Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 16 2007

Turkish, Armenian historians quarrel over failed study initiative

Turkish and Armenian historians remained at odds following the
failure last week of a planned joint study into the World War I
events in eastern Anatolia, which Armenians claim amounted to
genocide.

Yusuf Halaçoðlu – Ara Sarafian
Yusuf Halaçoðlu, who heads the Turkish Historical Society (TTK),
rejected accusations from British Armenian historian Ara Sarafian
that their plans for a joint case study on the treatment of Armenians
in Harput in eastern Anatolia in 1915 would not work because
Halaçoðlu said he could not provide some of the documents he
requested.

"I never said that we could not open some of the archives or that we
cannot show some documents," Halaçoðlu said in a statement released
Wednesday afternoon. He noted that he did not have the legal
authority to impose restrictions on archive documents. Halaçoðlu,
speaking last week, blamed the Armenian diaspora for failure of the
initiative and said Sarafian bowed to pressure from the diaspora.

"I particularly want to stress that Mr. Sarafian has probably been
subject to pressure," Halaçoðlu then said. "As a matter of fact, a
news report published by [bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper] Agos
said that the Armenian diaspora was very angry with Sarafian because
of his proposal to study with Turkish historians."

In London, Sarafian refuted claims that he was afraid to carry out
research with a Turkish academic and said Halaçoðlu had told him some
of the documents he requested were not available in the Ottoman
archives.

"This is an incredible statement. I expect Halaçoðlu to clarify what
this means," he said in an interview with the Cihan News Agency. "I
am not the one who gave up on the research. I am the one who proposed
doing research in Turkey and would love to work in this direction."

He said, however, that his proposal was no longer on the table
because the documents, as Halaçoðlu said, were not in the Ottoman
archives. "If these documents are not available, then we of course
cannot do any study," he was quoted as saying by Cihan.

Sarafian also said he wanted to stay in contact with Turkey and that
he favored dialogue. "I favor dialogue to show that at least those
days when Turks and Armenians were killing each other are over," he
said. "I believe there will be a consensus on that but I know that
this will not be easy." He also said: "I am not a supporter of the
Armenian diaspora who criticizes Turkey without talking to Turkish
historians and looking into the archives. I am in favor of trying to
work in and with Turkey as much as I can."