200 TURKISH INTELLECTUALS APOLOGIZE TO ARMENIANS FOR GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.12.2008 16:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A group of Turkish intellectuals and academics
are planning to issue a public apology for the Armenian Genocide on
the Internet.

Cengiz Aktar, a professor at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University, one of
the campaign’s initiators, said the group plans to issue the apology
Monday along with a non-binding Internet petition to gather signatures,
Hurriyet Daily News reports.

It will read, "My conscience does not accept the insensitivity
showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that befell the
Ottoman Armenians in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share,
I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers. I
apologize to them."

Turks, including Nobel Literature Laureate Orhan Pamuk, have been
prosecuted in the European Union aspirant country for recognizing
the Armenian Genocide.

Aktar said the initiative was meant to allow Turks to be able to
offer a personal apology and put an end to an official silence.

"We are not targeting anyone. It is an apology of an individual
nature. We want to tell our Armenian brothers and sisters we apologize
for not being able to discuss this issue for almost 100 years,"
he told Reuters.

He said the group included 200 writers, intellectuals and
academics. Germany’s Green Party co-chair Cem Ozdemir, journalists
Ece Temelkuran, Mine Kirikkanat, Oral Calislar, Ertugrul Kurkcu,
director Bars Pirhasan, political scientist Baskin Oran, writers
Murathan Mungan, Enis Batur, economists Ahmet Insel, Ayse Bugra,
musician Aylin Aslim, actress Derya Alabora, and historians Halil
Berkay and Selim Deringil are among the signatories.