TURKISH PRIME MINISTER BANS CALLING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE "ALLEGED"
By Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California Courier
AZG Armenian Daily #139
25/07/2007
Genocide Issue
The Prime Minister of Turkey Receb Tayyip Erdogan has reportedly
issued a confidential decree (No. 2007-18) on July 3 banning the
use of the term "sozde" (alleged or so-called) when referring to the
Armenian Genocide.
The news of this "secret" directive was made public on July 19 by
Turkish "Ulusal Kanal" TV and its website and reposted on several
other news sites since then.
Turkish denialists reacted angrily to this decree, accusing the
Prime Minister of undermining their efforts against the Congressional
resolution on the Armenian Genocide.
Turkish officials and reporters never fail to refer to the Armenian
Genocide as the "so-called" or "alleged" genocide, thus casting
doubt on the mass killings of Armenians by the Turkish government,
1915 to 1923.
According to Erdogan’s decree, henceforth the Armenian Genocide should
be described in official statements and public discourse as the "events
of 1915" or "Armenian allegations regarding the events of 1915."
The Prime Minister’s office has reportedly sent this decree to all
state institutions, including all ministries, governors, mayors,
universities, courts, and the General Chief of Staff.
Erdogan is said to have stated in his decree that he was taking this
action on the basis of a resolution adopted by the Council of Europe
in February 2005.
This probably is a reference to a recommendation by several Turkish
non-governmental organizations in February 2005 to cleanse Turkish
textbooks of "xenophobia, machismo and ultra-nationalism." The
proposal was the result of a three-year study funded by the European
Commission. Ulusal Kanal explained that the Council of Europe had
called on Turkey to refrain from using certain disparaging words and
phrases in referring to Armenians and Greeks in Turkish textbooks.
The European Parliament has adopted a number of resolutions since 1987
urging the government of Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide,
if it wished to join the European Union. However, the EU has not made
such recognition a requirement for Turkish membership.
Erdogan has reportedly ordered that his decree remain confidential,
while mandating its implementation by all officials and society at
large. In the coming days, it remains to be seen whether Turkish
government officials and the media will indeed stop referring to the
Armenian Genocide as "alleged" or "so-called," especially Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul, who makes frequent denialist statements on
the Armenian Genocide.
If the news of this decree proves to be accurate, it would be widely
criticized by Turkish denialists, while being hailed by Europeans
as a sign of progress by Turkey on the taboo subject of the Armenian
Genocide.
It is noteworthy that when Prime Minister Erdogan first came to
power, he made cautious statements when asked about the Armenian
Genocide. Notably, he did not deny the fact of the Armenian Genocide,
but simply stated that "these events" must be researched or looked
into to find out what really happened.
Immediately, the Turkish military establishment and ultra-nationalists
began accusing him of being too pliant in accepting "imposed terms"
for joining the European Union, and not reacting strongly against
Kurdish and Armenian demands. In response, Erdogan started taking
tougher positions against EU membership requirements, the Armenian
Genocide, claims for Kurdish autonomy, the Cyprus conflict, and
Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians. The Prime Minister wanted to
show his hawkish opponents at home that he was just as good a Turk as
his critics and that they were wrong in accusing him of compromising
Turkey’s national interests.
On the Armenian Genocide issue, he went from saying that he did
not know what really had happened in 1915, to denying outright that
genocide had taken place, claiming that the Turkish nation could not
have committed such a heinous crime. Ironically, while repeatedly
denying the facts of the Armenian Genocide, he was, at the same time,
suggesting that a commission of historians be formed to study whether
such a crime had been committed.
It remains to be seen whether Prime Minister Erdogan, following his
party’s major victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, would
be much less sensitive to the accusations of his opponents. His
newly-revealed decree on banning the term "alleged" Armenian Genocide
could be an early sign that the Prime Minister now feels politically
strong enough to take more liberal and daring positions on a number
of thorny domestic and foreign policy issues, including the Armenian
Genocide.