EurasiaNet, NY
Jan 16 2009

TURKEY: INITIATIVE TO APOLOGIZE FOR ARMENIAN "CATASTROPHE" SPARKS RANCOR

Yigal Schleifer 1/16/09

An online campaign launched in December that allows Turks to sign on
to an apology for the "great catastrophe" that the Armenians suffered
during World War I has to date been signed by more than 27,000 people.

Observers say the campaign, launched by a group of some 300 Turkish
academics and intellectuals, is another indication that the tight
social, political and legal limits that control the discussion of the
Armenian issue in Turkey are being loosened. At the same time, the
bitter backlash the effort has engendered is exposing worrying strains
of intolerance in Turkish society, supporters of the campaign say.

"A taboo has been broken," says Yavuz Baydar, a columnist with the
English-language newspaper Today’s Zaman.

"Now we are in a situation, particularly after the public apology
campaign, where we are ready to discuss, at least in broad terms, the
magnitude of the tragedy that happened. The taboo has been severely
damaged. The direction is there and people will keep walking in that
direction."

On the other hand, Baydar adds, "You break a taboo and then you have a
deep resistance."

The online apology is short and refrains from using the word
"genocide." The apology reads: "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."

Despite the carefully crafted language in the apology, the campaign
has been strongly criticized from numerous sides, and may even lead to
legal trouble for its organizers. A prosecutor in Ankara announced on
January 9 that his office has launched an investigation to see if the
apology’s authors had violated Article 301, a vaguely worded law that
criminalizes "insulting the Turkish nation."

"I neither accept nor support this campaign. We did not commit a
crime, therefore we do not need to apologize," Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters earlier this month.

Turkey’s powerful military also condemned the online effort. "We don’t
think this is right. It is wrong and will create harmful
consequences," Brig. Gen. Metin Gurak, an army spokesman, said at a
December briefing.

Some of the heated criticism, meanwhile, was overtly racist.

After Turkish President Abdullah Gul refused to criticize the online
apology, saying the signers had a right to post it, Canan Aritman, a
member of parliament with the secularist Republican People’s Party
(CHP), accused Gul of being an "Armenian."

"We see that the president supports this campaign. Abdullah Gul should
be the president of the entire Turkish nation, not just of those
sharing his ethnicity. Investigate the ethnic origin of the
president’s mother and you will see," she said in late December.

In response, Gul quickly released a statement saying all Turkish
citizens are equal, no matter what their ethnic background. But in a
move that disappointed many, he also pointed out that both sides of
his family have been Turkish and Muslim for centuries.

"The backlash was appalling. The quality of the debate was appalling,"
says Cengiz Aktar, director of the European Studies Department at
Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University and one of the apology campaign’s
organizers. "The entire world is applauding this initiative, except
for Turkey."

Adds Aktar: "My idea was to put in place something through which
anybody, not only intellectuals or opinion makers, could express their
feelings or conscience regarding this very troubling issue."

"It was high time to start something outside the official line, the
official propaganda, which is completely one-sided," Aktar continued.

The apology campaign was launched during a period that has seen some
positive moves between Turkey and Armenia, which have no diplomatic
relations because of Armenia’s occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh
region of Azerbaijan. This past September, Gul made a historic trip to
Yerevan to watch the Turkish and Armenian national football teams play
each other in a World Cup qualifying match. Gul’s visit was followed
by encouraging statements from both sides about the possibility of
normalizing relations. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive].

Turkey’s foreign minister also recently met with his Armenian and
Azeri counterparts to talk about solving the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

Some of the criticism of the apology campaign — from Gul, the Turkish
foreign ministry and even some groups working on Turkish-Armenian
rapprochement — has been based on a concern that it could damage the
recent diplomatic efforts.

"There is no problem with the campaign itself. It’s a very
humanitarian thing. I’m against the timing," says Noyan Soyak, the
Istanbul-based vice chairman of the Turkish-Armenian Business
Development Council, a group working towards normalizing relations
between the two countries. "The nature of people here, especially the
politicians, is very populistic. It took us a little bit away from a
solution. Things were going smoother before. Again we have harsh words
and the two sides" — those pushing for better relations and those
against — "attacking each other."

Added Soyak: "Whenever this subject becomes an issue, all we talk
about is who killed who. There are so many other subjects to talk
about."

Editor’s Note: Yigal Schleifer is a freelance journalist based in
Istanbul.