Sunday’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 21 2008

We should thank the racist CHP deputy

IHSAN YILMAZ

Several Turkish intellectuals have started a signature campaign with
regards to the Armenian massacre in 1915, apologizing to
Armenians. There have been mixed reactions to the campaign. While some
have said they also felt sorry for what happened but did not feel
personally responsible for something they did not take part in and
never supported and so on, some ultra-nationalists among us have
fiercely opposed the campaign and tried to belittle, to say the least,
the signatories. But, there was one reaction from Republican People’s
Party (CHP) ?Ä?°zmir deputy Canan Ar?Ä?±tman that deserves to be in the
spotlight and given detailed treatment.

President Abdullah G?Ã?¼l was asked last week about the campaign, and he
responded that there is freedom of speech in the country and everyone
is entitled to their views. Ms. Ar?Ä?±tman took this statement as
rubberstamping the campaign and said that Mr. G?Ã?¼l should advocate for
the Turkish people, not the Armenian nation. She then said there
should be a reason behind Mr. G?Ã?¼l’s so-called pro-Armenian stance,
and she advised the press to research Mr. G?Ã?¼l’s mother’s ancestors,
implying that Mr. G?Ã?¼l has Armenian blood.

Ms. Ar?Ä?±tman is doing Turkish democracy a service by drawing attention
to the racist and fascist inheritance of her party, the CHP, which is
the ideological successor of the Ottoman period’s Union and Progress
(?Ä?°ttihad ve Terakki) Party. This party and its three leaders — Enver
Pa?Å?a, Cemal Pasha and Talat Pasha — are being held responsible
for the Armenian massacre, for they ruled the country between 1908 and
1918, and they ordered the forced emigration of the Armenians from
eastern Turkey, which resulted in many thousands of these Armenians
dying because of the harsh conditions of murderous attacks by
Ergenekon-like gangs.

The Union and Progress Party was established as an underground
organization in the Balkans by over-enthusiastic Young Turks who were
mostly either medical or military schools students or graduates. Most
of these Young Turks were Turkish nationalists in the multiethnic
Ottoman state. Similar to today’s radical Islamists, who are mostly
graduates of technical subjects, these Young Turks hated the ulema
(religious scholars) for their moderate stance and despised the
Ottoman rulers. As they were also mostly positivists, they did not
believe in any religion but were ready to use it for instrumental
purposes to mobilize the masses against the rulers. The Young Turks
believed that the country was in danger, and indeed it was. But they
also believed that to save the country, anything else was only a mere
detail. By looking at what they did in retrospect, one understands
that democracy, human rights, legitimacy, the sanctity of innocent
lives, etc., were all ignorable details in the eyes of these Young
Turks. After constantly criticizing Sultan Abd?Ã?¼lhamid II’s rule as
undemocratic and repressive, these Young Turks pressured the sultan to
start the second constitutional period in 1908.

After the elections, the Young Turks’ Union and Progress Party came to
power. In a very short time, they staged a military coup against the
establishment, toppled the sultan, closed down all opposition parties
and established a dictatorship. They followed very radical nationalist
policies and did not allow any non-Turks to infiltrate their inner
circle. Under their rule, the Ottoman state was dismantled, and they
took us to war in 1914 to support the Germans. Their nationalist
rhetoric disillusioned many loyal Arabs and other ethnic groups. When
some Armenians started a rebellion for independence in eastern Turkey,
the Young Turks reacted harshly and forcibly removed all Armenians
from the region. After the establishment of the republic, their
ideology, albeit in a modified form, continued with the CHP. What
Ms. Ar?Ä?±tman is doing today is simply revering her ideological and
political Young Turk fathers and their "accomplishments."

For decades, people like Ms. Ar?Ä?±tman have tried to convince
Westerners that they were the only full-humans in the country and that
they were trying to modernize the ignorant and obscurantist
masses. They still have friends in Western quarters who call the
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) leaders Islamo-fascists. We
should thank Ms. Ar?Ä?±tman for reminding us once again who the real
fascists and racists were, obsessed with blood, in Turkey. When we
know this history, we should not be surprised by the ultra-nationalist
and racist rhetoric of Ergenekonians and their supporters among the
elite circles.

21.12.2008