TURKEY MUST TURN RESOLUTION INTO OPPORTUNITY
Ali Ettefagh

Washington Post
Oct 15 2007
Tehran, Iran

Few subjects set off explosions of national rage in Turkey like the
fate of one and a half million Armenians in the darkest days of the
First World War. First, some background: Armenians insist they were
victims of the first mass genocide of the 20th century, driven from
their homes in eastern Anatolia; only a few hundred thousand made it
to Syria and Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq. Turks, while acknowledging
that many Armenians died in 1915-17, have always denied the genocide,
despite widely reported evidence of massacres.

The issue burst into an international row – and possibly worse – as
the U.S. Congress is demanding that Turkey officially recognize the
genocide as fact. Turkey’s newly elected Islamist president and his
party member prime minister are threatening "serious consequences,"
including cancelling arms deals and closing the Incirlik air base,
which is a vital transport hub to US military manuevers in Iraq.

Turkey’s large international debt also looms in the background and
it could complicate matters for both sides. And this hard talk is on
top of Turkey’s imminent invasion of Kurdish Iraq to sort out PKK
terrorists or "rescue" Kirkuk and its Turkomen minority and check
on recent oil deals in Kurdish Iraq-and to pacify the army’s enigma
about an Islamist president in Cankaya Palace.

Very reluctantly and in small steps, Ankara has moved toward admitting
that Armenians, once one of the two favored Christian minorities
under the Ottoman Empire, perished of starvation and thirst as the
Russians advanced. Nevertheless, and always off the record, Turkish
nationalists say that the Ottomans had proof that Armenian nationalists
were pro-Russian militia and guerrilla groups and thus they "deserved"
it. As always, a bargain can be struck in the Turkish political
bazaar-namely, EU membership in exchange for a political whitewash.

This remains a baffling situation because the acts in question were
carried out by a different government than the "new, modern" Turkish
Republic. However, the vast Ottoman archives remain under strict seal
since 1923 and requests for access to such records, even by Turkish
researchers and historians, are summarily rejected. One reason is that
those records are in the old Arabic script of the Turkish language,
before Kemal Ataturk changed the national alphabet. So there hardly
any Turkish nationals who can read these materials, nor any government
specialists that can edit them. As such, hearsay, nationalist spin
and oversized newspaper headlines conveniently generate denials and
dismissal of facts. Eyewitnesses and historians, including Gertrude
Bell (the English Arabist who helped set up modern Iraq) reported in
their diaries of Armenian prisoners and refugees being butchered.

We ought to recall that Turkey, with its army of half a million
soldiers, was merely an American ally of convenience during the Cold
War. In this new era of confused world order, American policy is
influenced by many powerful lobbies, and the Armenian lobby is one
of the most successful exile groups in the world. It has a powerful
presence in California, Europe, Lebanon, Jerusalem and now its own
pro-Moscow state of Armenia in the Caucasus. The Armenian lobby also
managed a similar resolution by the French parliament, and that has
proved to be a convenient tool for the assertive anti-Turkish views
of President Sarkozy.

As I wrote about Turkey’s trouble with its minorities, murder and
denial are not the most realistic way forward. A democratic society
must solve problems with courage and realistic engagement.

Turkey must engage this American resolution, and the rest of the
world, as a welcomed opportunity for a wholesale review of all
regional events during the 20th century. That includes all issues that
have roots during the ill-crafted breakup of the Ottoman Empire and
subsequent fabrication of new, and now failed or deadlocked, states
(Iraq, Syria and Israel come to mind).

This might be an opportunity for the religious democrats of the Turkish
Republic to adopt a transparent policy and distance themselves from
the Ottoman religious radicals. The contrast of the Federal Republic
of Germany against the Third Reich might serve as a useful example. As
such, Turkey ought to submit to cold facts and, when necessary, prove
to the world that it is a sober republic and a stable Muslim democratic
society– one that is able to face reality as an adult. Otherwise,
Turkey will continue as the longest emerging market and the perpetual
EU aspirant, in the waiting lounge of two large Christian clubs of
NATO and EU for an invitation.

Dr. Ali Ettefagh serves as a director of Highmore Global Corporation,
an investment company in emerging markets of Eastern Europe, CIS,
and the Middle East

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress