan government successfully coerced a modification in the
catalogue for the exhibit Morocco, 500 years of culture. At the last moment
a sticker with a modified map was stuck over an undesirable, but correct,
map of Morocco. On the sticker the Western Sahara was depicted as an
integral part of Morocco, in the way that Moroccans like to see it. The EU
does not recognize this border.