Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 20 2008

State says `no’ to apology campaign

The speaker of parliament, the foreign minister and the chief of
general staff added their voice yesterday to Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip ErdoÄ?an’s disapproval of a campaign initiated by several
intellectuals to apologize for the events of 1915 — which Armenians
claim constituted genocide.

The officials decried the intellectuals personally apologizing to the
Armenians, with only President Abdullah Gül taking a different
stance when he suggested that the fact that Turkey can discuss issues
such as this is evidence of a healthy society.

Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan said the campaign is an unjust
act against Turkey. "Those signing it first condemn Turkey and later
apologize for this condemnation," he said, adding that Turkish
diplomats have been killed by Armenian terrorist organizations. "Who
will apologize for their deaths? This is why I think it would be
better to not have this campaign," he said.

Toptan added that since 2005 Turkey has had a state policy regarding
the claims and that this policy suggests establishing a joint
committee of historians to research the claims.

Brig. Gen. Metin Gürak, the head of the General Staff’s
communications department, yesterday in a regular press meeting
described the campaign as "definitely not right." "Apologizing is not
only wrong, it is behavior that can produce harmful results," he said
in response to a question.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said in Brussels that the
campaign may negatively affect Turkish-Armenian dialogue
efforts. Babacan also underlined that he is particularly very
sensitive about the issue since his ministry lost many diplomats in
attacks carried out by Armenian terrorist groups. The Turkish-Armenian
dialogue Babacan referred to is known to include regular, but closed,
meetings between Armenia and Turkey and a recent visit by President
Gül to Yerevan upon the invitation of his Armenian counterpart,
Serzh Sarksyan, to watch the World Cup qualifying game between the two
countries’ national soccer teams.

In addition to the official condemnation and criticism, the campaign
received a further blow following allegations that signatures
collected over the Internet are either fake or intentionally forged.

The AkÅ?am daily yesterday claimed that former Turkish
Ambassador to France Ä°smail Erez, assassinated in 1975 together
with his driver by the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of
Armenia (ASALA) terrorist organization, is on the list of those who
apologized. The list of people supporting the campaign has been
inaccessible as of yesterday. It had previously been posted on the Web
site of the campaign, In another case, a state
official complained that his name was added to the list of signatories
without his consent and said that he intends to file a lawsuit against
the campaigners.

Speaking to Today’s Zaman yesterday, one of the campaign organizers,
who asked to not be named, said the Web site has been under
attack. The source claimed that the attackers used three methods to
attack the site, with one being unstoppable.

"The first method was to sign with wrong names deliberately like that
of late Mr. Erez; the second one to sign it with real names in order
to open a court case later. For these two, we are trying to use some
filtering mechanisms but the third one which is impossible to cope
with, that is, sending millions of messages to the address within
seconds and to make it impossible for others to reach the site. On
Thursday our site was practically unreachable due to such an attack,"
he said.

Financial Times claimed yesterday that the computer which was sending
these intensive messages is in the Ministry of Interior. But the IT
experts say that hackers may be mirroring the IP address of the
Ministry of Interior or using a computer in the Ministry through a
Trojan they deployed into the computer.

Criticism towards the campaigners was endorsed by opposition parties,
unions and universities also. Echoing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)
leader Devlet Bahçeli’s Thursday remarks that he is ashamed of
the campaigners, Muhsin YazıcıoÄ?lu, the chairman
of the Great Union Party (BBP) condemned the campaign and initiators
of it. "I am condemning those handicaps [özürlü]
that started to this apology [özür] campaign", he said.

He added hat he does not consider the intellectuals who initiated the
campaign as real intellectuals: "Every move of them is to defame
history and support everything against Turkishness," he said.

Because of the campaign the number of those who are suggesting that
Armenians are the ones who have to be apologizing is increasing,
too. The chairman of Union of State Servants (Memur-Sen) who met with
YazıcıoÄ?lu yesterday said that "If there is
something for apologizing for; there are the diplomats killed by
Armenians and the Azerbaijan territory that is still under
occupation."

Another union leader, the leader of the Public Servants Union
(Kamu-Sen) Bircan Akyıldız opposed the campaign and said
that "Turkish Republic is always under attack openly or indirectly by
cooperatives who have been sold."

He made this statement on behalf of a platform which is called as
"Turkish Solidarity Council," an umbrella organization of 96
establishment including Ankara Trade Chamber, Union of
Agriculturalists and Turkey Workers Union (Turk-Ä°Å?).

Not only some unions but establishments like Atatürk University
Senate opposed to the campaign also. The final declaration of the
extraordinary meeting of the University’s Senate was announced in the
Yanıkdere Martyrs’ Graveyard, where Turks who are allegedly
killed by Armenians are buried.

The President of the University Hikmet Koçak read the
declaration personally and claimed that only radical Armenians are
thinking that the campaign is brave and intellectual. "This campaign
is not only a very big disrespectful act against the Turkish nation
but also a betrayal to our martyrs who lost their lives in Armenian
terror," the President of University suggested.

Meanwhile the family of President Abdullah Gül declared
yesterday that they are investigating the possibility of going to the
court against the remarks of Republican People’s Party (CHP)
Ä°zmir deputy Canan Arıtman’s allegations about the
maternal family roots of President Gül. President’s brother
Macit Gül said that there is no court case opened for the time
being but they will weigh the option after receiving the advices of
their lawyers. Criticizing President Gül’s sympathetic remarks
about the campaign Arıtman claimed that the reason of
President’s sympathy would be understood if his maternal roots were
investigated.

Commenting on Arıtman’s hint that the President have Armenian
roots, the President of the Parliament Toptan said that he found these
remarks "extremely wrong and shameful". CHP leader Deniz Baykal said,
yesterday, that the remarks of Arıtman are not binding for them
or the party.

"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 campaign statement that aroused a heated discussion read.

20 December 2008, Saturday
AYÅ?E KARABAT ANKARA