RETIRED DIPLOMATS AGAINST INTELLECTUALS’ APOLOGY

Today’s Zaman
Dec 17 2008
Turkey

Deniz BölukbaÅ~_ı claims that in Turkey there is an Armenian lobby
and a campaign of apology forms a part of their objectives.

A group of retired Turkish ambassadors signed a declaration on Monday
urging intellectuals Baskın Oran, Ahmet İnsel and Ali Bayramoglu,
who had recently launched a campaign to apologize for the Ottoman
killings of Armenians in 1915, "not to be a part of an insidious plan
against Turkish national interests."

Recently, some Turkish intellectuals began to collect signatures for
a statement that contained a personal apology for the events of 1915,
which the Armenian claims of genocide are based on.

"My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the
denial of the Great Catastrophe that Ottoman Armenians were subjected
to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my part, I empathize with
the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers. I apologize to them,"
the intellectuals’ statement said.

But the group of retired diplomats, which includes former Foreign
Ministry undersecretaries Korkmaz Haktanır, Å~^ukru Elekdag and
Onur Oymen, in a counter-declaration stressed that the move was a
"disrespectful act toward Turkish history and its martyrs."

"Such a wrong and unilateral initiative is disrespectful to our
history and also to our people who lost their lives in violent
terrorist attacks during the history of the republic and during the
last years of the Ottoman Empire," the declaration stated.

The diplomats’ declaration made a point of mentioning the Armenian
Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) in which 70 people,
including five ambassadors, four consul generals and 34 public workers,
lost their lives and 574 people were wounded.

It further claimed that "concessions such as unilateral apologies"
do not serve the aim of improving relations between Armenia and Turkey.

"If the aim is to improve relations between Turkey and Armenia and
come closer, the proper way to do this is not to make concessions
such as unilateral apologies, but to mutually recognize borders and
territorial integrity and it will be inevitable that we will share the
pain that both sides suffered during history," the declaration claimed,
and added, "Otherwise unilateral acts like apologizing will be wrong,
against the facts of history and will have grave consequences."

The diplomats underlined that the forced immigration of Armenians in
1915 had "bitter results" under war conditions, "but the pain of the
Turks were no less than that of the Armenians due to the Armenian
insurgency and terrorism," the diplomats claimed.

"First of all, Armenians who have killed innocent Turkish diplomats,
public servants and their families in the recent past should apologize
to the Turkish nation. These killers are still alive and unpunished
as they have been protected by Armenia and some other countries,"
the declaration noted.

The diplomats also claimed that the apology was the second phase of
a plan, the first phase of which was to influence world opinion with
terrorist attacks. They claimed that they are aware of the third phase
of plan, which is to demand compensation and make territorial claims.

The other diplomats who signed the declaration include former Foreign
Ministry spokesmen Necati Utkan and Omer Akbel. It was also signed
by former Ambassadors Akın Alp Tuna, Ertugrul Cıragan, Onur Oymen,
Candan Azer and Gun Gur, together with some others.

The retired Ambassadors are supported by Oktay Vural, the deputy
chairman of the parliamentary group of the Nationalist Movement Party
(MHP), who said the retired ambassadors had done the right thing but
interestingly the Foreign Ministry had kept quiet.

Former ambassador and now-MHP deputy Deniz BölukbaÅ~_ı claimed that
in Turkey there is an Armenian lobby and a campaign of apology forms
a part of their objectives.

"Who is apologizing for who? If there is anyone who should apologize,
it should be the intellectuals and Armenians. They should apologize
to the thousands of Anatolian people who suffered the Armenian
atrocities. Are these intellectuals apologizing to the Armenian
terrorists who killed Turkish diplomats and are still living in
Armenia?" BölukbaÅ~_ı asked.

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