The Armenian Reporter
Engaging Turkey / Talaat Pasha’s Black Book
Published: Saturday March 14, 2009
Engaging Turkey

President Barack Obama will be visiting Turkey shortly. He is expected
to attend the April 6-8 Istanbul summit of the Alliance of
Civilizations, an initiative launched recently by Spain and Turkey
with the blessing of the United Nations.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was in Turkey last week as
part of a trip to Europe and the Middle East.

The two visits in short succession so early in Mr. Obama’s tenure are
an indication of the Obama administration’s welcome commitment to
mending frayed alliances in general and reaching out to
majority-Muslim countries in particular. They also indicate how
important the Obama administration considers Turkey for U.S. efforts
in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Some, including people in our community, will be concerned about these
visits, seeing a vigorous U.S.-Turkey relationship as a negative
thing. Despite the many positive aspects of a strong U.S.-Turkey
relationship and the potential benefits to the both the United States
and Armenia, many feel that Turkey is not deserving. Certainly, Turkey
is among the U.S. allies with a troublesome track record – both in
terms of human rights and in terms of reliability as an ally. And for
Armenia and Armenians, Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide, its
land blockade, its military alliance with Azerbaijan, and its complete
solidarity with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh not-so-frozen
conflict warrant our highest concern and vigilance. Nevertheless, we
are favorably inclined toward engagement with Turkey. Such engagement
makes it possible to raise difficult issues, urge constructive action,
and see a relationship to go through a tough patch without unraveling.

Since Mr. Obama’s visit will probably take place just a couple of
weeks before April 24, the question inevitably arises: will the
Turkish authorities be successful in persuading the president to avoid
acknowledging the Genocide this April 24?

The answer is, not necessarily.

As it happens, the State Department issued its annual
country-by-country report on human rights only two weeks before
Mrs. Clinton arrived in Turkey. The report criticized Turkey’s human
rights record, as it should have. Turkey’s laws and practices on
ethnic and religious minorities do not meet democratic standards. Not
surprisingly, anti-minority intolerance is endemic. Did pointing out
such deficiencies weaken the U.S.-Turkey relationship? Not at
all. Indeed, Mrs. Clinton’s presence gave the Turkish authorities an
opportunity to complain about the report, and it gave Mrs. Clinton a
chance to reiterate the concerns raised in it.

The U.S.-Turkey relationship too will survive U.S. affirmation of the
Armenian Genocide.

Turkey’s leaders are trying to persuade President Obama to not to
acknowledge the events of 1915-17 as a genocide this April 24. They
are not confident that they will succeed. Foreign Minister Ali Babacan
said on March 8 he still saw "a risk" of U.S. affirmation of the
genocide. "Mr. Obama made the promise five times in a row," he noted.

We wish Mr. Obama success in his trip to Turkey. Meanwhile, with his
given his willingness to address difficult issues head on instead of
sidestepping them, Mr. Obama can and should speak clearly and
unequivocally about the Armenian Genocide.

The proportion of the Armenian population deported and missing in 1917
according to Interior Minister Talaat Pasha’s Black Book is shown in
black. For a larger map, . [Adobe
Acrobat Reader required. © 2009 Ara Sarafian Talaat Pasha’s
Black Book documents his campaign of race extermination, 1915`17 A
handwritten black book that belonged to Mehmet Talaat Pasha, the
Ottoman minister of interior in 1915, was published in facsimile form
in the end of 2008. It is probably the single most important document
ever uncovered describing the destruction of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915`17. The Black Book draws on Ottoman sources no longer
available to answer many questions about what those sources
showed. Historian Ara Sarafian studies the document.