HISTORIAN HALACOGLU REFUSES TO RESIGN
BÝA
Aug 22 2007
Turkey
In a press briefing following his controversial comments on Kurds,
Alevis and Armenians in Anatolia, historian Yusuf Halacoglu has refused
to heed calls for his resignation. He argues that his comments were
misunderstood.
Historian Yusuf Halacoglu, who is president of the Turkish Historical
Society (TTK), has arranged a press briefing in order to defend his
controversial comments on the ethnic make-up of Turkey.
Refuses to resign
Rejecting calls for his resignation, Halacoglu said, "I, Halacoglu,
did not do this research because I am president of the TTK. I am a
historian. I have not had a phone call from the government."
He emphasised that his comments had been misinterpreted: "I did not
reject [the existence of] Kurds, I said the following: ‘Some who
believe themselves to be Kurds are shown as Turkmens in 16th century
records. Is that saying there are no Kurds? I [also] did not say that
Kurdish Alevis are Armenians. There are Armenians who pretended to
be Kurdish Alevis in order to escape the forced emigration. Being is
different, pretending to be is different."
2,287 Kurdish tribes registered
Halacoglu said that as a scientist he based his claims on documents
and said that he had done research on the roots of the Anatolian
peoples for years. He rejected accusations of racism, saying that
he has the names of Kurdish tribes on his computer: "Look, there are
2,287 Kurdish tribes here. If I am racist, why did I write them down?
Alright, if I had said there were no Kurds, there are [only] Turkmen,
that would be different."
"Armenian Patriarch is my friend"
The historian recounted that he was being asked where the 1.5 million
Armenians who used to live in Anatolia were today. He described it
as the duty of scientists to research where they were:
"I researched this. I did not research according to Armenians, Kurds,
Turks. It was I who found the Armenians who were said to be dead. The
Armenian Patriarch Mesrob is my friend."
Halacoglu had also referred to a famous Turkish actress and singer,
Hulya Avsar, who has talked about her Kurdish roots. The historian
had denied her claim, saying that she was really of Turkmen origin.
In his press briefing, he referred to Hulya Avsar’s mother’s insistence
that they were Kurdish by saying: "She says they are Avsar. That
is the biggest lineage of the 24 Oguz. But let her say what she
wants."
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