COURAGEOUS CHANGE IN TURKEY

Edmonton Journal
December 23, 2008 Tuesday
Alberta

The online petition by a group of Turkish intellectuals, apologizing
for the Ottoman massacres of Armenians in 1915, shows just how far
Turkey has come in the last few years — and how far it has yet to go.

Writers have paid with their careers and their lives for talking openly
about history. Journalist Hrant Drink was prosecuted for "insulting
Turkishness" and then shot to death by a Turkish nationalist in January
2007. Writer Orhan Pamuk was also prosecuted, only three years ago,
simply for saying that a million Armenians had died.

So this new petition is a remarkably brave act on the part of its
authors. What’s even more remarkable is that thousands of members of
the public have also signed the petition. This might be a sign that
there is a willingness to break the old taboos ….

All the same, its authors were careful not to use the word
"genocide." They call it, instead, the "great catastrophe"… There is
already a nationalist backlash building against the petition. Imagine
what the reaction would have been if the authors had dared to use
the word many parliaments … have used in their condemnations.