The Genie Is out of the Bottle
Turkish Intellectuals to Armenians: We Apologize

By Khatchig Mouradian

ZNet
December, 27 2008

On December 15, around 200 intellectuals in Turkey launched an
Internet petition1 apologizing for the Armenian Genocide. Soon
thereafter, hell broke loose.

Although there is a wide consensus among genocide and Holocaust
scholars that the Armenian Genocide took place, the Turkish state
continues to vehemently deny that a state-sponsored campaign took the
lives of approximately 1.5 million Armenians during World War I. The
Armenians, the official Turkish argument goes, were victims of ethnic
strife, or war and starvation, just like many Muslims living in the
Ottoman Empire. Turkey invests millions of dollars in the United
States to lobby against resolutions recognizing the Armenian Genocide
and to produce denialist literature. Moreover, many Turkish
intellectual who have spoken against the denial have been charged for
"insulting Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.

The fact that the text of the apology2 didn’t employ the term
"genocide" but opted for "Great Catastrophe" did not stave off
condemnation. A barrage of criticism and attacks followed almost
immediately. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish
army, many members of the parliament, and practically the entire
Turkish establishment instigated and encouraged a public outcry
against the apology. Threats and insults flew from left and right, and
counter-petitions were launched from Turks demanding the Armenians to
apologize.

Yet despite the wave of condemnation, thousands of ordinary Turks from
all walks of life added their names to the petition. After breaking
the taboo against talking about the Armenian Genocide, Turkish
scholars, writers and journalists had made apologizing for the
Armenian Genocide an issue of public discourse. The petition did not
simply recognize the suffering of the Armenians; rather, it went
beyond and offered an apology, which was crucial for the initiators of
the campaign. "I think two words moved the people: Ozur Dileriz (`We
apologize’)," said the drafter of the petition, Prof. Baskin Oran when
I asked him about the wording of the petition. "These are the very two
words that kept thousands of Turks from signing it. But they were
imperative. I don’t feel responsible for the butchery done by the
Ittihadists [the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), the organizers
of the Genocide] but we had to say these words. There is something
called a `collective conscience,’" he added.

Some criticized the text because it avoided using the term "genocide."
The former head of the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights
Association, lawyer Eren Keskin, said, "I do not accept compromise
when it comes to the use of the term genocide. Even though the word
genocide was not used in the petition, I signed it, because I believe
any change in a country or in a system can take place if there is an
`internal’ demand. I believe that the Republic of Turkey is a
continuation of the Ittihadist tradition – the tradition of the
perpetrators of the Genocide. The majority of the founding members of
the Turkish Republic, including the leaders, were members of the CUP."
An apology is an obligation, Keskin told me. "Just as the Republic of
Turkey took over the financial obligations of the Ottomans under the
Lausanne Treaty, it should take over the obligation to apologize for
the Genocide. I believe it is first and foremost the obligation of the
Republic of Turkey to apologize. The individuals who internalize the
official ideology, who do not question it, who ignore the fact that a
genocide has been committed and who give their approval by remaining
silent also owe an apology to Armenians," she said. "I signed the
statement because I think this is an initiative that will normalize,
in the eyes of the Turkish public, the concept of and the obligation
to apologize to Armenians."

Amberin Zaman, Turkey’s correspondent for The Economist and a
columnist for the Turkish newspaper Taraf, said that regardless of the
criticism about the wording, the petition initiative was a turning
point. "When we look back at this campaign several years from now, I
think there can be no doubt that it will be viewed as a turning point
– not just for Armenian-Turkish reconciliation, but more importantly
in terms of getting modern Turkey to come to terms with one of the
darkest chapters of its recent past," she said. "Whether people agree,
condemn or quibble with the wording of the text, in the end [the
petition] has unleashed an unprecedented debate about the fate of the
Ottoman Armenians. It has also sent a very strong signal that
rapprochement efforts between our mutual governments [Armenia and
Turkey] is far surpassed by the very real desire at a societal level
to heal the wounds and move on," she added. "The genie is now well and
truly out of the bottle."

Poet Ron Margulies considers the petition a first step. "It does
something which should have been done decades ago and tells Armenians
that many Turks share and understand their pain, sorrow and
grief. This apology and expression of empathy is the first step
without which nothing else can follow," he said. "But there is also a
second reason which, for me, is as important as the first, and it has
to do with Turkish politics rather than the Armenian issue in
particular. In recent years, many unmentionables have become
mentionable and are frequently mentioned in Turkey. These include the
existence and rights of the Kurds, the issue of the other minorities,
the role of the armed forces in the political life of the country, the
competence of the armed forces and of the chiefs of staff, the issue
of Islam, the right to wear a headscarf in public offices, etc. Once
out of the bottle, these genies refuse to go back in. And they all
deal serious blows to Kemalism, to nationalism, to the official
ideology of the Turkish state. This petition, and the fact that 8,000
people signed it within the first day-and-a-half, is another such
blow. We must continue raining blows on the edifice of the Kemalist
state," he added.

For these reasons, Margulies notes, the wording of the petition was
not so important to him. "Every text can be improved upon. But that is
not the point. The petition has already had a phenomenal impact –
because of its content and its spirit, not because of the specific
wording," he explained.

When I asked why she signed the petition, author and journalist Ece
Temelkuran spoke about the massacres, but more importantly, about the
dispossession. "Since writing my book [The Deep Mountain], the
conflict, which was already profoundly emotional for most of us after
[Turkish-Armenian journalist] Hrant Dink’s death, became a personal
issue to me. The petition was a way of telling my Armenian friends
that I share their long lasting pain and that I understand. As far as
I observed among the Armenians in the Diaspora and in Armenia, the
deepest and the most vital pain is the homelessness they feel. Besides
the pain of being massacred, Armenians today, all over the world, feel
homeless. With the petition, I just wanted to tell the Armenians that
people still living in Anatolia didn’t forget what happened and that
they still feel the absence of their Armenian brothers and sisters."

1
2 The apology read: "My conscience does not accept the insensitivity
showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman
Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for
my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian
brothers and sisters. I apologize to them."

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From: Z Net – The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
URL: 064

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress